NEBULA AWARD WINNER • HUGO AWARD FINALIST • “If you want a fantasy with strong characters and brilliantly original variations on ancient stories, try Uprooted!”—Rick Riordan “Breathtaking . . . a tale that is both elegantly grand and earthily humble, familiar as a Grimm fairy tale yet fresh, original, and totally irresistible.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF … review)
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • BuzzFeed • Tordotcom • BookPage • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly
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.
Praise for Uprooted
“Uprooted has leapt forward to claim the title of Best Book I’ve Read Yet This Year. . . . Moving, heartbreaking, and thoroughly satisfying, Uprooted is the fantasy novel I feel I’ve been waiting a lifetime for. Clear your schedule before picking it up, because you won’t want to put it down.”—NPR
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Fantastic writing that was easy to read. A very enjoyable book.
Naomi Novak is a gifted writer. Her stories draw you in with rich details. I love how all the characters develop in the stories—none of them are one-dimensional.
Well-written, humorous, good story. Intelligent gritty heroine,
The story begins with a a wizard choosing a village girl every 10 years. The girls believe they will be sacrificed or seduced. The truth is far different and interesting. Naomi Novok spins her story based on fairy tales but add a great deal.
A charming fantasy story for anyone seeking the traditional whimsy and magic associated with the genre. My only critique is that Novik has a tendency to pair her strong heroines with particularly distasteful men, which I find strange
Naomi Novik has created an incredible world with wonderful characters. Not what you expect. A must for all fantasy fans
This is the book that I recommend to my friends. The main characters are amazing. The world is just enough “once upon a time” to catch you when it’s not. And learning that what others view as shortcomings in you can really be strengths is a fantastic message.
This is the first book written by Novik that I have read, and it will definitely not be the last one. She takes traditional fairy tales and turns them inside out and upside down and makes her readers live in a world they don’t quite recognize, but which they will remember long after closing the book. If you like fantasy, read this book; it is wonderful
Adults like fairytales, too…but I wish I could give 4.5 stars—”Spinning Silver” was a much better story
First of all, don’t be fulled by the genre “fairytale”. There are sex & sexual violence/exploitation, graphical descriptions of murder and torture, and other very adult themes. But unlike “Spinning Silver”—another adult fairytale—this story lacks depth. “Spinning Silver” too had sexual abuse, violence, genocide, stranger-phobias, racism, etc. but there were deeper or just more interesting motivations behind even the ugliest of characters and situations. “Uprooted” is still a very well written story, but having read “Spinning Silver” first, I was a bit disappointed.
Great story teller!
Aw (deep sigh of contentment) that was a good book! Complex, rich and enchanting. Twist and turns every few chapters that leave you hungry for more. Sometimes an author will use too many flowery words to describe the situation, not this is book! If you miss a sentence you missed something important. The writing has depth so you feel exactly how the character is feelings. Moving through the story with him/her…beautiful!
I loved this book so much
This book was beautiful. I’ve never read a fairy tale like it. And the woods! It took that concept that’s been done a hundred times–the creepy woods that people come out of differently–and made it new.
“Uprooted is confidently wrought and sympathetically cast. I might even call it bewitching.”—Gregory Maguire, bestselling author of Wicked and Egg & Spoon
“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”
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.
Gladys #XOXOtheNerdGirl
Wow!! Where shall I begin? Uprooted is my first read of the new year and at over 400 pages I say it was worth it. There was a lot of world building in this book and that is a plus for me. Another plus are the three dimensional characters. Even the side characters are great. I adored Alosha. BUT it appears to be a standalone so it also saddens me.
In Uprooted you have a wizard that the villagers call the Dragon, a faraway castle with a handsome heroic prince and a girl. Not a Princess. Just a girl.
Agnieszka is a peculiar girl. She is always a mess even on Festival day so when the Dragon was to choose a new girl to stay with him for 10 years she thought for sure it would be her best friend, Kasia. Everyone thought it would be Kasia. Boy were they wrong. After being dressed down by the Dragon’s looks of disgust, he picks her anyway. Stains, rips and all.
Agnieszka was whirled away to the tower with nothing but the clothes on her back. She was dizzy with confusion and magical travel but she surely wasn’t excited. Never in a thousand years did she think she would be chosen.
Uprooted had everything a Fantasy novel should have! An evil queen, magic and of course a DRAGON (well kinda.) I enjoyed reading this book and I wish there were more to it. I would love to know more
4 stars and a tip of the Nerd Girl hat!!
interesting, fun story
Naomi Novik is a great writer! This book pulls from the Polish/Russian folk traditions to create an original tale. Great read and audio!
Amazing story…. loved it!
Wonderful writing, great story plotting, a superb re-fashioning of the old fairy tale Beauty and the Beast. Very original, thought-provoking. Made me go find Novik’s other books!
Original Review (2015): This is the second book this year I’ve read about a sentient malicious forest, the other was Crimson Bound. I’ve never read a book with this type of ‘evil’ before but both books were spectacular and very different, and coincidentally my favorite books this far this year.
I’d actually go so far as to call this book the best epic fantasy book I’ve found since Daughter of the Forest.
This novel was incredible. Almost perfect. The narrative, voice, pace, style, it was all flawlessly delivered.
The protagonist was one of my favorite literary characters ever. I was pretty much sold from the beginning but there’s a scene early on where she’s pressured by the very mixed hero of the book who is titled the ‘dragon’ he keeps pressuring her to beautify herself but she defies him and says ‘she doesn’t owe him pretty.’ I just loved that.
That wasn’t the only great thing about the MC, she grew as a person but never to please anyone, really. She just rocked, 100%.
This is a great fantasy story with twists and turns with nail biting sections. The reader is not sure where things are going to go. How far is one girl willing to go to protect her loved ones from the mysterious dragon who haunts their village.