Uprooted

"To start with, this book is perfectly named. A fact that is reinforced multiple times throughout the book. **SPOILERS** Agnieszka is a great character to follow through about 75% of the book. Until nearer the end when she rather suddenly becomes smarter, wiser, more powerful than any of the characters around her. Including several who have lived, studied, and trained for literal centuries. The Dragon is rude, arrogant, and needlessly cruel. Which made it that much stranger and uncomfortable when, with absolutely no indications beforehand, that Nieshka suddenly has the hots for him. The 2-3 scenes of that were weird and uncomfortable. A few things I felt were loose threads that never got tied up. 1: Who wrote the notes that Nieshka found in the tower? The ones that turned out to maybe-maybe not be accurate. 2: Baba Jaga. She is introduced, but seemingly without purpose. I kept expecting her to return and play a part in the current story. But she didn't. Positive things about the book. The overall story is good and solid. I love The Wood itself. It's mysterious, dangerous, and ever present. The creatures within, that serve (are part of?) The Wood are fantastic and presented in a way that the reader doesn't understand them, but understanding isn't necessary. They're part of the enchanted Wood. Nieshka was a great character to follow. She starts out, believably, as a girl/young woman who VERY unexpectedly gets thrown into a world she doesn't and is not equipped to understand. She does her absolute best to do the right thing with the information available to her. (Another gripe. EVERYBODY around her is intent on being a rude, judgy, know-it-all who delights in rubbing her failures and losses in her face as though she should just already know. But nobody will explain anything to her.) The magic was pretty undefined. But intentionally so. Which I am absolutely fine with. I don't need to know. As long as it makes sense in the setting. "

"I really loved the first half but I got lost after a while ☹️"

"Quite honestly, I didn’t love it. I found the MC to have “pick me girl” energy and overall somewhat felt the book was a whole lot of words without saying much. Not my favorite Naomi novik book unfortunately. "

"3.75 star. Couldn't quite bring myself to give this another star because the written style was very difficult. Names were spoken and I wasn't sure most of the time if they were referring to people or monsters. The plot was immersive and interesting but the words didn't flow well. I had to on many occasions reread a section because I didn't understand. Although I started out with the audiobook a short time later I bought a physical copy because the narrator Julia Emelin pace was a little off for me. Did enjoy her lovely accent though. The summary for the book was very vague. It seemed to throw a lot of people off. I quite enjoyed this fact though it kept me reading wanting to understand.<br/><br/>The magic system is by far my favorite part. It's not perfect which is why I love the spell working because it makes The Dragon furious. He always wants things so precise and Agnieszka swoops in muddles it all up. The Dragons delighted annoyance at her made the best scenes in this story. But also the magic words were hard to read and looked mostly of gibberish so I skimmed over them everytime. <br/><br/>"Tormenting Sarkan like an untidy ghost." Probably my favorite line.<br/><br/>"and my only gift, was I would tear or stain or lose anything on me between the hours of one day. "<br/><br/>Agnieszka was a great character and didn't fit the usual tropes. I mean for crying out loud she loved homespun rags and stains. Although she drove me crazy because she never asked about her surroundings, didn't even try to go outside, or ask The Dragon why he brought her. Agnieszka just floated thru day to day life. So I had difficulty reading because the main character dosen't even try to understand the world around her and I was at a loss too. I felt like it did start to pick up a little around chapter 6.<br/><br/>Everything happened in it's own time which was nice. It wasn't day to day miraculous things occuring, there was a bit of normalcy too. I swear I was so mad in the beginning because there were things that didn't make sense or I didn't care about and later in the book all the sudden are a big deal. But this surprisingly made me happy because I never seen it coming. And also Naomi Novik is clever as hell.<br/><br/>The world building was solid. I wish there would have been a map though I could get a sense of direction. It was easy enough to build up the world around me I just love maps."

"I thought it was good. Naomi Novik was a new author to me at the time and I was impressed with the story. The characters were also enjoyable, well considered and mostly not overpowered (when they were it made sense in the story). Honestly liked it better than A Deadly Education, though that was also pretty good for me."

"If you like fantasy heavily centered around magic, nature, and forests this book is for you! The story is plot-driven as opposed to character-driven, but the characters are still interesting and well-written. The writing is incredibly immersive and so engaging. I can’t wait to read Spinning Silver next!"

"Magic. Love. Sass. I adore. "

"Good, innocent fantasy 😊"

"Dnf"

"Passes the #Bechdel-#test."