Uprooted by Naomi Novik
5 stars
“That as the end of the story: no one went into the Wood and came out again, at least not whole and themselves.”
Agnieszka lives on a simple small village in the valley. She isn’t the closest village to the Wood, but she is close enough that a windy day can bring the Wood’s corruption into someone’s home causing mischief and murder. She doesn’t know why the Wood is corrupted or why walkers and other horrifying creatures inhabit it; coming out and capturing innocent souls who are never seen again and if they do come back something isn’t right. The Dragon, a powerful sorcerer, holds back the Wood and protects those who reside in the valley. With his protection he has a requirement. Every ten years a young woman from her village must be given to the Dragon and sent to live in his castle for ten years. Agnieszka is sure that The Dragon will choose her best friend, Kasia, and she loathes him for it. However, it isn’t Kasia the Dragon chooses and Agnieszka is soon to discover that she has more powers than she could have imagined.
This story warmed my heart. I love simple fairy tale stories and a Beauty and the Beast retelling is always a nice treat. This story makes me feel like I’m coming home. Fantasy readers will appreciate the simple roots that Novik takes because a simple fantasy story seeped in magic with a hulking beast and a terrifying omnipresent entity that must be destroyed is the basis for a lot of classic tales. I absolutely adored Uprooted. However, I will caution that this isn’t the story for everyone. Mainly because I’m sure that most fantasy readers, especially those who gravitate towards high fantasy, will hate this. I say this because the magic in Uprooted is not explained and it lacks any solid basis and I’m sure that can be frustrating to a lot of readers.
What makes the magic in Uprooted so wonderful for me is that it fits the lyrical writing that Novik executes. Novik weaves magic in the same one would tell a story orally or sing a song. It can be a little much a times to be reading about how magic flows, feels, and sings, but not have any explanation other than that. I found it particularly fitting for Agnieszka’s own powers, which frustrate the Dragon and the Council, because her magic goes beyond those of textbooks and logic. Her magic is based off of paths, woods, flowers, and the spirit of the earth. In contrast it fits very well with Novik’s own writing style and provides a wonderful magic based story.
Uprooted does offer a lot of things that fantasy readers will enjoy. There is the ever-beloved court politics, which I have a love-hate relationship with because I love the drama and court intrigue, but I quickly tire of the frivolous backdrop and how it hinders my favorite characters from getting down to business and defeating the big bad beasties. This is also kind of horror fantasy, which is my kind of stuff. The Wood is no joke. There are giant praying mantises that eat the heads of humans. It’s pretty dark and definitely gritty. For the hopeless romantics, there is a ship. It’s a wonderful ship that I was one hundred percent behind because they weren’t making me gag with their promises to die together in a heap of flowers (I can’t deal with that stuff sometimes).
Whimsical Writing Scale: 5
“I was a glaring blot on the perfection. But I didn’t care: I didn’t feel I owed him beauty.”
The main female character is Agnieszka. She is very brave and incredibly strong-willed. She doesn’t take no for answer because she believes that everyone deserves a chance, especially those who have been corrupted by the Wood. I particularly loved her growth and character development, especially the path she chose to take towards the end (view spoiler) My biggest bone to pick is Agnieszka’s character at the beginning willingly falling into a very popular trope found in fantasy that characters to the patriarchal narrative of pleasing the man with food and if you don’t please him, then expect to be punished. This was really the only problem I had with the narrative and it happened in Chapter 2 and was quickly remedied, but I did want to mention it in case it turned off early readers. Agnieszka is very resilient and does a lot of very funny things that make this dark story more light-hearted.
Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 5
“But for all he saved us, we didn’t love him.”
The main male character is the Dragon or Sarkan. The Dragon is very hard, cold, and a bit standoffish. He is a stickler for the rules, perfection, and cleanliness. A great contrast to Agnieszka’s free spirit and affliction for mud. Due to their differences, they balance each other out beautifully and make my fangirl shipping heart sing. When Agnieszka called the Dragon Sarkan for the first time I was squealing. I was captivated by Sarkan. Not because he is particularly swoon worthy, but because of his strong presence and his quietly kind nature that is often overlooked. He saves people and helps those in need past what his orders decree, but he does it kindly.
Swoon Worthy Scale: 5
The Villain- This is a wild ride. Not only is the Wood a horrifying place that hosts even more terrifying creatures; it is also a grand champion at battle strategy and some of the plot twists in this book had me shook because I wasn’t expecting Novik to go there, but she went there. I loved it.
Villain Scale: 5
There is a large cast of characters. Kasia plays a huge role in this story and the friendship she shares with Agnieszka is incredibly complex. Her own storyline takes a very interesting and admirable turn that I vastly enjoyed. Prince Marek is a plague not only to the Dragon and Agnieszka, but to this story in general. His brash ignorance and desire to rush into things head on was annoying and also trigger warning because this prick doesn’t know that no means no. He plays a huge role in this story and he is the main reason for most of my irritation. There are a ton of other characters, but I won’t mention any more because I want you to learn about them and experience them for yourselves.
Character Scale: 5
I obviously loved Uprooted and highly recommend it to anyone who loves old fantasy stories that aren’t wrought with reasonings and just want to be swept away into a magical and sometimes haunting story. If you love horror, fantasy, and romances that don’t consist of batting eyes and heavy breathing, then this may be the story for you. I’m so happy that I finally picked this one up because I absolutely adored every minute of it. A definite new favorite.
Plotastic Scale: 5
Cover Thoughts: I love the cover so freaking much. It is one of my favorite covers every and when I take the dusk jacket off it looks like a white wedding dress. I loved the design so much.
5 stars
“That as the end of the story: no one went into the Wood and came out again, at least not whole and themselves.”
Agnieszka lives on a simple small village in the valley. She isn’t the closest village to the Wood, but she is close enough that a windy day can bring the Wood’s corruption into someone’s home causing mischief and murder. She doesn’t know why the Wood is corrupted or why walkers and other horrifying creatures inhabit it; coming out and capturing innocent souls who are never seen again and if they do come back something isn’t right. The Dragon, a powerful sorcerer, holds back the Wood and protects those who reside in the valley. With his protection he has a requirement. Every ten years a young woman from her village must be given to the Dragon and sent to live in his castle for ten years. Agnieszka is sure that The Dragon will choose her best friend, Kasia, and she loathes him for it. However, it isn’t Kasia the Dragon chooses and Agnieszka is soon to discover that she has more powers than she could have imagined.
This story warmed my heart. I love simple fairy tale stories and a Beauty and the Beast retelling is always a nice treat. This story makes me feel like I’m coming home. Fantasy readers will appreciate the simple roots that Novik takes because a simple fantasy story seeped in magic with a hulking beast and a terrifying omnipresent entity that must be destroyed is the basis for a lot of classic tales. I absolutely adored Uprooted. However, I will caution that this isn’t the story for everyone. Mainly because I’m sure that most fantasy readers, especially those who gravitate towards high fantasy, will hate this. I say this because the magic in Uprooted is not explained and it lacks any solid basis and I’m sure that can be frustrating to a lot of readers.
What makes the magic in Uprooted so wonderful for me is that it fits the lyrical writing that Novik executes. Novik weaves magic in the same one would tell a story orally or sing a song. It can be a little much a times to be reading about how magic flows, feels, and sings, but not have any explanation other than that. I found it particularly fitting for Agnieszka’s own powers, which frustrate the Dragon and the Council, because her magic goes beyond those of textbooks and logic. Her magic is based off of paths, woods, flowers, and the spirit of the earth. In contrast it fits very well with Novik’s own writing style and provides a wonderful magic based story.
Uprooted does offer a lot of things that fantasy readers will enjoy. There is the ever-beloved court politics, which I have a love-hate relationship with because I love the drama and court intrigue, but I quickly tire of the frivolous backdrop and how it hinders my favorite characters from getting down to business and defeating the big bad beasties. This is also kind of horror fantasy, which is my kind of stuff. The Wood is no joke. There are giant praying mantises that eat the heads of humans. It’s pretty dark and definitely gritty. For the hopeless romantics, there is a ship. It’s a wonderful ship that I was one hundred percent behind because they weren’t making me gag with their promises to die together in a heap of flowers (I can’t deal with that stuff sometimes).
Whimsical Writing Scale: 5
“I was a glaring blot on the perfection. But I didn’t care: I didn’t feel I owed him beauty.”
The main female character is Agnieszka. She is very brave and incredibly strong-willed. She doesn’t take no for answer because she believes that everyone deserves a chance, especially those who have been corrupted by the Wood. I particularly loved her growth and character development, especially the path she chose to take towards the end (view spoiler) My biggest bone to pick is Agnieszka’s character at the beginning willingly falling into a very popular trope found in fantasy that characters to the patriarchal narrative of pleasing the man with food and if you don’t please him, then expect to be punished. This was really the only problem I had with the narrative and it happened in Chapter 2 and was quickly remedied, but I did want to mention it in case it turned off early readers. Agnieszka is very resilient and does a lot of very funny things that make this dark story more light-hearted.
Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 5
“But for all he saved us, we didn’t love him.”
The main male character is the Dragon or Sarkan. The Dragon is very hard, cold, and a bit standoffish. He is a stickler for the rules, perfection, and cleanliness. A great contrast to Agnieszka’s free spirit and affliction for mud. Due to their differences, they balance each other out beautifully and make my fangirl shipping heart sing. When Agnieszka called the Dragon Sarkan for the first time I was squealing. I was captivated by Sarkan. Not because he is particularly swoon worthy, but because of his strong presence and his quietly kind nature that is often overlooked. He saves people and helps those in need past what his orders decree, but he does it kindly.
Swoon Worthy Scale: 5
The Villain- This is a wild ride. Not only is the Wood a horrifying place that hosts even more terrifying creatures; it is also a grand champion at battle strategy and some of the plot twists in this book had me shook because I wasn’t expecting Novik to go there, but she went there. I loved it.
Villain Scale: 5
There is a large cast of characters. Kasia plays a huge role in this story and the friendship she shares with Agnieszka is incredibly complex. Her own storyline takes a very interesting and admirable turn that I vastly enjoyed. Prince Marek is a plague not only to the Dragon and Agnieszka, but to this story in general. His brash ignorance and desire to rush into things head on was annoying and also trigger warning because this prick doesn’t know that no means no. He plays a huge role in this story and he is the main reason for most of my irritation. There are a ton of other characters, but I won’t mention any more because I want you to learn about them and experience them for yourselves.
Character Scale: 5
I obviously loved Uprooted and highly recommend it to anyone who loves old fantasy stories that aren’t wrought with reasonings and just want to be swept away into a magical and sometimes haunting story. If you love horror, fantasy, and romances that don’t consist of batting eyes and heavy breathing, then this may be the story for you. I’m so happy that I finally picked this one up because I absolutely adored every minute of it. A definite new favorite.
Plotastic Scale: 5
Cover Thoughts: I love the cover so freaking much. It is one of my favorite covers every and when I take the dusk jacket off it looks like a white wedding dress. I loved the design so much.
Have you read Uprooted? Is it one of your favorites? Do you plan on reading it? Let me know down below in the comments!
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