Uprooted

Very solid, even exciting book with an interesting fantasy setting. I like how she draws on Slavic culture. And also the setting in the landscape, the forest and mountains, the villages and The Wood. Her descriptions of magic and particularly different styles of magic are compelling. And I like the twist about how Agnieszka's magic is rooted to her valley, and the valley is a sort of affinity that is hard to leave. All of it adds up to a gentle, meaningful setting and environment.

The story was mostly fun. The book lags a bit when she goes off to court; I'm not sure I ever much cared about the politics or the plot in the middle third of the book. But that's OK there was plenty at the start and the end.

The weird thing to me is that this felt almost like two different stories, two narratives, and one of them was a little too rape-culture for me. Specifically the damsel in distress setup at the start. First that it seems The Dragon is taking girls as sex slaves. And then the attempted rape by the prince. It just seemed very high stakes and more adultly awful than the rest of the book needed. OTOH it is a meaningful peril for women both real and in a fantasy novel, maybe those stakes were needed? Alternately Novik could have taken the ending story about the Wood and the people it takes and turn it into a full-on Octavia Butler body horror story. That would have been interesting and consistent with the first part, but a much darker novel.

Not complaints, just me thinking out loud on taking the story seriously. It's a good story, a great mix of fairy tale and fantasy and mysterious adventure.