Quote Originally Posted by PoeticallyPsyco View Post
Just reread Uprooted, a book that is unfortunately hard to describe without spoilers since (in my opinion) the best thing about it is the slow-burn reveal of what exactly is going on, who/what the antagonist is, and what they're capable of. This same quality meant that on a reread it didn't hold up quite as well as other works by the author (e.g. Deadly Education or Spinning Silver), but was still a fun read. The magic is flashy and cool, the characters are interesting and complicated, and the nearby eldritch location The Wood is intimidating as hell. Recommend this to people who like fantasy and/or fairy tales.
Oooh. I haven't read Uprooted, but I did read Deadly Education and its sequel. Which is a book I really didn't expect to like as much as I did, it has so many elements I thought I'd dislike. A borderline Grimdark setting, a protagonist who looks painfully edgy and very woe-is-me at first, a magic high school (sort of), teenage romance, working together through the power of friendship... and yet, it works and it's tons of fun.

I should read more Novik. The later Temeraire novels kind of turned me off her, but her later books are really quite good.