Why I read it:  It was a gift. Lucky me!

What it’s about: (from Goodreads)  “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.

What worked for me (and what didn’t):  It’s difficult to describe this book. Part of the joy of it is watching the plot unfold and go in unexpected directions. The blurb doesn’t give much away but one really doesn’t need to know much more to dive in.  For those who might need a little more, I’ll talk about the plot a bit further however.

Agnieszka is at first completely confused as to why she was chosen by the Dragon. It doesn’t appear the Dragon is very happy about it and she has no idea what to expect. To find out that she has magic is an absolute surprise. What is not a surprise to her however, is that her magic doesn’t work in the same way as other magic users. Agnieszka is always untidy and clumsy. She can walk from one room to the other and rip her dress, stain her hem and spill something on the carpet, all without trying. She’s messy and untidy and terrible at simple spells.  However, when The Wood mounts a concerted attack against Polnya and her beloved valley, she is forced to learn how her magic works very quickly and the Dragon finds unexpected help. When the Dragon is called away and her best friend Kasia is taken, reckless, impulsive, fierce and loyal Agnieszka risks herself for her friend. As The Wood’s corrupt influence grows, Agnieszka finds herself in increasingly desperate straits and things very definitely get worse before they get better.

I loved the way this book subverted at least one common (romance) trope and turned my expectations on their heads in a number of ways. I loved the way every character had nuance and even the evil characters were evil for a reason. Agnieszka is not without her faults and neither is anyone else in the book. It was just so cleverly done and delivered with empathy and complexity. The story is heavily influenced by folk tales and troubadour songs and includes some discussion about what the purposes of those tales and songs are – it is rarely the blunt truth.

Told in first person from Agnieszka’s perspective, the story has a kind of YA vibe to it but it’s not really YA.  She’s 17 and the beginning of the story, in particular, focuses on her relative youth and inexperience. However, in the society of the story, 17 is old enough to be married and I think 17in Uprooted is therefore not quite the same as 17 in a contemporary novel.  The universe is fictional but bears some resemblance to Eastern Europe.  This is a somewhat new setting for me and I enjoyed that it was different to other fantasy books I’ve read.

There is a romance but it’s not the main focus of the story and it doesn’t get a lot of page time. What there was was subtle but there was a strong connection between them and I believed they would be together for the long haul. In some ways the romance storyline satisfied me and in other ways it didn’t. I’d have liked to have known the hero better but it’s hard to see where that could have been squeezed into the narrative.

It’s mainly a fantasy book however and I knew that going in so I wasn’t expecting more romance than I got and I was happy with the ending. (That’s a clue).

The friendship between Agnieszka and Kasia is wonderful and one of the great strengths of the book.

What else? It’s a stand-alone fantasy (yay!) and relatively long at just about 380 pages on my reader. There is a density and heft to the story which required a little more than the usual level of concentration but it was well worth my efforts.  I’m not a big re-reader and I can’t honestly say that I’m likely to re-read this one anytime soon – but I think this is the kind of book where multiple readings could well bring greater revelation of the various layers of the tale. I can see it being a book those who do re-read go back to time and again.

I’d confidently recommend this one to any readers who like fantasy with a fish-out-of-water lead character (and who don’t mind female protagonists – apparently this is a thing).  It’s darker than Graceling and not as romantic and I think Graceling sits more comfortably within YA than Uprooted does. Nevertheless, those who enjoyed the Kristen Cashore book will probably like this one. For those readers who normally shy away from YA (I’m one of them), I’d also compare it in some ways to Paladin of Souls.  In both of my comparisons, the stories and the universes are different, but there is a similar level of complexity, nuance and freshness that I think links them together nonetheless.

It is expensive, with prices ranging from $9.99 to $26 for the paperback from the Book Depository (for Aussies anyway).  So some might want to get it from the library – my own library is getting a number of copies so I think it will be available relatively easily.

Grade: B+

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