Reviews tagging 'Incest'

Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid

64 reviews

dixiecarroll's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

4.0

This is a highly disturbing classic fairytale retelling and you should not read it if you are easily triggered or grossed out. I loved it - it made me incredibly uncomfortable, but I like it when fairytales are a little awful. It lost a star because I felt like it was missing something - I can’t quite tell what that was yet, but it could be the intentional feeling of blackouts that our narrator felt as well - unsure. Anyway this is great!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical content, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

ferngreen's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Vomit, Animal death, Body horror, Pedophilia, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, and Death of parent

Moderate: Incest

latashman's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Vomit, Cannibalism, Eating disorder, and Child abuse

theladydoor's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Cannibalism, Pedophilia, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, and Body horror

Moderate: Xenophobia and Incest

readwithria's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Juniper & Thorn is a haunting and deeply disturbing book, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Marlinchen is such a complex character, and I love how she changes throughout the book. Sevas reminds me so much of how dance was both a great love of mine and also how it wrecked my body and my confidence for many years. There was so much truth in this book that really shook me to my core, and I would definitely recommend it.

That said, this book is fantasy horror and has quite a few potential triggers. Ava Reid has a list of content warnings on their Tumblr, and I highly encourage everyone to check them before reading this book. I have included them in the content warning section of this review as well.

Ava Reid has such poetic prose, and I love reading what she writes. I’ll definitely be reading more from them in the future. 4 stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Vomit

Moderate: Death, Antisemitism, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Eating disorder, Death of parent, Xenophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Incest, Self harm, Pedophilia, Cannibalism, and Animal death

year23's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

2.0

I'm confused by the praise I saw for this book. I think that created expectations impacting my experience. There is little plot - and I think I'd be okay with that if the character development was stronger but it was so difficult to place the main character, their wants, needs, flaws, etc. - it was all over the place (and the lack of plot and random events didn't help much in that regard). The writing - strong at times, albeit quite repetative (eg, the MC blushes every other page). Clearly an imaginative and creative writer - there were vibes galore. Bleak, gross, horny, but that is not enough for this many pages. I wanted more gothic horror - suspense, trepidation, fear, but the lack of plot and character development made it hard to feel much of anything apart from confusion or disinterest. The narrative's worldbuilding is so bleak, anything bad happening to someone is like just another day ending in y. Stakes aren't a thing with that level of bleakness, especially if the MC is ambivalent about most of it. 

There's also an amorality here that I couldn't quite grasp. It's a fairy tale - so even if it's a bleak takeaway, there's still that "ah ha" moment that didn't happen here for me. Maybe that's going too far though in my critique - and more of a reflection of what I want from a book (which has nothing to do with what the author wants to write and share!). This one walks a very fine line that I think could have been really powerful in exploring trauma and its impact given the MC's toxic (massive understatement) family and environment and instead, due to lack of plot and characterization, falls flat/rings hollow. 

A note - by amorality, I am NOT referring to the growing sexuality of the MC and how that shows up in the text. This was rather tame compared to other romance books I've read, even some YA books. Yes - words like nipples and boobs are said way more than even in your typical romance (more a writing thing than a too-scintillating thing) but to me, it felt like a key part of the MC's character's connection to their sexuality and a site of pain & awakening so that tracked. Did it read like YA? Yes - and that would be more my issue with it - it didn't feel like an adult fantasy at all apart from the horror elements, but even how those were written felt YA. Again - that's not a bad thing - but I'm not sure that's what the author was attempting. 

I would recommend this to very specific people who I know are into these vibes, as the vibes are strong but there is no plot here, the most one dimensional of characters across the board, and I think failed in telling a story about living in a traumatic family situation. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Self harm, Body horror, Body shaming, Murder, and Incest

ale24's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Blood, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Gore, Violence, Eating disorder, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Antisemitism, Sexual harassment, Animal cruelty, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Death of parent, Incest, Sexism, Cannibalism, Classism, and Rape

paperbound_dreams's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-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? Yes

5.0

"My eldest sister was right; I would smile blithely if someone tried to saw off my leg. But no one had ever told me that I was allowed to scream."

Wow wow wow. Beautiful and horrific. The kind of book I never want to read again, but will stay with me just the same. 

Docked a star for lack of trigger warnings--there are many and they are intense, please be cautious with your mental health. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Sexual assault, Gore, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Eating disorder, and Vomit

hprimo12's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

This book was supposed to be a gritty retelling of a fairytale, but the topics that made it "gritty" were not handled well and left me hating the main character. I did not find any part of the story compelling, and it pained me to finish it. I stongly do not recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Cultural appropriation, Death, Domestic abuse, Antisemitism, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Incest, Racism, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Violence, and Xenophobia

The "love" story part of this book was only really based on trauma bonding, as the characters frankly do not really spend much time together before being madly in love. Additionally, the story is seemingly centered on how much the main character is suffering at the hands of her sisters despite the fact that they are also being abused by her father. Granted they suffer a different kind of abuse, but the author and the main character make no mention of this at all. To the point where the main character kills one of her sister and shows no remorse. The last thing that I will say is that I found any LGBT+ representation to be layered in negative stereotypes or villainized. There are many other things that I could point out about the world or the overtly sexualized situations, but I don't want to give this book much more thought.

dariusmortee's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

Let me start by saying this isn’t a bad book. However, I had quite a bit of trouble reading it. 

Ava’s writing is amazing. It is compelling and makes you think. The brutality of this story was clearly a well thought out choice. You will need a bit of a strong stomach, although I didn’t have any trouble with that. 

I did have a problem with the oversexualisation in this story. The fact that Marlinchen masturbates in the very first chapter was a big turn off for me. This happened more often. I was getting into the story and was enjoying myself and then a tasteless sexual remark would be made. 
I understand part of that has to do with what the trauma and abuse Marlinchen had to go through, did to her and there is something to say for that. It did however influence my reading experience a lot. 

This book will make you feel uncomfortable. If you don’t mind the sexual comments and if you do. I missed quite a lot of trigger warnings as this is a very triggering book. I believe that was done on purpose. I did however expect a trigger warning from Ava Reid.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Antisemitism, Gore, Pedophilia, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Self harm, Sexual assault, Vomit, Body horror, Incest, and Sexual content