Uprooted

By: Naomi Novik

Narrated by: Julia Emelin

NEBULA AWARD WINNER • HUGO AWARD FINALIST • “If you want a fantasy with strong characters and brilliantly original variations on ancient stories, try Uprooted!”—Rick Riordan

“Breathtaking . . . a tale that is both elegantly grand and earthily humble, familiar as a Grimm fairy tale yet fresh, original, and totally irresistible.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: NPR, BuzzFeed, Tordotcom, BookPage, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly

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.

Praise for Uprooted

“Uprooted has leapt forward to claim the title of Best Book I’ve Read Yet This Year. . . . Moving, heartbreaking, and thoroughly satisfying, Uprooted is the fantasy novel I feel I’ve been waiting a lifetime for. Clear your schedule before picking it up, because you won’t want to put it down.”—NPR

Critic reviews

“Uprooted has leapt forward to claim the title of Best Book I’ve Read Yet This Year. . . . Moving, heartbreaking, and thoroughly satisfying, Uprooted is the fantasy novel I feel I’ve been waiting a lifetime for. Clear your schedule before picking it up, because you won’t want to put it down.”—NPR

“A very enjoyable fantasy with the air of a modern classic . . . Naomi Novik skillfully takes the fairy-tale-turned-bildungsroman structure of her premise . . . and builds enough flesh on those bones to make a very different animal. . . . The vivid characters around her also echo their fairy-tale forebears, but are grounded in real-world ambivalence that makes this book feel quietly mature, its world lived-in.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Novik here delivers a tale that is funny and fast-paced, laced with hair-raising battle scenes and conspiracies; it also touches on deeper ecological concerns we grapple with today.”—The Washington Post

“Novik takes us on a surprise-filled journey. . . . The resulting warmth and intimacy provide a nicely nurturing environment for her heroine’s unusual adventures.”—The Seattle Times

“Drawing on her Polish heritage and fairy-tale tropes, [Novik] has penned an original and fully realized fantastical place guaranteed to enthrall her longtime fans and attract new readers. This exceptional fantasy for adult and teen readers should appeal to those who love fairy-tale influenced stories such as Robin McKinley’s Spindle’s End.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“Every so often you come upon a story that seems like a lost tale of Grimm newly come to light. Uprooted is such a novel. Its narrative spell is confidently wrought and sympathetically cast. I might even call it bewitching.”—Gregory Maguire, bestselling author of Wicked and Egg & Spoon

“The magic in Uprooted, with its realistic moral dimension, is so vividly believable that it almost seems you could work the spells. But the book will do that for you.”—Ursula K. Le Guin, award-winning and bestselling author of The Earthsea cycle

“Uprooted has everything I love: a great heroine, new takes on old myths and legends, and surprising twists and turns. A delight.”—Cassandra Clare, New York Times bestselling author of The Mortal Instruments series

“Magical and practical, otherworldly and planted in the real, I could not stop reading this book and neither will you!”—Tamora Pierce, New York Times bestselling author of Trickster’s Choice and Trickster’s Queen

“Wild, thrilling, and deeply, darkly magical. An instant classic.”—Lev Grossman, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Magicians Trilogy

Narrator: Not that Bad

I read a lot of reviews down on the narrator, and I think in this instance, it's just about personal preference.

The thick accent does take a bit of time getting used to, and you could hear the narrator taking some words with particular care, but I would not say it was inarticulate. Personally, I'm not bothered by accents, but I am very bothered by voices that are overly dramatic, and this reading was nice and steady.

As for the story itself, I really enjoyed the characters. Although I thought the story itself was a bit long winded and meandering. I think it could have been tightened up. Still though, it was enjoyable enough. I might listen to it again

Weird pacing

Lots of people griping about the narrator but I actually enjoyed it.
My biggest complaint is the strange pacing. The book starts off slow with great development, and then about half way through speeds up with large gaps between events, so much so that's it difficult to tell how much time has passed and what is happening.

Reader has irritating accent

I found the reader very hard to listen to as she has an strong (French?) accent.
I got so busy being bothered by how she spoke that I didn't listen to the story as well as I usually do.

Iron is not pronounced "I-Ron."

I am an early adopter of audio books and have listened to thousands of books. This was a first for me. Took so much away from the story. Ugh.

Excellent

A truly magical folk tale told by a woman from a foreign land. I love this audiobook from start to finish.

Narration was actually pretty good

I was a little skeptical about this recording, given how many people seemed not to like the narrator. But I stopped noticing the accent fairly quickly, and it was a nice break from the "fantasy books are read in a British accent" trope. And for people who know a bit of Eastern European/Slavic history and culture, the accent helped draw those parallels between the fairy tale world and real life.

Also, Naomi Novik is great. The main characters were wonderfully human, and it was delightfully feminist. All things told, it was a lovely story with decent narration.