Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

36 reviews

maryarelis's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad 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

4.75

If you’re into high fantasy novels with a bit of a sapphic turn, priory is for you! Without spoiling anything i’d have to say Kalyba, the witch, was my favorite character. — I hope to read more about her in Samantha’s new prequel, “A Day of Fallen Night”.

I can go on and on about how friggin’ good this novel is, but trust the reviews.. it’s highly recommended for a reason! I rated the novel 4.75 for a reason, merely because I would’ve like Tane’s story to be longer. I found myself cheering for her and drinking in each page that had her name splattered on it.

Other than that, get your hands on this book and lose yourself to dragons and witches, curses and riches!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Classism, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Cursing, Death of parent, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Violence, Alcohol, Blood, Vomit, War, and Death

kaitlyng'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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry

Moderate: Pregnancy, Death, Blood, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Sexual content, and War

Minor: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Miscarriage, Alcohol, Stalking, Death of parent, and Torture

cozyteareads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Cursing, Death of parent, Classism, and Gaslighting

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Infertility

americiumam's review

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, Grief, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Miscarriage, Religious bigotry, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Cursing, Dementia, Infertility, Sexual harassment, Fire/Fire injury, War, Classism, Infidelity, Outing, Racism, Incest, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Slavery, Addiction, Murder, Pregnancy, and Sexual content

Minor: Stalking, Abandonment, Gaslighting, Incest, Genocide, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Rape, Suicide attempt, Vomit, and Racism

cstein's review

adventurous lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

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

3.5

Could benefit from additional and repeat explanations of various imagined words, a large cast of characters and their connections to one another, and the histories and geographies of several fictional countries. Some relationships and events (specifically, what should have been the climatic battle) were more or less convincingly fleshed out. Nonetheless, an engrossing escapist read that kept my interest for weeks.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Torture, Violence, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Death, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, War, Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Misogyny, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Alcohol and Cursing

saintyeehaw's review

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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

4.5

I really enjoyed this book's female characters and the lack of homophobia, racism in relation to skin color, and blatant misogyny (other than that toward Sabran) in the world. It feels very socially modern and so it managed to capture me in a way that many other fantasy books haven't. Overall, a great story. I do wish that

Tane's part of the story had been bigger, I found myself frustrated at the clear focus on the West's side of the narrative. I also wish we had seen more of Nayimathun--even the book itself points out how often she and Tane are separated.  I also despised the long chapters surrounding Niclays as I personally found him extremely unlikeable--which may have been the point, but they were a chore nonetheless. Finally, the climax of actually fighting the Nameless One was a bit disappointing for me, pretty anticlimactic.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Murder, Xenophobia, Blood, Body horror, Classism, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Alcohol, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, and Kidnapping

rensreading's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring 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

i have no idea where to start!! my brain feels like its scattered all over but one thing i can say with full certainty is that: this is one of the best high fantasy stories out there, hands down.

the plot? exquisite! the characters? phenomenal! the progression of relationships? flawless! all the twists and turns had me on the edge of my seat!

i think my favorite character would have to be tané. we didn’t get as much of her story as we did the others, true. but she spoke to my soul. a hidden past, seemingly abandoned by her birth parents and taken in by the temple (i’m like 80% sure it was a temple anyway) to learn and train to one day become a rider, having a dragon choose her and call her kin, claiming she has the heart of a dragon all while battling an insurmountable amount of guilt for lives she’s put in danger due to her own ambition. ughhhh i just loved her. i can’t explain it right. just know she’s marvelous and i wish only happy things for her from here on out.

i also love that all the queerness was so casual. the only issue anybody had with queer couples were due to blood heirs and classism. that’s it. so refreshing for two people of the same gender to be together and no one has an issue with it for the mere sake of it. especially in fantasy! you would assume since its all made-up, homophobia wouldn’t be a thing many fantasy stories subscribe to but you would be wrong. i also love that ace and aro also had rep in this. lost of people call this a sapphic fantasy, but that feels like a discredit to all the other queer identities represented in this book.

this is a tome, plain and simple. don’t let its size intimidate you though! once the story has you, its not gonna let go until you’ve read all 800+ pages it has for you. you’ll love it. but if you have trouble reading longer books, divide the book up by parts! it helped me immensely!

and when people say the story really starts to pick up at page 250, they truly were not lying.

5 stars (:

[edited 6/29]

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Murder, Religious bigotry, Torture, War, Confinement, Gore, Alcohol, Blood, Classism, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Violence, Cursing, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Pregnancy, Gun violence, Infertility, and Incest

Minor: Colonisation, Gaslighting, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

concerning the incest: a character raises a child as her own then ends up falling in love with the child once they are grown. they are, fortunately, not blood related.

angstifies'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

5.0

if i could give it more than 5 stars i absolutely would, this is easily one of the best books i’ve ever read.

this book was amazing from page one to the very last one, it can seem intimidating because of the number of pages but it’s really not. the pacing is great, the world, religions, dragons and magic in here are all very intriguing and unique, and all the stories in the 4 POVs are soo good, i was never even slightly bored.

i really didn’t expect to love all these characters as much as i did but wow. every one of them was so well crafted, even the side characters always felt real and distinct and i absolutely adored that. my favorite has to be Niclays, i always like a good morally flawed character and his arc was fantastic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Miscarriage, and Death

Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Infertility, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Body horror, War, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

Minor: Alcoholism, Cursing, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, and Alcohol

ate_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad 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

Graphic: Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Murder, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Blood, Death, Infertility, and War

Moderate: Alcohol, Cursing, Death of parent, Gun violence, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

catherinedsharp's review

adventurous emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

This book was incredible! After buying it with hardly any exposition, I adored it. Not only is the cover beautiful but the writing too and I highly recommend to anyone who loves pirates, dragons, queendoms, adventures and more!

Although I placed this book as medium paced, the length of this book can be a little off putting and the density/complexity of the story can sometimes slow reading and understanding. Despite this though, the story is a fantastical adventure of many different characters who all link together in one plot line, although there seems to a very limited link at the beginning.

Additionally this book is slightly LGBTQIA*+ which is lovely! The representation is well written although it is a slow burn, and it is not the main focal point of the story, so I wouldn’t go into the story just for that.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book and, although it was a long text, I found it enjoyable throughout and didn’t want to stop reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Death, Grief, Homophobia, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Animal death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Lesbophobia, Violence, and Miscarriage