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A review by chirson
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
4.0
A perfectly creepy, engaging fairy-tale fantasy with Polish inspirations (though a feel that doesn't quite get the tone or feel of Polish folklore to me - it's too Westernised, the landscape and flavour palate almost right but not quite, not that I'm saying I'd do it better - still, I read Polish fairy tales - klechdy - voraciously as a child).
I loved it a lot, but - what with me being a Polish person - it also made me endlessly frustrated with the tiny inaccuracies and inconsistencies, like declining some nouns but not others (mamusha), using "rz" and "zh" and "rzh" or "sh" and "sz" to mean the same sound in different names (or using Polish versions of some names but "translated" versions of other names) and some mix-ups of Polish and other Slavic things. And then in the Acknowledgement the author says how she took the name "Agnieszka" from a book titled "Agnieszka Skrawek Neiba" and she even gets the difficult name of the author right, diacritics and all, but the word should be NIEBA, IE, not the other way round.
Which is to say, I think the editors failed here a little. If you're a large English-language publishing house and you want to pay someone to do Polish editing for you to make sure there are no such pesky problems, I'm available.
I feel bad for complaining so much, but other reviews do a great job of listing what's great about this book - and don't get me wrong, I'm so happy I found it, I loved it! - and yet it did take away from my enjoyment, a little.
(This reminds me - complaining is a Polish thing, this book should have contained 200% more grandparents and 1000% more complaining.)
(I also don't quite feel Kasia was a fully realised character. But I loved Agnieszka and her voice. Okay, that's it, I'm done now.)
I loved it a lot, but - what with me being a Polish person - it also made me endlessly frustrated with the tiny inaccuracies and inconsistencies, like declining some nouns but not others (mamusha), using "rz" and "zh" and "rzh" or "sh" and "sz" to mean the same sound in different names (or using Polish versions of some names but "translated" versions of other names) and some mix-ups of Polish and other Slavic things. And then in the Acknowledgement the author says how she took the name "Agnieszka" from a book titled "Agnieszka Skrawek Neiba" and she even gets the difficult name of the author right, diacritics and all, but the word should be NIEBA, IE, not the other way round.
Which is to say, I think the editors failed here a little. If you're a large English-language publishing house and you want to pay someone to do Polish editing for you to make sure there are no such pesky problems, I'm available.
I feel bad for complaining so much, but other reviews do a great job of listing what's great about this book - and don't get me wrong, I'm so happy I found it, I loved it! - and yet it did take away from my enjoyment, a little.
(This reminds me - complaining is a Polish thing, this book should have contained 200% more grandparents and 1000% more complaining.)
(I also don't quite feel Kasia was a fully realised character. But I loved Agnieszka and her voice. Okay, that's it, I'm done now.)