Tonight we’re chatting with Ava Reid, author of JUNIPER & THORN (on sale June 21 from Harper Voyager), a gothic horror retelling of the Grimm Brothers fairytale “The Juniper Tree” and follows a young witch as she seeks to escape her abusive wizard father in Oblya, a city based on Victorian-era Odessa, Ukraine.

Reid expertly weaves themes of femininity, desire, oppression, and progress into the dark fantasy of JUNIPER & THORN. Marlinchen and her sisters are the last true witches in the terrifying city of Oblya, where magic has given way to industry. Though their tyrannical, xenophobic father keeps them sequestered from the outside world, they sneak out at night to explore the city, where Marlinchen meets a dancer who captures her heart. As Marlinchen’s feelings deepen for Sevas, the threat of her father’s rage and magic grows; at the same time, a monster begins leaving dead bodies in its wake. Marlinchen must draw upon her magic to keep her city safe and find her place within it.

It’s a haunting horror fantasy tale with a layered, complex heroine – amid gruesome twists and turns, Reid crafts Marlinchen’s story with compassion, exploring her trauma and building her tender romance with Sevas. And just as she did in her debut, Reid examines nationalism through the lens of magic and fantasy, combining her Ukrainian heritage and academic background to craft the city of Oblya, based on the port city of Odessa in Ukraine, and explore what it means for a city to develop and progress.

JUNIPER & THORN has already been described as “darkly enchanting” in a starred Publishers Weekly review. A full list of content warnings is available here. I can’t wait for you to dive in and hope you’ll consider covering in June.

Ava Reid was born in Manhattan and raised right across the Hudson River in Hoboken, but currently lives in Palo Alto. She has a degree in political science from Barnard College, focusing on religion and ethnonationalism.