A review by katiecoconut21
Uprooted by Naomi Novik

adventurous mysterious tense 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? No

3.25

Uprooted by Naomi Novik is a beautiful re-telling of a Polish fairytale. Anyone who says it's a retelling of Beauty and the Beast is lying to you; the only similarities are very shaky at best.

I enjoyed it perhaps moreso as a retelling than some other books, and my only critiques are nit-picky, but ultimately, ended up taking away some of the magic of the story for me.

The lack of magic-system development particularly bothered me. For some reason, Agnieszka
is better at Baba Jaga's magic than the magic practiced by the Dragon, Sarkan
. That's exactly it though...for some reason. Emphasis is not really placed on why this is the case, and I feel like it is largely due to a magic-system that wasn't fully thought through. In most cases, it just felt like a reason for why Agnieszka is different.

Going on that vein, the
budding romance between Agnieszka and Sarkan
felt out-of-the-blue for me. Just because there's forced proximity doesn't mean love will follow.fairytale. I honestly felt more chemistry between Agnieszka and Kasia than I did otherwise (though Kasia was easily my favorite character).

The pacing was a bit off. The ending felt rushed for me, especially because Agnieszka's time
at court
felt so slow, and we weren't even introduced to
the Wood-Queen
until the book was almost over, making me feel like I was going to have to read a sequel, despite explicitly seeking out a standalone novel.

Having said all that, Uprooted is still a very enjoyable novel overall, especially for those who enjoy re-tellings from less famous fairytales.
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