Synopsis:
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.
But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.
Rating: 🌟🌟
Imagine all the tired YA tropes and pair them with slightly better
writing and plot than you usually get out of a generic YA fantasy novel,
and you get Uprooted.
My biggest issue is how immature the whole novel comes off as. From the characters, to the plot, even the magic system and antagonist lack the depth I've come to expect from adult fantasy. I respect the cross-over potential this novel has, and I do think it's perfect for readers that want to start venturing out of YA and into the adult genre. But as someone that reads both YA and adult, I don't think it's particularly compelling for either genre.
The characters were easily the most disappointing part of this book. Agnieszka has the personality of a piece of cardboard, and feels so typically YA fantasy heroine. I think the first person perspective especially hindered her narrative. It's much more difficult to express a character's personality if the reader is constantly in their head and they don't have an especially strong voice. A third person perspective would've done wonders for making her character feel less bland.
The Dragon is just straight up poorly written. The Dragon has no complexity, which doesn't translate to an immortal character. He's lived for over a century, yet the reader never feels the years weighing down on him. His impatience with Agnieszka just comes off as him being an asshole, and his constant use of "idiot" flashed me back to my middle school anime phase so fast I still have whiplash. I have no idea why Agnieszka is attracted to him. There's no mystery to him that makes him alluring, nor does Naomi Novik paint an especially compelling picture of his physical features. I couldn't tell you what he looks like, besides having eyes and hair.
I sincerely believe Kasia should have been the main character. Though she starts off as the cliche best friend, she quickly becomes the most interesting character. She's subversive of the character trope she's meant to represent, and overall just does some really cool stuff over the course of the novel. The fact that she's a side character, yet overshadows the main cast, says a lot about the novel.
Because I didn't like Agnieszka or the Dragon as characters, I probably would've dnfed this book if it had followed the set-up of the synopsis. But the synopsis only represents about 1/3 of the book, and the second and third parts go in entirely different directions. I have mixed feelings about it, because the synopsis is what drew me in, but then I wouldn't have been able to finish the novel. But I also didn't especially enjoy the plot progression, and the pacing felt very off. Novik packed SO MUCH into this novel, yet I still felt like I was dragging myself through this.
I just expected so much more from Uprooted. None of the elements shine, or do anything especially original. If you're looking for an adult fantasy with fairy tale vibes, I recommend checking out The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden instead.
My biggest issue is how immature the whole novel comes off as. From the characters, to the plot, even the magic system and antagonist lack the depth I've come to expect from adult fantasy. I respect the cross-over potential this novel has, and I do think it's perfect for readers that want to start venturing out of YA and into the adult genre. But as someone that reads both YA and adult, I don't think it's particularly compelling for either genre.
The characters were easily the most disappointing part of this book. Agnieszka has the personality of a piece of cardboard, and feels so typically YA fantasy heroine. I think the first person perspective especially hindered her narrative. It's much more difficult to express a character's personality if the reader is constantly in their head and they don't have an especially strong voice. A third person perspective would've done wonders for making her character feel less bland.
The Dragon is just straight up poorly written. The Dragon has no complexity, which doesn't translate to an immortal character. He's lived for over a century, yet the reader never feels the years weighing down on him. His impatience with Agnieszka just comes off as him being an asshole, and his constant use of "idiot" flashed me back to my middle school anime phase so fast I still have whiplash. I have no idea why Agnieszka is attracted to him. There's no mystery to him that makes him alluring, nor does Naomi Novik paint an especially compelling picture of his physical features. I couldn't tell you what he looks like, besides having eyes and hair.
I sincerely believe Kasia should have been the main character. Though she starts off as the cliche best friend, she quickly becomes the most interesting character. She's subversive of the character trope she's meant to represent, and overall just does some really cool stuff over the course of the novel. The fact that she's a side character, yet overshadows the main cast, says a lot about the novel.
Because I didn't like Agnieszka or the Dragon as characters, I probably would've dnfed this book if it had followed the set-up of the synopsis. But the synopsis only represents about 1/3 of the book, and the second and third parts go in entirely different directions. I have mixed feelings about it, because the synopsis is what drew me in, but then I wouldn't have been able to finish the novel. But I also didn't especially enjoy the plot progression, and the pacing felt very off. Novik packed SO MUCH into this novel, yet I still felt like I was dragging myself through this.
I just expected so much more from Uprooted. None of the elements shine, or do anything especially original. If you're looking for an adult fantasy with fairy tale vibes, I recommend checking out The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden instead.
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