Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Enraizados by Naomi Novik

23 reviews

lydiazwag's review against another edition

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Main plot was dull and unengaging. Romance was also dull as well as really toxic and gross. 17 year old mentee who has basically been kidnapped by hundreds of years old emotionally abusive, cold wizard mentor who basically kidnapped her. And you're telling me they're falling in love?? No, ew! Also, he's boring.
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katasaurus's review against another edition

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medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

2.5 stars for the lovely world building and magic system, 0 for the romance. 

I love the “evil forest spreading its contagion” trope, and the main character’s magic was beautiful. Unfortunately, the romance was disturbing and icky. I understand what the author was trying to do with the kind-of fairy tale retelling, but really the relationship was just majorly predatory. Additionally, the plot lagged a lot in the latter half of the book. A lot of content (including all the sexual content) could have been cut with no effect on the story. In fact, it would be vastly improved.

Sadly, despite the beauty I found in Agniezska’s world, I just can’t recommend the book. 
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ladyethyme's review against another edition

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  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
I would honestly give this a negative star if I could. The fact that this is catered toward YA readers for me is absolutely revolting.

Tedious and mediocre storytelling. The pacing was a complete slag. Some of the narrative itself was written relatively well, everything else in this book suffers.

Completely flat and one dimensional characters. Mary Sue main female character, a VERY special snowflake, with absolutely no explanation as to how her magic even works. She just speaks the words and somehow it happens. But she's so clumsy! And plain! And has super special magic powers! Where have we read this before…🙄

The entire magic system is honestly completely ridiculous. 
Emotionally absent and abusive love interest, with literally zero chemistry between the protagonists. He's a completely arrogant, entitled, abusive, narcissistic asshole for no apparent reason, other than the fact that he wants to be one.

'The Dragon' continuously insults her, berates her,  yet she she falls for him. Literally forces her to wear things she doesn't want to, she's sick and exhausted but he forces her to clean up her own vomit, and serve him without any instructions or help whatsoever. Se literally crawls on her hands and knees back up to her tower room. And he forced her to do this.
But she falls for him. Because "reasons".

He snarls and insult her, call her names, and then forces her to kiss him. The sex scene comes out of absolutely nowhere; it is so inappropriate and disturbing to the point I really wonder about this author's mental health.
Abuse is not romantic. I don't care how many authors try to make it sexy and romantic. It's not.
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silversparkles50's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This was hard to get through for me.  I didn't like the fact the main character was instantly the best at magic, I hated the verbally abusive love interest, there was a sex scene that came out of nowhere that seemed out of place,  the story was too complicated.  I liked the premise and some of the writing,  but it was way too long. 
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anyashadows's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No

3.0

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siglerbooknook's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Where to begin? This book is as close to a unique story as I've ever read. It's hard to describe because it feels quite original.

The underlying tones are definitely Beauty and the Beast but in very much its own way. 

Our heroine, Nieshka is instantly loveable for her clumsy, messy, confident self. I've never read a hero quit like her and it was very enjoyable.
Her sunshine to the Dragon's grumpy was delightful.

Perhaps one of my favorite things about this book was the themes of friendship and individuality seen side by side without being pitted against each other. Nieshka and her best friend Kasia have a beautiful friendship that acknowledges their flaws but never stops them from loving each other. We see hints of real human jealousy, grief, annoyance, and love in both girls even though their personalities couldn't be more different. I don't know if I've ever seen such a wholesome and believable friendship in literature before.

I enjoyed the story over all, though for a while the plot did get terribly confusing and difficult to follow. Once we were given answers they were mostly satisfying.

While I will never completely enjoy the "undefeatable villain" trope, the reasoning behind this one was at least understandable.

Even the ending was quite unique. I enjoyed the less-than-perfect end. I think everything neatly wrapped in a bow would have betrayed the overall feel of the story.

Over all I definitely liked Uprooted, and am likely to read it again.
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walkie_check's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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kbkbkbkbkb's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

If the creepy romance between the main character and her captor didn't exist this would have been a solid 5. The story is really captivating, but the rediculous and creepy age gap and how quickly it's accepted (as well as how blatantly abusive the dragon is) is disgusting and takes so much away from the book. It would have been incredible if it stayed entirely a mentor-mentee relationship.
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orchidlilly's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Overall, subpar. The magic and world building are far more interesting than any of the characters could ever dream of being, which is a shame because we don't get to see much of it. The premise was interesting, the plot was an actual plot, but it could have been fleshed out so much better if it only had a bit more time. The ending was a semi-refreshing subversion of the expected romance ending, but it felt a bit rushed. The romance part itself was, in my opinion, wholly unnecessary and a bit unpleasant. The main romantic interest is an immortal while our mc is... 17-ish. Not to mention the attempted rape scene.
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fatherprozac's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I kept rooting for this book and it kind of kept letting me down, sadly. I fell in love with the magic system, the visualizations of spell casting, the descriptions of reading the Summoning, and the dark horror of the Wood. Unfortunately, Sarkan's never ending verbal abuse toward Nieshka, her being 17 to his 150, the weird sympathetic framing of a rapist, and the inclusion of only one explicitly black character just to have her be the daughter of a slave really soured me on the whole thing. 
I'll just rant here. The fact that Sarkan chooses specifically girls (never explained why boys aren't chosen if everyone with the gift must be trained) and expects them to cook all his meals for him for ten years was already irredeemable in my eyes. His constant berating of Nieshka literally left her EXPECTING abuse multiple times throughout the book which left me feeling sick at its romanticization. Truly, Sarkan's only traits were that he liked cleanliness and that he was mean. Their hideous age gap (of literally a child and a very old man) being framed as his excuse to momentarily hesitate from sex with her? yikes. Why did she need to be 17? I would have much preferred reading about an adult woman and her ages old immortal boyfriend. Lastly, the rape scene was handled unbelievably poorly and just made Sarkan even more monstrous to me.
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