Title: Uprooted
Author: Naomi Novik
Audio book narrator: Katy Sobey
Genre: Historical fantasy
Date Read: 20/05/18 – 13/06/18
Rating: ★★☆
Review:
This started of well. I was enjoying the language and the mythology that was beinig constructed around main character, Agnieszka, and her village. But the plot began to drag and I wasn’t invested in the characters and after I while, I was just very underwhelmed.
The writing is really lyrical and beautiful. I think when I started the book, I was in the mood for something fairytale-like, and this fit the bill perfectly. Katy Sobey’s very soothing narration helped a lot, too. At somewhere around the 50-60% mark, though, I suddenly realised that the characters had very little personality and I didn’t really care about them at all. And once you have a realisation like that, it’s hard to come back from it.
I also felt uncomfortable with the inevitable romance between Agnieszka and the Dragon. There is no basis for it. The Dragon only ever insults Agnieszka, or scowls at her, or sighs at her, even when they’re working together. And how does 17-year-old Agnieszka manage to do what several centuries-old wizards haven’t with regard to The Wood?
Speaking of The Wood, it was a bit of an odd villain? I felt the same about the Wood as I did with the villain in V. E. Schwab’s A Conjuring of Light… its presence was over the whole story, but I never found it particularly threatening. Even though it obviously was. It was just a little too easy for the main characters to save those they needed to, so I always felt it would all work itself out in the end and I just wasn’t worried.
I can definitely see what people love about this book, and I myself have really enjoyed some of Novik’s other work. This one wasn’t meant for me.
A Keyboard and an Open Mind 
I really liked this one! But I do agree the romance seemed to grow out of nothing. However, as the Dragon is quite firmly in my head as Hugh Dancy, I kind of loved him. It made it much easier to want to see him get his HEA (whatever that may have been).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha, that’s interesting. I’m trying to think who he most resembled in my head. I would say Hugh Dancy is far too adorable!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha! Well, that may be true. I honestly have no idea why he came to mind (I almost never cast book characters), but he did almost immediately. Once his image was there that was it for me.
LikeLike