Uprooted

Title: Uprooted

Author: Naomi Novik

Series: Standalone

Number of Pages: 435 

Date Read: 1/26/16

Genre: Fantasy, Magic 

Synopsis (Found on Goodreads.com):

“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.

But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.

My Review:

I liked this book, however I did not like it as much as I thought I would. 

The basic summary of the book is that a valley of towns are protected by a wizard called the Dragon. He protects them from the evil of the wood that surrounds the valley. The wood is evil and there are many creatures who come out of it to steal people into the wood. Many people who go into the wood never come out or they come out wrong and corrupt. If they come out its just a matter of time until they do something evil. In exchange for protection, every ten years the villages in the valley offer up a 17 year old girl for the Dragon to take to his tower. There are a few girls every year and the dragon has the choice to choose one. Everyone in the main character's Agnieszka village expects Agnieszka's best friend Kasia to be chosen. But when the dragon comes he doesn't choose Agnieszka. 

That is the basic plot from the synopsis on the book. However the book is so much more its ridiculous. This is a time I actually wish a book would have been a series. So many things happen in the book its like reading different stories within one. There was plenty of things that could have been made into other books and given more flesh to these events that were kind of sped through. It was a lot of information to take in and at times overwhelming. Also the story changed rapidly from one thing to another. 

I really did like the magic system of the story. I love how magic was used and taught. I loved how powerful Agnieszka was and how she learned to use magic so quickly. I also loved the style of her magic, where it didn't fit into any specific category of magic (that the magic world had). It was cool to see the different magic spells and what they did as well as see the different potions and how they were used as well. 

There were so many characters in the book but there were 3 main ones for the majority of the book. Of course Agnieszka was the main character whose pov the story was told from. I really liked her alot. She was super powerful but she wasn't cocky about it. She didn't want all the glory that comes with being a witch or to go to the king to serve as his witch, all she wanted was to go back home and live her country life that she loved. I think that's what makes her so badass. She doesn't want more power, she doesn't want to be in charge. She just does what she has to do and then just wants to be home. She is super loyal to people she cares about especially her best friend Kasia. She loves Kasia so much and she risks her life over and over to save her, which is a big part of the book. 

The second main character is the Dragon whose real name is Sarkan. He protects the villages in the valley but he doesn't leave his tower unless needed. He is a very prickly character. He is very rude and mean to Agnieszka. He calls her idiot and dumb but in more eloquent words. He gets frustrated and angry very easily. He basically doesn't want to form ties with anyone so he pushes people away. He finds a very defiant partner in Agnieszka. He is also shown different ways that magic can be used by Agnieszka because her magic doesn't follow any category of magic he knows. So he is often surprised by what she can do and how she does it. He is also very sarcastic. I liked him though. 

The last main character of the book is Kasia. I also liked her alot. She is very brave and very protective especially of Agnieszka. She is also adaptable. An event happens to her that changes her and instead of whining about it she goes with it and figures out how to use the changes to her advantage. She is a very sweet girl and she cares for Agnieszka very much. 

A quick paragraph about the other characters. I didn't like Prince Marek at all. He is obsessed with finding his mother who has been in the wood for 20 years and he is blinded by his desire to find her that he doesn't listen to the counsel of the wizards in the book. He just didn't get it and brought about a lot of destruction. I also didn't like the wizard that was with Marek, the Raven. There was just something very creepy and suspicious about him. I also didn't like the Queen. Something was very off and strange about her. I loved Stashek, who was the crowned prince's son. He was very serious and knowledgeable for a child his age. He was with it and he acted like the royalty he was, even when he was afraid. He was adorable. 

There is a hint of a romance in the book. I'm glad that it wasn't the entire book but more of it could have been written about. I mean the reader could tell that there was something going on between Agnieszka and Sarkan but there was only two parts in the book where there was active romance. I would of liked a bit more. But I liked how the romance didn't turn Agnieszka or Sarkan into dopey love birds. Sarkan was still his sarcastic self and Agnieszka was still her defiant self.

The ending was really good and full of action and magic. However again, I wish the book was broken up into a series. It could have been a great fantasy series that I would of definitely continued reading.  

Rating: B+