Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

8 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

jodean's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Classism, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Murder, Grief, Deportation, Blood, Abandonment, Death, and Confinement

Moderate: War, Sexism, Medical content, Infertility, Medical trauma, Misogyny, and Death of parent

Minor: Infidelity, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Drug use

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

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

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Content Warnings

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

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

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

Illness, epidemic.

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

fiveredhens's review against another edition

adventurous challenging slow-paced

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

2.75

favorite quotes:

"This Jannart—the man you loved,"
she said, looking him dead in the eye. "Do you think he would want you to give up, or carry on?"

"I don't want to carry on! Do you not understand? Does nobody in this world understand, damn you? ls no one else haunted?" A quiver of wrath entered his voice. "Everything I did—everything I was—everything I am, is because of him. He was someone before me. I am no one without him. I am tired of living without him at my side. He left me for that book and, by the Saint, I resent him for it. I resent him every minute of every day."

i liked the setting and characters but imo it was badly underedited and i didn't feel like the final battle had any stakes :( the characters had

defeated the odds

so many times that the outcome was obvious and reading what i already knew became a chore

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage

Moderate: Alcoholism, Blood, Dementia, Gore, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pregnancy, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, and Violence

Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Drug use, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Vomit, War, and Xenophobia

drachenreiter's review

adventurous emotional hopeful 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? N/A

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Animal death, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infertility, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Religious bigotry, War, and Confinement

Moderate: Child death, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Sexual content

Minor: Alcoholism and Alcohol

troisha's review

adventurous emotional 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Grief, Murder, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Death of parent, Gore, Infertility, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, and Torture

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Confinement, Dementia, Drug use, Incest, Infidelity, Medical content, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, and Vomit