Ok I was highlyyy anticipating rating this 5 stars but I think the last 25% marked it down for me a tiny bit - I didn’t lovee how dark and abruptly really shifted in tone and kinda pace too at the end but overall I really liked the ending and the story as a whole - definitely a really solid first read of Novik’s and a really good stand alone I think :) 
Oh also - the huge ass age gap between the two characters? Weirddd - especially cause she starts the book at 17 and it does not clarify at alll how long this book goes on for and therefore how old she is at the end which made me a bit uncomfortable 

Full transparency to this review: I had absolutely no interest in reading this book. This was the book my book club chose to read for March. Going into the book, I was just thinking “I am here for the ride”. And for this reason, I am incredibly surprised at how much I ended up liking this book! There were points in this book I was sad I had to put it down because life needed attention instead.

As with any fantasy book, the beginning was full of world building, but it wasn’t so much so that it made it difficult to understand. The parts that were left vague were intentional to be answered later on. I will say that the writing style at times was a bit confusing. There were times where something would be posed as a thought, only to be answered by another person verbally (though no mind reading was ever mention). In the same vein, I also found I did have to reread some passage a couple times to understand what was fully going on. This is especially true in the second half of the book that was action packed. While for the most part, the writing that was intentionally left vague were eventually answered, there are some moments where I wish we got an answer as to why something might have happened. 

Hands down my favorite part of the book is the magic system. The magic system was one of the most interesting magic systems that I’ve read! (Light spoilers for the types of magic seen)

I loved how it Agnieszka's magic was supposed to feel warm, and almost folk-like, where it was doing with what you have around you. Whereas you have the Dragon, who was trained in the capital city in a very rigid structure, and as a result has a magic style similar to that.

For it’s faults, this is definitely a book I would recommend to any fantasy lover, but as always, check the content warnings and see if it’s something for you!!

          In Uprooted by Naomi Novik, a dark fairy tale with Polish roots, the most powerful wizard in the nation chooses one girl to serve him every ten years. In return, the Dragon protects the villages from the rotting corruption of the Wood that spreads its roots further and further every year. Agnieszka has always known that her best friend, Kasia, would be chosen, just as everyone else in their village has always known it. But when the Dragon comes, it isn’t Kasia that he takes away to his tower.

• The magic system in this book has to be one of my favourites that I’ve read.

• The main character, Agnieszka, was full of determination, never hesitated to help those in need, and held an emotional connection to her magic that I truly loved. She was stubborn as hell and I adored that about her. Every scene where she used magic held me captivated in a way I haven’t experienced in quite a while.

• The side characters were well-rounded and fleshed out. The love interest was mysterious, brooding, sulky and powerful. Exactly what I’m most weak for. I also adored Kasia, the main character’s best friend. She was just as determined as Agnieszka, as well as strong and caring and funny and beautiful.

• The writing, while a bit wordy at times, was full of beautiful imagery that drew you into the world the author created and put down roots. The vibe of the entire novel was immaculate, to be honest. It was dark and tense and perfect.

• I wish the book had been a bit longer because the pacing of the third act of the book felt rushed. There was definitely a lot of information crammed in there towards the end and it made it a little difficult to keep up at times.

• There were many characters that I wanted more closure with, including Agnieszka, Kasia and the Dragon. I don’t normally enjoy side stories but for this book, I would have gobbled those stories right up if they existed. I want to know how the prince turns out with Kasia’s influence. I want to know how Kasia’s life turns out. I want to see Agnieszka and the Dragon a few years down the road.

• My biggest complaint was the lack of maps. I didn’t understand the location of most places and didn’t understand the layout of the Tower. It would have helped with visualizing quite a bit.

          Despite my complaints about this book, I truly adored and thoroughly enjoyed it. With a lush magic system, well-written characters and breathtaking imagery, Uprooted is most definitely getting added to my favourites list.

 

This is a fantastic standalone fantasy novel that honestly I find myself unable to keep going back to for some reason. 
It is based on Polish & Slavic folklore tales in some instances.

Agneiszka is best friends with the girl, Kasia, who is assumed to be taken by the local wizard the Dragon. Upon choosing day it is Agneiszka who is chosen, not Kasia. And much to her surprise she has the talent of magic. Without exactly understanding her talent or the way the talent is normally perceived she ends up in a fight against The Wood which is not quite as it seems.

Without spoiling this book has a wonderful view on human relations, especially in the case where humans may have a different kind (witches/wizards live much much longer lives, up to a couple hundred years). Fantastical in nature it is an homage to those who love their home. 

I cannot recommend this book enough to fellow fantasy lovers. I am left simply with wanting more but also so grateful that the planned plot was so well executed.

The only issue I, or others seem to have is the relationship between Agneiszka and the Dragon. (read more in spoiler if you choose) 

She is only 17/18 during the happenings of the book whereas the Dragon is quite literally a century or so older than her. This is seen however and he is not the one who makes attempts at her. Agneiszka is the one who makes the advances (which is refreshing honestly). And they do not finish the book in a sense of her being subservient to his wishes or the vice versa.
By the end of the book due to her experiences (in my opinion) she feels youthful yes, but beyond time, particularly because she accepts she will outlive the ones she was blood born to.
The two of them never form an entire canonical 'relationship' in the way we modernly see, but more of a closeness with a lovers aspect.
I am incredibly happy with this decision.

I am so happy with this novel, and honestly wish there could have been more, but also desperately wish there wasn't. 

With an intoxicating end to a plot I really do think that if you enjoy fantasy you should give this book a try.

 As longtime readers of my reviews will know, I am a big fan of Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series. Novik’s blending of historical fiction with the fantasy concept of dragons serving in militaries is such a captivating tale. So when Uprooted came out in 2015, I was excited to read Novik’s foray into more traditional fantasy.

Then, of course, I never got around to it. Until now!

Agnieszka lives in a small village near an evil, corrupting Wood. Every ten years, the wizard who protects this group of villages from the encroaching Wood picks a single village girl to serve him for a decade. This wizard, the Dragon, is a fair yet foreboding lord. When Agnieszka is unexpectedly chosen over her more appealing best friend, this triggers a series of magical events that upend the lives of Agnieszka and many, many more. Uprooted draws from the atmosphere of fairy tales, particularly central and eastern European folklore, to pit our protagonist against twisted nature itself.

I’ll be upfront: I loved the first half of this book far more than the second half. From the time Agnieszka is chosen by the Dragon to roughly her arrival at the capital city, I was thoroughly engrossed in this narrative. The second half of the book branched out (pun intended) into a more epic narrative, and to be honest I just kind of lost interest in it all. So I’m going to deal with each half separately and then render a final opinion.

The first half of this book is so lovely. When Agnieszka arrives at the Dragon’s tower, she initially struggles with his attitude towards her, his moods, and her own inability to cope. What I love about this relationship is that Agnieszka constantly refuses to work within the confines the Dragon sets out for her. She pursues numerous little acts of rebellion. Then, when danger arises in another village while the Dragon is dealing with something else, she doesn’t hesitate: she takes matters into her own hands, proving herself heroic.

Agnieszka’s relationship with magic is important too. The way that she feels magic intuitively, versus how the Dragon and other wizards seem to believe it is a highly structured, very formulaic practice, strikes me as a very feminist theme. The wizards seem like a conservative lot in general, and their dismissiveness towards Agnieszka and Jaga and those who would use magic more liberally, based more on feeling than formula, supports this reading. (One theory I developed, which proved not to be borne out, was that Agnieszka becomes Old Jaga—the comment about Jaga saying at her own funeral “I’m unstuck in time” made me think Novik was foreshadowing Agnieszka’s fate to become the very witch whose journals inspired her to find herself.)

In this way, watching Agnieszka grow into herself was just so pleasurable. I curled up under a blanket and thoroughly enjoyed how Novik subverts the idea that women are captured in towers and need to be rescued by princes. Well, the prince in this story is a boorish mama’s boy. Similarly, the Dragon is not a great mentor figure. Watching him transform gradually from a remote, one-dimensional idea in Agnieszka’s eyes to a living, breathing human with a backstory of his own is so great. Novik has studied the symphony of a fairy tale so thoroughly she can reproduce it yet subtly adjust the notes to achieve new and superior harmonies.

The second half of Uprooted, alas, shifts the tone of the book from fairy tale to epic fantasy. I want to be clear that I’m not saying the second half is bad. If you enjoyed every page of this book, that’s cool. But I noticed my attention wandering during the last half in a way that it didn’t near the beginning, and I attribute this to how we went from Agnieszka’s very personal struggles to her and the Dragon fighting a pitched battle against Prince Marek and his evil witch mom. The climax, the last-ditch effort to kill the Wood and save everyone, felt like a confusing fever dream that was difficult for me to follow.

In the end, I enjoyed this book overall, but there’s a gap between what I was hoping it would be and what it ended up being. When that happens, it’s neither the author’s nor the reader’s fault. This is a beautiful standalone fantasy novel that once again showcases Novik’s storytelling skill, and I would recommend it.

Originally posted at Kara.Reviews.

A beautifully written Eastern European fantasy, steeped in fairy tale. 

To get an elephant out of the room, the relationship politics between

Agnieszka and Sarkan

are somewhat uncomfortable

with the popular aesthetics of an ancient semi-mortal in a young man's clothes wooing a high-school aged girl, as well as an emotionally abusive and otherwise coercive beginning to their acquaintance

. 

As these things go, I think it's handled fairly well, but it's not something I would necessarily expect readers to forgive. It's especially frustrating as Novik's second take on a similar aesthetic pulls a similar trick. In Spinning Silver, there is much ado about the injustice and horror of the lot of Novik's women, but while they end up in more or less the positions they were threatened with it is played off as something of a happy and romantic ending. When the characters are dissatisfied with the status quo, why should the readers appreciate its repackaging?  I feel like Agnieszka has more agency and less dire options than Spinning Silver's cast, and the overall feeling is much less uncomfortable, but together the books form enough of a pattern to make me a bit more uncomfortable on rereading than I was before I read Spinning Silver.

That significant caveat aside, the prose is fluid, the pacing is tight, the depictions of magic and of the horrors of The Wood are enthralling, and Agnieszka's point of view makes for excellent company throughout the story. Additional characters are vivid and the novel's turns all feel just surprising enough to excite without feeling sudden or unearned. One of the best reads I've had in a while. I couldn't put it down or stop thinking about it when it ended. I wish I could recommend it unreservedly.