Uprooted
“We’re meant to go. We’re not meant to stay forever.” Agnieszka, Uprooted.
I’ve gone through something of a dry spell in regards to books recently. I’ve read books and enjoyed them, but there hasn’t been that deep urgency to keep reading just one more chapter, and three hours haven’t disappeared in the blink of an eye while I’ve been nose deep in the pages of unexplored territory. And to be honest, I hadn’t even noticed that I was missing it.
Until I found a little book hidden on the corner of a table in Waterstones.
I was in the store, one book in hand already, looking to take advantage of the “Buy One Get One Half Price” deal. But nothing had reached out and grabbed me, like books so often do when you know it’s meant to be yours. But then, a small paperback caught my eye. Everyone knows that a good book is one that will catch your eye with the front cover. This one, with its pale cream background, the bottom decorated with a black ink forest surrounding a white tower, the only things in colour a singular red rose and a large golden tree, may as well have slapped me in the face.
Uprooted, by Naomi Novik. This novel tells the story of Agnieszka from Dvernik. She’s a simple seventeen year old village girl, who lives with her family near the edge of The Wood, a dangerous spiteful place that tempts people into its shadows, who either never return or come back infected by the forest, a fate worse than death. But, other than a talent for making a mess, Nieszka’s life is safe. Relatively.
The only thing protecting her village from The Wood is the magic of the Dragon, a reclusive wizard who lives in a tall white tower some distance. Every ten years he takes one seventeen year old girl to live with him in his tower for a decade. The only thing all these girls have in common is that when they leave, they always want to move on and leave home for good. Nieszka isn’t frightened for herself, everyone has always known that it is her best friend Kasia, brave and beautiful Kasia, who will get chosen. But when the Dragon arrives, it is not Kasia he picks.
I’ll be the first to admit it, I love a well written romance. Deep and passionate, about the inner workings of the mind and the events that lead to the main character finding THE ONE. But I’m also a big fan of fantasy and even fairy tales. There’s just something about those genres that appeals so much to me, I couldn’t explain it if I tried.
The book is about so much more than the girl trapped in the tower with the mysterious wizard, the plot takes them all over, from her village, to the capital of their city and even into the heart of The Wood. It deals with real human emotions and relationships, the cracks that can occur in even the firmest of friendships and how sometimes, the villain isn’t really a villain at all.
If you have even the slightest interest in fantasy novels, specifically ones about magic, and books about human connections, then I wholeheartedly urge you to give this a try.