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

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book is fucking phenomenal. I laughed, I cried, I waited SO LONG for kisses. 

There are just. Just so many words I didn't know. But they fit the theme and time period of the story so well, like none of it felt gratuitous. The descriptions were SO wonderful. Lovely. Unparalleled. Paintings. 

I think the main reason this isn't five stars for me is some parts just felt like they were dragging on, like i can't remember thinking "this didn't need to be included" but it just took a long time to get where we were going, ykwim? There were stretches without a lot of action that could've been shortened but it didn't ruin the book for me.

The slow burn and queer romances were life giving. Dragons were so sick, I absolutely loved them. 

Anyway though this book is 1000% worth the hype. It was my first time annotating a physical copy of a book and I used so many tabs I literally ran out of like 5 or 6 colors. So many notes in the margins that just say "oh my god what the fuck?!" Or "holy shit no no no no no!!!!" Sooooo. Absolutely excellent.