A review by daiinty
Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

“Magic is the first sip of good wine that makes the edges of your vision blur. Magic is the cool breeze of the boardwalk at night and organ music in the air. Magic is landing a grand jeté and nearly going deaf with hate crowd's applause. Magic is the low flicker of tavern lights and the girl your courting leaning close so you can kiss.” — Ava Reid

another great book club book! reid’s prose is truly captivating and this was a book that i just couldn’t put down. she has such a command over mood and imagery that is as smooth as the butter marlinchen smooths over the black bread. even with its darker themes, the overall aesthetic of this book was absolutely divine: the ballet theatre, the gothic manor, the crumbling garden, the russian influences, all of it. it’s captivating how reid is able to seamlessly blend the sublime and grotesque with beauty. i feel like reid effectively captures marlinchen’s stockholm syndrome towards her father and the complex feeling that surround their relationship. i know a lot of the gore and darker themes weren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but honestly i feel like after reading the outlander series it takes a lot to phase me. i went into this book expecting some messed up stuff.

i feel like while there was character growth for marlinchen in the end, it did feel kind of stunted. it wouldn’t make sense for her to suddenly become strong and overpower her father, and we saw her fall back into her father’s arms multiple times before the final blow with the juniper berries, but it seemed like that was explained away just by her father’s magic surrounding her. that did feel very vague. i also felt sevas was a bit more passive than i would have liked, completely infatuated with marlinchen, but why exactly? because she showed him kindness in the alley that night after the ballet? i feel like i needed a little more convincing there, but i did like the romance and their ending together. my only other critique is that some things were very vague, like marlinchen’s mother being fed to them, somehow i missed that until it was brought up nonchalantly like it was already discussed, and marlinchen’s leg being sawed off? that came up towards the end but i have no recollection of that happening or any mentions of a disability especially when running around oblya. was that just a metaphor? that’s what i’m unsure of. 

overall i really enjoyed this and will likely pick of more of reid’s work in the future!