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.

The first 4 chapters were a little hard for me to get into, but I was hooked after that. There were several plot twists and I didn't see any of them coming! The romance wasn't a subplot to the political/magical intrigue so keep that in mind if you're a fan of romantasy.

I was very interested in the plot, however there were points the story was either hard to follow and/or dragged on. Otherwise a very solid fantasy / fairytale-retelling! 

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.

I can barely believe that this garbage and Spinning Silver were written by the same author. 

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 really enjoyed this book. The prose, world building, and plot were so well developed.

This doesn't get the full 5 stars because Sarkan gives me the ick and he becomes a love interest. There is a really underdeveloped romance that includes him, but it didn't ruin the experience for me. My icks aside, a huge part of his character is that he has commitment issues and doesn't ever want to put down roots. So the fact that his relationship is underdeveloped is kind of the whole point of this flaw.

I really adored the main character, her perspective on life, and how she handles the "big bad" of this novel. Uprooted really plays with genre expectations. Good and Bad, chivalrous vs. conniving... they're their but they might come from non-traditional sources. I think you have to keep an open mind going into this book, but it is a fantastic read.

Pros: Polish folklore elements, folkmagic, some of the characters, the woods
Cons: adult/minor relationship, attempted SA that adds nothing to the story, some pacing issues
I loved the elements of Polish folklore, folkmagic, and the woods. Agnieszka discovering and developing her powers was really fun to read. Her magic versus the other kinds shown also reminded me a lot of traditional knowledge versus “western” knowledge comparisons and how powerful/effective yet underestimated traditional knowledge can be. I would have loved to see more about the magic of the valley and have that and its source/origin be explored more.
The creatures of the woods and the woods themself enriched the story and setting, as well as adding an underlying looming presence. I think all of the story involving the woods was richly descriptive. I’m a sucker for some spooky woods.
Agnieszka, Kasia, and Alosha were my favourite characters. i appreciate that they all had deeper/more complex aspects that shone though as the story progressed (

Agnieszka becoming wiser and developing her magic; Kasia being free of the expectations of being the likely choice of the Dragon, overcoming the woods, and finding her strength and affinity with the kids; Alosha as this stoic/aloof/powerful sword mage who also has a family she loves and cares for, etc.

). I probably would’ve liked The Dragon without the adult/minor relationship. The Falcon reminded me too much of a goofier Saruman. I found Agnieszka‘s experience comparable to being a female-presenting late diagnosed autistic person which added an additional level of likability and relatability to her character for me.
I loathe  adult/minor relationships  in books, especially the teenage girl and older immortal/long-lived man with a huge power imbalance. This is especially true here given how much he kept from her in the beginning and non-communicative he was. The fact that it’s an adult and minor notwithstanding, the relationship as a romance is also not well-developed and sudden. I think a close friendship would have been better for the plot and their dynamic. Very much a grumpy/well-polished old man and younger/sunshiny/chaotic person friendship.
The attempted SA that happens earlier in the book also felt completely gratuitous. I don’t think it added anything characterization-wise or plot-wise that couldn’t have been done differently or wasn’t done effectively later in the story.
Without the adult/minor romance and attempted SA I think this would have been a five star or close to five star read for me. If you like medium-paced dark fairytales inspired by slavic folklore with interesting magic systems (and can power through the negatives) Uprooted may interest you.

This book was so intriguing. It had twists and mysteries that I did not predict. I loved the characters and the second half of the book had me on the edge of my seat.