Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

52 reviews

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

sinaprst's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? No

5.0

why haven`t i read this sooner?

that was the very first thing that came to my mind after i finished this yesterday. this had been on my bookshelf for the last 2 years or so, because the 800+ pages intimaded me so much, but they were so worth it, this was hands down one of the best (fantasy) books i have ever read, i adored every second of it:

i mean it has dragons, sapphics, magic, pirates, female warriors, i could literally not ask for more

the world building was amazing and felt incredibly real to me and the characters were so flawed but adorable at the same time, the romance was an immaculate slow burn, the villains felt complex and well-rounded to me, the plottwists had me literally gasping and the ending was one of the most satisfying endings i have ever read (and i am usually very picky when it comes to that).

but what stood out the most to me in retrospect was how refreshing it was to read a fantasy novel that has great (queer, POC and female) represenation and that could do without racism, homophobia or violence towards women. not only are there two queer characters and three POC characters among the main four, but the book depicted and mentioned several queer relationships and POC characters in the background aswell. additionally, everything was represented in a very casual way that did not feel out of place or forced like any of it was a big deal. 

overall, i would (and will) recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good fantasy read, especially if you`re looking for one that does not center a white men and does not feature hate towards any minorities

definetly a 5/5 stars for me

Edit: someone recently pointed out to me that one of the storylines is literally Arthur and Merlin from the BBC series and I cannot unsee that now, it's just so true

recommended reading ambience: https://youtu.be/6nRFaOFcbpk?si=1x-Hn4IvbV5NKwSX

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infertility, Violence, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Miscarriage, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide and Alcohol

thoseoldcrows23's review against another edition

adventurous 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? No

1.0

 I wanted to like this book so bad, but it just didn't work for me. I probably should have DNF it a long time ago, but I kept convincing myself to push forward in the hopes that it would get better and it just never did. 

Let me begin by saying I understand why so many people love this book. Shannon's writing is very readable, and I think that the trappings of old school fantasy are potent enough and the execution competent enough, that for many people it's going to be incredibly engaging. However, I found the process of reading this book to be painfully tedious. For a 800 page book I feel like very little actually happens. The plot is pretty generic and so much of what happens is just people traveling from place to place or people sitting around and talking. This probably wouldn't have bothered me if I had liked the characters more, but I found most of the main characters to be rather boring and shallow, and none of the side characters even felt like people. They were just cardboard cutouts who the author would trot out when the plot necessitated having another person present, and then they would completely disappear from the story when they're present wasn't directly needed. 

As for the world building, I think that's probably the most interesting part of the book. The problem though is that the same bits of lore are repeated over and over and over again, and we’re constantly reminded of bits of world building that we've already been told. It became very tiresome very fast, and my interest faded quickly. 

Despite all these problems I pushed through the book, hoping that I would eventually come to see what everyone else seems to see and fall in love with it, but alas it never happened. I found the ending of the book to be completely unsatisfying and the solution to the issue of the big bad to be very predictable and unoriginal. 

I'm so bummed that I didn't like this more than I did, but it just wasn't for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Miscarriage, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Infertility, Sexual content, Suicide, and Grief

Minor: Vomit

wackly93's review against another edition

adventurous challenging medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicide

nat20charisma'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: Death, Miscarriage, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Suicide and War

Minor: Addiction and Fire/Fire injury

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

zannayo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

Not many of the main characters are immediately likeable but somehow without even realising it you'll find they've really grown on you by the end of the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Dementia, and Deportation

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

smithreads's review against another edition

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

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

Minor: Gun violence, Infidelity, and Torture

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