Fantastic. This was definitely something more to my taste than The Wolf and the Woodsman. I loved Marlinchen and Sevas, and I’m so excited about Ava Reid’s future works.

This was beautifully written but for some reason I found that I couldn't really get into it. I didn't feel like I couldn't get into the main character's head and didn't fully feel for her the way I should have.

I loved this book. Ava Reid's style is folklore-inspired without being derivative, and Juniper & Thorn feels fresher and more polished than their previous work. Every character felt either evil or grey, which was an interesting approach, and I genuinely did not anticipate the ending. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this and will automatically read anything else Ava Reid writes.

4.5 stars. I truly enjoyed this entire story. Dark fantasy is always hit or miss for me, sometimes it too fantasy, sometimes it's not dark enough, but this book had a good blend of everything and even had a twisted little love story to boot.

Five stars! This was one of my most anticipated 2022 reads and Ava Reid once again did not disappoint! I loved every second I spent curled up within the pages of this book!

This was such an enjoyable read. It has very dark themes that I think were explored well. It really is the atmosphere for me, though. I felt transported, which is the best experience when you're reading. When it feels real, the characters, the setting, their experiences and their emotions. I had to get myself a special edition of this even after buying a regular edition. It was that good for me.

gothic! sisters! I really loved this storytelling so much and I can't wait to pick up this author's debut

My feelings on this story are very conflicted. On one hand, this was a tremendously cathartic and powerful story about a survivor who finally gets to fight back, but, on the other, I found the writing far too overwrought with a tendency to say the exact same thing over and over. There was a lyricism to it, but I can only re-immerse myself so many times after seeing a repeated phrase. I found the story itself to be compelling, though I never felt quite invested in the mystery behind it (or the romance, if I’m being honest). I do still want to read more by Reid, but I felt a bit underwhelmed by this whole experience.

"I wanted to do an impossible transformation--I wanted all the hurt to unbloom, all the glass to unshatter, all wounds to close and the skin made anew."

Juniper & Thorn is a gothic, lyrical story that still simmers and burns in my chest. It's a twisted type of fairytale that bewitched me entirely, leaving me breathless, and sealing itself in my heart as something I won't forget.

When I first saw that Ava Reid was writing a retelling of The Juniper Tree, I was intrigued because that fairytale is one of nightmares. Reid definitely draws from the darker aspects of The Juniper Tree, portraying familial abuse, trauma, oppression, self-harm, grief, and ultimately liberation in a poignant way with the highest empathy and understanding. And at the same time, Juniper & Thorn is a story of love, longing, and finding yourself and your strength to love and forgive yourself as well.

As the youngest and plainest sister of three, Marlinchen and her sisters, who are witches, are sequestered away from the outside world by their paranoid, cursed wizard of a father. All her life, Marlinchen has been nothing but subservient to her father, but soon her sisters spirit her away from the house and into the dazzling world around them, and one place in particular sparks a longing for freedom like no other: the ballet. Marlinchen meets Sevas, the ballet's star dancer, and it unlocks something inside of her, and the two of them form an unbreakable bond that creates a desire for change in both of their lives. From there, secrets are uncovered and unspeakable horrors are revealed, and Marlinchen realizes that her freedom comes with a heavy price.

Marlinchen was a fantastic protagonist in this story--I cared about her so much! There are people out there complaining that parts of this book surrounding her sexuality are lewd, but it could not be further from the truth in my opinion. Discovering yourself sexually is not something to be ashamed of, and Reid wrote these parts well, and it is apparent to me that Reid took care with these parts of the story. As Marlinchen's story reveals itself more and more, I could not root for her any harder. And as soon as Sevas joins the picture, I felt the same for him as well. Their romance was so tender. I'm generally not a fan of romance that moves quickly, but it does make sense here. The additional characters were written so well as well, including the sisters and the father, who are all complex in their own ways. It's definitely not an easy story, but an affecting and memorable one.

The writing itself shines in Juniper & Thorn as well. Reid has a huge talent for creating unsettling and creepy scenes as well as downright revolting segments. I felt myself physically recoil from some of the descriptions, and I loved it. Comparing Reid's writing to Catherynne M. Valente feels right, as they both tend to write weird, sometimes grotesque literature that is written so beautifully, so much so that you feel like you have to reread paragraphs to take it all in.

Reid has become an auto-buy author for me because of Juniper & Thorn. I just loved this lush, dark, bizarre, beautiful gothic tale.

*note: please peruse content warnings before reading this book, it can be a lot*

This was a delightfully creepy fairytale. It reminded me a lot of the author's first book but with more angst and creepy vibes.

I finished reading Juniper & Thorn by Eva Reid on May 28th. It is now December 10th as I write this, and this horror story in the guise of dark fantasy still haunts me. Marlinchen's father is despicable, and everything she faces at his hands will turn your stomach. Yet, I cannot stop thinking about it. The trauma Marlinchen overcomes provides comfort for those struggling with their demons. However, Ms. Reid does not shy away from revealing all of her heroine's demons, so be warned. Those easily triggered by abuse in several forms, eating disorders, self-harm, blood and gore, and violence, would do well to avoid this one. For those who can stomach those triggers, what you will is a dark story that takes you to the edge before providing you a path to salvation and hope. It digs under your skin and captures your imagination so that you too can remain haunted by its feelings of despair and hope seven months after finishing it.

Thanks to NetGalley & Harper Voyager for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

An eloquent gothic horror story that's sure to give thrills and chills! This story follows the "plainest" of three daughters, an unremarkable witch living with her witchy sisters and cursed wizard father. We see her explore life and discover some unfortunate truths about her father and even her sisters.

Definitely another *DARK* fantasy by Reid--she's got a great flair for writing--don't come in expecting to find the characters sweet and wholesome. The protagonist was definitely the most fleshed out character given we see her thoughts, but I wanted to see more of the others, especially her love interest and sisters. Great read, will keep an eye on Red's future works!

I just realized that I forgot to post this sooner! This was one of my favorite books of the year! I loved "The Wolf and the Woodsman," but I might like this one more... The writing was very poetic and sucked me in right at the beginning. I adore Gothic Horror novels, and this book breathes fresh air into the genre. I loved Marlinchen and her softness, her weakness, and her desire for love. Reid writes about her traumas so delicately, which shows obvious respect for the main character. The complicated family relationships were well fleshed out and I recognized the familiar dynamics between sisters. The horror was very horrifying and at times made me feel sick to my stomach.

As a Jewish person, I appreciated Sevas' character and his casual relationship with Judaism. As a reader, I think he is one of my favorite love interests. He is interesting, and the extent to which he accepts Marlinchen is just as terrifying as it is lovely, "'You would rather me eat your heart than look away in disgust?' 'Of course,' he breathed. 'Every time.” I mean, HELLO? Man of my DREAMS!

All in all, this is one of my new all-time favorite books!

I really loved Ava Reid's debut novel and I had high hopes for this. Ultimately it was not the right book for me (at the moment). Reid does atmosphere really well but the plot here felt somewhat disjointed and I had a difficult time relating to the characters. I wouldn't mind trying another of the author's books in the future as I think this may have just been a one-off.

*eARC provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Not as much horror or sex as the reviews would say. I don't think it is lewd at all. Though it does say nipple a lot.

Much better than The Wolf and the Woodsman.

I finished 8 complete chapters of this novel. 8 of the 15. I really tried to push through but I couldn't. I found myself having to force myself to pick this ebook up and I couldn't do it. Having finished roughly 60% of the book this is based on that portion I did finish. I found the characters completely frustrating and unlikable. They hated their lives but did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to change that. Supposedly our main character had this revelation and secret that no one knew about that she could escape the house and get away but she was still a coward and stayed under her father's thumb and let him mistreat her and her sister's. Noone ever grew a backbone within 60% of the novel and I didn't care to read anymore.

I really enjoyed The Wolf and the Woodsman which I read in July 2021. However, Juniper and Thorn just didn’t work as well for me. I struggled to read this one, and in fact I put it down for months until I decided that I really needed to finish my ARC to finally write a review.

This is a very slow-moving book and there really isn’t a lot of plot, mainly just a lot of abuse and the main character feeling unworthy. The writing was also way more stylistic in this than in the first book, to the point where half the time I had no idea if magic was real or just a metaphor. In fact, there was quite a bit of this that was just metaphor.

I also really did not connect with the characters, and that’s something that I need in my books in order to enjoy them. They don’t necessarily need to be likable, but I do like to understand their thoughts, feelings, and motivation.

With this book being set in the same world as The Wolf and the Woodsman, there is no explanation to the social structure within this book so it’s almost a requirement to read her other book in order to fully understand the world this is set in. Throw in the fact that it’s been over a year since I read The Wolf and the Woodsman and I don’t remember much about this world. With this being a standalone set in the same world, there should’ve been more world building present in this book.

There is also a mystery of a monster killing people in the town, but there is nothing really going on with that until the very end and it was just kind of thrown in as a semblance of a plot. If someone were to ask me what exactly this book is about, I don’t even know if I would be able to describe it other than trauma and a little bit of a slapped together mystery. The first line of the synopsis also mentions the curse, and that really was just an excuse for the father to abuse all three of his daughters. I also found myself questioning if the curse was real or if the father just used it specifically to abuse his daughters.

I know from browsing through Goodreads that the author took her experiences as an abuse survivor as inspiration, I just don’t think that the execution was the best and I just couldn’t get on board with this because it was so hard for me to follow along with. because of the overly flowery writing. This entire book is trauma after trauma and can be VERY triggering so if you are going to read this, keep that in mind. Do I feel terrible that the author went through abuse? Absolutely, but that doesn’t mean I think this was a good book just because of that.

As a warning, all the relationships in this book are toxic, a lot of scenes are pretty graphic. There are graphic sex scenes, killing and dismembering of a creature (animal death), plenty of murder, cannibalism, gore and body horror, child sexual abuse and incest, antisemitism, tons of gaslighting and abuse by family members, self-harm and suicidal thoughts, bulimia with some graphic descriptions, pedophilia, sex trafficking, and also a scene including bestiality. These trigger warnings were not present in the copy that I read, and I believe a few of these were missing from the comments on Goodreads that I think would be helpful.

This just really was not a book for me and unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy reading it.

I loved the atmosphere of this book! It was a really good fairytale retelling mixing with fantasy! I always enjoy books that can do a retelling that is different than your normal one. It makes me want to read more by this author in the future.

TW: Body horror, extremely descriptive gore

Well, I really had no idea this was a horror book when I first requested it. I'm a huge scaredy cat so I don't really think my review is indicitive of what this book actually should be rated. It was evident that the author, Ava Reid has talent, her writing had beautiful prose and I found the pacing well balanced. I just couldn't get over all the gore and such descriptive details of certain vile acts. But like I said I'm not one for horror, I just liked the cover of the book, that will teach me to actually read the blurb next time!

Thank you so much to Avon Harper Voyager for providing me with an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am a big fan of fairy tall retellings, especially the darker and more obscure they are. Ava Reid does not disappoint in her take of the Grimms' collected tale "The Juniper Tree." Juniper & Thorn is an exploration of abuse and survival, of trauma and memory. The book was captivating. Marlinchen and her sisters, Udine and Rose, their actively quiet rebellion against their father compelling. Ava Reid tackles incredibly difficult issues with a sensitivity and nuance that make the story that much more devastating. Gothic fairy tale horror at its best.