A mediocre plot can be amazing if delivered with great story-telling. Uprooted, however, is not mediocre. It was action-packed and there were so many things going on that readers would be constantly on the edge of their seats. I loved the story, I thought it was an amazing mix of fantasy and romance with a lot of beauty-tames-the-beast feels which every woman loves and don't you disagree.
BUT! Issue #1: I think there are pages that the story can do without (maybe 50 of them? give or take?). I was about 10% into the book when I had to stop because the descriptions were repetitive. Specifically how the spells were cast. More specifically how they "let it flow out of" them. It was all over the book you can't miss it. That and there were just parts that I wanted to skip completely. I understand how there's a calm before the storm as in other-stuff-before-the-twist but I thought making a point about how politics worked and how the citizens in the capital were petty was too much. Especially since Sarkan already talked about it before Agnieszka went there.
AND! Issue #2: The voice used in story-telling is confusing. It's not because each scene calls for a different pace. It's experiencing a simple story telling using simple prose and vocabulary for one chapter and then suddenly going Alice in Wonderland feels. It didn't happen throughout the book. But it happened.
It was ...
Chapter 1: The ball is red.
versus
Chapter 2: The spherical object is a of a color at the end of the spectrum next to orange and opposite violet. Like rubies and blood and it was scarlet.
I think I liked parts of this book but felt meh during the other parts.
Oh and apparently, 417 Goodreads users marked this as YA ... um ... no. Lol. Although I had the same first impression of the book due to the opening, there are other parts that are a bit too adult to be young adult.
3.5 stars.
This is a fast read (if I hadn't been busy) and an uncomplicated one but the way I feel about it is a bit -- contradicting. I like the genre and the writing should be easy for anyone to follow but it's still just -- not a page-turner. I liked the old New York setting and I'm in love with old circus and old magic concept but for some reason I couldn't connect with this one. I have to admit I expected more from it so maybe there lies they problem? I'm also getting tired of the love triangle thing in YA so there's another star off the rating. I'd still like to read the second book and see how it turns out. I think I would give this a 3.5 at most.
Those four stars didn't come from this trilogy having a (sort of) happy ending. I liked this best of the three because Alina didn't sulk as much. The saint finally grew balls. Heh. Seriously, this was the most action-packed and at some parts I may have been on the edge of my seat trying to hold on until I found out what happens next. There were too many deaths, though. If some people can be resurrected from the dead then there shouldn't have been too many deaths. WHY WERE THERE TOO MANY DEATHS?!!
Not to be a fanatic but I noticed some similarities between this and another famous series ... but I didn't want to ruin the experience when I'm finally enjoying the story so I let it go lol. Hmm I guess I also liked that they explained a lot of things in this book. Oh! Also! Also! Also! I was told how I will like this book depends on who I want Alina to end up with ... does that mean I was rooting for ***tooot***? I can't say yes. But it was okay what happened in the end. I guess it was ... fitting?
