Review: "Uprooted" by Naomi Novik

Cover Summary:

“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.

On the Goodreads page for this novel, I saw someone shouting in all caps about the implausibility of this story. The reviewer appeared to think that, as long as the wizard calling himself “the Dragon” doesn’t actually eat, rape, or torture the girls he takes, that makes everything all right and Agniezhka, his newest servant, should have nothing to worry about.

But I disagree. Being taken away from your home for ten years, forbidden all contact with your loved ones, living alone with a powerful, incomprehensible (and frankly quite rude) immortal, and gradually losing your identity so that you cannot connect with your family anymore when you do see them – that’s enough to frighten anyone. And it’s far from being the worst thing that happens to Agniezhka.

Still, the Dragon is not a villain. It’s more complicated than that. He is someone who’s been alone for so long, concentrating on nothing but his magic, that he’s almost forgotten how to deal with ordinary people. Especially an impulsive, messy young woman with power of her own, whom he’s duty-bound to train whether he wants to or not.

Also, Agniezhka is no traditional fairytale heroine. She may have the power to save the world, but she still can’t cook without getting dirty, and she drives the Dragon crazy with her slapdash approach to magic. (Think My Fair Lady meets The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.) Her peasant girl narration is pitch-perfect; by describing impossible things like magic in terms she can understand, she makes them almost real enough to believe in. For example, her only talent growing up was gathering useful things in the forest, so that’s the analogy she uses for learning a new spell – unlike the Dragon who, she says, always insists on using the road.

The arguments they have about each other’s working methods are some of my favorite scenes in the book. Their partnership challenges them both, intellectually as well as emotionally.

Another relationship I loved was Agniezhka’s with Kasia, the classic heroine everyone thought would be chosen instead. They should (and do) envy each other’s very different fates, but not for a moment do they let it ruin their friendship. Kasia, too, breaks free of the villagers’ (and the reader’s) expectations, becoming just as strong in her own way as Agniezhka in another.

Considering the title, it’s fitting that roots are so important to this story. Agniezhka’s strength comes from her heritage: her family, her best friend, and the land she lives on. The Dragon, a solitary man, has no roots. He spends his life holding back the forest because he is afraid it will overrun the world. He has a point – this is not a Disney forest – but the best way to handle these monsters is with compassion and an open mind.

By the way, this is one of only a few stories I’ve seen where reading aloud saves the world. I’m surprised there aren’t more.

Surely we bookworms must have known this all along. ;)