The majority of Uprooted was somewhat more formulaic than I had been hoping for given all the hype. Still, I am a happy reader of plenty of formulaic fairytale-type fantasy, so I wasn't displeased. But for most of the book, I was looking for elements that would make Novik's writing stand out for me from amongst the writers I've been reading lately, and not finding them. 
 And then, in the last couple of chapters or so, it happened. I found the conclusion of this book to be absolutely breathtaking, delivering all of the beautiful, complex, magical richness that makes me love the fantasy genre. So it ended on a really great note for me, though I wish there had been more of that type of storytelling throughout. 
 If Naomi Novik writes more books of this type in the future, I'd happily read them!