Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

639 reviews

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

rlfrick's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Incest, Pregnancy, and Grief

alphabet_soup_books's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Miscarriage and Death

Minor: Infertility

pand_books's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Death, Murder, Miscarriage, and Blood

Moderate: Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Religious bigotry, Medical content, Colonisation, and Grief

Minor: Incest and Pandemic/Epidemic

bionerdatgc's review against another edition

slow-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? No

2.5

Content warnings first: the sapphic romance was touching in its buildup, culminating in a sex scene that was beautifully poetic and not graphic. However, sex and nudity scenes after that were very physically descriptive. The book had several f-bombs and a completely unnecessary c-word that jarred me out of the story. Miscarriage due to a violent (draconic) attack was graphic, as was the grief after the fact. And just in case you weren't convinced of a particular villain's villainy, it is revealed that they seduced their own adoptive child. Yuck.

On pacing: it was very slow to start, which is OK when weaving lots of storylines together. However, the story's first POV character actually gets the least amount of "screen" time - which in my opinion is a tragedy, because she and the Eastern dragons are the most interesting part of the story yet seem more like afterthoughts. Everything builds so slowly that when any action happens, it's over too fast and feels unfulfilling. The climax is awesome at least. I felt like it was paced just right, but there wasn't enough of it compared to the buildup.

I think this was a very well-conceived story, and it was woven together well in the amount of space it had. It lives up to the scale of epic fantasies. That said, I think it fell flat of its potential. Seriously, DRAGONS! Why have hundreds of pages of court intrigue on one side of the world when there are DRAGON RIDERS on the other side? And a convent of DRAGON SLAYERS down in the south? Flashbacks from Ead's childhood in the Priory would have added action to slower stretches and provided a much richer backdrop. And I really wish Tané had been given more time with her dragon. I would have loved to see them patrolling together instead of just talking, for instance. I would have loved to see the Sea Guard in action. So many things that could have been developed were overlooked in favor of court intrigue.

As a writer, I'm glad I read this book because I've learned a lot about my own preferences and style from it. However, I did not enjoy it enough to read it again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Miscarriage, Infidelity, Sexual content, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Medical content, Murder, Infertility, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Pregnancy

Minor: Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Death, Confinement, Outing, Dementia, Death of parent, Blood, and Gore

unfoundation's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

3.75

This book started off so well. Shannon’s world building is excellent and there is great excitement and some really cool scenes as the plot begins to unfold. You do have a love/hate relationship with some characters which I like (Sabran, Roos). Ead’s storyline is probably the most interesting and entertaining. I even found myself mildly charmed by Loth despite how annoying he is at times. Tane is the only storyline that 100% fell flat to me the entire time. The book as a whole falls apart towards the end. Some of the “character development” and changes of heart come out of nowhere and seem more convenient for the plot rather than natural. Many events building towards the climax feel very convenient too and unrealistic given the beginning. It starts jumping around a lot more seemingly just to slot things into place for the big showdown. You lose the sense of tension from earlier in the story because you start to realise there is no chance of the heroes losing. In the end the reveal and battle with the big bad is disappointing and really brief. I would still recommend this book as the world building is an excellent example for fantasy and it has some interesting and original takes. A good introduction to fantasy, but there are stories that deliver the pay off better.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infertility and Miscarriage

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, War, Violence, Death, and Blood

meesha_mo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

So many villains. So many heroes. So many pages.

I mostly enjoyed this book. The character arcs and the things that prompted their growth was interesting. Except Tame. She just always felt flat/the same to me and I couldn't tell you exactly why. I know she's a very important character but every character of the West felt more important than her. It's like the story was only originally meant to be about Ead/the West and the author added Tane as an afterthought. 

There were some world building things I didn't understand, like the Abyss, but I probably missed some details in all the pages or it was just meant to be mysterious.

Also, Niclays' abrupt about face

- not sure how believable it is in the context of the whole story, but it was a necessary plot device I guess.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Miscarriage, and Blood

Minor: Death of parent

helenaramsay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging inspiring mysterious slow-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

Moderate: Miscarriage

shellbow's review against another edition

adventurous emotional slow-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, War, Infertility, Sexual content, and Pregnancy

betweentheshelves's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

4.0

This is a beast of a book, but I thoroughly enjoyed it! Lately I've been preferring to listen to longer fantasy books on audio, partly because it means I read them faster and partly because I feel more immersed in the world that way. Especially for adult fantasy.

The world building in this was so well done! There are so many details, but it doesn't feel like too much at once. I think this is helped by the fact that there is such a great core cast of characters that balances out the world building. And dragons. Because who doesn't like a book that has dragons in it??

All in all, I'm glad I finally picked this one up, and will have to pick up the prequel when I catch up with my other library audiobook holds.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Infertility, and Pregnancy