Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid

101 reviews

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.

kiandrareadsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Self harm, Blood, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Animal death, Body horror, Death of parent, and Gore

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

sofiadanielle's review against another edition

dark medium-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

3.5

Hm. I don’t really know how I feel about this book, which is why I didn’t rate it higher. It was.. Interesting, and certainly outside of my comfort zone, but… Not one of my favorite reads, for sure?

The pacing was strange, for about 40% of the book, time only lapses for about 24ish hours; the middle was a bit of a blur in terms of time passage, and then at the end, (before the final chapter) the whole action seemed so entirely rushed and out of no where (as… not much quick action happens in the other 85% of the book?). I also felt weirded out on the fixation of breasts and nipples, honestly, felt like I should’ve started a count of how many times both words were brought up (those other reviews about how people were surprised at how the author was a woman with how she fixated on this aspect.. Yeah.)

The plot twist was a bit predictable, though I guess the last chapter ending wasn’t, necessarily. Eh. Whimsy, in a fairytale sense, I suppose, and lived up to the horror genre with depictions of gore. 

**sigh, altered from a 3.75 to a 3.5 because Undine’s rant about Marlinchen’s character reminded me of why I disliked her as a MC so; she was so very naive, I want to empathize with how she was a product of what she had gone through, but at the same time, I wish I could just flat out ask her to smarten up a bit. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Vomit, Alcoholism, and Violence

disyarning's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Sexual content, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Vomit, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, and Eating disorder

erwikka's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.25

This book was excellent, I love the way Ava can describe something grotesque in the most beautiful prose imaginable. You will be enthralled from the first line.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Grief, Physical abuse, and Sexual violence

allisnbc's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Emotional abuse, Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death of parent, and Domestic abuse

kyradannalee's review against another edition

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Murder, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Vomit, Mental illness, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Sexual content, Racism, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Blood, Animal cruelty, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Cannibalism, Body horror, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Violence, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Colonisation and Classism

Minor: Rape, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, and Medical content

sophielab's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty

x_l1v1ngd34db0y_x's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

This book was enthralling. It was a short read, and progresses quickly. I enjoyed the writing style but found some things quite repetitive. Breasts are mentioned in almost every chapter, and the same few phrases are repeated several times. Other than the pacing and weird obsession with breasts, I found this book engaging with a beautiful writing style and would recommend this to others that love a grim fairy tale. Check trigger warnings before reading as body horror tends to come up a lot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Eating disorder, Gore, Sexual assault, Body horror, and Sexual content

Moderate: Misogyny, Cannibalism, Racism, Alcoholism, Grief, Body shaming, Rape, Toxic relationship, and Xenophobia

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, and Classism

bethanieawp's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Cannibalism