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A review by genny
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
adventurous
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? Yes
2.5
This book put me into a reading slump. An 800+ page book should be anything but boring, but that's what this was. 😬 As a queer woman of color, I really wanted to like this. I enjoyed the setup and was sure it'd end up as a 4 or 5-star read, but alas...
The worldbuilding was good, easy to wrap your head around. I love descriptions of locales, food, travel...but come on, there are limits! The characters were constantly hopping from one place to another, like the author just wanted to showcase every bit of the world map. So much filler. It was also funny how people would suddenly sit down and tell tales. I get that there aren't many ways to give historical background without straight-up info-dumping, but it's a little jarring when they go "hold the plot, it's fairytale time!". Even a villain paused in action to lay out the Evil Plan. 😅 Also, how many times did one of the protagonists pass out at the end of a chapter, only to wake up in a nice, safe bed the next? Too many times, I tell ya.
The characters serve to advance the plot while barely developing personalities. I know many readers hated Niclays, but I liked him way more than the others! At least he was honest about his selfishness, lol, and his ending made me emotional. Gotta defend the old dude. Ead and Sabran had some nice moments but their romance bloomed (and changed Ead's perspective) too quickly to be convincing. I did like the side characters: Truyde, Laya, Melaugo, etc.I'm bitter about Truyde dying only for our protagonists to eventually realize that she was right all along. It's just...this book spent so much time setting up the climax, only for the big battle to be over and done with in a couple of pages. It was laughably easy. Despite all the worry about how other nations may not want to help, everyone was surprisingly amenable. The Nameless One is supposedly this gigantic monster that breathes fire, but Ead was able to get close enough to stab him in the heart...it wasn't even described how! She just did it like it was nothing! It was only a grim determination to finish this behemoth that kept me reading. Perhaps if it was more polished I would've liked it more.
The worldbuilding was good, easy to wrap your head around. I love descriptions of locales, food, travel...but come on, there are limits! The characters were constantly hopping from one place to another, like the author just wanted to showcase every bit of the world map. So much filler. It was also funny how people would suddenly sit down and tell tales. I get that there aren't many ways to give historical background without straight-up info-dumping, but it's a little jarring when they go "hold the plot, it's fairytale time!". Even a villain paused in action to lay out the Evil Plan. 😅 Also, how many times did one of the protagonists pass out at the end of a chapter, only to wake up in a nice, safe bed the next? Too many times, I tell ya.
The characters serve to advance the plot while barely developing personalities. I know many readers hated Niclays, but I liked him way more than the others! At least he was honest about his selfishness, lol, and his ending made me emotional. Gotta defend the old dude. Ead and Sabran had some nice moments but their romance bloomed (and changed Ead's perspective) too quickly to be convincing. I did like the side characters: Truyde, Laya, Melaugo, etc.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Miscarriage, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Sexual content, Religious bigotry, and Pregnancy
Minor: Alcoholism, Incest, Infertility, Rape, Suicide, and Torture
No mention of real-world religions, but people are hostile towards those with a different faith from their own. Sabran has depression, though the book doesn't show her POV so we only know of this from Ead's narration. Two characters committed suicide (off-page). There are sex scenes but the descriptions aren't that explicit (no mentions of genitalia, etc.). Because of a violent attack, a character has a miscarriage and becomes infertile. Incest, rape: a woman adopted a boy; when he was older, she tricked him into thinking she was someone else so he would have sex with her.