Book Event

Today we discussed Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid with Oxford Exchange Book Club. It seriously was a fun discussion. This book opened up many readers to discuss things we usually wouldn’t have discussed. We learned so much about each other and saw everyone light up with their passions.

But honestly, all I am going to say about this book, from my perspective, is that it is very triggering. The best way I can describe how triggering is by saying that if I were younger and had gotten ahold of this book when I was not mentally stable, I would have unalived myself because of the ending.

Below is a spoiler.

In this book, the main character, a victim of multiple forms of abuse, turns into a monster at the end and kills people. For me, that is the worst nightmare for many victims of abuse. Many young kids grow up scared to death that they will turn into the monsters that feed off of them. They demonize themselves. They humanize and make excuses for everyone else. Then at the end, this is what happens with the main character. She ‘has the seed of her papa’s monster living inside her,’ which was too much for me.

I love dark stories. I need them. But I also appreciate it when people are careful. Alice by Christine Henry is a book on this theme that does this amazingly, with still many trigger warnings. She demonizes the abusers by making them creatures. She gives strength to the abused. She uses tactics to put the perfect distance between the reader and the story while still offering the reader the glorious wave of darkness they can relate to and are looking for.

I would recommend Alice all day for those who love the dark sides of things. This one, not so much to those who have been abused. To those I would say to be extra careful.