Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

166 reviews

nesquik05's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, War, Grief, and Death

Moderate: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, and Sexual content

achay91's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Classism, Body horror, Pandemic/Epidemic, Injury/Injury detail, War, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Blood, Death, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Death of parent, Gore, Murder, and Pregnancy

Minor: Child death, Forced institutionalization, Sexual content, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

georgialee01's review

adventurous challenging slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pregnancy, War, and Violence

Minor: Alcoholism, Infertility, Sexual content, Gore, Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, and Death

blackthornfaery's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

incredible!! i felt so immersed in the story the whole time, and the food!! the food descriptions nearly rival red wall feasts! I just wish it didn't toggle between quite so many pov and don't quite understand why da tan didn't eat any of the orange tané brought to heal ead... surely it would've helped their efforts for sabran to wield magic with them? i was fully expecting the fruit to be the reason for her fever in the days before the battle.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Incest, Medical content, Pregnancy, Violence, Body horror, Classism, Death of parent, Infertility, Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Grief

Moderate: Sexual content, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

doodlin's review

adventurous emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Incredibly rich and dense world, with a deep history which can be a lot to take in. The book moves quite slowly at first as it immerses you into its world and characters. It can be a little overwhelming at first but it does give you enough time to get acquainted before the real action starts. Each character brings a very different perspective to the world which gives you insight into how all these different parts of world work. My only complaint is the end did feel a bit rushed which is suppose was understandable since we were already 700 pages in but I think a bit of some middle fluff could have been cut down to allow more time for the climax and end. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Sexual content, and Violence

I hope Sab and Ead eventually got their happy ending. The end of the book left them in such a bittersweet place. It was understandable because a girl bosses must girl boss (haha) but still would’ve loved to see their cute sapphic happy ending.

internationalreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I’m frustrated because I liked a lot about this book - the world building! The queer love story! The way all the seemingly separate storylines came together! - but the way the author treated religion and politics was a huge miss for me. There is no way

anyone who was raised to believe certain thousands-years-old truths, let alone a queen and nobles whose entire existence is based on those truths, would believe that their religion is all a lie immediately. Similarly, all of the political leaders coming together incredibly easily to fight the Nameless One at the end, after thousands of years of political estrangement??

We could have had a much more interesting read on those two fronts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Confinement, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and War

travis_zalesky's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

An engaging and artfully written fantasy novel that takes what it wants from the genre and leaves the rest behind. A diverse cast of characters are faced with an insurmountable evil which must be vanquished, but rather than a single hero who saves the day, Priory emphasizes that power of teamwork to overcome. 

The characters were believable, if somewhat flat and over the top. I am willing to give Priory a pass though on character development because of the epic nature of the tale. An epic fantasy of the scale of Priory calls for over the top characters, sometimes verging on caricature. The cast is lovable and Shannon does a great job of helping the reader see both sides of a conflict, but don't go looking for massive character growth or a treatise on the human condition.

Set in a matriarchal society, and infused with modern feminist theory, I found the world of Priory to be novel, inspired, and refreshing. The narrative was believable and immersive, and only occasionally did it come off as preachy or tiresome. The magic was convincing and consistent with a plausible internal logic for slowly ramping up the power throughout the story. However, there were several plot holes,and a few noticeable contrivances which would occasionally take me out of the story. One of my biggest criticism is seemingly inconsistent travel times. While there are differing modes of transportation that could partially account for these differences, at times a character might take days or even weeks to traverse a short distance on the island on Inys, while at other times they blaze across leagues of Lysia seemingly in an instant

all before a mortally wounded character can bleed out

. An appendix with a detailed timeline of events could have massively assuaged this issue but unfortunately the author only included a timeline of the historical events leading up to the start of the tale. I also found the overuse of the dramatic loss of consciousness, fade to black, trope to be distracting. On balance these flaws were minor and did not spoil my enjoyment of the book.

While a few nit-pick criticisms prevent Priory of The Orange Tree from being a 5-star read I thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end, and found myself eagerly devouring the last few hundred pages. I would not hesitate to recommend it to any fans of the genre, and I would be shocked if it does not get picked up for a major movie deal soon. Priory will certainly be long regarded as a classic of modern fantasy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Suicide

hannahpings's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

i grappled with the rating on this one a little bit, because in terms of likability and recommendation, this book is a solid four to five stars: i loved it! i was engaged the whole time! i dragged my feet finishing it because i was sad it's over! i still am!

at the same time though, for me it's cursed with having been a good book that also could have been better. overall, priory's pacing is good––it comes out swinging and still manages a good amount exposition, the action is well-timed, it's engaging every step of the way––but there are significant gaps and skips throughout, and especially so in the final third. journeys that once took immense narrative tolls and lasted close to 40 pages are reduced to quotidian, one-sentence tasks that seem to exist only because not mentioning them would render the plot unadvanceable. characters make choices that, while you can see how they might make sense given the adequate development, are complete opposites of their intentions up until that point without the text taking the time or putting in the work to achieve that development. things that are given immense weight and word counts early on are not held to the same standard later and are treated like whims, if they're acknowledged at all. (the story's climax is overly convenient too, but it was an emotionally satisfying one, even if a little more mess was to be desired.)

samantha shannon has created a worthy fantasy epic; it's a wold i don't want to leave, a necessary addition to the genre, and one both accessible (even for folks who don't like fantasy or who may be revisiting it for the first time in years) and that made me excited to have to flip to the map or appendices every few pages. all the same, it's hard not to feel that by the end of the book, shannon was ready to be done with it, and glossed over chunks of the narrative accordingly. priory is a story and scope worthy of three, 300–400-page books, and it's hard to understand why it wasn't given the adequate time to breathe and grow into itself.

ultimately though, that's not my decision, and in the end i'm still happy with what we got: something relatively well-written, intercultural and anti-hegemonic, compelling and whose characters it's impossible not to root for, and to whose world i can't wait to return.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, War, Animal death, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Miscarriage, Religious bigotry, Terminal illness, Bullying, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Violence, Gore, Incest, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Xenophobia, Blood, Classism, Death, Racism, Infertility, Medical content, and Sexual content

Moderate: Rape, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Torture, Trafficking, Suicide, and Panic attacks/disorders

incest/rape:

one character adopts and raises a baby boy as her own, acting as and ultimately becoming his mother. when he gets older, she decides she is interested in him both romantically and sexually, pursues him, and he rejects her advances, telling her he would never consent to either. she is a shapeshifter, and takes on the appearance of the woman in whom he is interested. under the impression that she is someone else, he begins a sexual relationship with her, they marry, and she has a child. she then reveals her true identity to him.

if you would like to know the characters, they are

kalyba and galian

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fanboyriot's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Read For:

Dragons

Slow Burn

Fantasy Map

Sapphic Romance

High Fantasy (but make it queer)

I definitely have some mixed feelings about this book.  I wanted to love it but it fell more flat for me than anything else.  It was just kinda meh.  It wasn’t bad but I also just didn’t fall into the hype about it either.  I was a bit bored at times, honestly.

While the worldbuilding/setting was done really well the characters overall just lacked personality.  I found myself confused as to who was who for more than half of the book, which might be more of a me thing than anything else, but even then I just didn't really care for any of them.  I am much more of a character person than a world-building person.

Then there were some chapters that just dragged out, and while in the beginning, it was fine.  It's high fantasy and that's expected to get to know the world and everything but it was no better by the last chapter.

However, I didn’t totally hate this book either.  I really liked how the Queen was the one running things.  It was super nice to read a high fantasy without it being majorly sexist or borderline creepy.  Plus it had some queer relationships as well, a sapphic relationship being the main hype of the book besides the dragons.  And lastly the dragons, I loved how they were written into the story, how they interacted with their riders, and the bond they shared.

Overall, if you're a fan of high fantasy and want to see some queer rep within the book then I recommend this to you.  However, if you’re more like me, where contemporary books have taken over your tbr, then I probably wouldn't recommend it to you.

POV: Switching, Third Person

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Rep: Queer MCs, Queer SCs, Sapphic (main), Achillean (side), Aspec MC

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Pandemic/Epidemic, Miscarriage, Death, Infertility, Child death, Confinement, Religious bigotry, Medical content, Violence, Murder, Grief, Gore, Death of parent, Torture, Sexual content, War, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Genocide, Bullying, Outing, Alcohol, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Classism, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Incest, Infidelity, Addiction, and Gaslighting

Minor: Dementia, Sexual assault, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Rape, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexism

luciferin's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Classism, Confinement, Infertility, Death, War, Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Mental illness, Torture, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Infidelity, and Incest