Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

65 reviews

hiddeninfantasy's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

kitterring's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful fast-paced

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

4.25

I found the plot to move in leaps and starts, not unmanageable but noticeable. There were times I felt important parts of conversations weren’t had, and I would’ve loved some breathing room to understand the depth of the relationships better, especially the one between Agniezka and the dragon. With Kasia it was established they had years before the book to be childhood friends, but I would have liked to see the development more. 

I thought that the ending and the allegory was sweet and hopeful. Considering how dark things got to lead to that point, it felt like a gentle ending that was earned. It made sense and I was satisfied knowing how things got to where they did. I liked how many of the relationships were hard to interpret. There were a lot of conflicting interests and I enjoyed not knowing. The shallow nature of the court proceedings opposed to the people just trying to get by. Overall enjoyed this a lot. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Alcohol, and War

esme_may's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.5

I adored this! It's written absolutely beautifully with gorgeous imagery, and the ending is maybe my favourite I've read this year. I'd read more by Naomi Novik in a heartbeat

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Genocide, Racism, Torture, Xenophobia, Vomit, Grief, and Alcohol

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.

---

Content Warnings

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

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

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

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

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Vomit

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

---

Content Warnings

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

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.

---

Content Warnings

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

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

Minor: Animal death, Child death, and Alcohol

flyintothestorm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful tense 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

4.0

I love Agnieszka. I love Sarkan. I hate the way their relationship is handled.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Blood, and War

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.

---

Content Warnings

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

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

allmight's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Sexual harassment