Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

322 reviews

lonelylooper's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful 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: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Xenophobia, Dementia, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Incest, Infidelity, Suicide, and Death of parent

emalderwood's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring 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? No

5.0

This is hands down the best fantasy epic I've read in a long time. The story, the characters, the world-building, the prose... everything was beautifully executed and I'd rate it higher than 5 stars if I could. This is someone who is a master of their craft. The descriptions of new characters and places were detailed in a way that made you know them within a few sentences, without slowing the flow of the narrative or ever feeling too much. The metaphors and similes were fresh and artful and added to the immersion. And the story was like a whole series in one volume because it was written so beautifully that not a word was wasted. This one has earned its place on my shelf for a long time to come! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Moderate: Death, Miscarriage, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Gore, Infertility, Xenophobia, Dementia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

lmfry's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Animal death, Medical content, and Gaslighting

Minor: Suicide and Vomit

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: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Deportation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

rlfrick's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Miscarriage, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

bionerdatgc's review against another edition

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? No

2.5

Content warnings first: the sapphic romance was touching in its buildup, culminating in a sex scene that was beautifully poetic and not graphic. However, sex and nudity scenes after that were very physically descriptive. The book had several f-bombs and a completely unnecessary c-word that jarred me out of the story. Miscarriage due to a violent (draconic) attack was graphic, as was the grief after the fact. And just in case you weren't convinced of a particular villain's villainy, it is revealed that they seduced their own adoptive child. Yuck.

On pacing: it was very slow to start, which is OK when weaving lots of storylines together. However, the story's first POV character actually gets the least amount of "screen" time - which in my opinion is a tragedy, because she and the Eastern dragons are the most interesting part of the story yet seem more like afterthoughts. Everything builds so slowly that when any action happens, it's over too fast and feels unfulfilling. The climax is awesome at least. I felt like it was paced just right, but there wasn't enough of it compared to the buildup.

I think this was a very well-conceived story, and it was woven together well in the amount of space it had. It lives up to the scale of epic fantasies. That said, I think it fell flat of its potential. Seriously, DRAGONS! Why have hundreds of pages of court intrigue on one side of the world when there are DRAGON RIDERS on the other side? And a convent of DRAGON SLAYERS down in the south? Flashbacks from Ead's childhood in the Priory would have added action to slower stretches and provided a much richer backdrop. And I really wish Tané had been given more time with her dragon. I would have loved to see them patrolling together instead of just talking, for instance. I would have loved to see the Sea Guard in action. So many things that could have been developed were overlooked in favor of court intrigue.

As a writer, I'm glad I read this book because I've learned a lot about my own preferences and style from it. However, I did not enjoy it enough to read it again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Incest, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Infertility, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Blood, Dementia, Death of parent, and Outing

shellbow's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, and War

betweentheshelves'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

4.0

This is a beast of a book, but I thoroughly enjoyed it! Lately I've been preferring to listen to longer fantasy books on audio, partly because it means I read them faster and partly because I feel more immersed in the world that way. Especially for adult fantasy.

The world building in this was so well done! There are so many details, but it doesn't feel like too much at once. I think this is helped by the fact that there is such a great core cast of characters that balances out the world building. And dragons. Because who doesn't like a book that has dragons in it??

All in all, I'm glad I finally picked this one up, and will have to pick up the prequel when I catch up with my other library audiobook holds.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Miscarriage, and Violence

Moderate: Infertility, Religious bigotry, and Pregnancy

sarah_sedai_blueajah's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

kiwij96'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

4.0

This book was genuinely captivating in a lot of ways. The storytelling and worldbuilding were beautifully written. Yes, it can be a little heavy at times but it is so worth it. The characters are mostly well-developed throughout the story too and you begin to understand what makes them tick and feel their range of emotions through the events that take place. I loved the interconnectedness that slowly took place between each of the characters' individual stories and how their experiences made them grow as characters.

This said, my main criticisms would be that after many chapters of build-up to a conflict, the conflict is over in 2 pages. This happens often and it feels a bit lacklustre for a story of this scale. As a result of this, it oftentimes felt like it was trying to achieve too much and that the conflicts were quickly solved to move onto the next one. Another criticism is that the romance felt massively out of place in the story and wouldn't have changed the plot any if it wasn't there at all. Every other character was fleshed out effectively in the sense that they all had things that made them independent but work well as a part of a team when needed, they each had ambitions and they felt real. I couldn't get a feel for Ead because of this. Of all the characters she was the one with the least development, despite the story following her the most.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Infertility, Miscarriage, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Religious bigotry

Minor: Incest, Suicide, and Pregnancy