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joys-bookshelf · 3 years

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Rating: 1

Re-Read Factor: No

Genre: fantasy, young adult

"'Of all the idiotic things you might have done, you monstrously half-witted lunatic of a girl-'" - Dragon

This quote summarizes my thoughts while reading the entire book, and I was chanting this line religiously every five minutes. I was incredibly underwhelmed, frustrated at the weak-willed MC, and very, very disappointed in a read I had looked forward to picking up for years only to be terrible. I never thought I'd pick up the frontrunner for worst book of the year when picking up Uprooted, but boy was I wrong. Agnieszka was always messing things up-- trying to kill the "Dragon" when she admitted he was protecting the village and doing no harm to the girls he'd taken, almost killing the prince by not following orders when the Dragon's action pattern was of no malice, and so, so much more. Quote Khanh's stellar review:

"Essentially the girls are "kidnapped" by said "Dragon" (keep in mind I used quotation marks around dragon), they're educated, they become well-read, and they want to spread their wings. They're given shit tons of money to make a better life for themselves. Terrifying. Absolutely fucking terrifying. I'm quivering in my boots."

With each flubber and no redemption to acquiesce Agnieszka's actions, I became angrier and angrier by each minute of reading. For example, at 14%, if the only two spells you know are to create palatable meals and pretty dresses then perhaps you shouldn't go parading towns as if you can slay monsters. And even more so, I wouldn't go about chanting random spells in hopes of finding a good one, for the damage that it could lead to is insurmountable to the end result. Agnieszka is the epitome of a dimwit and an incredibly plaintive and deplorable character I have ever read, and I'm amazed at how the ratings reflect otherwise.

Onto the Dragon himself, he could be deemed condescending to the MC, but to be fair, if I had to deal with Agnieszka's dimwittedness everyday, I'd be the same . . . probably worse. He was fair, clever, and had common sense-- qualities I wouldn't be able to say the same for our MC. If a town he had jurisdiction over was in trouble, he would be there to help. When Agnieszka was almost raped by the prince, he had a tactful approach to how to address the situation (import fake memories that the prince had succeeded in his venture), but all Agnieszka could think of was the short-term benefits than long-term of what type of memories he should import.

Lightly put, I cannot say enough how pathetic a character Agnieszka was and how realistic the Dragon was in his character around her as a result of that. I liked the premise of the book otherwise and found that the world Naomi Novik had built for the book was quite well-developed and had potential for future books down the line, but I doubt I will get to them if at all for this book alone was beyond my expectations in a downward way.

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