Uprooted

The characters were instantly relatable, the setting was one you could imagine easily, the story became rooted in my brain and I even had dreams about it! All the reviews on the cover say “you can’t put it down” and they’re true!

Hmm, okay. VERY good book. It's incredibly descriptive and vivid. I could see it all in my mind. I kept reacting externally to things that would happen, shuddering at horrifying moments, jumping when the Dragon would pop up out of nowhere, feeling real dread and fear, heart glowing at sweet moments, saying "get him, girl" under my breath when Agnieszka roasts someone, etc. I really burned through this book. There are a lot of amazing female characters, like Kasia and a powerful and wise witch later in the story. I also really love Agnieszka, she was a lot of fun to read about. Loved how intuitive, emotional, and in tune with nature she was. Like seriously, she really spoke to my heart. I'm sure she won't connect with everyone like she did me, but the starved emotional/creative part of my soul adored her. The male characters were good, too, I really enjoyed the Dragon, but the female characters are where the writing really shines imo. I really loved the Dragon and Agnieszka’s partner dynamic (separate from their romantic dynamic). They’re so different, they’re exactly what the other lacks, and Agnieszka learns to understand and accept him, and the Dragon learns to respect her as an equal and accept her way of looking at things as valid. Their growing relationship and mutual respect was really great, but the romance just fell flat. It was too little and too much at the same time. It was little enough that it felt irrelevant, but too much that the moments where the romantic element came together felt unearned, emotionless, and poorly-done. I feel a bit mixed about the ending. It felt a little abstract to me, and the whole book is abstract, and like I don’t think it’s a bad thing, but I feel like my brain didn’t quite wrap around it well enough to feel fully satisfied. Maybe with another read in the future hindsight will help me know which parts are important to pay attention to, to understand the ending.

This book is like a trilogy series wrapped into a single book, so much happens. It is emotionally raw and is a beautiful/messy look inwards at ourselves.

My favorite Novik offering, I feel like it is a bit more lighthearted than her stories generally are, and I've just realized that I don't seem to be able to write about it without spoilers, so I will just leave this here

I don't usually like fantasy books, but I was completely engrossed. It gets a bit cheesy at times, but it was such an amazing story that it didn't bother me. A great spin on the classic fairy tale archetype!

Pretty incredible read with excellent voicing and a detailed world with an interesting idea for how magic would be implemented.

I loved this book so much. Since reading it, I've started collecting all the author's other works and reading it all. So much love for this book. Read it.