This book does a good job of subverting classic Western fairytale tropes, while bringing older and lesser-known fairytale elements to a new audience. It has a good balance of plot elements, and doesn't let its sub-plots shove their way into the spotlight when the main plot is what needs to move forward. Its protagonists are smart but can't see the big picture until near the end, and its antagonists see the whole chess board but lose their grip on the little things that keep a game going. It's a compelling opposition, and it makes the reader consider the value of both large and small scale aspects of life and mortality. Some characters and plot elements that felt unresolved even when the text explicitly specified what happened to them, but otherwise this is a very good book well worth reading. 

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

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.

I wish to start out by saying that I slowly fell in love with this setting - with the atmospheres and tones it developed, the magic system, the forest-based eldritch horror, and the mysterious fantasy adventure that ensued for two-thirds of the book. If there were any more written in this world - not even a direct sequel, just stories happening to take place in the same setting - I'd definitely pick them up.

However, there were glaring flaws with this specific story - especially towards the beginning - that nearly had me DNFing had I not persisted until the plot got juicy. The romance is the main source of it, it just did not work at all. The love interest is so unlikable from the start and the "redemption" so sudden and unbuilt that I never truly got to like him even by the final page, and therefore just could not believe the romance. He starts off with such bad anger issues - even when things are going well, he has a fit about that, and I felt even more soured on him. He's MIA for a good chunk of the middle, which unfortunately means there's hardly any convincing development for his character and the relationships; the author still tried to have hints of it on the heroine's side, but it just felt forced, and I believe the very sudden rush of "progress" in the romance right before this gap of his appearances was meant to compensate for his incoming absence, but that also just felt forced and completely unbelievable. The heroine has more chemistry with her best friend Kasia than she does with the Dragon - I think she actually kissed Kasia more times than the Dragon! Their relationship was a lot stronger and Kasia was even with her for most of the important plot in the middle of the story, with the relationship being the catalyst for many developments in the adventure, so why wasn't this story about them being sapphic??

As much as I love the story of the latter two-thirds of the book, the first few chapters are so painful to get through. The overall story feels like two different books: that the author set out to write a Beauty and the Beast retelling, but it suddenly became usurped by a more intriguing fantasy mystery-adventure with eldritch horror and sapphic love, and had to awkwardly shoehorn in the actual het "love makes you a better person" romance at the end.

Something else I noticed as I read, which I don't actually have an issue with at all: it feels like this was at least loosely inspired by Howl's Moving Castle? I don't think it's because of a possible overlap in the mythological sources, since this story is heavily Polish while I believe Howl is Welsh. I started to suspect it as

the heroine realized she was secretly a witch the whole time and the Dragon had known the whole time, too.

Maybe I'm reaching and all just coincidental, but I could imagine various details being spun from Howl, made very different in this plot but the sentiment of them still present if you're familiar enough:

the intimidating wizard in a part of the land no one steps foot in (with similar-ish names for said lands), the "dragon" in the wizard's name, the very beautiful and perfect girl from the heroine's life that she compares her plain self to, the order for all magic-users to be trained and serve the crown, the war between two kingdoms due to missing royalty

. It was around the point of the detail of stuck-up rich people riding in boxes with chairs inside that I really started to suspect that either this was a fanfic of Howl turned original, or the author was just really influenced while making this story. Again, I don't actually take issue with it, and I don't think it's something like plagiarism. I just thought it was a very interesting detail, and potentially a draw for anyone into Howl's Moving Castle.

One more odd detail that kinda turned me off every time it got brought up was how dirty the heroine gets and how much attention is drawn to it each time. The amount of times it happened and how much detail gave me "the author's fetish" vibes in the scale of discomfort.

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.

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.

I had a whole long thing written out which got deleted. Basically: 
The combo of the decent writing but uneven pacing and storytelling, interesting characters besides the boring narrator, cool magic system and cool creepy nature but super weird out of place romance/intimate scenes, made me come out of this with severe whiplash. Overall enjoyable, just some...confusing choices.