Review : Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Title: Uprooted

Author: Naomi Novik

Publisher: Del Rey

Release date: May 19th 2015

Goodreads summary: “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.”

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

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.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.

But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.

REVIEW

I was a little scared that this book wouldn't live up to the hype. The early reviews all praised this book and apparently it has been optioned for a movie. Hopefully, this is one of those books who could survive the hype surrounding it.

The world-building was truly fantastic, it had such a fairy tale feeling to it, it reminded me a little of the Grisha trilogy, for the Fold and the Russian vibe. Here, it was most a Central Europe one, it reminded, indeed, of the Grimm brothers. In this world, the fairy tale is mixed with the high fantasy, it was such a concentration of interesting elements that I'm not even sure how to classify this.

"They looked at me and saw someone out of a story, who might ride by and be stared at, but didn't belong in their lives at all."

In fact, we see so many aspects of this world with this one book, so it was legit for it to be a standalone. We start to this lonely life with a lot of learning to the creepy Wood, to the court with its parties and plotting, to a kind of war. Because of that, this book has a little something for every kind of reader (and it's not heavy on romance, but I wished for more this time).

The main characters were both amazing, they had such an interesting love/hate relationship, because they had different opinions on how to do things. I regret a little we didn't see them together that much, but it's alright.    At some point, I got all the feels because of them, I was so happy with the ending, for them. Agniezka was this kind of character who doesn't think she's anything special, she's very clumsy and has a tendency for being dirty (against her will).

"Do none of you ever walk?" I asked, baffled.

"And how do you keep from getting all over mud?" she said.

We both looked down. I was a good two inches deep in mud along all the bottom of today's skirt: bigger around than a wagon-wheel and made of purple velvet and silver lace. "I don't", I said glumly.

The secondary characters were also pretty interesting, especially Kasia, because she always thought she would be chosen by the Dragon, but it didn't happen, still her fate was so much more interesting, I'm really happy about that.

The Wood was a creepy entity which almost felt like a character. It was such a great 'villain', it reminded me both of the Fold in Shadow and Bone and the Great Forest in Crimson Bound, in a really good way.

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.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, it is such a unique high fantasy and I'm pleased that it was really a standalone (um, remember An Ember in the Ashes? I loved this book, but it was obvious it wouldn't be a standalone, as initially announced). I had a few issues with the pacing and was a bit confused at times, but it was really good and I really recommend you to read it.

Rating: 4.5/5