Canines of the Saviour

Rating: 5.5/10

The best way I could describe Juniper is the blend of what happens when sensual desires turn into their most carnal form. Though the reflection of my rating is rather average, calling this an “average” book feels a little disingenuous. I do think it is quite a unique story, following the lives of four individuals who live in a tight knit small town, all of which have their own twisted secrets they keep and the inevitable turn of fate when these secrets slowly unravel.

I’d firstly recommend this book as a light read for those who are looking for something easily digestible, as this story is rather simply written. Granted this is the author’s first published book, and i’m not usually of the belief that books need an overtly deep/fancy prose in order to be considered good, as often times it can feel overdone. But I do think the simple writing does hinder a lot of potential this book could have had, and may feel unsatisfying to those who prefer something more in depth. However I will commend the author for the way she writes the grotesque parts of this story, for those scenes have the most detail and are described in such a colorfully vivid way that i’ve never seen in this genre of book before. It happens suddenly, gripping you by the throat, shocking without leaning too much into pure shock factor. There were a few scenes that did genuinely disturb me and gross me out, so I think the author did a good job with the way she handled them.

The book focuses on four different characters all vaguely aquainted with one another besides the two siblings that live together. Normally I wouldn’t like this kind of seperateness to the storylines happening throughout the book, but I think they are interwoven in a comprehensive way especially as the book goes on and their lives start to intermingle. I do enjoy how as the story starts there is quite a lot of mystery to these characters, only as the story progresses do they become a lot more fleshed out and you see the whole picture of who these people really are. I especially enjoy the character Denver, the reverend. His character arc is the one that hit me the hardest, the gradual decline of his enigmatic nature unraveling into the grotesque depravity of his selfish delusions was the most enthralling part of this book for me. While all the characters share a common trait of having some obsession that takes hold of them, none of them compare to how deep and disturbing Denver is, in my opinion. One of my favorite aspects of this book are the chapters focusing on a dream each character is having. These glimpses into their dreams provide a lot of insight into that character’s psyche in a way that is much more interesting than simply explaining what goes on in their head, I see it as a great and unique execution of “show, don’t tell”.

My only harsh critique of this book is that the ending felt insanely rushed, so much so that the sudden nature of it was rather unsatisfying. The final page is set up as some sort of cliffhanger meant to confuse the reader, but it didn’t hold a lot of weight due to the rushed nature of the ending. From what I understand, this is book one in a trilogy. But I fail to see where else the story could continue from here based on the ending of this book. I’m unsure when the next book will come out as this one was published fairly recently, but I am still open to reading it if it does eventually come out. I don’t think the ending really ruined the book, it was just unsatisfactory and probably would have felt more resolved if there was more time spent in the build up to it. To me, the real enjoyment comes from the experience of reading through the book and uncovering all the darkness within the characters.