Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

65 reviews

orchidlilly's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

2.0

Overall, subpar. The magic and world building are far more interesting than any of the characters could ever dream of being, which is a shame because we don't get to see much of it. The premise was interesting, the plot was an actual plot, but it could have been fleshed out so much better if it only had a bit more time. The ending was a semi-refreshing subversion of the expected romance ending, but it felt a bit rushed. The romance part itself was, in my opinion, wholly unnecessary and a bit unpleasant. The main romantic interest is an immortal while our mc is... 17-ish. Not to mention the attempted rape scene.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Grief, Kidnapping, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Bullying, Fatphobia, Gore, and War

Moderate: Mental illness, Death, Sexual harassment, Blood, Body horror, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Animal death, and Confinement

bookhoarderbea's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, War, Gore, Blood, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Vomit, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

dexkit10'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Confinement, Murder, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Sexual assault

katiekeske's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

I enjoyed Spinning Silver more than this one, but it was still well written. I just didn't like the characters or story as much. I think it was longer than it needed to be. I wish the characters would talk and communicate things more, too!

I'm glad that I read Spinning Silver first because I may never have read it if I had read this as my first Naomi Novik novel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Vomit, Sexual assault, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Sexual content

The prince attempts to rape the MC. She beats the shit out of him thankfully, but it was a stressful scene.

sof_led's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gore, Rape, Body horror, Sexual content, Animal death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual assault

rokinjaguar's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

Hmm, okay. VERY good book. It's incredibly descriptive and vivid. I could see it all in my mind. I kept reacting externally to things that would happen, shuddering at horrifying moments, jumping when the Dragon would pop up out of nowhere, feeling real dread and fear, heart glowing at sweet moments, saying "get rekt" under my breath when Agnieszka roasts someone, etc. I really burned through this book. 
There are a lot of amazing female characters, like Kasia and a powerful and wise witch later in the story. I also really love Agnieszka, she was a lot of fun to read about. Loved how intuitive, emotional, and in tune with nature she was. Like seriously, she really spoke to my heart. I'm sure she won't connect with everyone like she did me, but the starved emotional/creative part of my soul adored her. The male characters were good, too, I really enjoyed the Dragon, but the female characters are where the writing really shines imo. Side note,

Malek and the Falcon can choke and die, and I mean that in a my-compliments-to-the-author way

.
I think the book would have been better if the author had taken out the

attempted-rape scene with the shitty prince and the sex scene

.

The kissing scene

could stay or go, it adds and subtracts to the story pretty equally. But I feel like the

attempted-rape scene

wasn’t handled quite sensitively enough. Didn’t bother me, but it was borderline, and I have a little thread of upsetness in me that

the Dragon never really comforted or reassured her or was angry for her over that – it's an incredibly traumatizing thing to experience

. The Dragon's character arc was coherent and satisfying, I really liked it, but it was a bit unsatisfying that

he and Agnieszka never really talked about their feelings

. I get what the author was going for, but it just annoyed me that

so many things were left unsaid, like constantly

. But I did really like the part where

Agnieszka recognized he was scared to put down roots and was running away, now that he’d 1) lost his cold stone tower, 2) drank Spindle-water, and 3) held her hand. And I’m glad he came back, that was nice

. That was the part where everything really paid off, to me.
I really loved the Dragon and Agnieszka’s partner dynamic

(separate from their romantic dynamic)

. They’re so different, they’re exactly what the other lacks, and Agnieszka learns to understand and accept him, and the Dragon learns to respect her as an equal and accept her way of looking at things as valid. Their growing relationship and mutual respect was really great, but

the romance just fell flat. It was too little and too much at the same time. It was little enough that it felt irrelevant, but too much that the moments where the romantic element came together felt unearned, emotionless, and poorly-done.

I feel a bit mixed about the ending. It felt a little abstract to me, and the whole book is abstract, and like I don’t think it’s a bad thing, but I feel like my brain didn’t quite wrap around it well enough to feel fully satisfied. Maybe with another read in the future hindsight will help me know which parts are important to pay attention to, to understand the ending.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Body horror

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Confinement, Death of parent, Murder, Violence, and War

Minor: Alcohol, Child death, and Animal death

fatherprozac'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.

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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. 

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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

gbmillar2002's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.25

The book was quite slow paced with the last 1/3 becoming more fast paced. The author had a beautiful command of metaphors and description but the plot felt like a generic fantasy book. 

The enemies to lovers subplot felt haphazardly thrown in, with the budding Romance between the dragon and neishka not having adequate subtext. The ending was slightly more developed with the reveal of the true cause of the Wood. Nevertheless it felt short lived and crammed in the last 50 pages

. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Gore

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and War

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

whirl's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Murder, Blood, Confinement, and Death of parent