Review: Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Uprooted by Naomi Novik (May 2015)
438 pages
Genre: Adult/Fantasy
Publisher: Del Rey
Source: The library.
Purchase: Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository | Amazon
My Rating:

“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”

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.

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My Review

Well. Well. Well. I finally read this very hyped up fantasy novel. In the end, I had a hard time coming up for a rating for Uprooted. Did I like it? Yes. Did I love it? I think so... I still can't really say.

Uprooted reads like a dark fairy tale, and that just wasn't what I was expecting. That didn't make it bad, it just made me a little shocked when I began reading. Once I got into the flow of the book I had no problems diving in and appreciating its uniqueness. 

The other little snafu I ran into, I had a horrible time with the characters at first. At least when I reached 100 pages in the story the characters finally started to become interesting and less annoying. At that time I finally really started to appreciate the now more complex characters and I no longer had a problem with the MC, Agniezka. I do wish we could have gotten some chapters from the Dragon's point of view. That would have been nice. I ended up liking him the most, and Kasia, Agniezka's best friend, was close second.

The best thing Uprooted has to offer, the utterly fantastic world building. The vivid descriptions were intense. I sure as heck wouldn't ever go into the Wood. No way. The details of where the Dragon lives, the descriptions of the villages, the clothes, the magic, everything was also wonderful. The whole world was captivating and magical. I couldn't ask for a more interesting magic system.

The bottom line: Uprooted was a really good book, but it didn't quite hit epic status for me. Fans of dark twisty tales, fairy tales, and just a good fantasy world with some interesting magic will enjoy Uprooted.