Review: The Priory of the Orange Tree

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Fairly solid fantasy read, a little rushed but with some brilliant bits scattered throughout.

The characters are definitely the best part of the Priory of the Orange Tree. I loved Sabran and Ead so much and Doctor Roos quickly became a surprisingly complex individual whose behaviours were always unexpected but never jarring. There are soft tragedies here, tragedies that are not central to the plot but are wounding regardless because they are seen through the lens of characters who are devastated by them. The way the characters grow and change as the book moves on, through voice and action, is also pretty cool.

If the book is missing something, it is breathing room and gravitas. By its very nature, epic fantasy is a genre that spans continents and ages, and this book sets up a grand and sprawling land with varying cultures and rich histories. There are a number of characters, there is so much promise, and it pulls really hard to try and meet it all in a space that is just too small. We don't get the little moments, everything is of importance and there is no space to watch the characters just be themselves. They never get comfortable long enough for the pain to feel impactful.

And in that, the pain isn't painful enough. There's a couple threads that are deeply tragic, but the vast majority of mysteries and tragedies come too quickly, without feeling poetic but also not feeling brutal enough to be 'realistic'. The stories that lie beneath the surface are just not satisfying enough.

All of that, however, cannot stop this from being a fun book that's exciting, frantic, keeps you turning pages, with a rich world and some amazing characters.

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