Reviews with content warning for Grief - The Thorns Remain

Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Thorns Remain by J.J.A. Harwood

11 reviews

th3bookthief's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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sparklefarm's review

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

I'm not going to give this one a star rating simply because as we all know, YA just ~isn't my thing~ and it's no fault of this book for simply being the thing it's intended to be. That being said! I found this a pleasant read, and appreciated that there was absolutely no question about whether forced love is actually love. (It's not.) If you like YA, I recommend!

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amyteurhour's review against another edition

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4.0

Content warning: kidnapping, detailed description of serious injury, gaslighting, bullying, death, grief

I feel like this was super slow for the first 2/3-3/4's of the book. There were points that I was worried the storyline was veering towards something I did not want to happen

(romantically, but I'm glad it ultimately didn't)

.

Throughout the first half, I remember feeling like this story was going to be about processing grief. It kind of is, but later it does hit the more traditional fairy tale tropes as well. The ending made me cry, and I felt a lot of feelings. Overall I enjoyed it, but probably would have rated it higher if the beginning wasn't so long/slow.

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quiet_reader's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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bookishmagpie's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

this book was really great and practically enamored me; i finished it in three sittings, in two days. but it also left me wanting a lot more. i felt that the characters weren't as fleshed out as they could have been and i definitely wanted more from the "other side". a lot of other things were also left a bit ambiguous and i just felt a bit unsatisfied when i finished it. also the chapter system, or lack there off, put me off a bit.

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katethepodtherapyartist's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-paced

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

3.5

I liked this book for what it was, but the summary on the back is somewhat deceiving. The last bit on the back says “Bewitching, threaded with Highland charm, and sparkling with romance, this fairy tale will carry you away.” Given that, I was expecting charm, romance, and a tale to “carry me away.” What I got was a story mostly revolving around

grief,

struggle to survive post WWI during the Spanish Flu,

and

manipulation

. I feel like I would have enjoyed it more if that’s generally what I knew I was getting into. I think the themes of

grief

are overall well done, though sometimes the language gets repetitive, and I loved having fae that are tricky and cunning. Just don’t expect much romance or charm.

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katipheria's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

While the book boasts a "sparkling romance," the reality is that it is anything but. However, it does a fantastic job of portraying the Fae of Scottish and Irish folklore, and weaves a tale of exactly why you do not make a deal with them.

The book is wonderfully descriptive without being too verbose. It's a bit slow-paced, sometimes to the point of being frustrating

as the MC has been given a deadline to rescue her friends but she frequently treats this task as low priority.

it's a good read and one that I would recommend, as long as you don't go into it expecting a fairytale romance more akin to a Disney movie.

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purplesapphire's review

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adventurous dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Something about this took away too much from the story for me. It felt too drawn out, but I know why there needed to be that much extra in there. Then it threw me for a loop or two with what I expected to happen and what actually did, but not in a good way. I almost gave up three quarters of the way through, but the end was very redeeming. I think it would be a good book to be discussed, but I also don't feel as if it was something I loved. Good overall, and worth a read especially for the

depictions of toxic relationships and how most of the book got you stuck in that relationship too. I didn't love the fact that the emotion only went from angry to weeping and there was a bit too much talk of Angus.

Some criticisms but overall a good read and I did tear through it pretty quickly so that means there must be something done pretty right about it.

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robin_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

A fae lord and a mortal girl strike a bargain for her to save her friends.

I liked this a lot. It reminded me a bit of "An Enchanment of Ravens" and "Uprooted".

I ilked that she didn't give in to the Dreamer and that she didn't fall in love with him.

There are one or two things that are left unanswered in my opinion, which I don't like but still it was a nice folklore based book.

The audiobook helped with the Scottish names and the narrator war good too.

Someone said this had spice in it but other than a few mentions of doing more than kissing there was no real mention or a description of it.

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booksalacarte's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

The Thorn Remains- 2.5⭐️ 1.5🌶️

1919. In a highland village forgotten by the world, harvest season is over and the young who remain after war and flu have ravaged the village will soon head south to make something of themselves.

Moira Jean and her friends head to the forest for a last night of laughter before parting ways. Moira Jean is being left behind. She had plans to leave once – but her lover died in France and with him, her future. The friends light a fire, sing and dance. But with every twirl about the flames, strange new dancers thread between them, music streaming from the trees.

The fae are here.

Suddenly Moira Jean finds herself all alone, her friends spirited away. The iron medal of her lost love, pinned to her dress, protected her from magic.

For the Fae feel forgotten too. Lead by the darkly handsome Lord of the Fae, they are out to make themselves known once more. Moira Jean must enter into a bargain with the Lord to save her friends – and fast, for the longer one spends with the Fae, the less like themselves they are upon return. If Moira Jean cannot save her friends before Beltine, they will be lost forever

✨My Opinion✨

This was an interesting step into a world of Celtic fae mythology. I admit that the setting and time period was hard to nail down at first with only references to “the war” and “the flu” as clues. As someone who isn’t personally familiar with Scotland, everything was so vague. I wish there had been more definitive aspects of the setting and time period in the authors descriptions of clothes and cultural references.

Throughout the first 1/3 of the book was so heavily focused on grief, the bargaining set up, and lore. Quite frankly, I was bored. There wasn’t much going on. By 30% there was no indication if the book was starting to lean toward fantasy romance or just standard fantasy. That’s a long time for me to not understand the tone of the book.

Once the plot settled in and got moving, it was a decent read. But a great drinking game would have been to take a shot every time the main character said her family split up after her father died and she was so alone all the time, because her mom was so busy working.

The LGBTQ rep felt disingenuous and pasted in with no lead up or follow up, which made it feel like it was just to check a box, rather than it being an original plot choice.

The ending was rushed and so one sided that it left glaring questions all over the place and truly had the FMC’s character development backslide. It could have used 50-100 more pages to wrap everything up.

*thank you Magpie, Harper 360 and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

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