*really 3.5 stars, but i'll rate up for the sake of the story.

I loved the story. The writing itself could have been better.
I'll update this more later. ( )

I really liked the magic system in this book, and the plot was interesting. However, I never connected with any of the characters and I thought the romance was badly done. Overall, I would recommend if you prefer books with good worldbuilding and plot. ( )

So my "recommended to me" notes for Uprooted were " A feminist twist on an Eastern European fairytale with interesting characters and a compelling magic system" and, it's...mostly as billed. But my personal kryptonite is immortal (or super old) character falls in love with a teenager. It bursts through my suspension of disbelief, my engagement with a book and just makes me want to set everything on fire. To add insult to injury, Uprooted also repeats the "guy is super dismissive to girl and she falls in love with him anyway" trope that I first met in Spinning Silver. In Spinning Silver it was haunting and evocative of the frozen tundra of the setting. Seeing it again from the same author? I think it's just her schtick and it made me not like Spinning Silver as much in retrospect. I resent that a lot.

But there are other parts of Novik's schtick I like: the interaction between magic and a place; the way a place shapes a people; strong female friendships between female characters with complementary strengths and profoundly evocative settings. Do they balance? Hard to say. ( )

Yep. I loved this. Loved it, loved it, loved it. Which may explain why I read most of it in two days. :)

Great world building, very interesting characters, and the ending was just really kind of great. Just go read it already! ( )

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.

I really enjoyed this, even if I did have a few problems with it. I was listening to the audiobook, and it felt like, once I started, I just couldn’t let it go -- much like The Summoning. :) I’d definitely give it four stars.

For that, though, I did have some issues -- one, while I’ve listened to this narrator before, I just can’t enjoy her -- she’s *so* slow. I got frustrated when I had five or six hours left in the book, realized it was just a hundred pages, and walked over to the library and read the last pages there in about an hour rather than waste another day with it. Eh. While that’s a valid complaint about the narrator, I do still enjoy her -- she brings an interesting flavor to the story.

One of my friends reviewed this book as “While this book isn’t perfect and I have my gripes, I had to give it five stars because of how I needed to have it on my to-buy list after the first chapter.” Nail, head. Yep. Great story. ( )