Juniper & Thorn: A Novel

this is kind of hard for me to rate. from the cover i thought it’d be a fantasy adventure book, but that’s my bad because it’s actually much more of a character-driven fairy tale based on “The Juniper Tree.” i didn’t realize any of this going in, and i’d never heard that story anyway.

maybe because i didn’t know this was a retelling, i was really caught off guard by some of the dark themes in this book. it seemed more adult than YA, but the cover and description seemed to target a younger audience. as in the original, this story contains child abuse and murder. also, a tw for sexual assault and eating disorders as well. both are quite graphic

aside from the dark themes, there’s also quite a bit of sexual content so this is really not for younger audiences (again, i feel like the cover could be misleading so…)

as for the actual story and writing!! the story was good. like i said, i didn’t know the original fairy tale, so i got to follow the twists and turns myself. some of it, especially the romantic bits, were sort of cringey. they felt like a teenage wattpad idea of romance. other parts were pretty powerful though! not sure how old this author is, but maybe Reid just needs to keep working on their craft because there was definitely potential!! that said, every few scenes fell a bit short. there was also REALLY heavy usage of the words “belly” and “plum stone” in ways that i think were supposed to be poetic, but really annoyed me. i think a lot of the writing suffered from being too ‘pretty’ and becoming just shallow, which is especially frustrating when you’re listening to the audiobook.

all that said, i did enjoy reading this book towards the end, but overall can’t give it more than 3 stars. i read this for the “read from a playlist” category, and listening to the playlists enhanced my experience for sure! they made me feel more sympathetic for the main character, who was otherwise kind of annoying for me.

2.5 stars
category: find from a playlist

This book leans into the horror aspect of Grim Fairy Tales. There are themes of abuse, assault, rape, molesting, and eating disorder, not to mention cannibalism.

I appreciate how the author talked about and centered the victims experience of abuse. There was also a discussion of power and control for characters and victims being able to take back their own power and control over their lives. The author also talked about the healing process with trauma.

This is a book that will stick with me and I will think bout but is not easy to read. The violent and horrible things that happen to characters while talked about are not talked about in a way that is pleasant for the reader and it the author focuses on how horrific it is for the characters. Sometimes not even talking about what happened so much as the experience of it to the characters.

Juniper and Thorn reminded me of a beautiful sweater I have. It's gorgeous, warm, and looks good on me. But it's also itchy and uncomfortable and I'm always aware I'm wearing it. This story was beautifully told, but it was coarse and unpleasant. I never lost myself in it. The hypersexualization of every scenario was distracting and distasteful. It's clear the sex scenes were not meant to be titillating so I question why the author didn't use a more closed-door approach. The abuse and eating disorder plot points were too rampant and unnecessarily triggering. The story was as grim as those of old. The language and descriptions were precise. The characters were well-developed, even if some of their actions and motivations were questionable. I didn't enjoy it, but others might.

I liked this book but didnt love it. Also, don't take a shot every time you read the worst "breast" less you wanna die.

Unfortunately I couldn't finish this book. As someone recovering from multiple eating disorders, the references to bulimia were too triggering for me, and I had to stop reading. I was enjoying it apart from that element, so maybe when I'm in a more stable place I'll try again.