Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid

211 reviews

bea_reads_books's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I really loved this book. I will say though, it’s very dark and heavy. I’ve included as many comprehensive warnings as I can, but I’ll say it here too:

Sexual violence, coercive control, and mental illness are really big themes in this book. The main character and her love interest both experienced sexual assault from adults as minors, and the main character describes in detail exactly what her doctor did to her around 50% of the way through the book. There is no penetrative rape, but it is still hard to read. If sexual violence/harassment is a trigger for you, I would advise you to be extremely cautious about this book, and to take care of yourself if you do decide to read it.

Additionally, the main character is mentally ill. She has violent intrusive thoughts about self harm. She has an eating disorder and forces herself to vomit up everything she eats. She also experiences intense anxiety. As someone who also has anxiety and intrusive thoughts, this was hard for me to read, but also nice in a way. It’s good to know I’m not the only person in the world this happens to. 

Aside from the hard parts, this was a well written book in my opinion. The pacing was good, the romance was okay, and the prose and worldbuilding were very compelling. I also liked how the author showed the many ways in which abuse can manifest in someone. The main character, Marlinchen, is one of three sisters. One of them became cruel, taking out her hurt and anger on her sisters because she couldn’t take it out on her father. The other became cunning and level-headed, always making herself seem like the sensible one while working behind her sisters’ backs to gain her father’s favor. And Marlinchen is constantly fielding insults about how she is nothing but a doormat, doing everything her father says without complaint to avoid angering him. 

I think this story is a wonderful commentary on the ways in which an abuser can fully and completely f*ck up the lives of everyone around them, and how hard it is for their victims to heal afterward, all wrapped up in the guise of a fairytale retelling.

I also really liked that two of the three abusers died (painfully) and the third went to prison.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Body horror, Death, Animal death, Blood, Eating disorder, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Pedophilia, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Sexual content, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Gore, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Fatphobia

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

emmedevorak's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Gaslighting, Grief, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, and Death

lizlikes_books's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

5.0

Idk what this was but I loved it good for her

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body shaming, Murder, Vomit, Eating disorder, Gore, Violence, Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Self harm, and Sexual assault

kbwarren's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

For context, my favorite genre is fairytale adaptation, especially when the story still reads like a traditional Grimm Brothers or Hans Christen Andersen fairytale. This book is pretty much exactly that, so if that's not your thing, you may not appreciate it as much as I did.
Juniper and Thorn draws from stories from Russian folklore, often directly referencing the tales in the narrative. It's very dark, consistently tense, slightly romantic, and oddly charming. Every main character-- Marlinchen, her sisters, their father, and Sevas, are wonderfully complex and the end of the book left me with mixed feelings about a certain character's death.
In this story, any infliction of cruelty has a story behind it, and every single character has their own tragic backstory. Marlinchen's relationship with her older sisters is a clear display of the cycle of abuse-- the abused become abusers themselves. Can they really be blamed? Did they deserve their fates? Should an abuser's puppet have to answer for the harm they cause without realizing what they're doing?
The world and its magic is simple to understand, which leaves the reader with plenty of mental space to ponder the moral and emotional questions that this story dredges up. Inner turmoil is prevalent, and although the entire book is written in Marlinchen's perspective, the mental/emotional states of the other characters are clear.
My only complaint about Juniper and Thorn is that the mystery of the monster is more or less put on the backburner until the last 75-ish pages of the 300 page book. When the dead bodies popped up, I found myself thinking "Oh yeah, there's a monster on the loose somewhere." Looking back, there were smaller pieces of the puzzle sprinkled throughout, and if the monster had been a more prevalent plot point I might've thought to piece them together sooner, but in the moment they felt more like atmospheric tools used to create a sense of uneasiness. Then, once you get about halfway through the second-to-last chapter, the puzzle pieces begin to fall in place rapidly. Everything happens so quickly that I truly can't remember the finer details only a day later. In my opinion, the monster subplot could've been completely removed from the book and Marlinchen still would've had several good opportunities to complete her character arc. It didn't necessarily negatively affect the book, though. 
Altogether, I loved Juniper and Thorn. The simplicity of the worldbuilding and clarity of prose was a breath of fresh air. If you're looking for a clear-cut, easy-to-read, fairytale reimagining with Russian influences and a blossoming romance between two abused and traumatized characters, this is the book for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, and Gore

Moderate: Cannibalism and Animal death

Minor: Pedophilia

Pedophillia- A main character

(Sevas)

has a history of being sexually abused by a supposedly trusted adult from a young age. This is alluded to a few times before eventually being confirmed as true. It gives depth to the character but does not go into specific detail about the abuse itself. Sexual Assault- An adult main character

(Marlinchen)

is molested/sexually assaulted by an older character. A family member is aware and allows it to happen several times. I honestly skipped through these scenes so I cannot provide much detail, but skipping through them did not take away from my experience of the book. The character's thoughts about how it affected them is enough to move the story along seamlessly.

molly00's review against another edition

4.5

SO good. Read the trigger warnings though

Also Undine what the fuck. Is a *centaur* really your best option?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Vomit, and Body horror

Moderate: Sexual content, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, and Cannibalism

myweirdnormal's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Literally one of the best things I've ever read. Really proves why Ava is an insta-buy for me.

I really wish people would be more open about some of the triggers. I put off reading this so long because I was nervous about the incest warning. The warning is for her father watching/facilitating a pedo doctor molesting her for money. Which is obviously awful enough to read but I guess I was scared it would be more graphic, but it wasn't and I wish I had known that like a year ago when this book came out. So I hope that helps someone else.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Pedophilia, and Incest

punziereads3's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Self harm, and Murder

Moderate: Pedophilia, Eating disorder, and Cannibalism

itsheyfay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Animal death, Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Confinement, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Eating disorder, Murder, Self harm, Body horror, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Death, Gore, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Cursing, Gaslighting, Animal death, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Incest

kendal_reads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Cannibalism, Pedophilia, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Blood, Body horror, and Death of parent

Moderate: Vomit

xpelvicstabilityx's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

1.0

Truly wish there were more trigger warnings with this book. The folk tale form is compelling but so many of the details are gruesome and disturbing in a way that made my skin crawl and still does when I’m reminded of it.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Sexism, Misogyny, Rape, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Pedophilia, Murder, Confinement, and Medical trauma