Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

10 reviews

mscalls's review

adventurous challenging dark inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Murder, Violence, Infidelity, Gore, Vomit, Misogyny, Alcoholism, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Child death, Torture, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Pandemic/Epidemic, Toxic relationship, and War

internationalreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny mysterious reflective 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

3.5

I’m frustrated because I liked a lot about this book - the world building! The queer love story! The way all the seemingly separate storylines came together! - but the way the author treated religion and politics was a huge miss for me. There is no way

anyone who was raised to believe certain thousands-years-old truths, let alone a queen and nobles whose entire existence is based on those truths, would believe that their religion is all a lie immediately. Similarly, all of the political leaders coming together incredibly easily to fight the Nameless One at the end, after thousands of years of political estrangement??

We could have had a much more interesting read on those two fronts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Confinement, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and War

hannahpings's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring fast-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

3.75

i grappled with the rating on this one a little bit, because in terms of likability and recommendation, this book is a solid four to five stars: i loved it! i was engaged the whole time! i dragged my feet finishing it because i was sad it's over! i still am!

at the same time though, for me it's cursed with having been a good book that also could have been better. overall, priory's pacing is good––it comes out swinging and still manages a good amount exposition, the action is well-timed, it's engaging every step of the way––but there are significant gaps and skips throughout, and especially so in the final third. journeys that once took immense narrative tolls and lasted close to 40 pages are reduced to quotidian, one-sentence tasks that seem to exist only because not mentioning them would render the plot unadvanceable. characters make choices that, while you can see how they might make sense given the adequate development, are complete opposites of their intentions up until that point without the text taking the time or putting in the work to achieve that development. things that are given immense weight and word counts early on are not held to the same standard later and are treated like whims, if they're acknowledged at all. (the story's climax is overly convenient too, but it was an emotionally satisfying one, even if a little more mess was to be desired.)

samantha shannon has created a worthy fantasy epic; it's a wold i don't want to leave, a necessary addition to the genre, and one both accessible (even for folks who don't like fantasy or who may be revisiting it for the first time in years) and that made me excited to have to flip to the map or appendices every few pages. all the same, it's hard not to feel that by the end of the book, shannon was ready to be done with it, and glossed over chunks of the narrative accordingly. priory is a story and scope worthy of three, 300–400-page books, and it's hard to understand why it wasn't given the adequate time to breathe and grow into itself.

ultimately though, that's not my decision, and in the end i'm still happy with what we got: something relatively well-written, intercultural and anti-hegemonic, compelling and whose characters it's impossible not to root for, and to whose world i can't wait to return.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, War, Animal death, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Miscarriage, Religious bigotry, Terminal illness, Bullying, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Violence, Gore, Incest, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Xenophobia, Blood, Classism, Death, Racism, Infertility, Medical content, and Sexual content

Moderate: Rape, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Torture, Trafficking, Suicide, and Panic attacks/disorders

incest/rape:

one character adopts and raises a baby boy as her own, acting as and ultimately becoming his mother. when he gets older, she decides she is interested in him both romantically and sexually, pursues him, and he rejects her advances, telling her he would never consent to either. she is a shapeshifter, and takes on the appearance of the woman in whom he is interested. under the impression that she is someone else, he begins a sexual relationship with her, they marry, and she has a child. she then reveals her true identity to him.

if you would like to know the characters, they are

kalyba and galian

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fanboyriot's review against another edition

adventurous 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? No

3.5

Read For:

Dragons

Slow Burn

Fantasy Map

Sapphic Romance

High Fantasy (but make it queer)

I definitely have some mixed feelings about this book.  I wanted to love it but it fell more flat for me than anything else.  It was just kinda meh.  It wasn’t bad but I also just didn’t fall into the hype about it either.  I was a bit bored at times, honestly.

While the worldbuilding/setting was done really well the characters overall just lacked personality.  I found myself confused as to who was who for more than half of the book, which might be more of a me thing than anything else, but even then I just didn't really care for any of them.  I am much more of a character person than a world-building person.

Then there were some chapters that just dragged out, and while in the beginning, it was fine.  It's high fantasy and that's expected to get to know the world and everything but it was no better by the last chapter.

However, I didn’t totally hate this book either.  I really liked how the Queen was the one running things.  It was super nice to read a high fantasy without it being majorly sexist or borderline creepy.  Plus it had some queer relationships as well, a sapphic relationship being the main hype of the book besides the dragons.  And lastly the dragons, I loved how they were written into the story, how they interacted with their riders, and the bond they shared.

Overall, if you're a fan of high fantasy and want to see some queer rep within the book then I recommend this to you.  However, if you’re more like me, where contemporary books have taken over your tbr, then I probably wouldn't recommend it to you.

POV: Switching, Third Person

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Rep: Queer MCs, Queer SCs, Sapphic (main), Achillean (side), Aspec MC

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Pandemic/Epidemic, Miscarriage, Death, Infertility, Child death, Confinement, Religious bigotry, Medical content, Violence, Murder, Grief, Gore, Death of parent, Torture, Sexual content, War, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Genocide, Bullying, Outing, Alcohol, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Classism, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Incest, Infidelity, Addiction, and Gaslighting

Minor: Dementia, Sexual assault, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Rape, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexism

oceanic_rabbit's review

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious 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

4.5

Okay this book is a trek, but it is a worthwhile trek. The setup is good, foreshadowing is sufficient but not always obvious.  The lead characters are richly and deeply developed and the world is richly built. The end is satisfying, if maybe a little rushed-feeling when considering the sheer amount of build-up that went into it. 

The sheer length of this is sometimes it's downfall, especially if breaks are taken between reads details may become hazy.

In spite of this though, I will most certainly re-read this book again. Mainly to view the text with a better understanding of the world and to better see the hints pepperted throughout. Highly reccomend this brilliant (sometimes bloody) book, it's an enjoyable ride, if a bit of a long one.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Religious bigotry, War, and Violence

Minor: Classism, Drug use, Miscarriage, Infertility, Bullying, and Child death

caroluvr's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Death of parent, Classism, Kidnapping, Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, War, Infertility, Body horror, Bullying, Genocide, Misogyny, Murder, Suicide, Blood, Death, Gore, Pregnancy, Torture, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Violence, Animal death, Excrement, Grief, and Incest

Moderate: Trafficking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Infidelity, Addiction, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

liaandersson's review

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective tense 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

Where to begin?..

This could quite well be the best fantasy that I have ever read. There are tons of aspects which I adored and it is easier, for both you and I, if I take it in order.

Religion: Virtudom and the South have religions stemming from the same historical people, the differences being how these people are portrayed and what their acknowledged accomplishments were.  These religious differences put a strain to the fragile relationship between the South and Virtudom. I think this is a terrific analogy of how for example, the real world has countries fighting over which is the one true religion, when the truth is there is no single right one. All of them are right, if they are right for a certain individual. I hope you will understand my sentiment once you have read it, I have a hard time conveying the message through writing.

Mislabeling: There are several instances where foreigners (in relation to the ethnic group discussed) call certain groups by derogatory terms or even slurs. It is, in my opinion, a well-executed representation of modern slurs as well as the misgendering of queer people. The reoccurring scenario where one 'foreign' individual calls another by a negative slur/term, which is then corrected as if someone was misgendered. 

Queer: There is plenty of LGB representation among the main cast, as well as scattered information about historical figures and secondary characters. Still, there are no canon trans characters, even though I imagine some of them to be such. Other than the L, G AND B there is not much representation to see in regards of ace/aro, polyamory, intersex, trans and so on. 

History: I loved how the history of the fictional world was incorporated as storytellings between characters, and other creative solutions. It took me a hundred pages or so to connect the dots between all the historical people and their relevance, but a bit of switching from the index back to the story here and there eventually solved all of those problems. It was all very much worth it before I even got halfway through the book. 

Worldbuildning: Shannon managed to incorporate western, eastern and African fantasy. I loved to see how they all interacted with each other and enhanced one another. I don't believe I can have much to say about whether it was well represented or not, but I do hope it was done as best as could be. 

A fair warning that this book, at least in my opinion, is more driven by the characters than by the plot. Due to this, I have heard the common opinion that the ending of the book is quite abrupt, while I think it is quite satisfactory, from the perspective of the character's developmental arcs. 

Have a fun read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Classism, Infertility, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, War, Abandonment, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, and Violence

Moderate: Excrement, Toxic relationship, Classism, Cursing, Death of parent, Infidelity, Mental illness, Addiction, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Racial slurs, Vomit, Colonisation, and Confinement

Minor: Confinement, Torture, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Vomit, and Cursing

strange_little_ranger's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Miscarriage, and Violence

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, Racism, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, War, and Vomit

claudiaswords's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny 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

4.75

I loved mostly everything about this book, and I thoroughly enjoyed every page and moment of reading it. If you know me, you know I love pirates and dragons and magic and this book has all three and more.

I think my favourite thing were the characters, I couldn’t help but fall in love with Ead and Loth and Meg and Tané and Sabran and Niclays. I adored seeing their growth and change, most of all I felt adrenaline when their stories began to mix and tangle together, when the marvelous web Samantha Shannon was spinning started to get more and more intricate. Because the second thing I loved most was Samantha Shannons writing and world building. I can’t express how delighted I was at the backstory of the kingdoms in this book, their folklore stories and characters made the world feel utterly real. 

I’ve said it before in this review but I feel it necessary to repeat, I enjoyed reading every single page of this book. At first I was intimidated, it is a long, high fantasy standalone (for now) and it felt daunting, but as soon as I started it I was gripped and found the characters delightful to read, the plot intriguing and the world building fascinating. The only reason why thi isn’t an immediate 5 stars is because of the death of a certain character that I felt wasn’t necessary and made me very sad. This rating might change because honestly it is a very minor thing compared to all the things I loved about the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Death, Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infertility, Miscarriage, Violence, Pregnancy, and Murder

foreverinastory's review against another edition

adventurous challenging hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

4.5/5

This reread went SO MUCH BETTER than I expected! I remember being very indifferent about this book when I first read it (it was a case of it's me, not the book). I didn't remember a solid like 50% of this LMAO. What I did remember happened a lot faster than I was expecting, especially

Aubrecht and Kit's deaths, I definitely thought those had happened much later

.

I love Ead. She and Tane are definitely my favorite in this book. Also Tane is ace in case you were wondering. I totally fell for these incredible warrior ladies, especially Ead. We see had damn badass she is ALL THE TIME and I was here for it. One day I'd like to sit and read this book with my eyes, but alas that will probably be when I retire LOL. 

The mythology and world-building is absolutely incredible. There is so much of it too, so be prepared. But it is absolutely necessary and done so well. The cast of this book is incredibly diverse in racial identity/ethnic identity and sexuality. The only thing I wish was there were nonbinary or trans characters. 

Also there are dragons!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Grief, Infidelity, Religious bigotry, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying, Dementia, Infertility, Miscarriage, and Misogyny