A review by freyagame
Uprooted by Naomi Novik

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

2.5

I read this when I was 15 and thought it was aggressively mid, came back to it and am a little horrified that my opinion hasn't changed. 

Overall nice world building and scenery but never really decides if it wants to be high fantasy and I think it really suffers as a result. It is clear that Novik is a very talented writer, the prose is really great but is let down by plot structure IMO. Not helped by the MC being incredibly annoying in the first half of the book with some weird development leading into conclusion.
We are never told why she is able to do magic that no other wizard can, there is seemingly no reason.
Most of the plot is driven by what's happening with her best friend who we are told is very amazing but who is actually very boring and sleeps mostly until she needs to swing a sword around. Their relationship is really bizarre: a few moments early on that lead to some great conflict but these threads are all dropped.
However, the final chapter was incredibly sweet and did bring it back a lot for me, I'm a sucker for a village boogie.
Romance and magic system a bit nonsensical and underdeveloped (interesting age gap!) I really do think you could squeeze the entire romance plot into the content of about 5 pages, it never really goes anywhere: he's written entirely out of the second act and receives next to no development as a result. A travesty honestly. Also an instance of sexual assault that is kind of brushed under the rug once the plot get rolling, dissapointing. Random very slow 100 pages or so in the middle that get very political, a bit of a standstill that doesn't gel fabulously with the first section of the book. Generally good vibes if you don't think too hard about anything and just roll with it. If looking for fun fairytale is a great pick but a bit of a shallow fantasy otherwise :// 
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