Juniper & Thorn

[alaterdate]

Juniper & Thorn another Ava Reid book that I both like and dislike simultaneously! It's hard to pin down a star rating again, I'm waffling on it, but this is at least a solid 3 for me for sure. (Also did not know there was controversy around this book until after I read it. Why are authors constantly shit-talking Goodreads reviewers on Twitter? smh. They really shouldn't specify a specific reviewer!)

Juniper & Thorn is a retelling of Grimms' The Juniper Tree. While it uses aspects of the fairy tale it doesn't follow the same plot events. Reid's Marlinchen is the youngest daughter of the last wizard in a town rapidly turning toward industrialization and away from magic. Marlinchen and her two older sisters are witches that their father keeps under his thumb in order to squeeze profit from their powers. As Marlinchen begins to discover herself and the world, she has to confront her abusive father and the atrocities in her life.
Oh there's also a boy she gets with.

Mind that this book is horror (readers online seemed perplexed by this fact), and while I don't discuss them in my review the content warnings can be found in the author's Goodreads post HERE

The writing felt so much better in this than it did in The Wolf and the Woodsman. I'm going to chalk a portion of that up to the main character being better suited for an adult novel. Reid's main characters are too juvenile and too horny for my taste, but I stomached it better this time. Marlinchen is naive, but not as childish as Évike. Marlinchen's extremely isolated circumstances lends more credence to how unworldly she is so I can accept her immature voice more than I could Évikes'. The story also moves along at such a pace that it isn't bogged down by the viewpoint too much (there isn't as much room in this one for overwrought introspection). The fairytale/myth stories felt seamlessly woven in this time 'round unlike in the other book. That said, a shorter story does many wonders because Reid still can't write a concise plot to save her life.

I love the absolutely suffocating atmosphere of Marlinchen's abysmal home-life. The tension is upheld well and amplified by atmospheric prose. Unfortunately, the story drags in the beginning and the exciting part is wrapped up so quickly. I was looking at the page count and it's 80 pages of nothing substantial and I'm getting worried because the book is only about 272 pages, then near the end I'm looking at the page account again and bummed that there's about 20 pages left to wrap up the most exciting part.
I didn't give a shit about the romance honestly. I showed up for a horror novel. A lot of people seem to have some gripe with it, but I thought it was alright and ended sweetly. I do think it would have been better if the beginning of the book which was mostly Marlinchen sneaking out of her house to meet this guy would have been pared back. I can suppose that Reid wanted their romance to begin in a more peaceful place, it does have a Cinderella tinting to it, but I was more interested in the latter part of the book and would have liked it to be the main focus.
I'm not giving Reid the benefit of the doubt this time because I do think that there is a lot of good set-up and stewing in the beginning of The Wolf and the Woodsman that is necessary for the impact of the theme, but it's not so with this one.

The Wolf and the Woodsman had worldbuilding (such as it is) and Juniper & Thorn has some of that, but it would have meant very little had I not already been familiar with the themes Reid likes (or general history because this stuff is pretty thinly veiled).
This book bleeds more emotion though. I was put-off, gloomy, and angry at times, even while not caring much for the characters. I liked the ending and I liked the idea of Marlinchen, if not the woman herself. Making a note to buy myself a copy of the paperback next year.