Reviews with content warning for Sexism - Uprooted

Overall, subpar. The magic and world building are far more interesting than any of the characters could ever dream of being, which is a shame because we don't get to see much of it. The premise was interesting, the plot was an actual plot, but it could have been fleshed out so much better if it only had a bit more time. The ending was a semi-refreshing subversion of the expected romance ending, but it felt a bit rushed. The romance part itself was, in my opinion, wholly unnecessary and a bit unpleasant. The main romantic interest is an immortal while our mc is... 17-ish. Not to mention the attempted rape scene.

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saintyeehaw's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I kept rooting for this book and it kind of kept letting me down, sadly. I fell in love with the magic system, the visualizations of spell casting, the descriptions of reading the Summoning, and the dark horror of the Wood. Unfortunately, Sarkan's never ending verbal abuse toward Nieshka, her being 17 to his 150, the weird sympathetic framing of a rapist, and the inclusion of only one explicitly black character just to have her be the daughter of a slave really soured me on the whole thing.

I'll just rant here. The fact that Sarkan chooses specifically girls (never explained why boys aren't chosen if everyone with the gift must be trained) and expects them to cook all his meals for him for ten years was already irredeemable in my eyes. His constant berating of Nieshka literally left her EXPECTING abuse multiple times throughout the book which left me feeling sick at its romanticization. Truly, Sarkan's only traits were that he liked cleanliness and that he was mean. Their hideous age gap (of literally a child and a very old man) being framed as his excuse to momentarily hesitate from sex with her? yikes. Why did she need to be 17? I would have much preferred reading about an adult woman and her ages old immortal boyfriend. Lastly, the rape scene was handled unbelievably poorly and just made Sarkan even more monstrous to me.

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beesknees's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Uprooted provides a slow-paced, ever-expanding adventure reminiscent of Beauty and the Beast. Agnieszka is not a girl following her fate, but an unsuspecting heroine who follows her intuition for better or for worse. Agnieszka truly is the highlight of this book, I was delighted to follow alongside her journey and watch her grow. Uprooted showcases complex relationships between friends, family, lovers, enemies, and community. Specifically the relationship between Agnieszka and Kasia was unique and well-documented. Again, this is a rather slow-paced story, so paying attention is crucial to gather the imagery author Novik describes. The story takes some classic tropes such a young and prideful princes, and moody loner wizards, and expands on them to create this new fairy tale.

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franzy's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional

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

2.0

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jenny_librarian's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

Interesting world, boring-as-hell characters.

I had zero emotional attachment for the characters in this book. At most, I can say that Agnieska and Kasia's relationship had some potential, but the way it's tackled, Kasia's just a pawn to further Agnieska's development. As for the "love interest", well Sarkan has all the red flags of a horrible partner (calls her an idiot constantly, doesn't display any kind of warmth towards her except when they're sleeping together, etc.) without any chemistry with Agnieska whatsoever. I might call them f**k buddies at best, but there's no love there -- or a very unhealthy kind.

The Wood itself was a great concept and pretty much the only reason I kept reading, until the end when I got so bored I skimmed the last 50-or-so pages. Take all the sexism, patriarchy and shitty relationships and there might have been something worth 435 pages. As it stands, it was just okay.

Seriously, though, what is it with fantasy writers who can't ever let go of patriarchy and sexism? You create a whole-ass world with magic, but you can't be bothered to stop objectifying women and seeing them as currency? There was no need for the near-rape scene and the passive misogyny in every single chapter.

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antjeliest's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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acreatureofbooksandtea's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

The main plot of the book kept me glued to my ereader. It was tense and there were high stakes for the heroine throughout the entire story. And the heroine herself was plucky, brave and determined without coming off as stupid or purely reckless.

My main gripe is with what passed for romance it the story. The heroine and hero spent very little page time together overall, and most of that time he was being condescending and insulting everything from her looks, to her intelligence, to her magical ability. He was just an unpleasant character, even outside his interactions with the heroine, and only seemed to become even worse whenever he interacted with her.

As far as I’m concerned, the heroine had heaps more chemistry and depth of relationship with her childhood best friend, who was the other character I loved the most aside from the heroine. She was brave and selfless, and stayed at the heroine’s side helping and defending her with unending determination and bravery, and was always supportive of the heroine.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, from the story to the heroine and her best friend and their quest to defend their land and the people they love from some truly terrifying situations. Just don’t read this book expecting a romance (like I did) because you won’t find anything but a single non-graphic, awkward, rushed sex scene that was apparently supposed to represent the love between two character that spend most of the story acting like roommates at best, and antagonists at worst.

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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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