Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

Il priorato dell'albero delle arance by Samantha Shannon

8 reviews

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

rwalker101's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

The most common critiques of this book are that it's long, and that despite that length, it's pretty simple. These critiques have merit, and yet, I cannot bring myself to begrudge the book them.

What can I say? I'm a sucker for a good, old-fashioned chivalric romance. Give me a warrior with a great love to defend, give that warrior a magic sword and a great evil to swing it at, and I'll lap it up all day. This story has been done before by far less competent authors than Shannon. And let's be real, the length wasn't ever going to be a deal breaker to me, not when I've read each of the Stormlight Archive books multiple times.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Miscarriage, War, Misogyny, and Panic attacks/disorders

j3sslou_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? No

5.0

my first 5 star of the year!! i was so invested in this story, i loved it from start to finish!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Death, Grief, Murder, Sexism, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence

americiumam's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Miscarriage, Religious bigotry, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Cursing, Dementia, Infertility, Sexual harassment, Fire/Fire injury, War, Classism, Infidelity, Outing, Racism, Incest, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Slavery, Addiction, Murder, Pregnancy, and Sexual content

Minor: Stalking, Abandonment, Gaslighting, Incest, Genocide, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Rape, Suicide attempt, Vomit, and Racism

muriel_r's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, Violence, Confinement, Death of parent, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Xenophobia, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Child death, Infertility, and Torture

aidamaria_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon is one of the biggest books I’ve read so far. Was it worth it? Yes! Although I’m still not sure how to feel about the ending, somewhere between content and slightly frustrated? Either way, the worldbuilding is awesome, the women are fierce and the magic system is really interesting. And of course: dragons. 🐉

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However, if you’re a huge romance fan, you should be aware that’s not the main focus of this book. Despite multiple fascinating characters of different backgrounds and ethnicities, the story is mainly plot driven. If I had to pick one, I’d volunteer to be Loth’s companion. That man is too pure for his world and the loyalty to his loved ones blew me away. Anyway, I’d recommend this book to anyone who loves to read books like Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones with a feminist twist.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Torture, Violence, War, and Lesbophobia

broro's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, and War

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, and Sexual assault

pawanithereader's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

How do you review a 830 page book that took your breath away? That's right, you don't. You just sing songs in it's praise.

Priory of the Orange Tree is one of the best multi-plot books I've read and I absolutely loved how every plot was connected and how beautifully it all came together in the end.
The entire politics and just the manner of how a queendom works is very well captured. 

This book such incredibly written complex characters. I loved the strong female characters. How the characters react to different situations or how well do they manage their responsibilities is very realistic. I went from hating Sabran Berethnet to loving her and I there is no other character that I love and hate at the same time as I love and hate Niclays Roos. 

This book contains a mixture of different myths and folklore and in my opinion, it does justice to them. The world building was incredible. I can say it was almost flawless. The differences between the East, West, South and North, magic working with nature, if was all so beautiful.

I also loved the diversity in the book but the best thing was the wlw and the mlm relationships. They were absolutely beautiful.

But Priory is not a book for the faint hearted. A lot of things that you don't want to happen will happen, characters you love will die and you will be introduced to a lot of gruesome subjects.

The book is definitely worth a read. Even though is a giant, you will not feel overwhelmed nor will you be bored while reading it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Miscarriage, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Death, Blood, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Infertility, and Panic attacks/disorders