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A review by sarah_cameron
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.25
I almost want to review this book in three different parts: the first half of the book, the second half.
The world-building and political setting is well-established and rich, but despite spending about 400 pages setting all of this up, alongside all our characters and their backgrounds and goals, I think the book suffered from how little we saw people of different sides, countries, and politics coming together.This happened in the end, but it was incredibly rushed and after all the turmoil set out at the beginning, it was remarkably easy to get everyone to forgo centuries of bad history to work together.
I felt similarly about the character development, which felt rather stagnant at first, and then incredibly rushed. The pacing at the beginning was snail paced, and by the end everything was moving so quickly it was hard to keep up. I feel that final 150 pages were what I expected the bulk of the book to be, and I really wished the final act was more fleshed out and explored, whereas I could've done without about 200 pages of the first 400.
I think what is most frustrating is that the premise is really amazing. The long and complicated history of the world is incredibly set up, we have a range of characters from such a diverse range of places, the creatures and lore are so vivid, and the relationships were set up to deliver so much. Because the execution is done in a way that is both slow and rushed, it just feels we missed out on what should have easily been a 5 star book.
In short, my feelings on this book are complicated at best.
The world-building and political setting is well-established and rich, but despite spending about 400 pages setting all of this up, alongside all our characters and their backgrounds and goals, I think the book suffered from how little we saw people of different sides, countries, and politics coming together.
I felt similarly about the character development, which felt rather stagnant at first, and then incredibly rushed. The pacing at the beginning was snail paced, and by the end everything was moving so quickly it was hard to keep up. I feel that final 150 pages were what I expected the bulk of the book to be, and I really wished the final act was more fleshed out and explored, whereas I could've done without about 200 pages of the first 400.
I think what is most frustrating is that the premise is really amazing. The long and complicated history of the world is incredibly set up, we have a range of characters from such a diverse range of places, the creatures and lore are so vivid, and the relationships were set up to deliver so much. Because the execution is done in a way that is both slow and rushed, it just feels we missed out on what should have easily been a 5 star book.
In short, my feelings on this book are complicated at best.