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A review by apollo0325
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
5.0
So, I’m gonna preface this review by saying I had absolutely no clue as to where this story was going, just like when I read Novik’s Spinning Silver, but I’m actually really happy about this. I wasn’t expecting any sort of grandiose adventure, and my expectations weren’t really there (except to expect excellent writing from Novik).
This story was whirlwind. I loved having this overarching, ever-present force (the Wood) and the culmination of everything ascended into this beautiful, obscure crescendo landing a satisfying conclusion. Agnieszka is a charming, messy main character, and often times, I felt myself laughing at some of her internal monologue, especially when it came to the Dragon.
Which leads me to something else I loved about this book: the magic. Novik perfectly shows how magic works in this universe rather than just being told from the characters. We learn how magic is perceived, learned, and executed through Agnieszka without coddling the audience, and we also see how magic manifests from different wizards and witches. Most importantly, we see how Agnieszka’s magic mingles with the Dragon’s.
WHICH LEADS ME TO THE SUBPLOT ROMANCE OF THIS NOVEL AAAAAAAA!!!! Okay, Novik does SUCH A GOOD JOB of handling romantic subplots. The romantic subplots don’t take away from the main story, and you can really feel that romantic tension between two characters as it simmers. These two!!! Listen!!! Romance is alive and well and let me tell you, the Dragon and Agnieszka are absolutely the one trope where Person A is a scowling, hardass and Person B is the sweet bean that makes Person A unravel. I love that for them!!!!!
For a little while, I was debating on giving Uprooted 4 stars, but that last act caught me in its clutches and I couldn’t NOT give this one 5 stars.
Side note: if you read Spinning Silver before this one, like me, you’ll be glad to know everything is strictly from Agnieszka’s POV, which just showed me Novik is just an all around excellent writer to be able to make a cohesive story with multiple POVs or just one.
This story was whirlwind. I loved having this overarching, ever-present force (the Wood) and the culmination of everything ascended into this beautiful, obscure crescendo landing a satisfying conclusion. Agnieszka is a charming, messy main character, and often times, I felt myself laughing at some of her internal monologue, especially when it came to the Dragon.
Which leads me to something else I loved about this book: the magic. Novik perfectly shows how magic works in this universe rather than just being told from the characters. We learn how magic is perceived, learned, and executed through Agnieszka without coddling the audience, and we also see how magic manifests from different wizards and witches. Most importantly, we see how Agnieszka’s magic mingles with the Dragon’s.
WHICH LEADS ME TO THE SUBPLOT ROMANCE OF THIS NOVEL AAAAAAAA!!!! Okay, Novik does SUCH A GOOD JOB of handling romantic subplots. The romantic subplots don’t take away from the main story, and you can really feel that romantic tension between two characters as it simmers. These two!!! Listen!!! Romance is alive and well and let me tell you, the Dragon and Agnieszka are absolutely the one trope where Person A is a scowling, hardass and Person B is the sweet bean that makes Person A unravel. I love that for them!!!!!
For a little while, I was debating on giving Uprooted 4 stars, but that last act caught me in its clutches and I couldn’t NOT give this one 5 stars.
Side note: if you read Spinning Silver before this one, like me, you’ll be glad to know everything is strictly from Agnieszka’s POV, which just showed me Novik is just an all around excellent writer to be able to make a cohesive story with multiple POVs or just one.