Every ten years he comes. The Dragon is a wizard who lives near the village, there to hold back the Wood. The Wood that is home to strange and frightening things like Walkers that are seven feet tall and will steal children. Anyone caught overnight in the Wood emerges changed forever, corrupted into something different and deadly. So the village allows the Dragon to choose a servant girl every ten years, a girl that will never come home to the village after her decade of servitude.

Everyone is sure that this year Kasia will be the Dragon's choice. She is smart, kind and beautiful. But instead he chooses her best friend, Agnieszka when he senses that she has magic in her. Agnieszka and everyone else is shocked. She was the last one anyone would have suspected would be chosen. She is messy and scatterbrained but she is his choice.

At first the Dragon is not sure if he made the right choice. Agnieszka burns his meals, goes around in peasant clothes instead of the fine wardrobe he provides and worse, doesn't seem to be able to do the simplest spells. Worse, she dares to speak her mind and talk back to him. But slowly, Agnieszka starts to find her own magic, a more organic magic that can't always be found in books but must be sensed.

When Kasia's mother comes to the tower with the news that the Walkers have taken Kasia, Agnieszka begs the Dragon to help her rescue her. He doesn't believe it is possible but agrees and they manage to retrieve Kasia from the heart tree she has been captured in. But it has left its mark on her and the rule is to kill anyone with a Wood mark. But Agnieszka spends weeks fighting the Wood's corruption and she and the Dragon finally managed to free Kasia of the corruption.

That brings more trouble. Twenty years ago the Queen was captured Now the Prince and court want the Dragon to free her. Once he and Agnieszka do that, it's expected that they remove the corruption. Can that be done?

This was my first book by Naomi Novik and I've discovered another great fantasy writer. This is a retelling of Polish fairy tales and is at times romantic and others so tense the reader will grit their teeth while reading. It won a Nebula Award and was a Hugo Award finalist. Agnieszka is a spunky girl who discovers her strength and the fact that she can have the things she has dreamed of. This book is recommended for fantasy readers.

I read this book years ago and forgot to post feedback; I apologize for that.

This was the first book by Naomi Novik that I read, and I have been hooked ever since. I love the soft, lush, fairytale style of this book. Now that I've read the Scholomance trilogy, I admire the tone and language of this book even more because Novik has shown that she is able to write lush, nature-based magic but also gritty, dark magic, and she does both *so* well.

I moved from Uprooted to Spinning Silver, which I liked even more. I remember thinking the entire way through about how lucky I was to be able to experience that book. She's become an auto-read author for me, and even though Uprooted isn't my favorite of Novik's books, I'm grateful for it because it was my gateway to all her other books!

Honestly, this is one of the best books I've read in the past year. It's breathtaking and you'll absolutely love the cast of characters, the detailed magical spells, everything. The charm of the book will suck you in. I don't want to ruin anything about this book for you - dive in head-first and know that you'll be rewarded with one hell of a story.

In my first (and probably only) piece of fan art ever, I was inspired to try and replicate the marble stone the Dragon's tower was made of, in the marbled papers I make for bookbinding and sundry. I really love architecture in fantasy novels, especially when they are sentient or magical places. This tower is on the list of my favourite Fantasy places.

I've read a staggering number of excellent books recently, and it has done things to my head. I'm not sure the human brain was meant to read so many brilliant books in such short order — even less sure that swinging my reading-pendulum from Hannu Rajaniemi's collected science fiction stories to Naomi Novik's sword-and-sorcery fantasy novel is at all wise. By all rights I should have tumbled into Uprooted feeling disoriented and confused, dissonant and harsh in my criticism — but no. Uprooted has leapt forward to claim the title of Best Book I've Read Yet This Year.

I received an ARC from NetGalley... 3 years ago. Somehow it got lost in my long list of books to read. I'm glad I finally picked it up! It's a beautifully written book, romantic and suspenseful, though also terrifying at times. The world is so well created (though I felt the characters could use a bit more development, especially one relationship). To use an appropriately themed word, the book left me feeling a bit tangled. I wish I had a book club to discuss it with.

I really adored this book a lot. It was unique and very impressive. It definitely pulled my emotions in many different ways. I definitely feel like I will read this quite a few more times. I wish that it could be a series so I could keep reading, to be honest!

The narrator was pretty amazing too. She put a very authentic feel to the whole story. I was quite impressed. I'd definitely read more audiobooks narrated by this narrator.

This book was captivating, but as to why, I have no idea. The majority of the book I really didn't enjoy, but I read it fairly quickly and kept wanting to pick it back up.

The romance was awkward and understated. It almost felt like it was added as an afterthought. I think the book would have been better if either the romance was focused on a little more, or if it was removed all together.

The plot also bothered me. It felt like the climax of the plot kept happening over and over. It felt like every magical confrontation was the big one, but nope. There always was another bigger fight. And Agnieszka always seemed to level up in her powers just enough to battle it.

I did like the idea of the evil wood. I also liked what was discovered as it's cause. I usually like revamped fairy tales, but this one isn't a favorite for me.

This book starts out incredibly strong and it intrigued me like any other fantasy book. I then made my own journey to page 150 when I realized I kinda hated this so called powerful wizard who calls himself The Dragon. He’s mean, cold hearted, has no redeeming qualities and makes this relationship with our main character very toxic.

Speaking of our main character.. I’m so used to powerful strong willed female heroines in fantasy stories and that’s what I LOVE, but this girl... she constantly says how useless and horrible she is at everything. Maybe this was the effect of The Dragon abusing her mentally throughout the book. Maybe, which if that’s the case, I’m out.

Side note:
My dream plot in this book was that the main character punched The Dragon in the face, left him, and ran into the arms of her best friend Kasia and lived happily ever after with her. I ship them immensely.

Uprooted is one of my favorite books - my go-to gift for both high fantasy enthusiasts and reluctant fantasy readers. I was so moved by the gorgeous writing and totally unique rendering of magic. I loved every part of it.

A fairly predictable YA tale, but would have appeal to readers of the fantasy genre

I'm a fan of myth and fairy tales, I'm good with wizards and enchantments. And this story had a little of everything. The characters were interesting, the story was intriguing, and my only complaint is that the pacing was a bit too fast for me. There was no time to rest, especially for the last 1/3-1/2 of the novel (and a reader needs a chance to catch her breath). Another minor annoyance was the main character's full name (which I just couldn't get my mind around...the nickname was fine).

Overall, a story that blend fairy tale and myth, but in the good sense (not the happy, flower sort, but in the "monsters are real but so is courage" sort).

Starting this book felt like sinking into a feather bed. I felt the same way reading it that I did reading some of my favorite books from my childhood—Ella Enchanted, especially—but in a more mature way, if that makes sense. I’m sure it’s already been said in the jacket blurbs for the book, but it is fairy tale for grown-ups, and perfect. I can’t think of one thing I would change about it. The engagement I felt while reading it, the intense need to just not.stop.reading, and the happiness I felt after finishing it—I just haven’t felt that way about a book in a long while.