Despite an intriguing start, I ended up truly hating this. Kurtagich's writing is repetitive and flowery, making an already-long book feel even longer. Using twenty words where one would suffice sapped the narrative of tension and horror, and the ending was telegraphed from a mile away from the very start, so this felt like a completely futile reading experience.

It's like... you know where the story is going and you're taking the longest road possible to get there, including looping back on yourself several times before you finally reach your destination.

I've loved all of Dawn Kurtagich's novels I've read so far, and "The Thorns" as well! I really liked the story, even though the main character was sometimes very naive. However, we understand very well why and we would rather take her out of that school. Some scenes are quite difficult to read emotionally, and this novel is much more classified as an adult audience than the other novels of the author that I have read. I really enjoyed it!

Told in dual timelines, a boarding school obsession from the past leaks into our present timeline for our main protagonists. In present time, Bethany is a writer in herself, rehashing and trying to remember the past as her old childhood obsession Stacey seems to haunt her.

I repeatedly had to read the description because it didn’t really match the story being told. I was expecting a childhood ghost story and games of the Glass Man; this was rarely touched on and had zero relevance to the story.

A lot of times, it felt overly wordy, leaving me wondering what the author was trying to do; and the thesaurus may have been a little too close. Bethany’s past obsession with Stacey is given lots of detail which makes it easy as a reader to imagine. But there are so many details I didn’t need and didn’t add any interest to the story- like an entire paragraph describing breakfast. The back half gets a lot more focused on moving the story forward and the twist wasn’t too predictable. Overall some good writing but some stuff at the end doesn’t make sense.

Check your trigger warnings- even though there is a trigger warning at the beginning, it’s not really what the full detail of what the story triggers, which is a disservice to readers. I wish I had done more research and read reviews regarding what the “sexual violence” was in the story or I wouldn’t have requested this.

I received a free copy in exchange for my honest review from Netgalley.

I was initially excited to read The Thorns, but truthfully, I was not fully engaged in the story. It is presented in a dual timeline format - the then/past versus the now/present. For me, I was more interested in reading about the then/past storyline with Bethany and Stacy as it came to life more than the now/present storyline where Bethany and Stacy reconnect. Like other reviews have said, the past felt more real and engaging versus the present. Also, I felt like I was kept away from the character's inner thoughts and feelings in the present parts of the story. But I do like that Dawn does not shy away from difficult topics, like the sexual assault Bethany had been subjected to.

I honestly felt a little disturbed reading this.
The friendship between the women as girls definitely hints of lots of mental issues both in their own way.
The back and forth got a little redundant. Sometimes dragged a bit.

There are quite a few trigger warnings so definitely be mindful because even though there isn’t very dramatic detail it’s there and there is quite a bit.

I don’t know if I would have picked this for myself

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity

I loved this book! It's everything I've been wanting from a spooky, but also painfully and brutally relatable read this year. Stacey and Bethany have a horrifying but understandable codependent relationship/friendship that I think anyone who has been a teenager, particularly a teenage girl, will understand and empathise with. The dual timelines thrust that codependency and hurt that two girls so easily do to each other into the present, which really solidified that empathy for me and only served to make the entire story even creepier (in a good way). I think the author also really conveys teenage girls' experiences with abuse, particularly sexual abuse, in a thoughtful and nuanced way. I think that drew me the most, that depiction, and how it didn't shy away from holding those who should be accountable and acknowledging how girls are failed in society.

I truly don’t think I’ve ever read a book like this. Oh my god. This story is going to haunt me for a long, long time.

This is a dark, sick and twisted fever dream of a book and I couldn’t look away. The twists and turns had my head spinning. At no point will you know where the story is going.

Loved it so much. Dying to go read Dawn Kurtagichs back list now while I wait for her brain to come up with some more horrifying stories for me to love.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

Rated 3.5 really.

First off...DISCLAIMER: this title was up for grabs on NetGalley (in the Read Now section). Thanks to Thomas & Mercer for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

As usual with Kurtagich, it's a challenge to write a review - or even a simple blurb - without spoilers. One has to dance around the truth and to use words in a clever manner, which I hope is what I'm doing...

Told in a double-timeline narrative, The Thorns is a well-written, brutally honest, disturbing book. I'm glad I read it, and at the same time, it left a bad taste in my mouth. I thought I was in for a mostly contemporary story with a supernatural thread woven in, but Glass Man and the titular thorns mythology turned out to be inconsequential (this is not the spoiler you may think it is, and I feel like it's right to include it in order to prevent false expectations). On the other hand, the abuse, obsession and manipulation were very real. The author lists "bullying, sexual violence" (not of the graphic kind), "gaslighting, self-harm, chronic pain, minor alcohol and drug abuse, reference to animal harm, and mental health crises" as triggers, but even those fail to prepare the reader for the relationship between a 13 y.o. girl and a 28 y.o. man and the level of toxicity it entails - or for the equally toxic female friendship. The Thorns has a lot to say about a young girl's desperate need to belong, and how the world (sometimes even her peers, sometimes even other GIRLS for goodness' sake, but mostly older men) preys on it while casting HER in the role of the villain. This is praiseworthy, but not something that makes a book enjoyable in the strict sense of the word. I have to say the main twist didn't caught me by surprise, because early reviews had me on the lookout for one, but I only figured half of it (on the other hand, there's a scene that doesn't make sense, in retrospect, even taking delusions into account), and the ending left me speechless, though I feel like it sacrifices good mental rep for a last shock (then again, that can be said for premise of The Dead House as well, and I loved that one...).

The depiction of the school setting and the land where Bethany and her friends played was described in rich detail. This vivid description significantly enhanced that portion of the narrative. The story delves deeply into some distressing events from Bethany's childhood, including instances of sexual assault. The sections of the book that recount the past are so vivid that they immerse the reader thoroughly in Bethany's experiences.

I am certainly interested in exploring more works by Dawn Kurtagich in the future. The friendship she developed between Bethany and Stacey was particularly compelling. I appreciate authors who address challenging subjects in their narratives. If this book piques your interest, I recommend giving it a try. The storyline set in the past offers a uniquely engaging perspective.

I would like to extend my gratitude to NetGalley, the author Dawn Kurtagich and the publisher Thomas & Mercer, for providing me with the opportunity to read and review an advanced reader's copy of The Thorns.

1.75 stars

I picked up this novel because the synopsis sounded interesting. It suggested a toxic friendship, a creature or entity called the 'Glass Man' and a game. While we did get toxic friendship (very much so), there wasn't really a game aspect. Also, the Glass Man was mentioned, but didn't play any part in the story. Those were pretty much the main aspects that made me excited about this book, so colour me disappointed.

I didn't mind the twist at the end, but it wasn't nearly good enough to make the rest of this book worthwhile. The characters weren't fleshed out enough for me to care and the POVs read kind of the same. You'd expect to see some type of difference between 13-year old Bethany and grown up Bethany. Looking back, I don't quite understand why the POV of adult Bethany was there in the first place.

While content warnings were included at the beginning of this ARC, I was caught a little by surprise. The author mentions sexual violence and abuse, but what she fails to mention is that this all happens when the MC is 13 years old, making it CSA. Despite the author mentioning it wasn't graphic and it's necessary to the story, I fail to agree on that first point. While it's not as graphic as it could be, it packs a punch. Especially because it's written in first person. So, definitely be aware before diving into this book.

TW: child sexual assault/pedophelia, sexual assault/rape, bullying, mental illness, self harm, toxic friendship

This book had such amazing imagery, I could see it all right there in front of me.
It kept me on my toes and had me looking behind me far to much for comfort.
It was the first for me by this author, but I look forward to reading more.

This was one dark read, book peeps! There’s hints of horror and thriller, but it read more like a coming of age novel, at least to me. There were some decent twists towards the end, one of which was predictable and I had an inkling early on about it. 🫠

As always, not every book is for every person, so I still recommend checking this one out! Definitely check out the trigger warnings before reading though! 👀

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the opportunity to read the eARC in exchange for my honest review! ❤️

TW: child sexual assault, bullying, mental health, self harm

I was excited to read this book after seeing the synopsis. However, it did not live up to my expectations. It ended up being really predictable and I guess the "twist" pretty early on, so the rest of the book kinda fell flat. I didn't care for or connect with any of the characters. Their motives were also super unclear. Finally, and most importantly, the book is NOTHING like what the synopsis says. There is no Glass Man or supernatural elements.

This was promising, but mostly confusing and disjointed in its attempts to be mysterious. While the past timeline felt well fleshed out and properly paced, the current timeline suffered from a disjointed plot that truly dragged the whole book down.

When Bethany’s mom is essentially abandons her at a South African boarding school, she feels lonely and unwanted. But she finds solace in her friendship with Stacey, someone she develops and almost codependent relationship with. At some point, Bethany returns to her native England, and 20 years later is a successful writer. But the past doesn’t stay in the past, when Stacey returns into her life for the first time in years. Suddenly, Bethany’s questioning her life choices. But is it a good thing?

TW: sexual assault (it’s not necessarily graphic, but very physiologically twisted, which makes it very difficult to read, especially so if it’s something you have been through, I imagine.)

This book is told along two timelines: the past, when Stacey and Bethany are in boarding school, and in the present day.

Ok, onto the book itself:
This book was a creepy, suspenseful, wild ride through both the past and the present as we, the readers, watch two friends fall apart through a toxic mixture of obsession and control. It’s both hard to stomach and fascinating. I had to really had to hold myself back from skipping ahead to see how everything ended. But I (just barely) held out. And man, it was worth it.

The twists and turns were amazing in this one. I think my jaw dropped like three times during the final chapters. I was so fascinated and taken by surprise. Trust me, Dawn Kurtagich knows how to craft a great story.

It’s best to go in completely blind, so I won’t say more, other than, you will get frustrated with the characters, but remember that they’re teen girls, so they make stupid decisions, like doing dangerous things to impress their friends. But in this book, everything is done for a reason. Ugh, it’s perfectly set up.

If you love thrillers, pick this up!

70/100 or 3.5 stars

This was an intense read. There were plenty of things that I enjoyed about the novel, but there are also a few things that I didn't care for. I liked the writing style and thought the story and plot flowed well. I don't want to spoil anything, so that makes saying the good and bad things about a little difficult.
I will say this was better than I was expecting, and I will be intersted in reading more by Kurtagich in the future.

10/10 recommend checking the content warnings with this one...it is very intense for a YA/teen story. It does read more like a thriller with horrible things mixed in rather than horror, so I would say it is slightly mislabled/marketed as horror.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I had to DNF this book after about 6 chapters because I wasn't drawn into it. Maybe it was the mysterious writing style, but it was not for me. I would try other books from this author in the future though.

Thank you to Thomas and Mercer and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

unfortunately, as much as the premise sounded absolutely up my alley, the writing style just didn't work for me. I'm all for a descriptive narration, but this was too much for me, and I found it very confusing at first, which is not a vibe I look for in a horror.

As teenagers at boarding school in South Africa, Stacey was the center of Bethany Sloane’s world: The older, prettier, more vivacious best friend whose every word was law. But Bethany is an adult now, disabled, but also a celebrated author with a doting husband and a new life in London. When Stacey unexpectedly reaches out after moving to London herself, Bethany is shocked by how quickly they reconnect more than half a lifetime later. But with Stacey comes the ghost of their mutual past and dark secrets left unspoken.

Told from the alternating POV of young Bethany and present-day Bethany, The Thorns dives into childhood trauma and the way it ripples through one's entire life.

When we first met Bethany, she’s already established at her boarding school and deep into her obsession with Stacey. The novel doesn’t really show how or why Stacey has such a stranglehold on Bethany or their other friend, Bernie. We don’t see their toxic friendship develop, we just have to accept it as-is. Young Bethany, abandoned by her mother and without a real sense of purpose or direction, defines herself through other people. Adult Bethany hasn’t really managed to move beyond that. It’s poignant and devastating, at times hard to read. But this novel isn’t so much about character development so much as reckoning with your past. I understand that one never simply outgrows trauma, but The Thorns focuses on the trauma so starkly and we almost never see Bethany exist outside the moments related to it. It made me feel like I only had a partial understanding of the characters.

This novel wasn’t really for me, and part of that is on me: I mistook the vibe from the description (along with associations to the author I saw suggesting it) as something a little more metaphorical and less literal. The first half or so of this novel is just... really fucking bleak and matter-of-fact. This is not a horror in the spooky, eerie, murder-y sense. It is horrific because there's several scenes focused on child rape and manipulation. There is a Bloody Mary-esque figure in the books that's teased in the description, but it's featured very little in the novel while the actual abuse is featured more heavily, so you know from the get that the MC is dissociating when it's mentioned. I didn't think it added much to the novel overall and its use in the description will mislead some as to what the novel is actually about.

It does pick up and emotions fluctuate beyond sheer, broken hopelessness as the story begins to unravel toward the end, but I found myself just wanting to get through it and be done at several points in the novel. The big revelations and sliver of catharsis at the end weren't quite enough to negate that feeling.

While I recognize that POV preferences are very subjective, I didn’t love present-day Bethany’s POV, which is in the second person and fully directed toward Stacey. It’s meant to show Bethany’s lingering reverence toward Stacey, even after years apart and well into adulthood. I suspect it was meant to be disorienting, though, so maybe I just have to give it credit for doing its job.

This is barely scraping by with 3 stars for me, because I appreciate the author's vision, despite finding some fault with the execution, and am reflecting a lot on how she said it was inspired by her own experiences. But it’s a truly heavy read that has literary merit for the right audience, but it just didn’t sit well with me overall.

Currently catching up on reviewing my arcs so I will give a more detailed review in the future!

Very heavy read so please check the trigger warnings before starting!
It was however...also very much up my alley, will definitely be purchasing a physical copy