You will enjoy this book if you like a lot of action and movement, folklore and mythology, and characters who grow despite themselves.
This review is based on my second reading of Uprooted. I don’t often re-read newer novels, but this fantasy, drawing on the folktales of Eastern Europe, is re-read worthy for many reasons (and I wanted to remember it better before sending it off to my niece).
The main character, Agnieszka (who I called “Agnes” in my head), is the classic klutz. Her journey, from powerless peasant to heroine, is so compelling that the experience of the first read is like diving headlong into a river with her. The story moves at a rapid pace that provides just enough time to worry about what will happen next, gasp for air, and prepare to be swept downstream again. There is so much action to carry you away: rocks, log jams, and alligators (though not literal alligators).
It is on the second reading that there’s a little more time to realize how realistically the character is portrayed. Poor Agnieszka is taken from her family and expected to grow up overnight. She is faced with tasks that start small, like learning to cook and expand to saving the kingdom. She’s pretty pissed off about it, and that’s fun and refreshing.
A huge strength of this book is how true the story remains to the character’s moral compass in the face of massive growth and change. This is not a book where the main character, whose skills and knowledge blossom beyond her expectations, also re-vamps their core values. Instead, the “narrower” idea of loyalty and caring for family and community above all else succeeds where magical power and political influence fail. Reading the book twice allows readers to extract themselves from the constant action of the book and relish the themes within the story.
Among fantasy novels concerned with an “evil forest,” this one stands out. The forest at first seems an irrefutable adversary, and the journey Agnieszka takes with her Dragon mentor, to discover ways to attack it, is great reading. The magic in the book is handled in a diverse and fascinating way that drives the story and characters with very few pauses for breath.
Lastly, it is very worth a second read to enjoy the deep friendship between Agnieszka and Kasia. The book portrays deep truths about the closest human relationships. From love and admiration to shame and envy, the story incorporates the idea that acknowledging human emotions is one key to accomplishing great things with the lives and talents we’ve been given.
What do you think?