Reviews tagging 'Classism'

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

60 reviews

seastheday's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-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? No

3.5

This book is NOT for the feint of heart. You must be willing to wade through almost 200 pages of world-building since there are 4 main characters. There are 2 maps, a glossary of terms & a glossary of people from the east/west/south. This may be a popular BookTok book, but make no mistake- it is HIGH fantasy with romance dappled in here and there. And since this is a standalone as well, most of the things you learn only will apply to ONE book. A tome of a book, yes, but still just one. Also, I have beef with everyone who was like “it has dragons!!” The dragons are barely in it until almost page 740. There is a lot of politicking, speaking of, and debating dragons. But for the actual dragons I expected… barely anything. The idea of them spurred different plot lines on here and there. But was the dragon present and being bad ass? NO. I was really disappointed on that front. You mostly spend your time with a mopey queen, a jerk of a fake grandfather, a mage clouded by love to actually do what she should & a ghost of a dragon rider who doesn’t have a dragon most of the time. 
I think it was a cool concept. I definitely enjoyed that it was normalized in the society for queens to rule, the line of succession was only based on eldest & not gender, race wasn’t an issue it was merely regional (it wouldn’t be so regional if the plague didn’t exist), & there were sapphic storylines.
All in all, I liked this book. It was interesting. Near the 650pg mark,  I did wish it was over. I didn’t find myself WANTING to pick it up. I wanted to READ and that’s a huge difference for me. I didn’t give up  because I felt like it had to be worth it in the end. I don’t think it was. The entire book mounted to this huge end battle and it wasn’t amazing or unbelievable. It was predictable and nothing shocking occurred.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Grief, Animal cruelty, Miscarriage, Trafficking, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

Minor: Death of parent and Incest

electrachet's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.75

I loved this story and would definitely recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in high fantasy. The length may seem daunting at first, but I read the first half of the book in less than a day and I'm usually a slower reader. There's so much world building to really keep you engaged! However, there were a few details that keep me from giving the book 5 stars. I wish we had a tiny bit more in the way of an epilogue. Niclays Roos was also an unnecessary character in some ways and The Nameless One had very little overall participation in the book. I felt the overall "villain" (or villains) driving the plot were underdeveloped. I also wish we got to experience more of Tané's story. I felt her POV was abandoned in the middle in favor of Ead, Sabran, & Loth's stories but she was still a compelling character I wanted to get to know better. I ultimately think the confinement of the story to a single book does weaken the overall narrative. This would have been better as a duology or even a trilogy, but maybe I just wanted to spend more time with the characters in the beautifully rich world that they live in. :')

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Miscarriage, Grief, War, Infertility, Sexual content, Classism, Pregnancy, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Death of parent

nineinchnails's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

4.75

i will definitely be rereading this at some point! partly because there was a lot of stuff i didn't fully understand but mostly because i enjoyed it so much. i don't think i've ever read such a rich, sprawling epic fantasy contained within one novel. the characters were complex and interesting but i wish we got a little more focus on tané and loth. they both felt less fleshed out to me than ead and roos. the only other thing that kinda bugged me was how rushed the ending felt in comparison to the rest of the book. i expected the final battle to be drawn out longer than it was so it felt almost anticlimactic but it was still tied up pretty neatly. my main priorities in fantasy are character development and worldbuilding and those elements were near perfect!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: War, Pregnancy, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Homophobia, Alcoholism, Religious bigotry, Classism, and Grief

Minor: Abandonment, Incest, and Death of parent

Pseudo incest

a_novel_craving's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Miscarriage, Death, War, Addiction, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Grief, Infertility, Gore, Pregnancy, Blood, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, and Murder

awkwardimagination's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring 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

3.5

There is too much in this book to giva comprehensive review. i have been reading all day to finish it, it is marked up like a text book, and i am hungry. The density of it may be a slight fault, but its one im willing to overlook, bc for the life of me i cannot see this book being multiple.

I will say i have 3 favourite characters (Meg, Nayimathun, and Aralaq) and only one of those is a human. I truly didnt care for one of the main storytellers, but it did provide some good information. The first hundred or so pages of this book is mostly exposition and world building , which isnt a horrible thing but it can be a lot to get through.

I dont know how much a look forward to the daunting task of reading the sequel but i will do it, hopefully in less time than it took me to read this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Miscarriage, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: War, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Confinement, Grief, Medical content, Sexual content, and Torture

Minor: Death of parent and Classism

kappafrog's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.25

What a great fantasy book! It had been a long time since I sunk my teeth into an epic fantasy book, and this was definitely worth it. I almost gave up on it early on because the formal-fantasy language was a bit irritating, and the opening chapters give you an onslaught of unfamiliar character and placenames. However, once I got into the story, it read really well.

There is a wide variety of characters here of different shades of moral greyness. At first I really didn't like Sabran, but she grew on me over time; and as the book went on, I felt more mixed about Ead. Tané grew on me some as the story went on too. All of the characters in the book, including the many queer and female characters, were complex and multi-layered. Loth, Margret and Chassar were the most consistently likable, while Roos was the hardest to like but still sympathetic at times. Even the disgusting Kalyba was not a one-dimensional villain. The Priory was not what I expected, and I loved the evocation of different landscapes and cultures with clear inspirations from our world. The book's length felt merited since there were a lot of different political, magical, and character aspects to explore. I felt like my investment in the story and its characters really paid off. Shannon is not afraid to kill her characters, so there were real stakes at every point in the book. The finale was epic and also gave us enough time to spend with each character in the aftermath of the climax.

All in all, this was a great re-introduction to epic fantasy for me. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys high fantasy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Infidelity, Violence, War, Death, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Infertility, Deportation, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Miscarriage, and Murder

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Incest, Medical content, Classism, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, and Animal death

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Child death

lonelylooper's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful 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: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Violence, Cursing, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Body horror, Gore, Grief, Infertility, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Dementia, Classism, Child death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Xenophobia, and Murder

Minor: Suicide, Incest, Death of parent, and Infidelity

tousledtreasure's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional fast-paced

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

4.5

I hoped I could rate it higher, but even though the story gets executed so very well in the first 650 pages and aside from the amazing premise and interesting characters, the later 150 move way to fast along. The first parts get drawn out so long, that you expect the story to have a similar well build finish, but in this case there was more focus laid on the world building than the resolution.

I believed it to be way too convenient, that the Emperor of the empire of the twelve lakes just was in the mood for change to set himself above a ban for outsiders, that was executed for years to the point where those who wash ashore get executed due to their foreign origin. Or that Tané who all throughout the book was wary of change and those of the West, who despised her gods, flew to the West just like that. Some plot points would've needed more time to get resolved. I'm surprised to say it, but I wish the book was longer.

But on the positive, I really enjoyed the Authors worldbuilding and will read her other books in this series. I'm very impressed with her ability to control such a large cast and portray the characters without watering them down. 
Overall this story is great but not perfect.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Miscarriage, and War

Moderate: Religious bigotry

Minor: Incest, Grief, Alcoholism, and Classism

lmfry's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Violence, Grief, Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Infertility, Alcohol, Classism, Confinement, Death, Dementia, War, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Medical content, Gaslighting, and Animal death

Minor: Suicide and Vomit

kelisabeth's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Abandonment, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Deportation, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, Racism, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Violence, War, Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, Infertility, Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, Animal death, Blood, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder