Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

129 reviews

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. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Islamophobia, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Homophobia, Excrement, Vomit, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Incest, Cannibalism, and Abandonment

ms_rey's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

4.0

The first 20% was slow and the last 5% felt rushed (

Roos changes his mind in one paragraph, Ead/Tane are immediately fine with each other's conflicting world views, they know how to use the jewels to bind the nameless one "because it's in their blood"??

).

Questions it sounds like I'll have to RAFO if there's ever a sequel:

If Kalyba is still alive because she's first blood, how did Cleolind die? Where's Neporo?? Is she *literally* the butterfly that's with Tane at the end?? What's up with the whole Tane ending anyway?

Overall an excellent book, just not the pacing that jives with my brain. It took me four attempts to actually get over the initial hump and I only gave it that many chances because of personal friendships. I'll read the prequel sometime though!

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Alcoholism

erin1339's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, War, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Incest, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

talonsontypewriters'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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Drug use, Gun violence, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Child death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Suicide, Excrement, and Vomit

Illness, epidemic.

blubonby's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Violence, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism and Fire/Fire injury

cryinginasexual's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Miscarriage, Misogyny, and Blood

Minor: Alcoholism, Incest, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Dementia, and Grief

aisabel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child death, Confinement, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pregnancy, War, and Injury/Injury detail

ethen_rey's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful tense 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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Infertility, Miscarriage, and Blood

Minor: Incest and Lesbophobia

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. 

---

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

angelsfw's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Gore, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Blood, War, and Injury/Injury detail