Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

186 reviews

lalu's review against another edition

adventurous emotional fast-paced

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

5.0

This was recommended to me after I mentioned that I hated the lack of women in LOTR. It even says on the cover "[A] feminist Lord of the Rings". And I have to disagree. It is high fantasy in a big world with lots of lore and different cultures. But that's were the similarities end (imo). 
Priory puts so much more focus on its characters, their role in society, their hopes and dreams, growth and their relationships. And none of the characters is perfect, it's not black and white, and for that I loved (most of) them even more. And there are stakes! Characters actually die and it's heartbreaking but also it made me a lot more emotionally invested in the story. I even had moments when I thought that

there wouldn't be a happy ending and the Nameless One would win and kill everyone

. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Miscarriage, Pandemic/Epidemic, Murder, War, Blood, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

tashawallace95's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, and Medical trauma

iammmartina_'s review against another edition

adventurous emotional slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Pregnancy, Confinement, Murder, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, and Abortion

Minor: Infidelity, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

chimichannika's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

2.75

three stars is generous tbh and I ended up changing it to 2.5 to be more honest about it 🫠 I have so many thoughts on this book (a few good, quite a few nuanced, and many critiques) and maybe will try to condense them to an appropriate review length; if I do so successfully I may come back and lengthen this review later but tldr… priory I yearn for the book you have the potential to be 🥲

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Gore, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, and Violence

Moderate: Incest, Cultural appropriation, Gun violence, Animal cruelty, Vomit, Xenophobia, Miscarriage, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Excrement and Infidelity

addssubract's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense fast-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: Miscarriage, Death, War, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Cursing

berrytart's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective 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

4.0

i really like this book, the mix of western and eastern dragons was an amazing idea!

Sabran did annoy me for quite a while but she grew on me!

i will be getting the prequel, i absolutely love the world-building in this book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Miscarriage, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infertility, and Violence

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Torture, and Death of parent

sarah_bookshelf's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

4.0

A re-read, but it's been around 5 years I think. Really loved diving back into this world and still being delighted getting to know the setting and the characters, as well as being surprised all over again by the directions the plot takes! There is a little too much book (esp when you're stuck between pages 500 and 700) but the world building is so rich that I can forgive. Can't wait to read A Day of Fallen Night!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, War, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Xenophobia, Torture, and Pregnancy

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Blood, Cursing, Gun violence, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Body horror, Bullying, Xenophobia, Confinement, Dementia, Genocide, Grief, Infidelity, Misogyny, Death, Torture, Violence, War, Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Miscarriage, Animal death, Dysphoria, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

nineinchnails'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? It's complicated

4.75

i will definitely be rereading this at some point! partly because there was a lot of stuff i didn't fully understand but mostly because i enjoyed it so much. i don't think i've ever read such a rich, sprawling epic fantasy contained within one novel. the characters were complex and interesting but i wish we got a little more focus on tané and loth. they both felt less fleshed out to me than ead and roos. the only other thing that kinda bugged me was how rushed the ending felt in comparison to the rest of the book. i expected the final battle to be drawn out longer than it was so it felt almost anticlimactic but it was still tied up pretty neatly. my main priorities in fantasy are character development and worldbuilding and those elements were near perfect!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: War, Pregnancy, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Homophobia, Alcoholism, Religious bigotry, Classism, and Grief

Minor: Abandonment, Incest, and Death of parent

Pseudo incest

_ao_'s review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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

4.75

My criteria for a 5 star book means it moves me to tears, so I can't give 5 stars to Priory of the Orange Tree. But it's sweeping and lore-rich, with a ton of bad-ass women leading and supporting the story. Give yourself some time to read this baby, and you'll find something to love about it. 

Also, I would have liked a tiny bit more in the way of an epilogue.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Xenophobia, Miscarriage, and Death

Minor: Infidelity, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Violence, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Infertility, Vomit, Animal death, and Pregnancy