Uprooted

Just after reading it, I loved Uprooted. The characters, the setting, the world, the weight of history over everything! It's a very compelling read. Agnieszka and Kasia in particular are wonderful. I love the end. I love that the story is not, in general, a violent one (which is sadly rare).

However, there are some things that I do not love and which, upon reflection, deeply impact my opinion of the book:

The relationship between Agnieszka and the Dragon is horrifying from the start. The Dragon is abusive, physically and emotionally, and she is terrified that he will also rape her, though he never does.

Then someone comes and DOES try to rape Agnieszka - in my opinion, a completely unnecessary scene that added nothing to the story, and is show more not dealt with satisfactorily afterward - and instead of comforting her, the Dragon mocks and blames her.

And at the end, after all that, they STILL end up in a sexual and romantic relationship. Which is horrifying. He never stopped treating her like dirt. She's a teenager and he's like 150 years old, no matter what he looks like. It's just wrong.

So...if you can ignore or overlook those elements, the rest of the book is excellent? It really is. But I won't be rereading it. show less

I'm halfway convinced that Naomi Novik wrote this novel just for me. It was AMAZING.

It had so many things that I love. It had a great magic system that embraced both whimsicality and darkness. It had adventure, comedy, and romance. The excellently crafted world building never felt tedious, and its characters were believable and memorable (who doesn't love a grumpy anti-villain in a romance plot?). It also wasn't afraid to shy away from sex or brutality.

This wasn't mindless escapist fiction - Don't get me wrong, I was happy to escape there, but it wasn't afraid to challenge the world it was escaping from. It didn't blatantly reinforce norms of the real world under the guise of giving the reader something "different" like some fantasy show more novels are prone to do. ("There's magic! But let's just keep everything else the same anyway!") It's representation of women was @#$&ing fantastic. There were meaningful relationships between women. Women being warriors, teachers, and peacemakers. Women feeling unapologetically sexual (and not being shamed for it). And the female lead isn't a fair maiden, locked in a tower. Much to her captor's chagrin.

AHHHH this was the best novel I have read in a LONG time. It was so good that I'm raving in capital letters and swearing in ampersands and dollar signs. It was thrilling and satisfying, and kept me glued to my bed for two days. Now I have to deal with the fact that I have to get back up. show less

Every ten years The Dragon comes down from his tower into the valley and chooses a young woman to take back to the tower with him for the next ten years. Agnieszka never thought she'd be the girl - she's too messy and clumsy and uninterested in how she looks. The Dragon (the name of the valley's wizard, not an actual dragon) seems irritated at his decision at the choosing ceremony, too. And so they're thrown together just at a time when The (local and, of course, evil) Wood starts acting up more than it has in a very long time.

Okay, so there are a significant number of elements to this book that are tropey, to say the least: young girl heroine whose clumsiness and lack of fashion sense make her an unlikely pick for anything, but of show more course she isn't aware of just how attractive she really is or how much power she has inside; tall, dark, broody, and (of course) very old leading man (in this case a wizard and not a vampire, but the odds were 50/50, you know), who teams up with said girl to form an unlikely ship sort of thing. But. BUT. It's good. So. Good. It's just the right mix of good characters and an original story mixed with old-school fairy tale elements that I don't give a hoot about the tropiness. show less

Longer review later but good Lord I loved this. As soon as I saw all the Polish names and the phrase "bold new world rooted in folk stories", I knew I was in for a treat.

In quite a departure from her Temeraire series, Novik gives us a story rooted (see what I did there) in Polish and other eastern European folklore. While Novik draws on many recognizable fairy tale themes and tropes, she manages to turn many of these on their head in a delightful manner. The end result is a tale of romance and adventure, along with a generous dollop of horror (if you don't think possession is terrifying, move along). Agnieszka was a FANTASTIC heroine to follow, an unannoying and likeable fusion of delightfully average, startlingly clever, and magically show more gifted. The supporting characters were equally well drawn and the plot was perfectly paced. WONDERFUL. show less

Naomi Novik is quickly approaching favorite author status. She writes fantasy as it's MEANT to be written. It flows right off the page and into the reader's imagination that you can't help believe or wish it all to be true. Uprooted tells the story of a young village girl who is sent to live in a sorcerer's tower for a decade. Agnieszka, never thought much beyond her village and her dangerous, yet well loved forest, so when she is chosen as tribute, it comes as a complete shock. What can he see in her?!? Well magic, that's what he sees, unbeknownst to her, there is a vein of magic running through her and with a little nourishment and training she may surpass the sorcerer himself. It's very auspicious timing really, because the wood is show more angry. It's been lobbying attacks for years, but now the wood is on a mission and the sorcerer can barely keep it at bay. Can Agniescka help keep the wooded monsters in check? Beautifully written, it's like a song. I adored this book and can't wait for more from this author!!! show less

I did not expect this book to be this damn good.



Yay!

It was really detailed and completely engrossing. I loved it. The heroine was incredibly grounded, normal type of person, blundering trough life in a way most of us blunder trough ours, to be honest. I loved her because of that. All of her choices were lucky guesses and chances like we take every single day. There wasn't the surety of absolute badassery, and there wasn't avoidance of emotions either.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE AUTHORS WHO ARE NOT AFRAID OF EMOTIONS



I don't know about you, but I am more than fed up of 'ice queen' bitches whose only 'attractive' characteristic is that they are rude and insult everything around them; and that somehow that is supposed to be more than enough show more for the hero to fall madly in love with her.

I am tired of cheating assholes who like to showcase their emotional inability to cope with the fact that someone stole their teddy when they were five, and now they use the repressed feelings of inadequacy to deal with the situation 'like a man', by inseminating everything that will stay still for seven point two seconds.

Whenever I pick up a book like that I see nothing but fake people who use the most basic of tactics to deflect from the fact that they are insecure as hell, and force everyone else to deal with their problems. That's why I don't like contemporary romance so much.

So when you get something like this, an insight in a young mind that is wholesome, that understands the concept of family, friends, love and devotion, and sees that there is absolutely nothing wrong with being normal, it flows like a fresh breeze. Honestly, normal somehow became abnormal with the current popular culture, and it seems that people aren't really doing much else, except competing to see who has more mental and emotional damage. So kudos to the author, she deserves praise at every chapter.

But I digress...

The novel itself is fast paced and absolutely filled with action, and there is plenty of it to be had. The world building was clever, not too much like some fantasy novels out there, not too little to seem unconnected, but just enough to keep you turning the pages.

I loved the Dragon. I loved the dynamic between him and Agnieszka. Yes sure, he treated her in a cold way, but not in a sexually charged cold way. He genuinely thought she was an idiot....and truth be told, she did very little to dissuade him.



Everything that developed between them, happened trough a long period of time, it grew slowly, but naturally and it was awesome to watch.

As the magical villains go, I think the Wood is in top ten faves of all times. There is something truly sinister I think, when you can't put a face on something that is hell bent on killing you. A true evil, that lies within every person, waiting to be let out, rather than a simple guy in spandex wearing a distractingly elaborate hairpiece.

This has been so far a good year for me, book wise. I haven't had many duds. It makes me happy to no end, to see that fantasy is picking up speed. I am aware that there are a handful of authors out there who made it big and inspired more and more people in the genre, and I am glad, as it turns out – there are many very talented authors out there, and in a world filled with magic, not even the sky is the limit. show less

Oh I loved this!

It was such a gorgeous mix of dark and light themes. There were times when it was bloody, and hopeless and downright cruel, and then other times were just sparkling and beautiful.

I've heard some people say that it's fast paced, and some others say it's slow. I don't think it's either. While it took me 4 days to read it, there was always something happening . I don't think there's a wasted sentence in the book.

The ending took me by complete surprise - it took me until the last 40 pages to even figure out what the endgame was in the first place, and I still didn't expect it to end up like it did. I loved the mystery.

The world building is gorgeous but not heavy handed - it's told like it should be, in my opinion, as if it show more is the real world, being told by someone who lives in it, to another person who lives in it. There was no info dumping that would seem completely out of place, which honestly I've come to expect from a lot of fantasy stories.

I like that the romantic subplot was exactly that, a subplot - I feel like the story could've done well with or without it there, but I enjoyed it quite a bit and thought it gave a really lovely spice to it.

Every character was well rounded and amazing in my opinion, and there were deeper layers to everyone that I really enjoyed discovering.

The only reason this didn't get 5 stars out of me is because the writing style itself isn't particularly special, but even then this is a 4.5 more than it is a 4. It's a new favourite for me, and I'm glad I read it. show less