Ratings55
Average rating3.5
There's clear nods to fairytales and Juniper Tree specifically, but the closest thing that makes this a “retelling” is the horrors of domestic abuse and that the characters feel a little flat in spite of everything they've gone through. (The author seems to think that is essentially unavoidable in fairy tale retellings, based on an AMA. https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/w2xmnh/im_ava_reid_the_author_of_the_wolf_and_the/)
Marlinchen especially has tried to focus so much on appeasing her father to not suffer even more, but she's not more sympathetic than the sisters. The characters didn't compel me, the horror details were bad and somewhat shocking, but low stakes because the characters didn't feel more real. (At one point I was thinking “why is the child sexual abuse warning so frequent on this?” and was distracted by checking Marlinchen's age when she meets Sevas, in case that was the reason - and then shortly after, I got to the reason that warning exists.)