Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

29 reviews

saintyeehaw's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I kept rooting for this book and it kind of kept letting me down, sadly. I fell in love with the magic system, the visualizations of spell casting, the descriptions of reading the Summoning, and the dark horror of the Wood. Unfortunately, Sarkan's never ending verbal abuse toward Nieshka, her being 17 to his 150, the weird sympathetic framing of a rapist, and the inclusion of only one explicitly black character just to have her be the daughter of a slave really soured me on the whole thing. 

I'll just rant here. The fact that Sarkan chooses specifically girls (never explained why boys aren't chosen if everyone with the gift must be trained) and expects them to cook all his meals for him for ten years was already irredeemable in my eyes. His constant berating of Nieshka literally left her EXPECTING abuse multiple times throughout the book which left me feeling sick at its romanticization. Truly, Sarkan's only traits were that he liked cleanliness and that he was mean. Their hideous age gap (of literally a child and a very old man) being framed as his excuse to momentarily hesitate from sex with her? yikes. Why did she need to be 17? I would have much preferred reading about an adult woman and her ages old immortal boyfriend. Lastly, the rape scene was handled unbelievably poorly and just made Sarkan even more monstrous to me.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body horror, Classism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, and War

Minor: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Child death, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Murder, and Vomit

shieldbearer's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective 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

4.0

A very strong read, although I preferred Spinning Silver. My primary complaint is the romance between Sarkan and Agneskia - I simply could not see the romantic chemistr. It felt forced to me, and I think the narrative would have been better served without it. 

I also can't say I liked the reveal about the origin of the Wood Queen and the reason the wood is attacking. I think the Staryk were handled with more nuance in Spinning Silver. 

However, I would still strongly recommend this novel. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Classism, Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, Sexual harassment, Murder, Medical content, Death, Confinement, Blood, Body horror, and Animal death

Moderate: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, and Vomit

antjeliest's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Vomit

Minor: Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, and Religious bigotry

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

laurajeangrace's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, War, Gore, Death, and Body horror

Moderate: Sexual harassment and Confinement

Minor: Vomit and Slavery

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.

---

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.

ohmygourd's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Murder, Sexual assault, Violence, Sexual content, and Death

Moderate: Vomit, Death of parent, Confinement, Animal death, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Rape and Miscarriage

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

aerietta's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I really enjoyed this story, a lot more than I thought I would based on other reviews. I especially enjoyed the pacing and how the world exposition was handled, though I feel like the end was more akin to an epilogue with how quickly it wrapped up.

The treatment of characterization was also handled well, I thought. It wasn't so much that flaws were shown and disappeared through character development. The characters kept their flaws, but those were softened through mutual understanding and adapted better as they learned more about the world around them.

I would like to note that the "show, don't tell" in how the characters felt about each other and how using magic affected them left a lot more room for interpretation than I think the author intended. Some of the interactions fell a little flat or seemed not to have much build-up to explain why they happened.

Overall, very enjoyable. Plan to read again.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Kidnapping, Violence, and Sexual content

Minor: Vomit, Sexual assault, and Rape