Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

26 reviews

cameronreads's review

5.0

I don’t know how this book managed to surpass my expectations but it did by leaps and bounds. A perfect world, magic system, writing style, structure, and cast of characters. I was convinced I’d be saying it was too long, but if anything it could have been longer - I would spend forever in this incredible world with these life like characters. Loved this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Murder, Violence, War, Xenophobia, Blood, Cursing, Death, Gore, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Dementia, Kidnapping, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Animal death, Vomit, Addiction, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Incest, Infidelity, Sexual content, and Torture

verinvaldez's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

2.0

Terrible pacing, I found all of the characters flat and impossible to connect with or care about. I kept reading out of curiosity about how Ead's plot would end and was disappointed in the climax. The action sequences were not gripping at all and every problem Ead/Sabran has is solved very easily. 

The only saving grace of this book is the presence of queer relationships and seeing women in power in a high fantasy book. The amount of times a character is saved by a random large creature turning up is very odd and the most egregious plot point is 

Spoiler

Tane having the gem two other POV characters are looking for stitched into her leg.

I really couldn't take the book seriously after that reveal.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy

Moderate: Sexual content, Death, Miscarriage, and Infertility

Minor: Addiction, Classism, and Blood

theirgracegrace's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.75

The size may look daunting at first, but the depth and wealth of this book is beyond that of many series, much less individual books. Priory is an epic fantasy that stretches across a world divided by their love or and hatred for dragons. In the West, a handmaiden to a queen protects her from a plot while nursing hidden secrets of her own, and a young man is sent on a dangerous mission to an enemy land. In the East, a young woman trains to be the next dragon rider of her people and an old alchemist in exile seeks eternal life in a foreign land. The story travels the length and breadth of the world, culminating in an epic battle to determine the fate of the world. My only gripe with this amazing book was that certain plotlines were solved a bit too quickly and handily in order to get to those end chapters, and everyone seems to be able to speak each other's language with very little explanation. Absolutely cinematic-quality descriptions, heart-wrenching moments, surprise reversals and twists of fate make this a book for every fantasy lover out there. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child death, Cursing, Death of parent, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Hate crime, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, War, Xenophobia, Classism, and Confinement

Moderate: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Vomit, and Excrement

Minor: Cannibalism, Incest, and Abandonment

singalana's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring lighthearted medium-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

2.5

I feel cheated after reading this book: a long book with a very little payoff to the reader. This is a fantasy story of opposites: east and west, good dragons and bad dragons. It’s also a story about tradition, prophecies and expectations - and the way these things affect the POV characters’ lives.

We follow four POV characters: Ead, Tané, Loth and Niclays, but not in equal measure. At first the chapters are divided evenly between East and West (since 2 of the POV characters are from East and 2 from West), later in the book that structure is abandoned. The main POV characters (Tané and Ead) seem to be better at things than the people surrounding them: a student that is top of her class and a magician secretly protecting the queen. And I can’t stress this enough how I did not care about the other two POV characters. Something was missing and I could not connect with the characters, and especially towards the end they seemed to lose the little personality they had managed to gather in the beginning of the book.

The story is classic fantasy material: an ancient evil rises and the protagonists must work together to stop it. The other thing about this book that is too familiar is that just when things are starting to look up for the character, then disaster strikes. It’s a bit predictable and annoying. Considering the story, I found the choice of POV characters and the events this book focuses on a bit strange. There were many interesting elements I would have liked to know more about, but they were barely even discussed (like what was going on in Yscalin). Then there are things that seem like they are going to play a part in the book but are abandoned (like the rivalry between Tané and Turosa). There are same-sex romances in this book, but they too are strangely executed.

Spoiler

Why the hell is this book called The Priory of the Orange Tree, when barely nothing takes place in the Priory?

My main gripe about this book was the pacing. Sometimes scenes that feel important to the plot are written like: blink and you'll miss it, and then there are pages after pages of something trivial. It got a lot worse towards the end: 500 pages of barely nothing happening, and then everything happens all at once. 

The villains in this book could have been interesting, but we barely see some of them (the king of Yscalin for example), the others (e.g. Kalyba) are too busy doing monologues, and the Biggest and Baddest Villain of them all and the reason why all of this is happening is defeated just like that. We barely even get a description of it!

The ending was so confusing and over so quickly that I think that the author must have realised that she had written 500 pages already and hadn’t resolved anything. And in the end, everything got resolved so easily, the POV characters instinctively knew what to do, the evil was defeated and everyone lived happily ever after. What a disappointment.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Infidelity, Mental illness, War, Alcohol, Animal death, Child death, Death of parent, Death, Infertility, Violence, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Deportation, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Blood, and Kidnapping

theemeraldflame's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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

2.25

Did not live up to expectations. Not a bad story by any stretch, but I didn’t find it an enjoyable one either. From a longtime lover of epic fantasy, this one was… fine. A decent mix of Arthurian legend and Eastern Asian myth, but fairly predictable all the way through. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage and Xenophobia

Moderate: Gore, Vomit, Suicide, and Infertility

Minor: Blood and Addiction

ebar1's review against another edition

adventurous 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Miscarriage, and Death

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Addiction

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

axecellentabby's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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

4.75

To copy what I heard on Tik tok, “it’s like game of thrones, but more lesbians” (and much better writing IMO). 

Overall, I enjoyed the Priory of the Orange Tree. The world building was new and interesting, and I loved the diverse cast of LGBTQ+ characters. 

My only complaint is that the initial introduction to each POV took a little too long and almost made me quit. Once the plot kicked off, I was hooked. My other complaint is that there was 700 pages of world building and setup for less that 50 pages of actual climax. It felt a little anticlimactic after such a long journey only to have one chapter for the battle and a very fast conclusion. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death of parent, Miscarriage, Death, Grief, and Blood

Moderate: War and Suicide

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Addiction

smithreads's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Blood, War, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, Sexual content, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Medical content, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Homophobia, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Gun violence, Torture, and Infidelity

caroluvr's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Death of parent, Classism, Kidnapping, Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, War, Infertility, Body horror, Bullying, Genocide, Misogyny, Murder, Suicide, Blood, Death, Gore, Pregnancy, Torture, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Violence, Animal death, Excrement, Grief, and Incest

Moderate: Trafficking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Infidelity, Addiction, Alcohol, and Alcoholism