Steve Glencross of The List gave the album 4 stars out of 5 and described it as "a hard-hitting and personal work."[2] Roque Strew of Pitchfork gave the album a 7.5 out of 10, saying, "Thorns proves that Beans can smoothly career between maximalism and minimalism when he's in his element, building on the sci-fi slam poetry heritage he created with High Priest, M. Sayyid, and Earl Blaize."[3]