Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

75 reviews

marleywrites's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional 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

I had 320 highlights for this book, and I didn’t even highlight everything I wanted to. I’ll have to do a reread to highlight them anyway. 

I rated this book 4.5 stars out of 5. I was very invested in this story, starting around the 20% mark. The first 20% took me awhile to get into, but then we were flying. So if you’re trying this book for the first time, give it some time to get started. 

Overall, I loved the characters and the complex world building. I’m almost sad this is technically a stand-alone because the book could so easily keep going. However, I was very satisfied with the ending we got. 

This book was funny, as well, which surprised me. I didn’t expect to find humor in these pages but I did! 

Another aspect of the writing I really enjoyed was the descriptions. Shannon has some serious skill when it comes to descriptions! I was blown away by the intricacies of this world and the magic system, as well as the rich history in this story.  

I appreciated how many queer relationships there were in this story, and I’m glad that it was a relatively normal thing in this world. 

Now for the spoilered section:

I’m head canon-ing Loth as asexual. I love him and will not hear otherwise. 

I also am thrilled with Sabran and Ead’s relationship. Like thank you Ms Shannon, that was perfect!! 

I love Ead’s powerful friendships in this story, they saved her as much as she saved them. 

I wasn’t sold on Roos until like, 90% into the story. But now I am happy for him. His love with Jannart is one of my favorite parts of this book. 

The witch of the woods character, Kalyba, damn! I did not see her coming! She could have had another several chapters, she could have her own book. Oh, I wonder if that’s in A Day of Fallen Night 😂 I haven’t read that one yet. 

The dragons were so cool. I wish we could have had even more dragons. I loved Tané’s fierce love for her dragon and all of the. dragons and would have loved some fluffy dragon ride scenes. 

Connecting with the East at the end for the battle against the Nameless One was great, but confusing. Their emperor agreed so quickly and without the marriage proposal. It felt unbelievable after how much build up we had telling us that the East is completely closed off to everyone else.

This was a great book, which I read as a buddy read with my friend. It took me a month to finish it when usually I finish books in just a few days. I was surprised it took me so long but I felt like I wasn’t making progress so I think that discouraged me overall to keep pushing, even though I loved the story overall. 

Amazing book, would probably read again to see what I missed the first time! 🐉

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Child death

noshinbean's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring 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

I am so mad at myself for waiting so long to read this book! The pacing of this book was perfect, and I devoured every single page. The characters were all portrayed so vividly and I found myself growing more and more attached to characters like Sabran, Ead, Tané, Margret, and Loth. There were so many strong and complex women in this story, and I constantly kept thinking, "That was so badass," every few chapters.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Violence, Xenophobia, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

supergirled's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry and War

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, and Grief

Minor: Mental illness and Sexual content

n0elle's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, and War

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

amobrien'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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, and War

Minor: Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Suicide, and Pregnancy

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

themoonshoes's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-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? Yes

3.75

the cons: i felt like the overall pacing was a bit weird. the slow plot points dragged on for multiple chapters, and climactic sequence happened within like 10 pages (it felt like.) ALSO every time there was a.... like a plot twist? i was like oh that must be the big plot twist! and then it wasn't, there was another one in the next act. which would have been fine, i think, if the story was split into maybe three books. i also think that for a story where the characters all had very strong convictions, that only a few of them were really challenged in their beliefs. a few characters (like POV characters) felt under-utilized and underdeveloped too. i would have liked to see more dragons 🧍‍♂️

the pros: okay the worldbuilding in this book was insane i loved every time a country or kingdom or location was described. this book gave me the redwall effect where i got sooo hungry every time food was described. ead and loth are my BELOVEDS and there were conversations between tané and nayimathun that made me emo. all of this is to say that it was easy to be invested in the characters and get attached to their struggles n stuff. i also thought the ending was good, for what the story was.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Infertility, and Blood

Moderate: Mental illness, Miscarriage, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, and War

Minor: Incest and Grief

misterwisp's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful relaxing medium-paced

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

4.0

 Yes. It's long and epic in scope, but it all happens in one book so you won't have to feel obliged to commit to a series or wait for the next one to be written. It looks like a prequel is coming out, but this one is complete unto itself. It's long but keeps up the pace and there were no particularly slow or dry sections. 
For me strengths include how the plot twists unexpectedly at times and doesn't feel like it follows a standard formula. Characters having to see past their religion to meet the needs of the moment was also done in a compelling way. There are familiar aspects to the world building but it's still done thoroughly and well and helps the escapism aspect of it all. It feel like a world. 
Characters change and end at a different place then they started. The ending is satisfying. There are cool dragons. It's good! If you like fantasy you'll find something to enjoy. 
There is a bit of a romance subplot that felt genuine. If that's not of interest know that it doesn't take over the story or become the main focus at any point. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Death, Violence, and Grief

Minor: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Abandonment, and War

the sexual content part is fairly graphic, but just a little over a page in length.

the animal cruelty is that a dragon has a tooth, some scales and blood forcibly removed against it's will while it's chained up. It's mentioned as being about to occur but happens "off page" and is not specifically described