Uprooted

Product Information

Initially, characterization shone. The young women in this story are human enough to be fallible, but are also caring, determined and faithful. Agnieszka often thinks of herself as a creeping mouse, but she has spirit: “I could sleep at night again, and my spirit began to recover, too. Every day I felt better, and every day more angry.” Lovely, strong Kasia has been Agnieszka’s friend for as long as they can remember, and has been the one everyone knew the Dragon would take: “I know I’m making her sound like something out of a story. But it was the other way around. When my mother told me stories about the spinning princess or the brave goose-girl or the river-maiden, in my head I imagined them all a little like Kasia; that was how I thought of her.” I loved the way Novik noted the tension their roles placed on their relationship while still allowing them to remain fast friends. It was a well-done female friendship, and didn’t go to any of the tropey places I anticipated. The down notes on characterization come later, as Novik pulls a major switch, first garnering sympathy for a weak character and then changing motivations. 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.” Mac Rogers, in Slate, writes that Novik skilfully provides readers with "several modes of wish-fulfillment" through the book, including giving the protagonist Agnieska "the full Harry Potter/ Katniss Everdeen experience", at once followed by a " Belle/ Jane Eyre" setup in the "Dragon's" tower. [6] Like El-Mohtar, Rogers remarks that the book contains material for a whole trilogy, wishing that Novik had given Agnieszka the chance "to explore a few blind-alley identities" on the way to becoming a "latter-day Baba Yaga". [6]

Kallam, Clay (25 August 2015). "Worlds Beyond: Naomi Novik's 'Uprooted' will have readers rooted". San Jose Mercury News . Retrieved 13 November 2022. No one went into the Wood and came out again, at least not whole and themselves. Sometimes they came out blind and screaming, sometimes they came out twisted and so misshapen they couldn’t be recognized; and worst of all sometimes they came out with their own faces but murder behind them, something gone dreadfully wrong within.

Success!

Johns, Andreas (2004). Baba Yaga: The Ambiguous Mother and Witch of the Russian Folktale. New York: Peter Lang. ISBN 978-0-8204-6769-6. The fact that many gushed over The Dragon disturbed me. This dude is abusive. ABUSE IS NOT ROMANTIC. Verbal or physical otherwise. STOP THIS SHIT, AUTHORS. Place yourself in Agnieszka's shoes. Put more imaginations on how YOU would feel if you were being treated like all those ways I pointed out.

I swear to god I'm the only one in the world who didn't think this book is THE BESTEST MOST SPECIALEST WONDERFULEST BOOK EVER. For god's sake, Emily May loved it, and I highly respect her opinion, but this book is one case where we will have to agree to disagree.

I'm glad," I said, with an effort, refusing to let my mouth close up with jealousy. It wasn't that I wanted a husband and a baby; I didn't, or rather, I only wanted them the way I wanted to live to a hundred someday, far off, never thinking about the particulars. But they meant life : she was living, and I wasn't. OH MY GOD A DRAGON. A TERRIBLE DRAGON WHO KIDNAPS A VILLAGE'S BEAUTIFUL YOUNG GIRLS. DO THEY GET EATEN?! DO THEY GET TORTURED?!!! WHAT IS THEIR TERRIBLE FATE?! “They forget how to live here...[they] remember to be afraid,” my father said. That was all. Novik, Naomi (2018). Uprooted. Giancola, Donato (illus.). Seattle: Grim Oak Press. ISBN 978-1944145309.

a b c El-Mohtar, Amal (24 May 2015). "Friendship, Magic And Danger Blossom In 'Uprooted' ". NPR . Retrieved 12 November 2022. ONE STAR to the non-existent chemistry between the Dragon and Agnieszka. It was bullshit. ZERO STAR to the love interest. If there's one thing I really hate, it's romance revolving around verbal and physical abuses. I swear, verbal abusing Agnieszka is the only language the Dragon knows how to speak in. Magical and practical, otherworldly and planted in the real, I could not stop reading this book and neither will you!” —Tamora Pierce He was on me in an instant, thrusting me flat down against my pillows. "So," he said, silkily, his hand pressed down upon my collarbone, pinning me easily to the bed . . . I was terrified . . . He shoved me hard against the bed and bent low. If you love fairy tale-ish books - and don't mind if things get bleak and violent for a while - and haven't read this book yet, I strongly recommend Uprooted!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.

This book would have been far more effective had the friendship at the start been allowed more time to develop. It was thrown into the action that much, that when the romance came it made no sense. It didn’t have time to work; it just sprung and left me feeling a little surprised. It was a case of where did that come from? I think there should have been much more time spent in the tower, as the rest of the world was slowly, and gradually, revealed. That way this could have easily ended at the midway point. I don't know what the hell I'm trying to say, because this review doesn't sound very flattering, and the truth is...I really enjoyed it! I had hated him, but I wouldn't have reproached him, any more than I would have reproached a bolt of lightning for striking my house. He wasn't a person . . . This is one of the few books in the last year that managed to captivate me. From the opening paragraph this story grabs and hauls you off into the wonders of darkly wooded world and just as sincerely holds you captive. Ms. Novik did everything right here. There’s no learning curve, as the story starts small, simple, and yet captivating. The the reader is introduced to a pleasant and likable young woman, whose life is drastically altered, not in some horrible way, but rather in an unexpectedly nice way. Such things don’t usually happen in fantasy stories. Nice characters, nice places, pleasant events—almost sounds boring, only it isn’t. Quite the contrary, I was far more fascinated and riveted by this not-miserable place and kindly people than in any other fantasy book I’ve read in decade. The main characters and their romance were some of the worst problems for me in this book. Kasia, the side character, would’ve been a much better choice for a protagonist compared to Agnieszka; I’ll dub her as Agony because it captured my feeling towards her. Agony is a Mary Sue, and she’s the epitome of Special Snowflake Syndrome. To make things worse, the Dragon, Skunk, Skank, or whatever his real name is was an ultimate asshole just for the sake of being one. From the beginning to the end, no organic development to these characters occurred. The flatness of their characterizations was even worse than a skateboard.

Become a Member

Guys, I know I'm late to the party, but this book was so worthy of all the stars. I'm still goo-goo eyed at how beautiful and breathtaking the writing is; saying it is atmospheric and quirky and full of heart and soul doesn't even do it justice, but I'm not sure there are proper words in the english language to convey the feelings this book gave me. Right after I finished this one, Mr. Humphrey asked me what it was about and I stuttered and stumbled through some semblance of a description because HOW DO YOU DESCRIBE THIS BOOK? Everything I said made no sense, just as this review will likely make little to no sense, but I'll try my best to convince you to give this one a try if you enjoy a fantasy that is equal parts tenderness and epic growth. A friend had previously warned me about the writing style but I did not heed caution cause in my mind you don't have to be a poet to woo me. But crap, you at least have to have some finesse.