Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - Juniper & Thorn

The best way I can describe Juniper & Thorn is that it reads sort of like a Studio Ghibli movie, but not in a good way.

After briefly DNF-ing this book, I decided to give it another go. Trying to come up with a rating has been a little difficult.

I acknowledge that sadly this book does not align with my personal preferences and I find myself in a peculiar position, as I have a profound appreciation for this book due to its thematic depth and literary merits. The intense heavy content and violence within the narrative pose a challenge for me.

This enthralling narrative portrayed unsettling events with a poetic elegance that rendered them strangely beautiful. It was the allure of these unconventional metaphors that kept me captivated and intrigued, prompting my imagination to embark on a wild journey while reading.

I urge everyone to take note of the trigger warnings prior to diving into this book. Based on the positive reviews I’ve seen, it hadn’t occurred to me to check them. Child SA, body horror, disorder eating, trauma, self harm, pedo….to name a few.

Content Warnings

mald626's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

whitney7's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark

5.0

😦

Content Warnings

sarahd0825's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

My first Ava Reid read! She has stunning writing and imagery that can be so visceral and cerebral. I thought that for a horror-ish fantasy with brutal themes, this was a very approachable novel. I think the ending suffered from some pacing issues and that our main character kinda suffered from the plot development being furthered through her naivete but ultimately comes into her own.
CW: child abuse & child sexual assault was graphicly described on page

Content Warnings

froon's review against another edition

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2.0

a lot of my criticisms of this book have been mentioned by other people who have given it a similar rating as me. i will say, as a primer for my review, that i don’t believe that just because an author sets out to write about sensitive topics means that they should be given exceptions on how people review their story. “that’s what the author intended!” just doesn’t work on me.

my biggest issue with the book is the excessive trauma. marlinchen reads like a YA protagonist (especially with her comments about her looks…), and it seems like the endless, gratuitous explicit content was just to hit the adult rating (probably so sevas and marlinchen could have sex after falling in love after three meetings). it really felt like a teenagers first foray into mature writing.

my other biggest issue was the plotting/pacing of the book. the whole time i was reading it, all i could think was “wow, nothing has happened this whole time.” everything dragged, to the point where i was just frustrated trying to get to the end of the chapter at times. this also impacted the relationships between the characters. as i said before, sevas and marlinchen’s relationship felt so unbelievable because they had only met for a second before they were both in love. i kept thinking that there had to be aspect of deception or magic at play, but no.

also… does everything need to be compared to breasts and nipples. i swear there was a nipple mention every other page in this book. everything was so overwrought with sexual undertones in a way that i don’t think served the author’s purpose or intention at all (or did so poorly).

anyways, i pushed through to the end so that i could mark this off for my library’s yearly reading challenge AND because i had bought it for $27.99 before i was in my no tbr book buying era.

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