A review by this__nerd
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

adventurous emotional funny tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

This book has a very good story. I was a fan of Ead and Tané. This book also has very good world building. The descriptions of the geographic locations were rich and detailed, and the descriptions of the dragons were lovingly depicted. This book doesn’t get a higher rating from me for two reasons: 1) there are characters who exist solely to create motivation for other characters and then are thrown away. I felt the way this was done was haphazard and unconvincing. 2) the pacing is very inconsistent. This book could not decide whether it wanted to move quickly or slowly so it simply switched back and forth. This makes it hard to spend time developing the relationships between characters while also pushing the plot forward. I feel like this should have been 2 five hundred page books rather than one 800 page book.
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