Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

79 reviews

offbrandclubsoda's review against another edition

adventurous reflective 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? No

3.75

I really wanted to love this book - Sapphic high fantasy that’s not YA sounded like my dream. 
Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy the book, but I didn’t fall in love with it. 
The world building and character development were well done and the political story was intriguing. 
My biggest complaint is that the book should have been split up into a series. It was super long and it felt like so many different things happened that would have been better absorbed over more than one book.
I was hoping for a bit more spice, given that it is not YA but alas.

I quite enjoyed the morally grey development of

Niclays

Spice level: 🌶🌶/5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Incest, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and War

Minor: Homophobia, Pregnancy, and Sexual content

paige_turner95's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

4.5

This book was great!  For a fantasy it felt quite fast paced.  There were dragons in the first few chapters which is rare for a fantasy book!!  The characters where easy enough to follow along with and the maps were simple to follow.  It left a lot open for another book which I am really hoping for!!  I would recommend this to someone who doesn't really like fantasy but might want to try.  I also really loved that our wlw characters didn't centre around their coming out story, it was beautiful and made me cry.  Very lovely side plot, loved it.  

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty and Miscarriage

taleofabibliophile's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Religious bigotry, Infertility, Miscarriage, and War

Moderate: Blood, Cursing, Medical content, Animal cruelty, Murder, Confinement, Gore, Sexual content, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Pregnancy

Minor: Torture, Mental illness, Suicide, and Incest

scorpioness's review against another edition

adventurous 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: Body horror, Miscarriage, Violence, War, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, and Religious bigotry

dancers_and_dragons's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring 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

An epic of a book where the very balance of the world is changing, Priory of the Orange Tree tells the story of several main characters whose fates are intertwined. Samantha Shannon does a masterful job of weaving threads that are joined to others later, forming a wide tapestry of fantasy kingdoms and powers who realize the flaws in their morality, and that nothing is truly black and white. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Death, Colonisation, and Blood

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Racism, Self harm, Terminal illness, War, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Child death, Confinement, Gaslighting, Suicide attempt, Sexual content, and Pregnancy

Fantasy Racism that is explored and challenged, fantasy religious bigotry that is explored and challenged, brief and non-graphic sexual content description in two scenes, with fade to black elsewhere

thecourtofreading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

4.75

"we may be young and we may be small, but we will shake the world with our beliefs."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Miscarriage, and Violence

Moderate: Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, and Infertility

Minor: Trafficking, Alcoholism, and Animal cruelty

deereadsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective 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

4.5/5 Stars. 

The Priory of the Orange Tree checks off all the boxes that a High Fantasy book should cross off. There is great historical backstories, complex characters, an amazingly descriptive new world, and interestingly combined politics. This book has probably been one of the most entertaining books I have read this year, however, the ending of the story, along with a few other minor details didn’t make this the 5 star read I was expecting. 

First off, the main villain of the story. Called the Nameless One. I was pretty underwhelmed with the battle that took place, and I was expecting more of this creature that has been looking for a return for so long. It almost seemed as if gathering information was more difficult than the actual exertion of battle to the death combat with a ridiculously large wyrm. Either way, I wasn’t exactly thrilled with this final battle. 

Now, the ending. I definitely felt like Tané was underused. I felt as if she could have contributed more to the overall story, and I was disappointed to not see more of her. Also Niclays… I don’t know where to start with him without giving any spoilers, but I’m very indifferent about his character overall. 

Thirdly, abrupt ending to the battle? Like, the battle is over, and then all of a sudden they are back in their homelands again. I didn’t really think that this story ended in the way that it should have. But I don’t really want to get into spoiler grounds. 

There are many positive things about this book that I loved as well. The sapphic relationship that was included as a minor sub plot was really nice, and I liked to see the character growth from those characters. I loved the world as well. I liked how each of the kingdoms had their own systems, and the divide between the West and East was very interesting. 

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to High Fantasy lovers like myself 🥰

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infertility, Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol

lagiven's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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

4.0

The detailed worldbuilding in Priory and the complex characters were easily my favorite parts and the reasons why I rated it so highly. Shannon balances a large cast and complicated subplots and connects them all in a way that's very satisfying. Additionally, I appreciated how Shannon doesn't use violence against women to  make her fantasy world "realistically grim" as other medieval era-high fantasy authors do. The fact that the two romance subplots are queer is also a positive. The only negative is that Priory starts off very slow as there's a lot of worldbuilding and plot set-up, so I didn't get hooked until almost halfway in. Medieval fantasy also isn't my favorite, so I admire how well written Priory is but don't absolutely love it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, Infertility, and Pregnancy

maileesque's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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 absolutely loved this book. as most fantasy books with intricate worldbuilding it takes a while to get into, but as an autistic person, all that information is a dream. I loved the romance between Ead and Sabran, and I would die for Ead and Tané—they’re so badass. what I will say, however, is that the battle scene felt a little easy or short, but that could also just have been because I was tearing through the pages at an impossible speed.

edit upon reread: one thing I adore is how Shannon lets her character have flaws. she lets them make mistakes, lets them be wrong—horribly wrong, even. she doesn’t shy away from showing her characters’ moral failings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Death of parent

Minor: Animal death, Incest, and Suicide

pregnancy and childbirth (and fear thereof) and miscarriage are major themes. religion also plays a big role. fantasy-typical violence and death are there. I would suggest visiting doesthedogdie.com for an extensive list of warnings

oliviafaye's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring lighthearted 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Infertility, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, and Violence