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3 stars! This review will be spoiler free!
Synopsis:
“Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.
Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.
The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.
But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.”
Initial Thoughts:
I both really enjoyed and slugged through this book. There were many aspects of this story that I liked! The story read like a dark magical fairytale. My favorite being the fact that the antagonist of this story isn't even human. It's a tree, a group of trees actually. A group of very corrupted, very creepily alluring, very dangerous trees. That was aspect of this story was so unique and well-written! I also enjoyed the magic. I like how there were different ways of using magic, most a reflection of the wizard or witch wielding it. Kasia was probably my favorite human character. Yes, I know she's not one of the mains, but she had most of my interest. I also thought the battle scenes were vivid, easy to visualize, and heart-racing! Now on the down side... I so so so wanted to love Agnieszka and the Dragon and their romance, but I just didn't. Agneiszka was a female badass when it came to the magic and she was strong-willed, but for some reason, I grew no attachment. The Dragon was quite flat? I felt like there could have been so much more to him, but again, no attachment. Then their romance felt entirely unfounded when it came to fruition. Did I expect them to be the main couple, yes, but I didn't really believe in their love the way it played out. The story was also pretty slow overall. Naomi Novik's writing is VERY detailed almost to the point of boring me sometimes. Then I'd find myself occasionally unfocused and have to reread paragraphs. And then there was the ending. The middle of the book was probably the most exciting for me, but the ending felt like such a let down. So quick, so convenient? And I wanted more closure regarding the main couple and I didn't get that. Altogether... I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. I wish I had lower expectations because I could've liked it more, but this book just didn't live up to the hype I was hearing. Definitely read it for your own experience though, there are definitely wonderful aspects of this book that you may find appealing as well.
Plot:
I don't really know how to explain this plot. There were things I liked and things I really didn't. I found parts to be executed well, then other part to be sloppy. I felt certain characters were well developed and thought out, then others were left almost entirely flat. SO FIFTY/FIFTY!
- The entire introduction to this world was interesting. I was captured immediately by the idea that there's this powerful wizard fighting off a dark forest to save the village people. Then everything after Agnieszka getting chosen was just... up and down. Oh, and slow. The parts that were fast paced were short and few in between, but when they were there I was rapt.
- I do like the overall plot of two wizards who fall in love battle this overbearing wickedness of a grove in order to save their home towns and kingdom, but the execution of said plot was subpar. I want to say Novik did an amazing job of developing Agnieszka's magic style and her special powers. She also managed to make the Wood one of the sneakiest villains I've had the pleasure of reading. The Wood was so well developed! It starts off super mysterious and throughout the book you get to know it more and more, then it becomes this well-rounded full blown character in the book.
- Another thing Novik did well for me was her ability to make your heart stop at the end of chapters. She has this way of making your worst thoughts come true, cutting off the end of the chapter, then spinning it in a way to make the plot move forward perfectly. Yes, I'm talking about the development of Kasia's character! Loved that.
- Moving on there's a section of the book where Agnieszka visits the capitol of her kingdom and some of the happenings here are important, but like only 2% of it. Literally everything else was fluff that I just didn't need. There was a need to involve some politics, I understood that and generally like politic intrigue, but the way it was kind of just thrown at you? it felt sloppy. Towards the end of the capitol chapters, things really pick up. It was intense, so intense, it felt jumbled at times, but overall suspenseful and fun.
- All that led up to an anticlimactic ending.
- Now that I think about it, a lot of the build ups in this story ended up being short lived and anticlimactic. So unfortunate considering the length of time spent on other more irrelevant things. I kinda wish there was a sequel. If given a second book, I think Novik could have spent more time explaining things, rather than randomly throwing in facts that were expounded upon.
- Isn't it also weird that I finished this book only a few days ago and I already feel like I forgot things that happened? Not a good sign... Maybe, MAYBE, if this book did set such high expectations for me. It could've loved it more. Unfortunately it was a disappointment.
Characters:
AGNIESZKA has immense magical abilities and her way of casting is so adaptable and beautiful. I really enjoyed experiencing her do magic and share her magic with Sarkan. She was also hard-headed which I loved for the fact that it infuriated Sarkan all the time. I thought that was hilarious. Other than those few things, I felt no attachment to this main character. I felt like she did her job. She was quite the heroine. Still, I could've been okay if something really bad happened to her.
SARKAN I would have been more upset if something bad happened to him. Actually, whenever he was in danger I felt a little scared. He had a sort of sappy back story and starts to warm up a bit as a person, but still comes off as an asshole most of the time. He's actually so mean to Agneiszka at one point that I really wanted to slap him. That's about the strongest emotion I felt towards him throughout the book. I was also emotional detached from the Dragon, who was not actually a dragon.
KASIA is badass. She is everything she made to be in the introduction and stayed that way throughout the book. A courageous beauty transformed and will to battle the enemy without a blink of an eye, sword skills, magic, or not. I really liked her character with the main. Their friendship was my favorite relationship in the entire book because of their willingness to do absolutely anything for each other.
THE WOOD is devious, is sneaky, is haunting, is dark, and is most definitively corrupted. The Wood stayed plotting and I was honestly surprised by its ability to infiltrate by the most insignificant means. The back story and development of the Wood is probably what made the MOST sense in this entire novel. I appreciate this character for all it was in this book.
Overall:
Again, it was very 50/50 for me. I liked the magic, the darkness, the Wood, and the friendship. Still, this book could have benefited being a duology. The writing wasn't the best, or at least, not my cup of tea. And I felt like much of the plot of sloppily put together and slow. Those little tidbits of fast-paced heart wrenching battle scenes though, 100% had me at the edge of my seat, no matter how short lived. If the ending had been better or even if the romance had been better, I could've bumped this book up a whole star, but both were also let downs. My advice: go into this book without the hype in mind. Go into this without any expectations or idea of what's supposed to happen. And just absorb. I think if you go about it that way and find very detailed writing your thing, this could be the book for you. Sadly, it wasn't for me.