Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

79 reviews

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

adventurous emotional

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Medical content, Miscarriage, Murder, Xenophobia, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, War, Blood, Violence, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Rape, Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Death of parent, Incest, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Infidelity, Dementia, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Sexual content, and Torture

misterwisp's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful relaxing 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

4.0

 Yes. It's long and epic in scope, but it all happens in one book so you won't have to feel obliged to commit to a series or wait for the next one to be written. It looks like a prequel is coming out, but this one is complete unto itself. It's long but keeps up the pace and there were no particularly slow or dry sections. 
For me strengths include how the plot twists unexpectedly at times and doesn't feel like it follows a standard formula. Characters having to see past their religion to meet the needs of the moment was also done in a compelling way. There are familiar aspects to the world building but it's still done thoroughly and well and helps the escapism aspect of it all. It feel like a world. 
Characters change and end at a different place then they started. The ending is satisfying. There are cool dragons. It's good! If you like fantasy you'll find something to enjoy. 
There is a bit of a romance subplot that felt genuine. If that's not of interest know that it doesn't take over the story or become the main focus at any point. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Grief, Violence, and Death

Minor: Animal cruelty, War, Medical trauma, Confinement, Abandonment, and Mental illness

the sexual content part is fairly graphic, but just a little over a page in length.

the animal cruelty is that a dragon has a tooth, some scales and blood forcibly removed against it's will while it's chained up. It's mentioned as being about to occur but happens "off page" and is not specifically described

feilyn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Murder, Violence, and War

Minor: Gore and Xenophobia

aribook's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious 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? N/A

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Infertility, Medical content, Miscarriage, and Murder

Minor: Animal death and Animal cruelty

isabel_c's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.75

SO GOOD read this right now omfg. This book is worth it’s length and even after spending 26 hours reading it I have no regrets. I love Ead and Sabran and I love how their story unfolds. I also love all the other characters and Samantha is just a genius for writing this book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Miscarriage, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death of parent, and Death

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.

---

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

jlfaith21's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Miscarriage, and Murder

auliarach's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious sad 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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Blood

rtaire's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense slow-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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Death of parent, Infertility, Violence, Xenophobia, War, Child death, Gore, Pregnancy, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Miscarriage, Murder, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Mental illness

solarel's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring 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? No

5.0

This book was creative while also being comfortable in its tropes. The characters felt like good friends, and the adventure! Wow what an epic adventure. 

Some of the plot decisions felt a bit hollow, as I saw some symbolism that wasn’t meant to be there, I suppose. But I can’t fault it for not following the thread I predicted. 

Lastly, for an epic fantasy like this, you would expect it to be dense and laborious to follow, but I found it very easy to digest. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Torture, Infertility, Murder, Miscarriage, and Death

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, War, and Homophobia

Minor: Animal cruelty

If you consider dragons as animals, there is some cruelty.