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A review by bookishatlas
Uprooted by Naomi Novik

slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

0.25

good news! i have found the cure to insomnia! 

just listen to this book (or try to read it physically, if you really want to torture yourself). the narrator didn’t help either, because the inflections and pauses in the sentences were so bizarre and consistently confused me, combined with an accent (not APD friendly). 
i can never get to sleep on time if i try to listen to my books, bc i get so tense and invested and my brain doesn’t turn off. this book? i was fully out within an hour (super fast for me). 

even while doing other tasks in the day and trying to listen to this, i often found myself completely tuned out, and i couldn’t care to go back in the book and listen to whatever i missed. it got to a point there was a “big twist” and a “high stakes death” and i legit couldn’t care less. i can’t even bring myself to hate this book i’m so bored by it. i literally cannot conjure the energy it would take to hate this book. 

there’s also the fact that an attempted rape is detailed, and there’s so much abuse that happens in this book that’s just. overlooked? am i reading the same book as everyone else? 

the flowery prose and repetition and etc are along the lines of caraval, or the night circus. both of which i also hated, so. go figure. 

the beginning of the book was so long, but also covered the entire premise they give you? like. the entirety of the pitch is complete within the first chapter basically. 

“oh no,” (whoop-dee-doo), there’s a “dragon” (abusive piece of shit) that “steals a girl” (chooses a girl in a line-up when the villagers present them all in some ritual?) and keeps her for 10 years, during which they are “ruined” (they are learned and then continue to university), and another girl is taken? to what end? i should’ve known then that this would be awful. 

i thought this was a YA book. why is there a very detailed sex scene literally 80% in? contrasted with the assault that was very early on in the book and is glossed over all too quickly. and between a 17 and 100+ yr old as well? fuck no. there’s no romance. it’s not a love story. 

also, dude ffs is agnieszka (or however you spell her name) really the mc or is kasia??? bc she won’t stfu about kasia. kasia this kasia that kasia pulls them all out of whatever situation again bc they’re so physically exhausted from speaking incomprehensible words in a repetitive chant. 

there’s no magic system it’s just annoying. i’m glad i didn’t buy this and libraries exist. support ur local libraries btw 

definitely not worth finishing if you’re considering a dnf 
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