My third book by Novik! To be blunt, while I did enjoy this one, I prefer Spinning Silver. There were a couple things that felt off to me and stopped me from enjoying it as much as I thought I was going to. Part of it was the pacing towards the second half of the book. I thought it felt a little rushed, especially after Agnieszka

and Kasia escaped back to the tower with the children

, and that the ending was a little weird/abrupt, too.

The characters were fine - for me they fell a bit flat and weren’t particularly loveable or relatable. I also couldn’t get behind the romance - since there were so few scenes and so little development, it felt as though they would have made more sense as unlikely friends (and that it wouldn’t have affected the story all that much). I’m all for lowkey, second-to-the-plot romances - in fact, I usually prefer them - this one just didn’t work for me.

I should stress that while it wasn’t my favourite, and though I’ve gone into more depth about the things I disliked than the things I liked, there were lots of things I enjoyed about this book, including: 
- The overall writing/story/plot, which was on par with Novik’s usual standards - well written, thought-provoking, and creative. 
- The magic system was interesting, and I really liked the descriptions of it.
- Agnieszka’s friendship with Kasia. It’s always nice to read about a friendship that’s so obviously full of love and trust.

Overall, I’m glad I read this book, and recommend just giving it a try if you’re on the fence about it.

I wish to start out by saying that I slowly fell in love with this setting - with the atmospheres and tones it developed, the magic system, the forest-based eldritch horror, and the mysterious fantasy adventure that ensued for two-thirds of the book. If there were any more written in this world - not even a direct sequel, just stories happening to take place in the same setting - I'd definitely pick them up.

However, there were glaring flaws with this specific story - especially towards the beginning - that nearly had me DNFing had I not persisted until the plot got juicy. The romance is the main source of it, it just did not work at all. The love interest is so unlikable from the start and the "redemption" so sudden and unbuilt that I never truly got to like him even by the final page, and therefore just could not believe the romance. He starts off with such bad anger issues - even when things are going well, he has a fit about that, and I felt even more soured on him. He's MIA for a good chunk of the middle, which unfortunately means there's hardly any convincing development for his character and the relationships; the author still tried to have hints of it on the heroine's side, but it just felt forced, and I believe the very sudden rush of "progress" in the romance right before this gap of his appearances was meant to compensate for his incoming absence, but that also just felt forced and completely unbelievable. The heroine has more chemistry with her best friend Kasia than she does with the Dragon - I think she actually kissed Kasia more times than the Dragon! Their relationship was a lot stronger and Kasia was even with her for most of the important plot in the middle of the story, with the relationship being the catalyst for many developments in the adventure, so why wasn't this story about them being sapphic??

As much as I love the story of the latter two-thirds of the book, the first few chapters are so painful to get through. The overall story feels like two different books: that the author set out to write a Beauty and the Beast retelling, but it suddenly became usurped by a more intriguing fantasy mystery-adventure with eldritch horror and sapphic love, and had to awkwardly shoehorn in the actual het "love makes you a better person" romance at the end.

Something else I noticed as I read, which I don't actually have an issue with at all: it feels like this was at least loosely inspired by Howl's Moving Castle? I don't think it's because of a possible overlap in the mythological sources, since this story is heavily Polish while I believe Howl is Welsh. I started to suspect it as

the heroine realized she was secretly a witch the whole time and the Dragon had known the whole time, too.

Maybe I'm reaching and all just coincidental, but I could imagine various details being spun from Howl, made very different in this plot but the sentiment of them still present if you're familiar enough:

the intimidating wizard in a part of the land no one steps foot in (with similar-ish names for said lands), the "dragon" in the wizard's name, the very beautiful and perfect girl from the heroine's life that she compares her plain self to, the order for all magic-users to be trained and serve the crown, the war between two kingdoms due to missing royalty

. It was around the point of the detail of stuck-up rich people riding in boxes with chairs inside that I really started to suspect that either this was a fanfic of Howl turned original, or the author was just really influenced while making this story. Again, I don't actually take issue with it, and I don't think it's something like plagiarism. I just thought it was a very interesting detail, and potentially a draw for anyone into Howl's Moving Castle.

One more odd detail that kinda turned me off every time it got brought up was how dirty the heroine gets and how much attention is drawn to it each time. The amount of times it happened and how much detail gave me "the author's fetish" vibes in the scale of discomfort.

From the moment I started Uprooted, I was hooked. The story immediately draws you in with an engaging plot that, while treading some familiar ground, kept me entertained throughout. There’s a lot of action in the novel, making it hard to put down.

What I didn’t expect was how much darker and more tragic the story would become. The Wood, which plays a central role, is both terrifying and mysterious. The eerie atmosphere surrounding it adds a sense of urgency to Agnieszka’s quest, and the lore behind the Wood, its villain, and the trauma it brings to the people around it truly captivated me. The deeper I got into the story, the more invested I became in uncovering its secrets.

One of the highlights of the book is the bond between Agnieszka and her best friend, Kasia. I loved their friendship and wished there were more moments showcasing their connection. It would have been great to see more memorable conversations and interactions between them, as their bond had so much potential.

The romance, however, left me with mixed feelings. The dynamic between Agnieszka and Sarkan felt harsh from the start—especially on Sarkan’s end, as he often belittled and downplayed Agnieszka, making it hard to buy into their connection. I also felt that the romance was rushed, and while there was emotional growth between them, it didn’t fully convince me. Sarkan’s personality, especially in the beginning, was another issue. He came off as cold, harsh, and often unlikable. Although he softens (but still harsh) by the end, his early treatment of Agnieszka was difficult to overlook. The backstory provided to explain his behavior didn’t quite make him sympathetic to me.

I also found the sex scene to be unnecessary. The slow build-up of their attraction was compelling enough, and the story didn’t need to rely on that added layer for validation. The emotional growth between the characters would have been more than enough to carry their relationship forward without it.

Another drawback for me was the pacing. While the story starts strong, there were sections that felt dragged out and flat, disrupting the otherwise engaging narrative. These slower parts made it harder to stay fully immersed, and a more streamlined approach would have kept the story tighter and more engaging throughout.

Despite these flaws, Uprooted is still a captivating fantasy that blends action, dark fairy-tale elements, and emotional depth. The world-building, particularly the lore of The Wood, is exceptional, and the focus on friendship adds a heartfelt layer to the story. While the romance and pacing didn’t fully work for me, the book’s unique atmosphere and compelling themes make it worth reading.

Really beautiful. It felt like a fairy tale, but grown up and dark while still whimsical. I really appreciated that it was so grounded in our main character and that her learning to trust herself and her instincts is her main strength. I really enjoyed the plot and how the threat of the wood felt real and frightening the whole time- not once did I ever feel like this was something the characters could walk away from, and I thought it was done really well. 

The one thing I didn't enjoy was the sex scene. I felt it was unnecessary and honestly kinda unbelievable considering the circumstances that had just happened. But I know that's a me thing. 

3.5 ⭐ CW: Death, violence, blood, death of a parent, sexual content 

Uprooted by Naomi Novik is a fantasy reminiscent of Grimm fairytales and turns the idea of a dragon coming to take a maiden on its head. Although I did enjoy the story, the pacing wasn't great and made for a slow read, so I knocked it down half a Star. 

We follow Agnieszka, a peasant girl who always manages to get herself dirty and untidy. Every ten years the Dragon, a wizard lord, would come to their village and take an exceptional girl. At the end of ten years, she would come back changed and leave the valley for good. No one expected the Dragon to choose Agnieszka. Eventually, she realizes she was chosen because she possessed magic, and was to be trained as a witch. 

The Dragon is the grumpiest of wizards that believes magic is very formulaic, and is frustrated when Agnieszka seems hopeless at learning magic the way he thinks she should. Instead, Agnieszka leaned toward the style of magic of Baba Jaga, a more intuitive magic. The Dragon's task in his tower was to hold back the force of the Wood, a sentient evil trying to take over the entire valley. When Agnieszka's friend Kasia is taken into the Wood by monsters, she does the impossible and gets her out of the tree she is trapped inside and cleanses her of the Wood's corruption. Because of this, the Prince of the kingdom demands she free his mother the Queen, even though she has been trapped for 20 years. 

This was an interesting story, and I liked the concept of the magic and the Wood. Agnieszka was a nice departure for a female MC in this kind of story. She wasn't beautiful, and though she had a little romance with the Dragon, it wasn't an important plot point. I really loved the lore of the Wood. I do wish the story had been a bit quicker about getting to the point. Everything just took so long. I think this is a pattern for this author. I've read another of her books that I liked, but it took me a while to get into it.

Uprooted comes alive on the page, the magic seeming to come alive on my fingers where they touch the page, alive. Novik's ability to translate the ephemeral into tangible - Agnieszka's magic likened to gleaning the forest for berries, and Sarkan's to academia  - is unparalleled. I almost believed I could cast a spell myself after looking up from the pages.

So, too, do Novik's characters come alive, leaping with life. It's hard to not love Agnieszka's scrappy defiance, Sarkan's dry wit, Kasia's unwavering devotion. 

This book begins by recounting a tale of the Dragon taking a girl from the valley into his tower every ten years, but Uprooted is not so simple. The story starts with the Dragon, but then winds itself through the valley, the whole of Polnya, into the Wood; then folds back on itself, layering life and violence and beauty and corruption into an intricate web. Just when you think the story is getting good, just when you think there's going to be the climax, there's still dozens to hundreds of pages left, leaving you thinking, What could possibly happen next? And then you peel back layer after layer, finally settling down onto the mossy forest floor, looking at the sun dappling through the leaves, boughs heavy with fruit.

There's a reason this book isn't a 5.0 for me, though: the love interest. I'll spoiler tag it, but it's really not that much of a spoiler:

Agnieszka and Sarkan.

The story goes that

the Dragon kidnaps a girl from the valley and locks her up in his tower

. How am I supposed to jive with that? That's not even mentioning that fact that he is 8 times her age. When they meet, she is seventeen goddamn years old, and he is at least 150. How do I know that? It's brought up more than once.

When they finally sleep together, he even protests, saying that he's way too old.

Honestly, that makes it even worse, like he's absolved of all blame just because he mentions the one-hundred-year age gap, but goes along with it anyway. Even though I love them both as characters, and by the end I was aching to see them together, it doesn't sit right with me to read the really old guy falling in love with the mature-for-her-age child. (Besides,

Kasia

was the obvious choice for

Agnieszka

, anyway. Why are we so afraid of putting gay people in our fantasy?)

That said, this is a truly beautiful book, and I enjoyed it very much.

I had a few coworkers recommend this book to me, so I picked it up. At first it was slow. I didn't think I was gonna like it. It has some misogynist undertones that a lot of gothic/fantasy novels have. But then about once the main character started actually getting good at magic, I was hooked. 

First red flag that I considered stopping reading was when Agnieszka and the Dragon almost had sex. She is 17 in this book and he's hundreds of years old. It was very out of nowhere and incredibly awkward. They both acknowledged it was out of pocket and I was willing to say "ok maybe there will be discussions on age gaps and inappropriate power dynamics." They do not talk about it though, and they separate soon after that, though not without Agnieszka trying...

So uh. Quite the opposite of a conversation. But since he's not brought up much in the second third of the book, I kinda forgot.

What really made me stop reading though was Agnieszka's conversation with Alosha after one of the princes goes to hold off an impending army (the whole political part of this book is so stupid I do not care about it). She specifically mentioned when she comes in that she is Black. Dark skinned. But she is a power magic wielder and I liked her as the voice of reason. Anyway, Alosha is telling Agnieszka about her family and mentions her mom being a slave and dying at child birth. After that, Alosha spends most of her life also as a slave, noting that while her masters were kind, they were not family, with an obvious distaste in her choice of words. 

I am so tired of seeing fantasy books put slavery in when it doesn't need to be there. Why would you create slavery in a fictional world? You could make any world you want and you still choose to have slavery. But you know, fine. Not every world has to be a utopia. AND I understand that the writer is heavily basing the setting on medieval Poland. But why do the shitty racial dynamics of our world have to be in this magical world? 

Agnieszka asks her why she stayed in a country that treated her so poorly. And I think I would've asked the same. Why do you care so much about a country who does not see you as human? I THOUGHT Alosha would respond with that same distaste mentioned earlier. But no. She said she likes the monarchy. GIRL. THAT'S THE SAME SYSTEM THAT IS OPPRESSING YOU WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?!? 

Anyway, I had to stop there. This is the farthest I've gone into a book and stopped reading it. I hope you enjoyed my TedTalk.

i loved this book from start to finish. the main character is fascinating in the way she navigates her world and forms relationships; the descriptions of her magic are so beautiful. the emotional core of this story is a bit hard to find at first, but by the end, i was entirely enveloped in the plight of every side of the conflict. it drove me to tears. the fairy tale elements of this story are also very well done. the ending was beautifully bittersweet.

One of /the/ best books I’ve ever read. 
To me, Agnieszka is a rough and tumble Druid thrown into the worst the world has to offer, and eventually finds a way to bring peace through love, kindness and the strength of nature itself. 
An absolute joy to read, I wish it never had to end.

Disturbing and dark but also full of surprising twists and a plot that keeps unfurling until all is answered.