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A review by bookwoods
Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid
3.0
2,5/5
Juniper and Thorn is a retelling of the Juniper Tree, and not what I expected, though I don’t specifically know what I expected, as the original tale isn’t familiar to me. There is a wizard with three daughters, who are kept on a tight leash, but who manage to escape to town at night. The youngest, Marlinchen, goes to ballet with her sisters, and gets infatuated with the lead dancer. What follows is a gruesome and sexual tale centering around the family dynamics, the collision of magic and modern society and of course: the juniper tree.
The writing is beautiful, even more so than in the Wolf and the Woodsman, but the story just didn’t grip me. It is overly sexual in an uncomfortable way and the characters didn’t feel real to me. Perhaps if I knew the original tale of the Juniper Tree I could appreciate what Reid is trying to accomplish more, but as it is, this ended up being quite meh.
Juniper and Thorn is a retelling of the Juniper Tree, and not what I expected, though I don’t specifically know what I expected, as the original tale isn’t familiar to me. There is a wizard with three daughters, who are kept on a tight leash, but who manage to escape to town at night. The youngest, Marlinchen, goes to ballet with her sisters, and gets infatuated with the lead dancer. What follows is a gruesome and sexual tale centering around the family dynamics, the collision of magic and modern society and of course: the juniper tree.
The writing is beautiful, even more so than in the Wolf and the Woodsman, but the story just didn’t grip me. It is overly sexual in an uncomfortable way and the characters didn’t feel real to me. Perhaps if I knew the original tale of the Juniper Tree I could appreciate what Reid is trying to accomplish more, but as it is, this ended up being quite meh.