Uprooted

I don't know how I feel about this book. Mostly because I have more questions than answers and this review is me trying to work through those questions.Uprooted is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast with a beauty that is neither so beautiful nor helpless and a beast that's not really a beast ( at least that's what Novik would like us to believe). There's no denying that Novik writes beautifully, Uprooted was as much a joy to read as [b:Spinning Silver 36896898 Spinning Silver Naomi Novik https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1513872748l/36896898.SX50.jpg 58657620] was (still one of my favourite books this year). However, in my opinion, Uprooted lacked the strong world-building and tight plotting of Spinning Silver. Agnieszka's magic is largely imprecise and instinctive while the magic of the wizards is exact and almost scientific in its application. The only other person who apparently had Agnieszka's kind of magic was the witch Jaga, who died 500 years ago and whose spells have mainly been rubbished as nonsense. This made me wonder:1. In the past 500 years had there been no one who had that same brand of magic?2. Had no one been alive during Jaga's own time whom she trained to carry on her legacy? It is mentioned that the other wizards needed to be apprentices for 7 years before taking the test yet during Jaga's time she had not trained any witches?3. Also, it is said that Ballo didn't realise he was a wizard until he hit 40 and it became obvious that he wasn't ageing. Wouldn't the same have been true of anybody with either Agnieszka or Jaga's brand of magic? Wouldn't they have stopped ageing too?It just doesn't seem clear to me why all knowledge of that magic died with Jaga when she had been alive for 100+ years.Additionally, the reason for the differences in magic wasn't really explained. Initially, I thought it might be gendered because only Agnieszka and Jaga were recorded to have practised the intuitive kind of magic; however, the presence of Alosha (the female wizard) led me to believe that might not be the case. And to be honest, I was relieved to realise the magic wasn't necessarily gendered. The idea of a system where men practice precise magic while women cast instinctive spellls has such misogynistic implications that I was glad Novik hadn't stooped to that. As a black woman in STEM, I still encounter people who believe that women just aren't good at sciences and I would have been absolutely revolted to read a version of that belief in this book. However, that still led me to ask why Agnieska and Jaga were different from the rest and what made their magic so rare??????????Finally, I hated the romance and I hated Sarkan. There was no redeeming decades of kidnapping. I also couldn't get over both the power imbalance and the 100+ age difference. There was too much I had to ignore to enjoy this romance and I couldn't do it. I don't really enjoy bully romances, I prefer reading about two sweet people being kind to each other.