TITLE: Uprooted
SERIES: Standalone
AUTHOR: Naomi Novik
PUBLICATION DATE: May 19th 2015
NUMBER OF PAGES: 438 pages
PUBLISHER: Macmillan
GENRE: Young Adult, Fantasy

SYNOPSIS:

“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.

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

RATING : DNF

HOW MANY PERCENT OR PAGES DID YOU READ FROM THE BOOK?

I read up to 30% until I realized I was done with this book. I could not go on and read another page.

IS THIS AN OVERHYPED BOOK?

I would believe so. A lot of people love this book.

DID YOU ENJOY THE BOOK INITIALLY?

I did actually. I thought the story about the Dragon taking women from a small village was intriguing. I was very curious to know the reason why he does these things and what happened to the girls when they return 10 years later. But the problem for me started when we finally get to meet the Dragon. He is so fucking rude. I hate him to bits,

WHAT WERE THE THINGS THAT MADE YOU WANT DECIDE THAT THIS BOOK IS NO LONGER WORKING FOR YOU?

• I haven’t read in depth reviews for this book, so when I started it, I was going into it blind. I wasn’t expecting anything aside from the fact that I know it was fantasy and that possibly, it might (yes might) have romance. Romance isn’t really an issue for me, especially in fantasy – as long as it is fucking done right. Unfortunately, I think just a few percent into the book, I knew where the relationship between the Dragon and our main character is going; it wasn’t anywhere good, unfortunately. I feel that their relationship is borderline toxic – if not already. There are different types of abuse, and if you ask me, just because someone doesn’t lay their hands on you, that doesn’t mean they aren’t abusing you. Abuse can be reflected in a different number of ways, not just through physical. Let’s just leave this at that.

• The dragon is an asshole. I thought I would have liked him as the story goes along but I really don’t think my opinion of him is going to change anything. Instead of getting better is getting worse by the minute. Not only is he a arrogant asshole but he is a verbally abusive son of a bitch. Sorry for, but yeah, I kind of hate him.

WAS THERE ANYTHING ON IT THAT YOU DID ENJOY?

• I did enjoy the writing style. If I didn’t find the budding relationship of our two main characters so disturbing, I would have gone on and read more of this.

• I wanted to know why the Dragon took those girls from the village. I wanted to know why it took him ten years to return them, and wanted to know why he gave them money. Apparently, he wasn’t using them for sex or anything, so why? I was really curious about that, but I am so done.

• The Russian inspired setting. I feel like the world might have been explored further as I read a long.

RECOMMENDATION FOR THOSE WHO ARE PLANNING TO READ IT?

I know this is a fantasy book, and there are some fantasy books that have content worse than verbally abusing a girl, but this just made me really uncomfortable – and I am sure it would be for some other readers too.

For those of you who aren’t trigger by it like I am, I can recommend it I guess because the I did quite enjoy the writing. It is a bit overly descriptive, but I find joy imagining those, sometimes. If you are a fan of books that draws out words like poetry then I think you might enjoy this one.

Have you guys read this book and did you agree with my thoughts or not? How did you guys like this book?