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A review by hannahrose28
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Did not finish book.
2.0
I really had high hopes for this book. The cover is absolutely gorgeous and that was why I really pushed myself to finish it. I tried. I was holding on, and reading as fast as I could because I just wanted to be done with the book. I got to page 600 and I had no motivation left, so I DNFed. I had heard so many good reviews, raving about this book and the world that it was. Everything seemed to fall flat. There was nothing that drew me into it. As an 800 page novel and a STANDALONE, in order for people to read all of it through, there needs to be a gripping story at almost all times. I understand that as a standalone everything needs to be spread out very well and explained thoroughly, but it was so boring and disappointing.
-World-building: There might as well be no explanation of the world in this book. The title of the book "The Priory of the Orange Tree" isn't explained until around 1/4 into the book. Even then, I did not understand the religions and the reasoning behind everything.
-POV's: As much as differing point of views can work, it did not work here. One of them, Niclay's was so utterly boring and drawn out and I simply did not care about his character or what he was doing. It made reading so much worse. His storyline didn't seem to have a point, even 3/4 through the book.
-Emotions: This book seemed to have no emotion in it whatsoever. I could not get attached to these characters no matter how hard I tried. The writing was flat, and with the third person it made the emotionality seem so underwhelming. Even intense twists were so minuscule because there was nothing gripping me or tying me to these people.
-Fantasy: I was excited for this book because of the dragon aspect and the magic and the bodyguard trope. Again, dragons were barely mentioned throughout the book. It makes no sense to put a dragon on the cover (which is gorgeous and my heart hurts that I don't like the story) and barely mention the magical creatures. Even when mentioning, there was little to it.
-Romance: The romance wasn't the main interest for me, but like everything else in this book, it was pushed to the back-burner. There was slight buildup to the characters getting together but I had no emotional connection to them. I could not feel what they were feeling as intensely as it was supposed to be.
-Threat/Villian: This also felt extremely underwhelming. There is no major 'aha' moment where there is a terrible looming threat in this book. The Nameless One, since he remains asleep for most of the book, doesn't seem at all dangerous. I lost interest and did not seem to care about any plot twists.
-Words/Diction: It was really hard to get into this book because of the language. It is confusing and not explained very well. Important people aren't given backgrounds, most of them anyway, and there seems to be a new word for almost everything. Normally I don't mind this, but if it isn't needed, like changing one letter (ex: instead of connection, connexion) I do not see the point.
Overall, even though I pushed myself to finish this book, I should've DNFed it when some of my first hesitations appeared. I thought it was going to get better and it never did. I'm sure Samantha Shannon's other books are great, this one did not meet expectations. I will end up spark-noting the rest to see how it ends.
-World-building: There might as well be no explanation of the world in this book. The title of the book "The Priory of the Orange Tree" isn't explained until around 1/4 into the book. Even then, I did not understand the religions and the reasoning behind everything.
-POV's: As much as differing point of views can work, it did not work here. One of them, Niclay's was so utterly boring and drawn out and I simply did not care about his character or what he was doing. It made reading so much worse. His storyline didn't seem to have a point, even 3/4 through the book.
-Emotions: This book seemed to have no emotion in it whatsoever. I could not get attached to these characters no matter how hard I tried. The writing was flat, and with the third person it made the emotionality seem so underwhelming. Even intense twists were so minuscule because there was nothing gripping me or tying me to these people.
-Fantasy: I was excited for this book because of the dragon aspect and the magic and the bodyguard trope. Again, dragons were barely mentioned throughout the book. It makes no sense to put a dragon on the cover (which is gorgeous and my heart hurts that I don't like the story) and barely mention the magical creatures. Even when mentioning, there was little to it.
-Romance: The romance wasn't the main interest for me, but like everything else in this book, it was pushed to the back-burner. There was slight buildup to the characters getting together but I had no emotional connection to them. I could not feel what they were feeling as intensely as it was supposed to be.
-Threat/Villian: This also felt extremely underwhelming. There is no major 'aha' moment where there is a terrible looming threat in this book. The Nameless One, since he remains asleep for most of the book, doesn't seem at all dangerous. I lost interest and did not seem to care about any plot twists.
-Words/Diction: It was really hard to get into this book because of the language. It is confusing and not explained very well. Important people aren't given backgrounds, most of them anyway, and there seems to be a new word for almost everything. Normally I don't mind this, but if it isn't needed, like changing one letter (ex: instead of connection, connexion) I do not see the point.
Overall, even though I pushed myself to finish this book, I should've DNFed it when some of my first hesitations appeared. I thought it was going to get better and it never did. I'm sure Samantha Shannon's other books are great, this one did not meet expectations. I will end up spark-noting the rest to see how it ends.