Uprooted by Naomi Novik Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
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Synopsis:
Naomi Novik, author of the bestselling and critically acclaimedTemeraire novels, introduces a bold new world rooted in folk stories and legends, as elemental as a Grimm fairy tale.
“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.
There were roots in my heart, as deep as any corruption could go.
HO-LY SHIT. Ahhhh what was this??? What was this absolutely amazing, fantastic, out of this world masterpiece?? It’s certainly not something I would ever enjoy. It’s surely out of my comfort zone. It seemed to have a somewhat long and drawn out plot…But it was that agonizingly wonderful warm-summer-breeze writing I so cherish that I can never find. And not only was the writing out of this world spectacular, the story-line was like crack.
“The power in the wood isn’t some blind hating beast; it can think and plan, and work towards its own ends. It can see into the hearts of men, all the better to poison them.”
Seriously, come on, think about it: The Dragon (very scary name, in my opinion. One of the reasons I didn’t pick this up right away…I mean…Dragon) comes to take a new girl every ten years back to his tower, and after the ten years are over, the girls come back to the village. But they never come back the same. It almost, almost has a Beauty and the Beast vibe (I know UGH I stole that from someone else’s thoughts but for the life of me I can’t remember who!) in the aspect that the girls are locked away in a tower with an unmanageable beast. Except…
“He’s not-he’s not-”
“If you don’t want a man dead, don’t bludgeon him over the head repeatedly,” the Dragon snapped.
BAHAHAHAH–cranky bastard
“If you don’t want a man dead, don’t bludgeon him over the head repeatedly,” the Dragon snapped.
Except he’s not unmanageable. In fact, he’s completely down to earth…calm…cool…collected…if you think dealing with a prickly rose is manageable. That’s right-what we have here is a total asshole. Not in a long time have I ever fallen so hard for such a big jerk. Literally everything he says is seeped with sarcasm and screams ineptitude, but there is a good man underneath…probably. I dunno, I just adore him. All his idiot!s and fool!s topped with a pointed look had me busting out laughing and the smile rarely left my face.
He roared at me furiously for ten minutes after he finally managed to put out the sulky and determined fire, calling me a witless muttonheaded spawn of pig farmers-“My father’s a woodcutter,” I said-“Of axe-swinging lummocks!” he snarled.
Oh! And there’s a creepy haunted forest. They call it the woods. I ADORED this aspect and
Oh fuck it. Just read the sonuvabitch. You’ll love it.
All you need to know:
-Spectacular, out of this world writing
-Wonderful main character
-Asshole male lead
(Example-
He roared at me furiously for ten minutes after he finally managed to put out the sulky and determined fire, calling me a witless muttonheaded spawn of pig farmers-“My father’s a woodcutter,” I said-“Of axe-swinging lummocks!” he snarled.
Lmaoooo I do so love him)
-Magic
-Magic
-Magic
-Haunted woods that want to kill literally everyone and take over the world
That’s all.
Amazing review. This is the second very-positive review I read on this day, so of course you can imagine the effect that provokes on me… I will read it as soon as I finish what I’m reading now. Your review basically is of the makes-me-foam-in-the-mouth kind, and those ones always ruin my reading schedule (I mean it as a compiment). Hope I love it! 😀
Vane recently posted…Review: Mr. Mercedes
Agh! I am the same same way! Lol I totally have a reading schedule and then my friend on here, Anna, will read something epic and I’ll be like LET ME JOIN YOOOOU! haha
Anyway. I hope you find lots of enjoyment out of this one! It was certainly just what I wanted at this moment (again, thanks to Anna lol) 😀