Rating: 5/5 Stars
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Published: May 19th 2015
Goodreads Summary:
"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."
Review:
I've been lucking out lately with the five-star books! First Homegoing, then What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, and now Uprooted! Thank you benevolent Book Gods.
If you have the same problem that I have, where you are reading or watching something and halfway through you are impatiently waiting for it to be over already God, then you will love Uprooted! I got through this whole book without once wishing it would finish. In fact, it was the opposite; I didn't want it to end at all. I was looking at the growing number of pages I'd read and then at the dwindling number of pages I had left and stressing about how soon it would be before the book was done and I would no longer be immersed in this magnificent, magical world. I was so sad when I got to the last sentence, I think I teared up a little.
Agnieszka was such a good character. I've seen people calling her a Mary Sue and I couldn't care less. The whole 'you don't know you're special/always saves the day' tropes are overdone, of course, and I recognized that she wasn't the most original character ever. However, she always stood up for what was right and fought for what she believed in, plus had this deep connection to the earth, and I relate to that a lot.
The magic system was really fascinating to me; instead of relying on rules and caveats and precision, it focused on more on words and intent, with a witch's abilities being tailored to who they were. This felt unique (at least to me) and reading about the magic was one of my favorite parts.
I liked a lot of the themes Novik explored, like the underlying tensions and unspoken words in relationships, loyalty to the people you love, and the toxicity of anger. They really rang true with me.
I did not like the love interest nor the romance itself (if you could even call it that). The Dragon was an enormous asshole; he was angry all the time. Why? Why was he so endlessly irritated and touchy and insulting? What did Agnieszka see in him? He was insufferable. When the author suddenly had them kissing and ripping at each other's clothes, I was baffled. It's one of my only complaints about the book.
The plot gripped me. I found myself reading for longer and longer stretches whenever I picked the book up. A lot of people seemed to have found the book boring, which confuses me. There was a lot of mystery and suspense I believe, and the villain was actually really scary. A whole forest that was slowly consuming a country, that could make a person turned evil if they even got to close to it? The Wood was a badass antagonist.
I would recommend this book to just about anyone. Including you! Go pick it up!
The magic system was really fascinating to me; instead of relying on rules and caveats and precision, it focused on more on words and intent, with a witch's abilities being tailored to who they were. This felt unique (at least to me) and reading about the magic was one of my favorite parts.
I liked a lot of the themes Novik explored, like the underlying tensions and unspoken words in relationships, loyalty to the people you love, and the toxicity of anger. They really rang true with me.
I did not like the love interest nor the romance itself (if you could even call it that). The Dragon was an enormous asshole; he was angry all the time. Why? Why was he so endlessly irritated and touchy and insulting? What did Agnieszka see in him? He was insufferable. When the author suddenly had them kissing and ripping at each other's clothes, I was baffled. It's one of my only complaints about the book.
The plot gripped me. I found myself reading for longer and longer stretches whenever I picked the book up. A lot of people seemed to have found the book boring, which confuses me. There was a lot of mystery and suspense I believe, and the villain was actually really scary. A whole forest that was slowly consuming a country, that could make a person turned evil if they even got to close to it? The Wood was a badass antagonist.
I would recommend this book to just about anyone. Including you! Go pick it up!
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