Reviews tagging 'Lesbophobia'

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

21 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

princessrory's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful 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

5.0

“I would live alone for fifty years to have one day with you.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Infertility, Medical content, Miscarriage, Murder, Violence, War, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual content, Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Incest, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, and Suicide

Minor: Dementia, Vomit, and Torture

snackattackisback69's review against another edition

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

The rich world building and character development of this story were phenomenal. The multiple POVs and the shorter chapters made the story flow and made the length of the book much more digestible. The sapphic romance in this book was also incredible. My one issue is the finale of book felt a little anticlimactic due to how short it was in comparison to the large build up throughout the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Sexism, Pregnancy, Violence, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Lesbophobia, and Racism

takarakei's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.5

• EPIC fantasy
• sapphic slow burn
• dragons
• fate/destiny
• battle against 'evil'

I honestly highly recommend reading A Day of Fallen Night first if you haven't. I believe SS recommends that you try and it does make ADOFN a bit of an uphill struggle with all the world building, but it pays off when you get to TPOTOT and you're just breezing on through (well... it's easier at least)!

My biggest critique of this book is the Niclays POV - I just did not care enough about him as a character and I felt his was the weakest POV and that side of the story could have been told differently. Also slight pacing issues as the end feels a bit rushed and doesn't match the pace of the rest of the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Miscarriage, and Death

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Animal death, Infertility, Confinement, and Murder

Minor: Gun violence, Alcoholism, War, Infidelity, Pandemic/Epidemic, Lesbophobia, and Mental illness

questionable_reader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Infertility, Gaslighting, Confinement, Body horror, Pregnancy, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death, War, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, and Violence

Moderate: Gaslighting, Pandemic/Epidemic, Outing, and Infidelity

Minor: Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, Trafficking, and Torture

marjoleinvanderspoel's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

Aaaahhhh screaming, crying, etc.

Just such perfect fantasy, great worldbuilding and fantastic pacing throughout. The development of the mystery felt really natural and the twists were unexpected but never random. All the characters felt very real and acted according to their own motivations. Only wish the ending would have been more grand and epic to befit the build-up, it did end up feeling a little rushed, or too neat somehow. Still, what a ride.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Violence, and War

Moderate: Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Incest

charlee92's review against another edition

adventurous medium-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? No

2.5

 whew. I did it. I'm not a stranger to long books but this one is not very digestible. I understand a lot of world building needs to be done, but with 4 different plots happening alongside each other having this being broken into 2 books would have been better.

So much time was wasted on the building and fluff parts that it felt almost all of the big parts were to short, too quick. the climax just immediately tanks, if it even really builds all the way to the climax.

I saw another reviewer say inelegant and I feel that is perfect to describe this.

the dragons were cool, I like the characters. it just felt like a slog because of the length vs plot struggle.  I thought about giving it a 3 but then I was like I am not sure I would really recommend this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Misogyny, War, Child death, Gore, Miscarriage, Infertility, Lesbophobia, and Murder

doodeedoda's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Blood and Grief

Minor: Alcohol, Animal death, Cursing, Death of parent, Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Incest, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

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

fizzymilk22's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

Book is so good it got me back into reading books again immediately despite being a super dense 800 page long fantasy novel. I love how it takes a seemingly generic fantasy setup and uses it to examine human flaws and societal issues in such an interesting and natural way OH GOD it's so amazing. This has to be one of the best casts of characters I've ever seen in this kind of story, they're all so individually compelling but they compliment each other when together as well. Please read this I'm begging you

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infertility, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Blood, Incest, Lesbophobia, Abortion, Animal cruelty, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, Suicide, Animal death, Chronic illness, Classism, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Torture, Violence, War, and Xenophobia