Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid

104 reviews

ginnymay's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

2.0

Major CW missing from this one, please check the warnings before reading this review. 

I love new and original fairy tale retellings, dark fantasy, and gothic horror. By that metric, this should have been my new favorite book. It is decidedly not. 

When we had a monster murderer introduced I was hoping for something like Carnival Row, but this story seems to have lacked an outline or plan of any sort as it forgets about the mysterious murders for large swathes of time to the point where, when a victim is discovered at the theater, I genuinely had the thought “Oh yeah that’s a thing” because I had genuinely forgotten about the MURDER MONSTER.

The bulk of the meandering narration for 75% of the novel can be summarized as: Marlinchen’s sisters are pretty and she’s ugly, her dad is abusive and they hate him, her mother is dead, she makes food, she thinks the dancer is sexy, she is called stupid and mindless, she is depressed and fantasizes about cutting off her nipples. It makes Marlinchen one of the most tedious narrators, as the first new information unveiled in her POV isn’t until after several hundred pages of this when it’s suddenly revealed that she was repeatedly SA’d as a minor by a medical professional while her father watched and was paid for it.

Then Reid tried to tie it all together with an insta-love trauma-bond romance and then reveals an answer to the murders that required some rewriting of history to make it work. 

And all this just left me with more questions than answers. How did Marlinchen never notice that her Father’s powers had waned? How did she not notice for SEVEN years that her sisters were being trafficked? How, if she and her magically imbued sisters all had power and violently hated their father, did they never find a way to overthrow him or at least rebel against him? How did Marlinchen not put together that she was missing huge chunks of time when murders were taking place? How did she not question where the hearts and livers she served to her father came from? How did they have sex on the floor covered in broken glass and not need insane amounts of medical attention? 

All in all, a bewildering, poorly written, deeply upsetting, and just bad book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

yomireads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Juniper and Thorn takes a dark magic based world and confronts far darker realities of abuse. The story opens with a catalyst event for our MC, Marlinchen as she and her sisters venture out of their home and she experiences life outside the borders of her home. As the story unfolds from their we glean how Marlinchen has adapted to a hostile environment, and glimpse the ways her sisters have done the same in their own ways. Relationships and the way trauma affects them are shown through her eyes, and observed as she learns more of her sisters, who are often kept at arms length from each other. 

This is a well conceived and deeply disturbing story that's intoxicatingly written. Each plot reveal was loaded with expecting foreshadowing, and by the end I was utterly speechless at the reveals. Well worth the read.

My drawbacks play into my personal tastes and aversions. From the first chapter sex plays a much larger part in the story than I anticipated. And while the story does explore romance to some degree it's done as a means of allowing for character growth and insight to their traumas. Even so I always have a difficult time when a book ventures down this plotline. Additionally, I was expecting something a bit more magic heavy, and was deeply intrigued by the different types of magic each sister possessed. I was disappointed not to get more of it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual violence, Cannibalism, and Murder

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, and Confinement

Minor: Pedophilia and Death of parent

natalie1227's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

For my first horror dark book this was a great start. I got very frustrated with the main character and her relationships. The ending was great but it was definitely a slow burn in the beginning. Once Marlinchen started to enter the outside world her character developed and you started to want it to have a good ending. I liked how the author's spicy bits were written in almost a different style when it was with one character vs. a different character .

I wanted to scream when we find out the dad was eating people because no duh he was eating people he is an abusive asshole. It also took the entire book for her to realize her family never loved her and were extremely toxic.

 I loved the narrator's voice and they made it very pleasurable to listen to. I am also reading another book by the same author and I am enjoying it more so I might just not be a horror fan. 
Overall it was an ok experience and will definitely be reading more Ava Reid books. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, and Eating disorder

wizardowl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Sexism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, and Classism

abception's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Confinement, Gore, Physical abuse, Self harm, Grief, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Alcohol

ellynscoffee's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This book is certainly not for the faint of heart. The label of dark is no exaggeration and this book is a brilliant example of a grim gothic horror that does not hold back.
The writing style and story telling were great, my only gripe was some of the slower pacing towards the middle, although this didn't last long.
The gore aspect of this story was probably the most uncomfortable for me to read, but it was easily skimmed over and did not feel unnecessary.
The ending is incredibly satisfying, however I did feel that the reveal of the mystery was a little rushed (but perhaps this is more because we see everything from Marlinchen's perspective).
Overall, I loved and really enjoyed this bleak, grim retelling

EDIT: It has been several days since I finished this book and I cannot stop thinking about it. I think I will have to fold and change this from my original 4/5 rating to a 5/5 because it really hit me harder than I thought.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Eating disorder, Gore, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Murder

jehold2010's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Vomit, and Cannibalism

kitanda's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Antisemitism, Grief, Cannibalism, and Death of parent

elizabethreadsalot's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Eating disorder, Gore, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Blood, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, and Pedophilia

campisforever's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

A dark retelling of "The Juniper Tree," Juniper & Thorn is slow-paced with the repetition we normally associate with oral storytelling. The narrative is beautifully written and well constructed. While I found it difficult to stomach and definitely needed breaks throughout, I recognize that the discomfort was part of the point. I also often felt like I couldn't find a foothold, but realized about 3/4 of the way through that it was intentional--until Marlinchen begins to piece things together, it's a bit difficult to locate the narrative's bearings. 

This novel is a really raw and honest portrayal of various kinds of trauma, mental health struggles, and coping mechanisms. Many of the content warnings I've included are the exact warnings Ava Reid provides for the novel on her website. Please be mindful of those tags. That said, I was honestly a little scared to read this book because it seemed like a lot, and it was, but not in a way that glorifies the horrors of humanity and abuse. If you're open to a story that takes you through the darkest parts of our folklore--here, Germanic and Slavic lore--and gives you a glimmer of hope on the other end, it's worth it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Incest, Violence, Antisemitism, Cannibalism, and Classism