Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid
A gruesome curse. A city in upheaval. A monster with unquenchable appetites.
Marlinchen and her two sisters live with their wizard father in a city shifting from magic to industry. Oblya’s last true witches, she and her sisters are little more than a tourist attraction as they treat their clients with archaic remedies and beguile them with nostalgic charm. Marlinchen spends her days divining secrets in exchange for rubles and trying to placate her tyrannical, xenophobic father, who keeps his daughters sequestered from the outside world. But at night, Marlinchen and her sisters sneak out to enjoy the city’s amenities and revel in its thrills, particularly the recently established ballet theater, where Marlinchen meets a dancer who quickly captures her heart.
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, blood and desire, Marlinchen must draw upon her own magic to keep her city safe and find her place within it.
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Note: If you have any triggers, please read the trigger warnings (see full list here) for this novel before deciding to read it.
Juniper & Thorn was one of the most immersive fairytale retellings I’ve read to this date. Ava Reid’s sophomore novel is a horror retelling of the Grimm Brothers’ fairytale, The Juniper Tree. Not knowing much about this particular fairytale, I went in blind (I don’t have triggers) and it was such a unique experience. The plot of this book was deceptively simple. It takes place within a small area, mainly the house of Marlinchen and the Ballet Theater, and focuses heavily around our two main characters more than anyone else. However, that is where the simplicity ends. This story was so rich with motifs and beautiful prose that I couldn’t put it down. I won’t sugarcoat anything, this book isn’t for the faint of heart, it definitely is a horror novel that features heavy topics, gore, and is built largely around body horror. But it also portrays so many meaningful themes on power and resilience that the horror is no longer the main focus and the characterization of Marlinchen is. I thoroughly enjoyed this read and have already picked up Reid’s other novel because I’m just so enchanted with their writing.
The writing in this novel was superb. Poetic and atmospheric, it didn’t take long to totally encompass me in Marlinchen’s world, no matter how small that world was. This book was rich with motifs and symbolism that tied so well into the main themes of the book. There is not one single page that I didn’t tab for quotes that I thought were absolutely brilliant. Each character, no matter how minor, had so many facets to their personality that, even with characters I had figured out early on, they still managed to surprise me in small moments. The horror element was strong throughout, even in more subtle scenes. The descriptions of how Marlinchen views her body, the process of her cooking breakfast (should sound delicious, still comes across icky), the loneliness of Oblya, and the dirtiness and skeeziness that comes from industrialization and capitalism all added small elements of growing horror. It was all there in the most gruesome of descriptions.
There were so many great themes throughout this novel and the depiction of opposites held such a powerful message. One of the most powerful themes is that of both Marlinchen and Sevas being trapped within their lives by powerful guardians and their longing for freedom, in any form. Marlinchen’s father runs a tight household. The girls are not allowed out into the “sinful” city and are trapped there, not only by spells but by their father’s terrifying abuse of power. They find any small ways to rebel that they can, but even then, Marlinchen has such faith in her fathers terrible powers that even the smallest thought of rebellion leaves her nearly unable to act on it. Sevas is trapped in the ballet, as it’s the only career he’s known his whole life and, because of that dedication, has no other skills to prove himself as useful to the world. He’s also a poorly treated minority outside of the Theater so it feels as if the world itself is against his escape, not only from the ballet, but from his abusive handler, Mr. Derkach. Marlinchen and Sevas’ meeting sets off a chain reaction of realizations that there is more out there for them and that fighting for their freedom might actually be worth the pain if they get to have each other in the end. It was such a powerful message and their situations reflected each other so well.
Another main theme I loved throughout this novel was that of sustenance/satisfaction. Papa (Marlinchen’s father) was cursed by the last Witch of Oblya to never feel satisfied, including the satisfaction that comes with being full. So Marlinchen dutifully prepares a full breakfast for her father every morning, making all the ingredients from scratch to satiate his growing hunger to which he still is never satisfied. On the flip side, you have Marlinchen’s eating disorder. Unlike her Papa, the feeling of fullness doesn’t sit right with her and she finds that her only control over her own person/body is to purge what she’s eaten. That opposition to her father devouring every meal put in front of him and never being full was very striking. I also found the descriptive depictions of Marlinchen’s food making process to be slightly nauseating even though food and sustenance was a huge theme. This works well later in the story as sustenance becomes a more important plot point. In terms of satisfaction, the entire city seems to reflect the greed that comes form never being satisfied. Papa, even though he looks down on city-dwellers, is very similar to them in that hunger for more, more power, more food, more of everything. There are many characters that fall within this theme including Derkach’s lust for Sevas’ attention, Dr. Bakay’s misplaced hunger for physical interaction in the search of scientific knowledge, and Undine’s disregard for any obstacles that stop her from doing exactly what she wants.
I thoroughly enjoyed this read and it was such an immersive stand alone story. It is beautifully written and has such a powerful story of overcoming abuse and isolation. It is rich with prose and has so many other themes that I didn’t cover that made it such a spectacular read. I gave if 5 stars. I highly recommend, but make sure to check out the trigger warnings first if you do have triggers while reading.