Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Uprooted

I went into this books and really wanted to like it. I pushed through it really trying to enjoy it, but it wasn't for me. I couldn't connect much to the main character and struggled to find her as much developed, rather than someone with a few I'll defined traits who things happened to.

I truly disliked the romance in the book.

The trope of student/teacher would be something I'd have been willing to hand wave if Sarkan had anything developed or redeeming to him at all other than being grouchy and verbally abusive all the time. It felt as though the author married a pick up artist and wanted to normalize that. Or just felt that romance and sex would be need d to sell the book rather than letting the overall story exist in it's own right. Either way, it detracted and felt unnecessary.

The largely redeeming part of the book is Kasia. There aren't many other relationships with characters that develop enough to know them and care about them much. I did enjoy parts of the reveal at the end of the book, however, and wish there had been more exploration around that.

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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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amberqn's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced

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

2.0

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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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readerette's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

As you can tell by the 5 stars, I deeply enjoyed this book, though it took me a little while to settle into liking it. At first I thought the Dragon was just horrible and cruel and it was just going to be a story about how he makes people miserable, but it grew from there, though he stayed true to character. The growth in Agnieszka is believable and inspiring, and even when she gets stuck, she's not overly bleak, which I think helped balance some of the darker themes and characters in the story. I found the writing a bit stilted in places--the words just didn't come together for me, but it was only a few phrases in total that threw me, not enough to taint the delight.

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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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nicolinebl's review against another edition

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2.5

I gave this 5 stars in 2016 (I was 14/15) and adored the story. Have been wanting to reread it ever since and decided to reread recently. I was flabbergasted by how extremely weird the story was and how uncomfortable I felt reading it. He is 100+++ and she is 17. It's gross. I remember that the story was really intriguing and I didn't notice the weirdness of it all back then but it has ruined the book for me now...

I'm not going to finish it so I won't even be able to mark all the graphic warnings but you get the picture.

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