Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

604 reviews

mary_stormageddon's review

adventurous emotional inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

If, like me, the size of this book is the only thing keeping you from picking up this beauty, then let this be your sign to go for it anyway. I have never loved a fantasy book as much as I have loved this one!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, War, Death, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Pregnancy, and Violence

Minor: Incest

faerietale_princess's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

Absolutely phenomenal. Impeccable writing, a complex world, and outstanding themes.

A few things keep this from being a 5-star read, however.

The author uses the “as you know” trope quite a bit. It took me out of the story— if someone knows something, why tell them again? It’s for the audience.

The romance seemed a bit sudden to me.

The characters have amazing character journeys and arcs, especially Niclays and Loth. But for some reason, they seemed a bit generic? Despite this, I really enjoyed their personal journeys.

It’s not secret that this is quite a tome. There were some slower-moving parts, but even those parts are incredibly compelling. 

I love how the politics are laid out. This is a dense and fully-packed book, but each story intertwines in a very logical way.

I loved the themes of this book. There’s a lot of discussion of faith and legends, how they intertwine, how they link to culture, and having to confront false beliefs and beliefs you’ve been raised to have since birth. It’s incredibly thought-provoking, and makes me think of parallels to the real world.

I want more from this world and can’t wait to read A Day of Fallen Night.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Miscarriage

maur_damar's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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? No

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Miscarriage

Minor: Cursing

abookorten's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny 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? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Miscarriage, Violence, and Death

Minor: Death of parent

libraryghostie's review

dark emotional fast-paced

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Miscarriage

bucketsjen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark inspiring slow-paced

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

4.25

High fantasy. Evil dragons, good dragons, magic, nobility, alchemy, court plots, daring quests to save the world, queer romance, friendship! I saw a descriptor somewhere that said it was a "feminist retelling of St.George and the dragon", and that was pretty accurate.  

It was thankfully clear of the casual misogyny, sexism, and sexual assault that tends to plague a lot of high fantasy these days (looking at you, ASOIAF/GOT). 

Queer people exist and them being queer is not part of the scandal or drama. Men and women both exist as guards and combatants and it's not a big deal - you'll just be reading and there is a guard at the door and the novel uses she/her pronouns. There is a religion that is virtue/purity-focused and a clear riff off Christianity. There is not racism based on appearance (in fact, people with different skin colors are described in the country that has the aforementioned religion) - although there IS nationalism.  

There is romance and some light spice in the book, but it's not the focus or the driver of events. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Miscarriage, Death, and Violence

Minor: Incest

one instance of

incest and rape by deception

near the end, one sentence where

a character uses a sexual slur when insulting someone

fluffy_comet's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

What started out as a beautiful feminist reshaping of the classic sweeping fantasy novel got bogged down by too much worldbuilding (I cannot believe I'm saying this as a worldbuilding lover???) and too many characters. 130 characters in 800 pages? That's a new character every 6 pages. Absolutely bonkers. The characters were loveable and the ending bittersweet; but like many things in this book, the ending was dragged out a few chapters too long. Felt it truly for lost in the weeds towards the end - specially when the author suddenly relied on mantages for important fights, had a character make EXTREMELY SUDDEN mindset changes 3 times in a row within 3 pages, referred to a character (Tané) we've known from THE FIRST PAGE as a completely different word/name, and took way too long for the main conflict to pay off. I should not have 70 pages left and wonder when the fight they've been eluding to for the last 730 pages is going to start! Other than those (honestly large) issues, I did enjoy the book and grow to live the characters. Mostly. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Vomit, Death of parent, Mental illness, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, Self harm, Miscarriage, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Death, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Abandonment, Religious bigotry, Child death, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Emotional abuse, Violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and War

kappafrog's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.25

What a great fantasy book! It had been a long time since I sunk my teeth into an epic fantasy book, and this was definitely worth it. I almost gave up on it early on because the formal-fantasy language was a bit irritating, and the opening chapters give you an onslaught of unfamiliar character and placenames. However, once I got into the story, it read really well.

There is a wide variety of characters here of different shades of moral greyness. At first I really didn't like Sabran, but she grew on me over time; and as the book went on, I felt more mixed about Ead. Tané grew on me some as the story went on too. All of the characters in the book, including the many queer and female characters, were complex and multi-layered. Loth, Margret and Chassar were the most consistently likable, while Roos was the hardest to like but still sympathetic at times. Even the disgusting Kalyba was not a one-dimensional villain. The Priory was not what I expected, and I loved the evocation of different landscapes and cultures with clear inspirations from our world. The book's length felt merited since there were a lot of different political, magical, and character aspects to explore. I felt like my investment in the story and its characters really paid off. Shannon is not afraid to kill her characters, so there were real stakes at every point in the book. The finale was epic and also gave us enough time to spend with each character in the aftermath of the climax.

All in all, this was a great re-introduction to epic fantasy for me. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys high fantasy.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Infidelity, Violence, War, Death, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Infertility, Deportation, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Miscarriage, and Murder

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Incest, Medical content, Classism, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, and Animal death

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Child death

reeeeedmg_123's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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? Yes

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Animal death, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Blood

Moderate: Death of parent, Cursing, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Animal cruelty, Torture, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, and Grief

Minor: Vomit, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Pregnancy, and Child death

mice_are_nice's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual content, Torture, and War

Minor: Alcoholism, Dementia, Infidelity, and Vomit