Uprooted - Naomi Novik
Synopsis
The people of Agnieszka's village live a simple life on the edge of the mysterious corrupted Wood. A sorcerer, called the Dragon, keeps the evil at bay, but at a steep price. Every ten years, he takes a girl from the nearby villages to live with him. Everyone knows at the next choosing that he will take Kasia, the best, brightest, and most beautiful, and Agnieszka's best friend. But when the Dragon comes, it is Agnieszka that is chosen instead.
Review
I really enjoyed this book. The story catches you quickly and then takes you in an unexpected direction. Loosely based on Polish culture and mythology, it has the feeling of an old Brother's Grimm fairytale. The writing is beautiful, the characters complex, and the world magical and tense.
Even though her name sounds like a sneeze, I liked Agnieszka. We see her growth as she goes from a backwoods girl who never expected anything much out of life, to her realizing she has an enormous power and that she has the ability to overcome the shadow of the Wood that has towered over her home and loved ones her entire life. I didn't really like the Dragon. I thought he was mean and selfish and doesn't really change much over the course of the book.
The plot takes several unexpected turns. At first you think it's going to be a "Beauty and the Beast" type book, where the girl is captured by a man and lives in his house, but it turns into much more than that. We learn about the magic of the world and how Agnieszka actually has the ability to do some really powerful stuff. Then she saves her best friend who was taken by the Wood, and then everything goes crazy and she gets caught up in a political scandal and turmoil, figuring out the mystery of where this dark evil has come from and why it's here.
The villain in this, the Wood, is terrifying, especially in its abstraction. It is so powerful and so sneaky, and a seemingly unstoppable power. You think Agnieszka has finally gotten the upper hand and then everything gets much worse. The whole plot builds up to a very satisfying conclusion with the backstory explained and some beautiful heartfelt scenes and tense action sequences.
My complaint was the random sex scene. It felt SO out of place and unnecessary and did nothing for the story, almost as if it had been thrown in because the author decided she wanted to do more with the romance plot line and here was a good spot to squeeze something in. It really took me out of the story. It was also fairly graphic, unlike the rest of the novel. I actually found the whole romance sub-plot to be somewhat forced and creepy (he's like hundreds of years old and she's eighteen. Can we just stop with that?). He's also really mean to Agnieszka in the beginning. It would have been a perfectly fine book with no romance. Maybe even better.
Those points aside, it was overall, a gripping YA fantasy with all the feel of an age-old fairy tale. Would recommend.
Rating
I give this book 3.5 stars.
Details
Genre: YA, Fantasy.
Language: Very little, if any.
Sex: A couple intense sexual scenes.
Violence: Some weird and creepy ways that characters are killed with magic, plus some murders. Not excessively graphic.
Synopsis
The people of Agnieszka's village live a simple life on the edge of the mysterious corrupted Wood. A sorcerer, called the Dragon, keeps the evil at bay, but at a steep price. Every ten years, he takes a girl from the nearby villages to live with him. Everyone knows at the next choosing that he will take Kasia, the best, brightest, and most beautiful, and Agnieszka's best friend. But when the Dragon comes, it is Agnieszka that is chosen instead.
Review
I really enjoyed this book. The story catches you quickly and then takes you in an unexpected direction. Loosely based on Polish culture and mythology, it has the feeling of an old Brother's Grimm fairytale. The writing is beautiful, the characters complex, and the world magical and tense.
Even though her name sounds like a sneeze, I liked Agnieszka. We see her growth as she goes from a backwoods girl who never expected anything much out of life, to her realizing she has an enormous power and that she has the ability to overcome the shadow of the Wood that has towered over her home and loved ones her entire life. I didn't really like the Dragon. I thought he was mean and selfish and doesn't really change much over the course of the book.
The plot takes several unexpected turns. At first you think it's going to be a "Beauty and the Beast" type book, where the girl is captured by a man and lives in his house, but it turns into much more than that. We learn about the magic of the world and how Agnieszka actually has the ability to do some really powerful stuff. Then she saves her best friend who was taken by the Wood, and then everything goes crazy and she gets caught up in a political scandal and turmoil, figuring out the mystery of where this dark evil has come from and why it's here.
The villain in this, the Wood, is terrifying, especially in its abstraction. It is so powerful and so sneaky, and a seemingly unstoppable power. You think Agnieszka has finally gotten the upper hand and then everything gets much worse. The whole plot builds up to a very satisfying conclusion with the backstory explained and some beautiful heartfelt scenes and tense action sequences.
My complaint was the random sex scene. It felt SO out of place and unnecessary and did nothing for the story, almost as if it had been thrown in because the author decided she wanted to do more with the romance plot line and here was a good spot to squeeze something in. It really took me out of the story. It was also fairly graphic, unlike the rest of the novel. I actually found the whole romance sub-plot to be somewhat forced and creepy (he's like hundreds of years old and she's eighteen. Can we just stop with that?). He's also really mean to Agnieszka in the beginning. It would have been a perfectly fine book with no romance. Maybe even better.
Those points aside, it was overall, a gripping YA fantasy with all the feel of an age-old fairy tale. Would recommend.
Rating
I give this book 3.5 stars.
Details
Genre: YA, Fantasy.
Language: Very little, if any.
Sex: A couple intense sexual scenes.
Violence: Some weird and creepy ways that characters are killed with magic, plus some murders. Not excessively graphic.
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