This was my intro to Novik and she had me hooked. Sure, the dragon and Agnieszka's will-they/won't-they romance is at times INSUFFERABLE. But would I have it any other way? Absolutely not. I liked the intrigue and the mystery and the knots that all came untangled in the end. Unlike her newer books, Novik really weaved a tight spell (see what I did there?) with this one and gave us tasty romance, lots of adventure (be aware there are some gruesome battles), and a very satisfying ending. I recommend this one to a lot!

It has everything I wanted to read for the past few months– fairytale elements, evil cop-killing crop-poisoning forest, real dirty grungy heroines, homoerotic bestfriendship between two women that isn't fraught due to another guy, mothers both young and old, wizards in towers, wizards who fuck, wizards who don't fuck but do fuck around, wizards who found out, princes who are stupidly arrogant

and dead

, princes who are noble

and dead

, multiple nuanced queens, magic rivers that end nowhere, baba yaga's footnotes, rotten fruit you can't help but eat,

extra large praying mantises

, the first forays into video calling technology, the indescribable power of people never leaving their homes despite danger and the threat to life, and

rehabilitation after great environmental disasters.

10/10 would recommend and read other of Naomi Novik's works honestly

I'm conflicted on this one, because on the one hand, it was really easy and fun to read, but I do think it has some serious flaws. Despite not being advertized as YA, it definitely felt like it. It had several irritating YA traits-- young protag who is "different than other girls and definitely not pretty", the girls all get chosen at 17 (why is it always 17?), the love interested is introduced within a sustained power dynamic that's supposed to be attractive. 

I thought it had some really good ideas, the forest fascinated me, I think the magic system and the forest were my favourite parts. And it truly was effective in roping me in, otherwise I would have quit reading. I liked Agnieszka's decriptions of magic, especially how she had a special way to access it, which was different from the rigid magic structures most others used. The spell descriptions were lovely too. 

I think there was too much war, after a while of people getting killed off, you stop being emotionally connected, and it completely loses impact. The point trying to be made through the war was already established for me, it didn't need to continue for so long. That leads me directly to my next point: the resolution wasn't given enough time. I kept waiting for the ending I knew was coming, and it only happened in the last couple chapters, where a whole bunch of information was dumped and all the loose ends tied up.

I knew the forest wasn't evil at heart, and it's true, the forest queen's people were hunted by the humans, and then they buried her alive unable to die-- who can blame her for wanting to exact revenge? But the book goes on and on about how evil the forest is, and then it all switches in a couple chapters to "oh, we have to live in harmony now" and Agnieszka  is healing the forest.

I don't think either side of the story got the resolution they deserved. I also found the resolution to the romance unsatisfying.

On one page she's saying how he left to the city and never wrote to her, and it's ok, she's made her peace, but then on the very last page he reappears, and everything is happy go lucky. The last line is literally "come meet my mother".

This is genuinely my new favorite book; no exaggeration. If I did things like give more than five stars, I would. I loved literally everything about Uprooted. The way magic worked (and didn't), the characters and how they grew, the spice (subjective, but I'd say just mild), and tension. Not a word was wasted. Nothing was left undone or dragged on too long. Immaculate pacing. I aspire to write a book this good.

I had high expectations, and they weren't quite met.

I enjoyed this book. The plot was unique and interesting, but it was too long. It also could have benefitted from some breaks. Like Part 1 and Part 2, or Act 2 or something, because there is a dramatic shift in the story partway through.

The characters were a mixed bag. The MMC was fine for me, but he was very cruel and not well developed. The FMC was a special snowflake that somehow always knew how to do stuff. It was a pattern of people saying this can't be done and her being like, here you go, I did it! 

The writing could have been better as well. A lot of times I had trouble following the descriptions, like during fight scenes. Then other times, there was so much description of one tiny thing that I was feeling bored. Also this book was very gruesome and gory at times, just FYI. 

Overall, I enjoyed it, I'm glad I read it. I wish it was shorter and more time had been spent on the magic system and world building. Also, the very end annoyed me, but I'm still curious to try another of her books.

Like Spinning Silver, this book is far longer than it needs to be.  I like the story, but it didn’t need to be dragged out so much.  And I’m left feeling puzzled - so NO ONE was truly evil?  Just confused?
Spinning Silver is a better tale.

Wow, reading this was a rollercoaster but you know what, I did like it overall.

There are some things that I don’t like about this book so let’s get those out of the way. First, the Dragon. He is a big selling-point for the book, yet he ends up being very uninteresting.

Taking 17 year old girls to your tower for 10 years is already super disturbing but the explanation for this did not satisfy me at all and did not make it any less strange. Then there is also the super weird thing with forcing Nieszka to wear those dresses and also being very hostile for no reason, why are you, as a 153 year old man, beefing with a 17 year old girl? While we are on the subject, why are you having ‘relations’ with a 17 year old girl in the middle of a battle?! This really pulled me out of the story unfortunately. I don’t like the dragon and the ‘romance’ did not do this story any good, it would have been fine (or better?) without it. I’m glad that is was not explored any further.

Also, some concepts were introduced but never explored further. For example,

Nieszka faints and she is then told not to do any magic for a week but it doesn’t affect the story much. Nieszka is assaulted by Marek but it is just never mentioned again, was that just done to mark Marek as a bad guy? Why could Nieszka not get a wizard name? The bestiary book felt a little disconnected too.

Overall, a lot of things were left to your own imagination.

The characters are not super deep but there were still some characters that I liked. I really liked Kasia, she was very comforting. I also liked the main character, yes she was a ‘special snowflake’ or a Mary Sue or whatever, but since none of the characters were really fleshed out it wasn’t super distracting. Also, I liked how she ended up being able to support herself, that she fought for what she wanted and that she was a little stubborn. 

I also liked the ‘journey’ aspect of the book. The first time they

entered the Wood I really started to enjoy the story. It reminded me of Tolkien’s Mirkwood. I liked the castle scenes a little less but the Wood scenes were enjoyable to read, especially the finale.

I also really liked the whimsical fairytale/folklore feel of the story, though we did not get a lot of world-building it still felt mystical. The magic system of flowing and dancing with the words and songs was also fun to me!

I ended up rating this a 3.75 out of 5. I feel like it did not reach it’s full potential and it had some flaws but I had fun reading this and that is what matters. The ending was satisfying enough (

in my interpretation Nieszka does not settle for Sarkan

) and it reads smoothly.

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.

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.