Basic info: The Priory of the Orange Tree
Author: Samantha Shannon
Genre: Fantasy
Tropes: The chosen one, Powerful artifacts, Unlikely allies
Publication date: February 26, 2019
Edition I read: Paperback
Pages: 804
My rating: 3.5/5
Goodreads link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46133968-the-priory-of-the-orange-tree
I tried to write this review without spoilers, so feel free to read even if you haven't started this book yet.
"It's long but such a masterpiece, it'll be worth it," they said. But was it?
I spent most of my August trying to get through this book -and sadly, at many points it felt just like that. Trying to finish it, instead of devouring it because it was so good.
And the length is not even the problem, because I love long books. To me, a good book starts at around 500 pages. But then why?
The allure
As many others, I've heard of The Priory from BookTok. As the gorgeous cover and the fact that it had dragond swept me away, I heard stories of this great sapphic romance, and a story so good you just cannot put it down. People said it was indeed a long one, but also that it was 100% worth it.
I also loved Samantha Shannon's writing when I read the first few books of her Bone Season series years ago. So although I've been avoiding this book for a while, feeling intimidated by its length and my expectations, I decided to finally give it a go.
The experience: what I liked
Let's start with the positives: it's a very well thought-out book, with foundations laid carefully for all the threads to come together epicly in the end. You see some development in characters, some more than others, and all loose ends get tied up neatly by the end.
Shannon also did an amazing job at world building. It was a tad bit confusing at first, and I found myself checking the map time and time again, but thanks to the magnitude of the book, we got to explore and understand it all. I loved the duality of the Eastern dragons and Western wyrms and they way the two kinds of magics worked.
The history of the countries and the central figures told throughout the book was revealed very nicely, gradually -and it was always interesting to read. I liked the complexity of the world in terms of having multiple countries with their distinct languages, although their obvious inspirations from the real world bugged me a bit. (E.g. Seiiki obviously being Japan.)
...and what I didn't
One reason I think this one was a little harder to read was the language. To set the tone of this fantasy world, the book is written in a pretty old-fashioned language. Which, on one hand, I appreciate, but it did mean a dip in my enjoyment factor somehow.
Another was my disappointment in the romance. To me this book was framed as this great sapphic romance, and I was so excited to find out who's going to be the couple it is about. But as I realized and as things were evolving, it just failed to live up to the depth and grandiosity it was built up to have. I felt the connection between the characters, but it was lacking the foundation for me, and it wasn't the earth-shattering romance I expected.
The other important romance written amongst the pages was one of the past. And since one half of the couple already perished, and the other half I lothed as a chacacter, it was really hard to get on board.
Overall I felt like the book had less romance than I would have liked. But that might say more for my need of romance in fantasy books than the value of this book in particular.
Overall impression
All in all, I admire the work Shannon has poured into this book. It is indeed a good story, it was just too much for what it was for me, with not enough romance.
Prior to reading The Priory, I was really excited about reading A Day of Fallen Night, a prequel to this one. Now, I'm not sure if I'll pick it up. It does have a better Goodreads rating and I gorgeous cover that's hard to resist though... So we'll see.