Uprooted
Naomi Novik
435 pages
Copy: ARC
Read: 4 April 2015
Spoilers: Some
Recommend to: Fans of Robin McKinley, early Neil Gaiman, and Diana Wynne Jones.
I've been trying to think of how to review this book for a while (see read date) and I can't seem to come up with a really great way to communicate my enthusiasm for this book without spoiling some of the best lines or the best parts of the plot. I'm not even going to try to sum it up: go read this wonderful book, and come back to hear what I think of it.
It was the exploration of the Deep Dark Woods idea and the Beautiful Maid in Tower thing that got me hooked in. Novik handles these over-played tropes very well, adding a unique layer of Polish-type fairy tales to it. Her bumbling heroine--who is more often dirty than not--adds a great deal of realism and charm to what could have been a two-dimensional replaying of fairy tale tropes. The differing types of magic--ones that could clash or combine into something greater--was an inspired concept. The whole arc of the story had environmental overtones, making that "evil" forest about the complexities of good and evil in the context of past atrocities. I also appreciated the female friendship that was central to the plot: Agnieszka will do anything for her best friends Kasia, including going into the Deep Dark Woods and hauling her friend back.
So good plot, interesting subtexts, great stories. One objection: the love story, especially the three sexual encounters, felt forced. They were well written, competently erotic, but dumped into the plot without grace or even a great deal of foreshadowing. Perhaps it is the trope of the story--half "instructor and student" and "beast/magician and abductee"--but I have the suspicion that someone read this, noticed it was an adult Fantasy novel, and demanded Novik add in some sex scenes. "Can't have a good fantasy without sex scenes!" I imagine someone saying. "Women don't watch porn! THIS is their sexual outlet!"
Maybe I'm just being judgmental or jaded from years of being a Fantasy reader; probably the conversation didn't go like this. But the sex scenes do feel forced to me. As the sole complaint for a high fantasy, this is comparatively minor. I will be looking forward to finding and reading more by this author.
