Juniper & Thorn: A Novel

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Since humanity began recording their stories, we’ve used fairytales to explore the darkness inside us and around us and explain that monsters can come from within as easily as they can stalk us through the woods. Juniper & Thorn is faithful to that purpose and shows such understanding and reverence to that function fairytales performed, and as custom, also managing to have a happy ending for our dear plain-faced fairytale heroine Marlinchen. While I wasn’t super enamored with Ava Reid’s debut novel, The Wolf and the Woodsman, despite the hype around it but the summation of this book truly called to me. Gothic horror fairytale retellings are one of my absolute favorite genres, so I truly expected to love this one but oh boy, was I unprepared for what was to come.

Fairytales are woven in to this narrative as Marlinchen recounts them to herself as she compares them to her life or uses them to make sense of things that have happened to her, or tells them to Sevas, the love interest. She was a child raised on magic and a fairytale codex and since this was a fairytale retelling, it seemed fitting. I always love the incorporation of fairytales and mythology within fantasy books. juniper and thorn is a loose retelling of “the juniper tree” and follows marlinchen and her two sisters, along with their father. i really enjoyed the writing style of this one and thought that it fit the story really well. reid’s lyrical prose helps the book establish its place as a gothic fantasy novel and kept me intrigued the entire time i was reading. The Wolf and the Woodsman enraptured me last year, with its gorgeously written, rich and dark adult fantasy that expertly wove elements of Jewish mythology and Hungarian history. Juniper & Thorn goes darker and deeper in a way that entranced me even more. Reid has proven themselves as a stunning spell-weaver and I know I will need their next creation in my hands imminently. Juniper & Thorn - set in a fantastical version of Odessa, Ukraine - explores the lengths people will go to in search for a meaning or a larger message in our own tragedies.But as young women, they chafe under his rules and sneak out of the house at night. On Marlinchen’s first night out, she is swept away by the ballet performance she sees, and the principal dancer who plays Prince Ivan. Every midnight tryst leaves hope for true love and freedom, but she also risks her father’s magic and rage if she’s ever found out. For "Horror", while there are certainly dark events in the book, they fall into one of two categories. There's the aforementioned people being assholes/terrible people, but it wasn't written dark in a "horror" way; it was without that creepy wrong undertone to it in the atmosphere to make it feel horror. On the other hand, there were a good few dark-fantasy events which could have led into horror played right, but they were heavily concentrated in the last third of the book all at once, and rather than building an atmosphere of horror they came as reveals. It feels mildly pedantic, but for me dark events or horrible actions alone do not horror make- horror isn't just the presence of dark or terrible things, it's inextricably tied to how they're written and presented. When there isn't really any suspense or terror, fear or repulsion, in the writing and atmosphere, it doesn't feel like horror. As an example, grimdark novels have plenty of dark events and horrible actions, but they aren't always written as horror; it's highly tied to the presentation, the atmosphere. It's why I lean more towards saying Juniper & Thorn is "dark fantasy" rather than "horror". As Marlinchen’s late-night trysts grow more fervent and frequent, so does the threat of her father’s rage and magic. And while Oblya flourishes with culture and bustles with enterprise, a monster lurks in its midst, borne of intolerance and resentment and suffused with old-world power. Caught between history and progress and blood and desire, Marlinchen must draw upon her own magic to keep her city safe and find her place within it. Overall, my biggest issue with this book was how oversexualized it was. I lost count of how many times Marlinchen became hyperfocused on someone’s nipples and if the author had used the words “maidenhead” or “seed” one more time, I probably would have thrown my Kindle across the room. The plot was completely vulgar at points and I put the book down several times, completely nauseated by the content. Nothing about the original fairytale required that level of sexualization. That may be a purely personal preference, but again, I was not prepared for that at all. After the 2021 release of her debut novel “The Wolf and the Woodsman,” Ava Reid has returned with the gothic fantasy-horror standalone “Juniper & Thorn.” Set in the world of “The Wolf and the Woodsman,” “Juniper & Thorn” is a fairytale, but not in the way that Disney has led one to expect. Instead, Reid’s novel expertly crafts a world of monsters and monstrous men to explore the consequences of patriarchy and trauma.

In retrospect, my expectations for this were ramped up high — Novik and Valente’s Eastern European lore-inspired books are some of my most beloved, and my standards were through the roof. Still, I commend Reid for her raw portrayal of womanhood, toxic relationships, and the hope that cycles of abuse can be broken. Marlinchen earned my sympathy and tested my patience; and it is the poignance of her journey that allowed me to overlook most of my gripes. Juniper & Thorn is one of those books that buries itself beneath your skin and refuses to move. It has captured my mind entirely.

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There is satisfying romance to root for throughout this book as well and it balanced the horror themes well. Sevas is the himbo fantasy love interest I didn’t know I needed, but I’m taking him home with me! You saw it here first! I had high expectations for this book to the point where I tried to curb them before I started reading because I knew odds were good that when I think a book is going to be THIS good, I’m probably going to be disappointed. From the list of trigger warnings, you know this is a dark and heavy book but it is one that I will hold dear to my heart. Juniper & Thorn takes every last drop of tainted blood from the original fairy tales and weaves it into something entirely new, surprising and entrancing. Reid does not hesitate to really delve into the brutal reality of these topics. It is a difficult read at times, but it is one that challenges you and your assumptions around victimhood. This is a grotesque, stomach-churning book that constantly reminds you of the horror waiting to sink its teeth into you.

Juniper & Thorn is the story of a young witch whose life is confined to a family that mistreats her and a father who terrifies her in a rapidly changing world where her family's brand of magic is little more than a tourist trap of the Old Ways. It is about isolation and the desire to be free warring with the fear of the unknown. It's about all the ways an abuser exerts control over their victims in an effort to feel fulfilled in a way that will ultimately never be enough. It's about love and the escape it can bring. The girls have little freedom under the watchful eye of their father, who suffers from a debilitating curse of his own and who refuses to let them leave or see anyone who isn’t a paying client. (And his idea of the services these clients are allowed to pay for runs a long and often disturbing gamut.) When the girls sneak out to the ballet one night, Marlinchen accidentally meets Sevastyan, the theater company’s principal dancer, on whom she develops an instant and obvious crush. At the same time, I ask that readers, particularly those who do not personally identify with these topics, not pre-judge the book based on content warnings. Nuanced depictions of uncomfortable subject matter have always been crucial to literature - one of the most valuable elements of fiction is its capacity to explore these subjects, shine a light on topics that are traditionally stigmatized, and elevate the voices of those who have been historically silenced.

But when Sevas’ handler brings him to the Vaschenko home hoping for a cure for an illness, Zmiy notices Marlinchen’s flustered interest, and tightens his grip on his daughters even further, casting a spell that not only forbids them from leaving the property but simultaneously threatens to turn anyone that crosses its gate into a pile of venomous snakes. However, we soon learn that life outside the Vaschenko house is no safer than inside it, as a mysterious series of killings among the city’s marginalized populations puts everyone at risk. Between The Wolf and the Woodsman and this book, Reid has found themselves solidly in my favorite fantasy authors and I’m looking forward to everything that comes from them in the future! This book was a win in so many ways for me, and I feel as though I’ve found a kindred soul in Reid’s storytelling. A book is more than the sum of its trigger warnings. While I strongly condemn the pressure many authors have been put under to trot out their trauma as justification for the content in their works, Juniper & Thorn comes from a deep place in my heart. It has eaten at me (no pun intended - okay, a little pun intended), and I hope that, in some way or another, it eats at you, too. Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)

Ava Reid’s debut, The Wolf and the Woodsman, was nothing short of a masterpiece of adult fantasy and set such a high standard for what debuts could accomplish. I was incredibly excited to be able to continue to support them and read more of their work… and a fantasy-horror retelling of Grimm’s darkest fairytale? Say no more! Ava Reid’s bestselling debut The Wolf and The Woodsman garnered praise for its compelling characters, immersive and layered world, and for the sheer power of Reid’s writing. Now, a year later, Reid brings us to a new gothic world, prose absolutely shining with baroque style—an old tale retold in her own distinctive, sharp, bittersweet voice.One of the biggest things that brings them together is both being survivors of abuse, and I think that’s always a really beautiful idea that I often enjoy seeing executed ( The Mirror Season, Heart’s Blood and Empire of Sand are all examples of this that I’ve liked). In this book. there are a couple really powerful moments of them protecting and supporting each other, but my overall feeling (as with the romance in general) is just that I wish there could have been more of this because I think it could have gone a lot deeper. This book does not shy away from trauma, it doesn’t hide it or pretty it up, or shove it under the rug. It infects these characters and is the root of who they become and why they act the way that they do. I thought it was very well done. These people are traumatized and broken. But beware there is also the dreaded insta-love! This old trope usually drives me up a wall but here it felt ok considering, well, every damn thing these two had been through and were going through. And sometimes love at first sight IS a thing and sometimes it even works out. Or maybe I’m just having a good day, lol. Anyway, I read a lot of romance (and a lot of horror), and this exploration of sexuality, attraction, and love made sense to me. Would I have liked to have seen a bit more from Sevas’s POV? Well, of course, I love getting into the heads of damaged people but this book wasn’t a romance and I was okay with what we got. The blurb for this book does describe the plot pretty well, it's indeed a dark fairy tale-inspired story that included serial murders and a family of witches living under the oppressive tutelage of their mage father, from whom they want to escape and enjoy life and love. The world it's set in is pretty much Russia just barely varnished with a layer of magic and new naming that doesn't quite obscure the real inspiration.