Reviews with content warning for Rape - Uprooted

I'm so sad right now. I thought for 90% of this book that it was going to be a new favourite book, then the ending happened, and now its not.

What I liked:

- original concept
- the wood is the villain
- the plot twists/ reveals
- I liked the characters

Why I gave it a 3☆:

- I really disliked the ending
- too many different subplots. It got confusing at times
- unexplained things. Why is she so powerful?
- THE ROMANCE. I was so excited reading, hoping for that fluffy hate to love trope. BUT THERE WAS LIKE 2 TIMES "romance" ACTUALLY HAPPENED.
- too many characters. Especially confusing because of their weird names
- wtf was the point of the rape scene?

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ohmygourd's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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starlightsong's review against another edition

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the romance in this book--between the 17 year old main character and hundreds of years old Dragon--is super abusive and gross to the point where i just couldn't stand to finish it.

the main character is constantly called ugly and stupid, horsefaced and slovenly, the dirtiest thing in the tower, useless, mentally defective and all manner of insults by the dragon, and when she's nearly raped by another man, he blames it on her because of the dress she was wearing. she somehow seems to forget all of this and goes on an adventure with the almost-rapist and falls in love with the dragon, who calls her a raving lunatic before suddenly kissing her.

the prose is beautiful but i wish i had read the goodreads reviews, which are much more honest about the fact that this book is a beauty and the beast retelling in which the beast character does inexcusably awful things and this is never properly addressed, with agnieszka somehow falling for him because... why? i'm honestly not sure, it was so poorly developed. i can't understand why the reviews on this site are so positive. DNFed after chapter 11 in which it became clear that the Dragon is somehow our romantic lead rather than our villain. the plot involving the wood also feels super ableist to me in suggesting that

physical and mental disabilities are caused by supernatural evil.

i wish I'd never tried to read this tbh.

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juph's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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sophiesmovingcastle's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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aerietta's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I really enjoyed this story, a lot more than I thought I would based on other reviews. I especially enjoyed the pacing and how the world exposition was handled, though I feel like the end was more akin to an epilogue with how quickly it wrapped up.

The treatment of characterization was also handled well, I thought. It wasn't so much that flaws were shown and disappeared through character development. The characters kept their flaws, but those were softened through mutual understanding and adapted better as they learned more about the world around them.

I would like to note that the "show, don't tell" in how the characters felt about each other and how using magic affected them left a lot more room for interpretation than I think the author intended. Some of the interactions fell a little flat or seemed not to have much build-up to explain why they happened.

Overall, very enjoyable. Plan to read again.

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