Book Title: Uprooted
Author: Naomi Novik
Date Started: May 23rd 2020
Date Completed: May 30th 2020
Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Historical, Romance
Quality Rating: Five Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Five Stars
Final Rating: Five Stars
Review:
Uprooted blew my expectations out of the water, and I loved everything about it. There's familiar fairytales, different fairytales, old magic, new magic, everything you could ask of a fantasy novel and more. I've read and enjoyed some other Naomi Novik books very much in the past, but none of them come close to this.
Surprisingly enough, things go from bad to worse, and then even worse in this book. We're given a situation, the characters finally seem to have figured it out, and then something else terrible happens that they have to fight for. And as things get worse and worse for the characters, it gets better and better for the reader. I can't remember the last time I was so excited for the story not to be over, for the evil to become something completely unexpected, for the characters to be in peril again. And, looking back, so much happens to Agnieszka over the course of this book, but it doesn't feel rushed at all. I was blown along every single time, clueless to where we could possibly be heading next but very excited for it.
The story is really the triumph of this book, but the world itself is absolutely dripping with magic. It feels halfway between traditional fairytales and what we're maybe a bit more used to from high fantasy these days, but it was the kind of dark, gory fantasy that old folklore thrived off of. What's more, Novik plays with the morality of the world and its people; there isn't really good or bad, just grey areas that rely on the character to make the best decision in the situation, even if they don't have great options.
What really pulls you through this story is Agnieszka and Kasia and Sarkan - all of whom I love dearly. I could write an essay on how awesome Kasia is, especially considering she's not even the central character. That's left to Agnieszka, who is strong-willed and clever and out of her depth and scared and makes a ton of mistakes but does them magnificently and works damn hard to repair them. That's what you really want in a leading character, especially in a story that twists and weaves into a whole saga of battles and spells and misunderstandings.
Surprisingly enough, things go from bad to worse, and then even worse in this book. We're given a situation, the characters finally seem to have figured it out, and then something else terrible happens that they have to fight for. And as things get worse and worse for the characters, it gets better and better for the reader. I can't remember the last time I was so excited for the story not to be over, for the evil to become something completely unexpected, for the characters to be in peril again. And, looking back, so much happens to Agnieszka over the course of this book, but it doesn't feel rushed at all. I was blown along every single time, clueless to where we could possibly be heading next but very excited for it.
The story is really the triumph of this book, but the world itself is absolutely dripping with magic. It feels halfway between traditional fairytales and what we're maybe a bit more used to from high fantasy these days, but it was the kind of dark, gory fantasy that old folklore thrived off of. What's more, Novik plays with the morality of the world and its people; there isn't really good or bad, just grey areas that rely on the character to make the best decision in the situation, even if they don't have great options.
What really pulls you through this story is Agnieszka and Kasia and Sarkan - all of whom I love dearly. I could write an essay on how awesome Kasia is, especially considering she's not even the central character. That's left to Agnieszka, who is strong-willed and clever and out of her depth and scared and makes a ton of mistakes but does them magnificently and works damn hard to repair them. That's what you really want in a leading character, especially in a story that twists and weaves into a whole saga of battles and spells and misunderstandings.
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