Reviews tagging 'Rape'

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

19 reviews

_ao_'s review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.75

My criteria for a 5 star book means it moves me to tears, so I can't give 5 stars to Priory of the Orange Tree. But it's sweeping and lore-rich, with a ton of bad-ass women leading and supporting the story. Give yourself some time to read this baby, and you'll find something to love about it. 

Also, I would have liked a tiny bit more in the way of an epilogue.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Miscarriage, and Xenophobia

Minor: Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Infertility, Infidelity, Rape, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

lqne's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Miscarriage and Pregnancy

Moderate: Infertility, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Dementia, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Incest, Mental illness, and Rape

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

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

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

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

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

talonsontypewriters's review

adventurous emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Drug use, Gun violence, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Child death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Suicide, Excrement, and Vomit

Illness, epidemic.

adrianacheerios's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage

Minor: Rape

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

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

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

schnaucl's review against another edition

• 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

4.0

I enjoyed it.

I thought the cultures were both interesting, although not necessarily well balanced. 

I'm not sure what the West got right, aside from the fact that Ascalon was the sword that could wound the Nameless One.  But they were wrong about the part of all the participants, their entire religion was based mostly on a lie, and they were wrong about the dragons of the East.

  But the world is clearly well thought out.

I also liked the characters, particularly Ead, Tane and Loth.  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Incest, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, and Vomit

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

adventurous emotional

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Gore, Infertility, Miscarriage, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Dementia, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

carmine_b's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore and War

Minor: Rape, Suicide, and Toxic relationship