REVIEW: UPROOTED by Naomi Novik

Title: Uprooted
Author: Naomi Novik
Series: -
Genres: YA, Fantasy
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Release: 2015
Source: Paperback
Pages: 438


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BLURB: Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life. Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood. The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows - everyone knows - that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn't, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her. But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose. Uprooted is a hugely imaginative, engrossing and vivid fantasy novel, inspired by folk and fairy tales by Naomi Novik, the author of the Temeraire series. It is perfect reading for fans of Robin Hobb and Trudi Canavan.

MARTYNA'S REVIEW

EXPECTATIONS: I heard about this from Hannah, she absolutely loved it, she said it had magic and a dragon in it and I was sold! Besides I watched a movie about a dragon taking a girl from the villages, so I was like yes! I am reading this! So my expectations were very very high!

THE WORLD: The world is this medieval-ish type fantasy world, where we have normal people and in the same world magic and killer villages exist. I actually enjoyed the world it was well developed I think.

CHARACTERS: Our main character is names Agnieszka, we get the book from her point of view. If I am being honest, Agnieszka is the most Mary Sue character in this book, and I’m sorry I just absolutely hated this girl, what I found most annoying was this: ‘I am so clumsy, I like running and climbing trees and I get my pretty dress and dirty and my hair is messy and I’m not pretty, but my friend Kasia, she is beautiful, she knows how to cook, she is so clean and pretty and bright and she is the perfect daughter’, she kept going like this on and on and on and I just couldn’t take it by the page 30! I was done! She was stupid and annoying.

So the think in this book is that The Dragon, this like warlock comes and picks a girl from the village and hold her for 10 years if I’m not mistaken in his castle (cave). So everyone thinks he’ll pick Kasia, but he picks Agniesza, because she has magic in her. Ok that’s fine, I understand, but let me stop and just say what is just bothering me ever since I read it. So everyone is afraid of the dragon taking their daughters yes it’s horrible, but he released them after like 10 years, and from what I understand they either go to study, become scholars, authors, professors or whatever, or they end up having their own business. I’m sorry but to me it seems like he gives them education and they go to have much better lives! I just simply do not understand this….can someone explain this to me please?  Also the Dragon himself is a total asshole! He is super rude and abusive to Agnieszka and just I dunno I really just didn’t like the way this was written.

Honestly, couldn’t care less for any other character.

ROMANCE: I DNFD this book, but it was pretty obvious the dragon and Agniezka will be a thing.

GOOD: The story itself had in interesting idea to me, before I started reading.

BAD: The writing. I’m sorry but it was bad. If you are trying to have this medieval-ish, high fantasy world, there can’t be simple familiar language you or I use. You have to have some class in it. I think the writing was what eventually made me just stop reading this book. Also I just cannot get over the whole ‘they go to become scholars and study further’ part! But OK. Also the verbal abuse. I'm sorry but I was disturbed by the way the asshole dragon or Sarkan or Devil or whatever his name was, was treating Agnieszka. She is stupid, but no one treats home girl like that and still has my respect! I honestly do not understand how no one is talking about this.

OVERALL: I didn’t like it, but it seems the majority of people do like it, so I can simply state that if you like good writing and plots that don’t have holes in it, this book is probably not for you. But again, if you still are interested of course try it out!

What do you think about UPROOTED?

LAURA'S REVIEW

EXPECTATIONS: I had seen this book before on my recommendations as well as on blogs and social media. It was on my TBR list but I didn't read it until HannahCassie did and she told me it was really good and liked it a lot. When someone you trust (even though you have completely different tastes) tells you something has to be read... you READ it.

THE WORLD: It's a fantasy world. A kingdom that has at its borders a magical forest, The Wood, which has magical but horrible creatures that kill people. Basically, nobody that goes to the forest comes out alive. In order to keep The Wood under control so that it doesn't expand and swallow the surrounding villages there's a magician acting as a guardian, The Dragon.

CHARACTERS: Our protagonist is Agnieszka, teenage girl living in a village which is very close to The Wood. This is how it goes, every certain years the magician who lives in the tower nearby and protects the villages from getting engulfed by The Wood and from its creatures, takes a girl from the villages and basically stays with her for ten years. Nobody knows why or what happens while they girls are living with this magician they call "Dragon" (his real name is Sarkan by the way). You can imagine they think of the worst possibilities since it's a man living with a teenage girl for ten years in his tower so the people are not very fond of him. Anyway, Agnieszka was born on a year that was predestined to possibly get picked from but she, and the whole village, thought of Agnieszka's best friend, Kasia, as they girl that was going to get picked because she knew how to cook, sew, etc... but this is YA and we all know who he picked in the end. From that point on it's all about magic and how it works in that world, how to save the village from The Wood, how to save the kingdom as well... pretty interesting actually.

ROMANCE: There's a bit of romance going on but it's not much of a focus and didn't bother me.

GOOD: The story itself is good. I really liked the idea of the whole enchanted forest and the magicians and basically everything. Some characters I couldn't get into like Kasia, I'm sorry I just couldn't bring myself to care for Kasia at all. There was nothing in the plot that made me dislike the book, it's weird... it was just... the writing.

BAD: The writing... I don't know what it is but I didn't have the will nor the patience to read every sentence. I wanted to know the story but the writing was so slow-paced it made me skip paragraphs because nothing was happening. I mean, the writing itself was not bad but just the style I wasn't a big fan of. I want to read it again though because since I know the outcome maybe I'll be able to appreciate the writing a bit more.

OVERALL: I think I'm going to give it 4 stars because I really liked it and it was just a matter of writing style... maybe I just need to re-read it to get into it more I don't know. Overall, it is not a bad book and the Polish folklore element was very interesting!

What do you think about UPROOTED?