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A review by jojofullo
Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Did not finish book. Stopped at 50%.
Nope. DNF @ 50%. 

The plot itself is ok; I wouldn’t be saying there’s much world building or epic-ness. It’s kind of action fairy tale, not my usual kind of fantasy. Though I think I could have continued despite this if it weren’t for the other big issues. In fact, there were some really great descriptions of creepy animals in the Wood that I enjoyed - at which point I decided to give up, if that gives you any indication of how bothered I was with other content I address below. The writing was vivid and easy to follow - until it wasn’t. There are some places with weird phraseology and odd sequencing of scenes that jolts you out of the story.

The big issues:
The unquestioned and unaddressed underage sexualisation of girls, and the lack of any mention of empathy or other feeling for graphic animal death and cruelty, really put me off from a story I could have generally otherwise enjoyed. Come to think of it, the lack of emotion about triggering subjects is just generally very odd.

I’m incredibly disappointed that a female writer is perpetuating the normalisation of much older men sexualising underage children. Also the (unexplained) targeting of teen girls for a wizard to choose from and take for his own unknown use every 10 years is never fully explained. Why girls, why teens? There is no explanation for this, just that it happens, and that villagers suspect they’re sexually abused (shared without any anger/horror/outrage/whatever). I get that these situations will be part of fiction, but you cannot present them as if they are acceptable. I suspect this is part of the story just to carry the age-old trope (that is not ok) of using girls as protagonists to be seduced by older men and/or to include sexual elements the patriarchy has told us is the most desirable (i.e. older men lusting after teenage girls). Of which I very much do not care to read as acceptable. I just have no patience for this shit anymore. It’s not needed. It’s harmful. There is no place for this rubbish anymore, especially from a female author. 
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