Book Reviews

review; uprooted

Uprooted
by Naomi Novik

“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. 

Review:

SUCH PERFECTION.

Agnieszka grows up thinking her best and dearest friend Kasia will be chosen by the wizard who their village is beholden to and taken away for ten years, but when the Dragon winds up taking her instead, her whole life is thrown upside down. Because (dun dun du-hn), Agnieszka has magic, and the Dragon has taken it upon himself to train her because that is just the way it is done.

But things are not as simple as the Dragon training a rather unwilling Agnieszka. The Wood that the Dragon protects the villages from is slowly infecting and corrupting people further away, and growing, and when Kasia is taken, Agnieszka throws caution to the wind to get her friend back – and in the process, changes things that have been taken for granted forever.

One of my favourite things about this novel is just how intense things are. Things just keep coming, and you just have to keep going with the punches, much like the characters themselves. The Dragon and Agnieszka butt heads so much over everything she just bulldozes over (and she does, she bulldozes over EVERYTHING and it is amazing), but there is also a growing understanding and respect between them that I adore. She makes him question everything he has known, and he opens her eyes to the world outside the life she has known.

The way the novel is written actually reminds me a lot of the way Agnieszka describes her understanding of magic, like a song you’ve always known. There’s just something about the prose itself that is magical. And the relationships, not just between the Dragon and Agnieszka, but Agnieszka and Kasia as well, are all very realistic and balanced, and you even learn to empathise with characters you never think you will empathise with.

I’m not making much sense, because I’m still caught up in my post-book haze? But I would HIGHLY recommend this to everyone who likes fantasy novels. If the synopsis catches your attention, READ THIS BOOK. You will not regret it.

I’m Ara, a Southeast Asian writer who someday hopes to have published a novel, and who is currently losing herself in the worlds created by others. I love books and food and television and blogging and I get distracted and sidetracked easily.

0 Comments

  • Fanna

    Wait a minute?! This is a standalone? What? I kept thinking ever since I’ve come across this years ago that it’s a part of some series so I stalled reading it since forever. I’m so disappointed in myself right now, haha. But this review is making me all the more excited to pick it up in summer hopefully 😀

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *