Juniper and Thorn is a fast paced and engrossing book billed as a retelling of The Juniper Tree. I wasn’t actually familiar with The Juniper Tree and sought out the fairy tale; I find that a lot of fantasy recently has been reviving the Brothers Grimm. Once I read it I did vaguely recall: 

A kindly man and woman, unable to have a child, do so through apple-magic, as one does. The wife promptly has a baby and dies, as one does. The wicked stepmother comes in and has her own child who she wants to inherit the father’s estate and so she lures her stepson to look into a crate then slams the lid down decapitating him, as one does. 

In a fit of just unusual cruelness, she then reassembles him, props him up, and encourages her daughter to go ask him for an apple. The daughter does, he’s suspiciously not listening, step mom gives a good ol’ “Whack him!”, the daughter does, and his head falls off.

You know.

The daughter, deeply distraught about her brother’s death, gathers up the dismembered parts and puts him back together while attempting to give him a proper burial beneath a juniper tree. Oh, I forgot to mention the stepmother also tricked her husband into eating some of the corpse. You know.

The boy gets transformed into a bird, he drops a millstone on the stepmother, he turns back into a boy, everyone has lunch. You mother’s dead, you’re brother is a revenant, time for Red Lobster.

Reid cleans this up a bit into a love story involving deceiving fathers and the necessity of being a bit monstrous to overcome them. Within the greater novel this myth serves as a backbone both in ways reflecting themes of the narrative and serving as the inspiration for the ballet in which Sevas, the male lead, performs.

Outside of that inspiration, the story is a well constructed fairy tale inspired by Russian, Jewish, German cultures that has that childhood-fantasy nostalgic allure while keeping things R rated. I really enjoyed it, much like I did The Wolf and the Woodsman (read the review here: https://aliactast.com/2022/03/18/review-the-wolf-and-the-woodsman/) , also by Reid and taking place in the same fantasy world building.

I found Juniper and Thorn to be a tighter narrative than Woodsman that focused singularly on the characters and their progression through the story, letting you be thrust into the world rather than taking the time to linger on world building. That said it’s very much a stand alone story which holds its own weight, I appreciated being thrown in rather than having my hand held. 

I’m continuing to really like Reid’s writing style and now I’ll have to hunt for what’s next.