Uprooted

what a believable fairytale

This book is a dream of a fairytale from start to finish, except for the slow beginning. I had to frequently remind myself that this was not a fairytale handed down through generations from one mouth to another until someone came around and collected it - that’s how well-written it is. It’s a new book, but have that authentic fairytale feeling; with despair, loss and surely a message somewhere. The friendships of this book is fantastic and believable, you can relate with it and the language is perfect, except for that slowness I mentioned. Just to say - I think it exists because simply being a novel and a fairytale at the same time doesn’t really fit together easily. Say Grimm’s fairytales has been worked on for decades, everything uneccessary cut down or more added until we have the versions we know today. Still, I won’t say no to an extended version of that same magic.

well-written relationships & persons

The characters, both the main girl Agnieszka (sorry I call you Agnes in my head darling), her best friend and the Dragon magician-of-the-tower is also incredibly believable. More so is the people of the village she comes from and their reaction to her, to how she acts and the development she has through the book. I can’t say I love Agniesza - she’s the type where you go NO, DON’T YOU DARE… shit TOO LATE. She has clear faults as a person and aren’t a very considering type, especially when it comes to consequences, but she’s herself. And I respect that. I wish you could see me reading this book, sitting in the corner like Dragon cursing this girl out, even if I didn’t necessarily agree with him either. His mood through it all is “wtf did I get myself into”, it’s hilarious.

the lovely & strange world

What I’ve seen people love the most about this book is the world, it’s very cozy and well-developed, while staying within what I would call normal fantasy. it has elements of those fantasy-villages and the mentality that comes with it, as well as more fairytale-ish areas (the wood is so interesting) and just fierceness. In many ways Agnieszka reminds me of Kvothe from the Kingkiller chronicles, just where she comes from, her values and reactions, not that they are the same or the stories are similiar.

don’t worry…

While I say it is a fairytale kind of book, I don’t believe it’s a version or an adaption of one well-known. I hate those books, where everything is predictable because you’ve grown up with the stories, what’s the fun in reading a book you have heard before? No, Uprooted has some elements (the tower, the beauty and the beast scenario, the village), but mainly it just got the origins and feeling right. In the acknowledgments, Naomi Novik says “ag-NYESH-kah (pronounciation) comes from a fairytale called Agnieszka Skrawek Neiba”, which I found as interesting additional information, and I might check it out sometime. But right now I’m over myself in joy of having read such a beautiful book as Uprooted. We need more of them - and Naomi Novik’s writing - in the world. Her Temeraire series is definitely different from this one, filled with dragons, but nonetheless as amazing.

GO CHECK OUT THIS BOOK, it’s definitely something else (and I need people to discuss with). I will say it’s not your typical ya fantasy read, even if it has that strong female, not that I believed it would be when I heard Novik was the author. Extra for villains, I liked how that played out.

Fav quotes:

“And I wan't old enough to be wise, so I loved her more, not less, because I knew she would be taken from me soon."
"If you don't want a man dead, don't bludgeon him over the head repeatedly". AKA best life lesson ever.
"Truth didn't mean anything without someone to share it with; you could shout truth into the air forever, and spend you life doint it, is someone didn't come and listen."
"Listen you impossible creature", he said, "I'm a century and more older than-" "Oh, be quiet," I said impatiently.
( )

I enjoyed Namoi Novik's novel "Uprooted," mostly on the strength of the world building and characters -- particularly the secondary ones, which were almost more interesting than the primary ones.

This is magical, fantasy novel about people who live in the edge of a dark and dangerous wood. Not my usual fare, and I'm glad it's a stand alone novel for that reason, but it was generally enjoyable. ( )

The amount of romantic scenes and kisses between Nieshka and Kasia and I'm still meant to believe this is straight romance? Hmmm... nup.

#WouldHaveBeenBetterWithWLW ( )

Recommended to me by my teenager, this was a fun, fanciful story with a vision of what it might look like to confront hatred with compassion. There were a couple of steamy scenes that made me second-guess abandoning pre-screening all of my daughter's reading, but then I realized that I rarely feel a pull to censor a book for her because of violence, and I got caught up wondering why I'd be okay with her reading about bloodshed but not smooching. I thought I was too enlightened for that sort of thing. ( )

I'm on Team Spinning Silver, apparently -- everyone seems to have strong opinions about which book is better -- but I did enjoy this too, especially the end. The lengthy descriptions of war dragged for me, and I did not 100% buy the central love story. (Naomi Novik appears to be very into melting the hearts of cold, distant wizard/faerie men. She managed to get the characters to a point in Spinning Silver where I surprised myself with how much I trusted that the relationship was healthy; not so much here.)

I will always love a book that is about how rootedness in home is magic, though. And the end pulled a Moana, where the way to vanquish the enemy is to heal her -- yes yes, more stories like that, please.

This lines up very well with my recent reading, including Circe and The Girl Who Drank the Moon. ( )