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anasc007's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual assault, and Blood
Moderate: Violence, War, Kidnapping, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Vomit, Confinement, and Death
tachyondecay's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
As longtime readers of my reviews will know, I am a big fan of Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series. Novik’s blending of historical fiction with the fantasy concept of dragons serving in militaries is such a captivating tale. So when Uprooted came out in 2015, I was excited to read Novik’s foray into more traditional fantasy.
Then, of course, I never got around to it. Until now!
Agnieszka lives in a small village near an evil, corrupting Wood. Every ten years, the wizard who protects this group of villages from the encroaching Wood picks a single village girl to serve him for a decade. This wizard, the Dragon, is a fair yet foreboding lord. When Agnieszka is unexpectedly chosen over her more appealing best friend, this triggers a series of magical events that upend the lives of Agnieszka and many, many more. Uprooted draws from the atmosphere of fairy tales, particularly central and eastern European folklore, to pit our protagonist against twisted nature itself.
I’ll be upfront: I loved the first half of this book far more than the second half. From the time Agnieszka is chosen by the Dragon to roughly her arrival at the capital city, I was thoroughly engrossed in this narrative. The second half of the book branched out (pun intended) into a more epic narrative, and to be honest I just kind of lost interest in it all. So I’m going to deal with each half separately and then render a final opinion.
The first half of this book is so lovely. When Agnieszka arrives at the Dragon’s tower, she initially struggles with his attitude towards her, his moods, and her own inability to cope. What I love about this relationship is that Agnieszka constantly refuses to work within the confines the Dragon sets out for her. She pursues numerous little acts of rebellion. Then, when danger arises in another village while the Dragon is dealing with something else, she doesn’t hesitate: she takes matters into her own hands, proving herself heroic.
Agnieszka’s relationship with magic is important too. The way that she feels magic intuitively, versus how the Dragon and other wizards seem to believe it is a highly structured, very formulaic practice, strikes me as a very feminist theme. The wizards seem like a conservative lot in general, and their dismissiveness towards Agnieszka and Jaga and those who would use magic more liberally, based more on feeling than formula, supports this reading. (One theory I developed, which proved not to be borne out, was that Agnieszka becomes Old Jaga—the comment about Jaga saying at her own funeral “I’m unstuck in time” made me think Novik was foreshadowing Agnieszka’s fate to become the very witch whose journals inspired her to find herself.)
In this way, watching Agnieszka grow into herself was just so pleasurable. I curled up under a blanket and thoroughly enjoyed how Novik subverts the idea that women are captured in towers and need to be rescued by princes. Well, the prince in this story is a boorish mama’s boy. Similarly, the Dragon is not a great mentor figure. Watching him transform gradually from a remote, one-dimensional idea in Agnieszka’s eyes to a living, breathing human with a backstory of his own is so great. Novik has studied the symphony of a fairy tale so thoroughly she can reproduce it yet subtly adjust the notes to achieve new and superior harmonies.
The second half of Uprooted, alas, shifts the tone of the book from fairy tale to epic fantasy. I want to be clear that I’m not saying the second half is bad. If you enjoyed every page of this book, that’s cool. But I noticed my attention wandering during the last half in a way that it didn’t near the beginning, and I attribute this to how we went from Agnieszka’s very personal struggles to her and the Dragon fighting a pitched battle against Prince Marek and his evil witch mom. The climax, the last-ditch effort to kill the Wood and save everyone, felt like a confusing fever dream that was difficult for me to follow.
In the end, I enjoyed this book overall, but there’s a gap between what I was hoping it would be and what it ended up being. When that happens, it’s neither the author’s nor the reader’s fault. This is a beautiful standalone fantasy novel that once again showcases Novik’s storytelling skill, and I would recommend it.
Originally posted at Kara.Reviews.
Originally posted at Kara.Reviews.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Death, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, and Kidnapping
acreatureofbooksandtea's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
The main plot of the book kept me glued to my ereader. It was tense and there were high stakes for the heroine throughout the entire story. And the heroine herself was plucky, brave and determined without coming off as stupid or purely reckless.
My main gripe is with what passed for romance it the story. The heroine and hero spent very little page time together overall, and most of that time he was being condescending and insulting everything from her looks, to her intelligence, to her magical ability. He was just an unpleasant character, even outside his interactions with the heroine, and only seemed to become even worse whenever he interacted with her.
As far as I’m concerned, the heroine had heaps more chemistry and depth of relationship with her childhood best friend, who was the other character I loved the most aside from the heroine. She was brave and selfless, and stayed at the heroine’s side helping and defending her with unending determination and bravery, and was always supportive of the heroine.
Overall I really enjoyed this book, from the story to the heroine and her best friend and their quest to defend their land and the people they love from some truly terrifying situations. Just don’t read this book expecting a romance (like I did) because you won’t find anything but a single non-graphic, awkward, rushed sex scene that was apparently supposed to represent the love between two character that spend most of the story acting like roommates at best, and antagonists at worst.
My main gripe is with what passed for romance it the story. The heroine and hero spent very little page time together overall, and most of that time he was being condescending and insulting everything from her looks, to her intelligence, to her magical ability. He was just an unpleasant character, even outside his interactions with the heroine, and only seemed to become even worse whenever he interacted with her.
As far as I’m concerned, the heroine had heaps more chemistry and depth of relationship with her childhood best friend, who was the other character I loved the most aside from the heroine. She was brave and selfless, and stayed at the heroine’s side helping and defending her with unending determination and bravery, and was always supportive of the heroine.
Overall I really enjoyed this book, from the story to the heroine and her best friend and their quest to defend their land and the people they love from some truly terrifying situations. Just don’t read this book expecting a romance (like I did) because you won’t find anything but a single non-graphic, awkward, rushed sex scene that was apparently supposed to represent the love between two character that spend most of the story acting like roommates at best, and antagonists at worst.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Animal death, Blood, and Sexism
Minor: Sexual assault, Body shaming, Confinement, Grief, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Kidnapping
There is a lot of death and violence in this book, some of it mentioned in detail. And some of the imagery is just generally disturbing and unsettling, like a person being trapped inside a tree to feed it while dying slowly. There is also a scene in the first 1/4 of the book where one of the recurring character in the book tries to rape the heroine, but she attacks them and only some groping actually takes place. But afterwards the hero blames her for the assault, and insinuates it would have been less trouble if she had just let the assault happen and that her ‘virtue’ wasn’t worth the trouble it was causing him to have to cover up what what she had done to her assailant.emilyparagraph's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, and Death
Moderate: Body horror
Minor: Kidnapping
calilaha's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault and Kidnapping
readerette's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
As you can tell by the 5 stars, I deeply enjoyed this book, though it took me a little while to settle into liking it. At first I thought the Dragon was just horrible and cruel and it was just going to be a story about how he makes people miserable, but it grew from there, though he stayed true to character. The growth in Agnieszka is believable and inspiring, and even when she gets stuck, she's not overly bleak, which I think helped balance some of the darker themes and characters in the story. I found the writing a bit stilted in places--the words just didn't come together for me, but it was only a few phrases in total that threw me, not enough to taint the delight.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, Murder, Violence, Animal death, and Sexual content
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Confinement, Cursing, Grief, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Vomit
starlightsong's review against another edition
the romance in this book--between the 17 year old main character and hundreds of years old Dragon--is super abusive and gross to the point where i just couldn't stand to finish it. the main character is constantly called ugly and stupid, horsefaced and slovenly, the dirtiest thing in the tower, useless, mentally defective and all manner of insults by the dragon, and when she's nearly raped by another man, he blames it on her because of the dress she was wearing. she somehow seems to forget all of this and goes on an adventure with the almost-rapist and falls in love with the dragon, who calls her a raving lunatic before suddenly kissing her. the prose is beautiful but i wish i had read the goodreads reviews, which are much more honest about the fact that this book is a beauty and the beast retelling in which the beast character does inexcusably awful things and this is never properly addressed, with agnieszka somehow falling for him because... why? i'm honestly not sure, it was so poorly developed. i can't understand why the reviews on this site are so positive. DNFed after chapter 11 in which it became clear that the Dragon is somehow our romantic lead rather than our villain. the plot involving the wood also feels super ableist to me in suggesting that physical and mental disabilities are caused by supernatural evil. i wish I'd never tried to read this tbh.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, Rape, and Sexism
nicolinebl's review against another edition
2.5
I gave this 5 stars in 2016 (I was 14/15) and adored the story. Have been wanting to reread it ever since and decided to reread recently. I was flabbergasted by how extremely weird the story was and how uncomfortable I felt reading it. He is 100+++ and she is 17. It's gross. I remember that the story was really intriguing and I didn't notice the weirdness of it all back then but it has ruined the book for me now...
I'm not going to finish it so I won't even be able to mark all the graphic warnings but you get the picture.
I'm not going to finish it so I won't even be able to mark all the graphic warnings but you get the picture.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Kidnapping, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Physical abuse
debra_reads_'s review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Dear Uprooted,
Let me start this letter by saying I am glad that I pushed through and kept going,. You were a fantastical story of magic, an adult fairy tale. But you were long winded and overly detailed. I started by listening to you, and it somehow took me 5 hours (and several days) to listen to 160 pages of you. I am not sure if it is the accent the book is read in, or the speed of the reader's voice, but you were a struggle for me to enjoy listening to. So, I picked up the physical book, and your pace was better. But there was much of the story and details that were drawn out and longer then necessary. You felt much longer then a 400 page book. I did love getting to watch Agnieszka learn her craft and discover her brand of magic, and grow into the witch she became, but there was not a lot of character development either, which is something that made you tough for me. You also are have your own issues within the characters; the Dragon is deeply flawed and often abusive and hurtful to Agnieszka. The "rules" of magic and the nature of the Woods did not seem to follow any rules of magic as I am familiar with either. The wizards seem to have unending wells of magic, and don't require much of a cost from it's casters. Ultimately, you fall short of the goal of suspension of disbelief and escapism that I enjoy in a fairy tale.
Let me start this letter by saying I am glad that I pushed through and kept going,. You were a fantastical story of magic, an adult fairy tale. But you were long winded and overly detailed. I started by listening to you, and it somehow took me 5 hours (and several days) to listen to 160 pages of you. I am not sure if it is the accent the book is read in, or the speed of the reader's voice, but you were a struggle for me to enjoy listening to. So, I picked up the physical book, and your pace was better. But there was much of the story and details that were drawn out and longer then necessary. You felt much longer then a 400 page book. I did love getting to watch Agnieszka learn her craft and discover her brand of magic, and grow into the witch she became, but there was not a lot of character development either, which is something that made you tough for me. You also are have your own issues within the characters; the Dragon is deeply flawed and often abusive and hurtful to Agnieszka. The "rules" of magic and the nature of the Woods did not seem to follow any rules of magic as I am familiar with either. The wizards seem to have unending wells of magic, and don't require much of a cost from it's casters. Ultimately, you fall short of the goal of suspension of disbelief and escapism that I enjoy in a fairy tale.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Violence
acesnsk8s's review against another edition
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping
Moderate: Sexual content