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

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

3.25

The world building is great, though some of it is taken word for word from our own world, namely Seikki and how it reflects a period where Japan closed its borders to the whole world except the Dutch and they were only allowed onto one island. Knowing this makes the world building a little less amazing, but all art is drawn from some sort of inspiration. People talked this book up as some great queer rep but it honestly felt lacking to me. I was expecting more obvious and proud rep I guess. The characters don’t really change at all in the book which was disappointing
The biggest change was a couple of them momentarily questioning their faith but that’s it
Also the entire plot is resolved in the span of about 60 pages at the end, which is awfully rushed obviously. The book was at best mid.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings