Interesting world, boring-as-hell characters.

I had zero emotional attachment for the characters in this book. At most, I can say that Agnieska and Kasia's relationship had some potential, but the way it's tackled, Kasia's just a pawn to further Agnieska's development. As for the "love interest", well Sarkan has all the red flags of a horrible partner (calls her an idiot constantly, doesn't display any kind of warmth towards her except when they're sleeping together, etc.) without any chemistry with Agnieska whatsoever. I might call them f**k buddies at best, but there's no love there -- or a very unhealthy kind.

The Wood itself was a great concept and pretty much the only reason I kept reading, until the end when I got so bored I skimmed the last 50-or-so pages. Take all the sexism, patriarchy and shitty relationships and there might have been something worth 435 pages. As it stands, it was just okay.

Seriously, though, what is it with fantasy writers who can't ever let go of patriarchy and sexism? You create a whole-ass world with magic, but you can't be bothered to stop objectifying women and seeing them as currency? There was no need for the near-rape scene and the passive misogyny in every single chapter.

The main plot of the book kept me glued to my ereader. It was tense and there were high stakes for the heroine throughout the entire story. And the heroine herself was plucky, brave and determined without coming off as stupid or purely reckless.

My main gripe is with what passed for romance it the story. The heroine and hero spent very little page time together overall, and most of that time he was being condescending and insulting everything from her looks, to her intelligence, to her magical ability. He was just an unpleasant character, even outside his interactions with the heroine, and only seemed to become even worse whenever he interacted with her.

As far as I’m concerned, the heroine had heaps more chemistry and depth of relationship with her childhood best friend, who was the other character I loved the most aside from the heroine. She was brave and selfless, and stayed at the heroine’s side helping and defending her with unending determination and bravery, and was always supportive of the heroine.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, from the story to the heroine and her best friend and their quest to defend their land and the people they love from some truly terrifying situations. Just don’t read this book expecting a romance (like I did) because you won’t find anything but a single non-graphic, awkward, rushed sex scene that was apparently supposed to represent the love between two character that spend most of the story acting like roommates at best, and antagonists at worst.

the romance in this book--between the 17 year old main character and hundreds of years old Dragon--is super abusive and gross to the point where i just couldn't stand to finish it.

the main character is constantly called ugly and stupid, horsefaced and slovenly, the dirtiest thing in the tower, useless, mentally defective and all manner of insults by the dragon, and when she's nearly raped by another man, he blames it on her because of the dress she was wearing. she somehow seems to forget all of this and goes on an adventure with the almost-rapist and falls in love with the dragon, who calls her a raving lunatic before suddenly kissing her.

the prose is beautiful but i wish i had read the goodreads reviews, which are much more honest about the fact that this book is a beauty and the beast retelling in which the beast character does inexcusably awful things and this is never properly addressed, with agnieszka somehow falling for him because... why? i'm honestly not sure, it was so poorly developed. i can't understand why the reviews on this site are so positive. DNFed after chapter 11 in which it became clear that the Dragon is somehow our romantic lead rather than our villain. the plot involving the wood also feels super ableist to me in suggesting that

physical and mental disabilities are caused by supernatural evil.

i wish I'd never tried to read this tbh.

Dear Uprooted,
Let me start this letter by saying I am glad that I pushed through and kept going,. You were a fantastical story of magic, an adult fairy tale. But you were long winded and overly detailed. I started by listening to you, and it somehow took me 5 hours (and several days) to listen to 160 pages of you. I am not sure if it is the accent the book is read in, or the speed of the reader's voice, but you were a struggle for me to enjoy listening to. So, I picked up the physical book, and your pace was better. But there was much of the story and details that were drawn out and longer then necessary. You felt much longer then a 400 page book. I did love getting to watch Agnieszka learn her craft and discover her brand of magic, and grow into the witch she became, but there was not a lot of character development either, which is something that made you tough for me. You also are have your own issues within the characters; the Dragon is deeply flawed and often abusive and hurtful to Agnieszka. The "rules" of magic and the nature of the Woods did not seem to follow any rules of magic as I am familiar with either. The wizards seem to have unending wells of magic, and don't require much of a cost from it's casters. Ultimately, you fall short of the goal of suspension of disbelief and escapism that I enjoy in a fairy tale.