A review by maplewrites
Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Look, like, I liked it. I do not think it is a good book though. Like the core themes of the book were good, but all the set dressing sort of fought against it? The discussions of monsters and morality and freedom, all of it good. But pretty much everything that wasn't inherent to telling the story that was trying to be told, it wasn't great. Like the sheer amount of sexism that this book repeats over and over and over again, is just not worth the way that it is passively resolved. Like it isn't a sexist book, it's just got sexism in it in such quantities that while it could theoretically have aided the narrative, it didn't really. 
This is a very spewing from the mind sort of review. 
The things that the synopsis promised were there, but they were so deeply hidden by the set dressing. The things that I liked about the book I felt like I had to push past curtain after curtain after curtain to get to. 
I liked it in the end. I liked what it was at its core. I did not like the rest of it. 

One of the big flaws was that the book was very oversexualized. Like, sure the main character is repressed bc of her horrible father, but... Just it's sooo much. The talk of being aroused and breasts and the obsession with virginity being linked to purity. Even though the whole virginity thing is like, dismantled by the end, it still sucked. Like the amount of talk of breasts and sex is really really annoying. It definitely gets in the way of the story too. It slows the book down an incredible amount. 
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