Ich habe vier Mal versucht dieses Buch zu lesen. Vier Mal angefangen und nun auch endlich beendet. Der Anfang war zäh für mich, aber sobald ich so richtig in der Geschichte drin war ... Mensch war das eine gute Geschichte. Die Magie in dieser Welt ist atemberaubend. Die Charaktere sind sehr realistisch gezeichnet - sie haben gute aber auch schlechte Seiten. Das Fantastischste jedoch ist einfach das Ende. Es war wirklich das worauf ich gehofft habe.

Ok, lets get one thing clear. Im a person that is always fightig with the pacing or wantig more from a story. And guess what? I wanted more. I mean we did get a solid story but I wanted to know more about the world. And I know it is a mee problem but girllll! Sarkan and Agnieszkas cheamestry was right up my aly. Ugh. Pain. Agony. Anyways! Lets go more into the book. FIRST of all the writing style was really nice and easy to get through especially combinde with the magic system. The way a spell would change deppending on how you say/ pronounce the word and then how you cast it. I wish we could have gotten more of it. Its the same when it comes to the romance betwen Agnieszka and Sarkan and I know some peopell wouldnt have a problem with it but I did. I was dying to read more of Sarkans petty comments and seeing how he tries to work with her. Dont get me wrong! Focusing on the story was defintly a good move and it made the story solid but that didnt hold me back from wantig more romance or just more interactions between them. The way Agnieszka worked with magic or how she would always get dirty with out noticing and then we have the always clean looking lead who has a strict way of using magic. Chaos incoming! But sadly we didn't have much of it. Story was still great.

This story takes some (a lot of) time to really come into its own. At around 200 pages, I put the book away for two weeks, engaged in the world building and enjoying the magic system with its linkages to folklore, but frustrated with the pacing and superfluous detailing of settings. However, I picked it back up after my curiousity kept gnawing at me, and I'm very pleased I did! The last 200 pages were a rush, and a lot of the world building paid off.

I didn't finish it. I’m sorry but I just couldn’t do it anymore 😭😭. It wasn’t the worst book I read, believe me, but my patience that I normally have with books I don’t like left me here. I had so many expectations and I was so interested to read that book cause it truly sounded interesting but it just didn’t catch me as it went on. This book was pretty thick so I still had hopes it would get better but I just pretty much forced myself through it and ended up reading 63% of the book. I thought that maybe it didn’t catch me since this book is quite older (published in 2015). I was confused the whole time if it was supposed to be a Romantasy or not. I still don’t get it 😭. They didn’t have any chemistry or anything at all and then Agnieszka randomly talks about liking him romantically?? I read on Goodreads that someone said that they randomly fucked and it was just out of nowhere. I didn’t get to that smut point but allegedly the characters also have zero character development and I can well imagine that. I just didn’t get it, everything was so over the place and things just happened randomly and the 'relationship' between the Dragon and Agnieszka was just so toxic that it wasn’t even interesting anymore. I didn’t wanna put myself through it anymore so I just let it be and I’m going to get a refund from Amazon cause I would rather have my 14,95€ back 🥲

Uprooted ist ein bisschen wie ein Brüder Grimm–Märchen erzählt – teils erstaunlich nüchtern, und in seinen Geschehnissen grausam und detailreich. Aber es ist eben auch die andere Seite eines Märchens: spannend, mitreißend, verzaubernd. Ich mochte das Buch sehr, auch wenn manchmal so schnell so viel passierte, dass ich es schon fast schwierig fand, am Stück weiterzulesen, weil so viel passierte. Agnieszka als Hauptfigur und Ich-Erzählerin mochte ich sehr, weil sie sehr nahbar war, aber auch überzeugt und entschlossen, das zu tun, was sie für richtig hält. Auch, dass das Buch sich in alte polnische Geschichten gründet, fand ich toll und mal etwas ganz anderes als andere Fantasy-Bücher. Wer genau mal etwas andere Fantasy und ein etwas anderes, wenn auch sehr wenig erklärtes Magiesystem lesen möchte und vor etwas Grausamkeit (wenn auch nicht sehr detailliert beschrieben) nicht zurückschreckt, ist hier sehr richtig, in diese Welt von Polnya, Agnieszkas Heimattal und dem Wald einzutauchen

Ich habe vier Mal versucht dieses Buch zu lesen. Vier Mal angefangen und nun auch endlich beendet. Der Anfang war zäh für mich, aber sobald ich so richtig in der Geschichte drin war ... Mensch war das eine gute Geschichte. Die Magie in dieser Welt ist atemberaubend. Die Charaktere sind sehr realistisch gezeichnet - sie haben gute aber auch schlechte Seiten. Das Fantastischste jedoch ist einfach das Ende. Es war wirklich das worauf ich gehofft habe.

Beautiful, magical story that strongly felt like a fairy tale to me, which I absolutely adored. The Wood gave me some serious chills, the creepy-ness of it was created very well, I think. I was fascinated, too, by how the magic in this novel worked, and the parts where magic was being done are one of the many reasons why I loved 'Uprooted'. The characters were one of these reasons, as well. Agnieszka might not be your typical heroine, but I loved reading from her point of view and really got to admire her personality. She is brave, yet sometimes also very naturally afraid, and she learns to be self-confident and really badass throughout the story. The Dragon, Kasia, Marek and all of the other side characters felt very real somehow and each played their individual, important role in the story. The only thing I would have liked a little different was the very ending of 'Uprooted'. Honestly, it felt a little rushed to me and I would have loved some extra pages. All in all, I just absolutely fell in love with this story.

„Das Spindle-Tal wird seit Jahrhunderten von einem grausamen Wald geplagt, der sich Stück für Stück dessen Dörfer einverleibt, die Bewohner entführt oder sie besessen in ihre Dörfer zurückschickt, um alles Leben darin auszulöschen. Nur der „Drache“, ein Magier, der in dem weißen Turm im Tal lebt, scheint den Wald im Zaum halten zu können. Im Gegenzug fordert er alle 10 Jahre ein junges, hübsches Mädchen aus dem Tal und sperrt sie in seinen Turm. Keiner weiß, was dort mit den Mädchen passiert, doch wenn sie den Turm nach 10 Jahren wieder verlassen, sind sie völlig verändert und verlassen das Tal… Als die nächste Wahl ansteht erwählt der Drache jedoch die unscheinbare und tollpatschige Agnieszka aus, denn Agnieszka trägt eine besondere Macht in sich, die sich der Magier im Kampf gegen den Wald zu nutze machen will. Agnieszka, die sich mit ihrem neuen Leben getrennt von ihrer Familie erst mal zurecht finden und lernen muss, ihre ungeahnten Fähigkeiten zu kontrollieren, sieht sich bald in der Verantwortung ihre Heimat vor dem Wald zu retten. Eine Aufgabe, der vielleicht nur Agnieszka und die Macht der Liebe gewachsen ist…“ Umwerfender Fantasy-Roman! Das Setting und das Storytelling hat für mich Tolkien-Potential, kann nur im Umfang nicht mithalten. Ich habe mich in der düsteren und doch romantischen Welt, die Novik erschaffen hat, verloren und mich in die Charaktere verliebt… Ich war nach den ersten 100 Seiten schon fix und fertig und dachte mir „Was soll da noch kommen?!“ Die kommenden 335 Seiten haben dann nicht enttäuscht! Das Buch hätte für mich doppelt so lang sein können und ich wäre nicht müde geworden über Agnieszka, den Wald und Sarkan zu lesen 🥰

Uprooted might be one of the most overrated books this year. Everyone seems to be absolutely in love with it. Well, all I can say is that it was okay. The beginning was actually quite promising. Peasant girl picked from her village to serve the most powerful magician of the country – sounds cool to me. Agnieszka actually turns out to be quite good at magic herself and that is the part I absolutely loved about this book! The magic system is nothing completely new – words and syllables spoken in the right order sometimes with gestures or potions added. BUT Agnieszka’s approach to it is described in wonderful nature allusions, with her walking through imaginary woods and finding the right words for a spell in the undergrowth or as a fruit on a tree. I loved the way her intuitive natural way of dealing with spells and potions is contrasted with her master’s theoretical and accurate method. Their relationship is dominated by these two very different styles of dealing with not only magic but also everything else in life. Which brings me to another aspect of this book I rather liked; the creepy evil Wood which is a thread to the whole country and particularly to the village Agnieszka’s from. The Wood is described as this mysterious haunted forest, populated by creepy monsters and spirits. It is expanding and also it has “kidnapped” the country’s Queen twenty years earlier. So. Evil forrest – check. Missing Queen – check. Kingdom on the brink of war – check. Awesome magic-wielding heroine – check! So, what’s not to like? Well, the writing is kind of slow, which doesn’t have to be a bad thing but a novel like this needs a much faster pacing. Also, Novik’s writing style seemed a bit stilted at times – almost like she was writing in a foreign language. Maybe it’s because a lot of this book’s background comes from Polish fairy tales; maybe these things don’t translate that well; maybe she kept the weirdness of the original stories in the tone of her novel – I don’t know. To me it didn’t feel right. As for the pacing of the story the second half and in particular the last 150 pages just dragged on and on. I was no longer interested in its outcome anymore and only wanted to be done with it. I think the main flaw here is that the damsel in distress was just so very very uninteresting! I did like that the story focusses on Agnieszka saving her best friend. The problem is that said friend, Kasia, is not a fully-fledged character. She’s perfect and bland in every way. She doesn’t even become interesting when she acquires all that magical strength. Novik passed the chance of creating a terrifyingly beautiful, otherworldly creature here! This could have been a great and magical fantasy story, but it falls short of expectations in the end. Oh well. I did like the “love story” though! And that cover!! Oh. my. God.