Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Pages: 465
Method: Kindle
Rating: 3.5/5

This was my first book by this author and she has an interesting writing style that took me a while to get used to. Once I did, I enjoyed the story and the unconventional ideas and themes. The story follows a young girl, Agnieszka, who lives in a quiet village near a haunted and dangerous forest. Her life changes when she unexpectedly gets chosen by the wizard known as the Dragon, to live in his tower, and the book follows her adventure from there.

If I’m being honest, I felt like the deeper themes and subplots weren’t as deeply discussed and unwound as I thought they would be considering how long the book was. At times it felt like there was a lot of important detail that never ended up being significant or helping the story along. Even with the climax and the eventual resolution, it didn’t fully make sense to me (which may just be reader error), or at the least it felt like it was merely skimmed over, rather than feeling it’s full weight.

Now, all that to say, while it may sound like I didn’t enjoy the book. I did, which is why I gave it 3.5 out of 5. I just think it could’ve been a little bit shorter, or at least there could have been more emphasis put on the important pieces of the story. If you’re a fan of alternative or unconventional fantasy, I would definitely recommend this book and I will definitely be giving another of her books a chance, I just need to be in the right mood for it.