In between magic lessons, Agnieszka and the Dragon try to find ways to destroy the Wood permanently.
Fantasy novels earn a lot of leeway when they’ve got a a terrifying threat/villain. When a key ally is “saved,” the tension around whether or not they’re legitimately cured is maintained until the final pages. The threat-the Wood, which infects people with contagious, feral madness-is genuinely terrifying. Once out of predictable territory, Uprooted shines. It’s as annoying to read a stereotypical female character as her exact opposite-both are built on the same foundation of treating gender as a personality type. I eagerly await the day I don’t have to read pages and pages about how the female narrator doesn’t like skirts/dresses and other stereotypically feminine aspects. Things with the Dragon go how you’d expect: He’s crusty and short and impatient with the unpolished girl he’s dragged across his doorstep. ! Maybe my former issue with fantasy is that I read too many badly-paced novels. Only Kasia moved I looked back at her and saw her about to reach for me in protest, and then the Dragon jerked me impatiently and ungently stumbling after him, and dragged me with him back into thin air. I didn’t even have a chance to turn around and say a last good-bye before he turned back and took my arm by the wrist. Fortunately, this section doesn’t drag too long and Agnieszka takes up residence in the tower: She was 100% positive he’d choose her best friend, Kasia, but if that were going to happen then Kasia would be the narrator.
The beginning is formulaic: A local wizard, the Dragon, collects a girl once per decade and he selects the narrator, Agnieszka. At 439 pages, it’s not even long for its genre. In the meantime, I read Novik’s Uprooted which is wonderful for being a single, self-contained book and not another series. Most books in a series share common strengths/pitfalls so I’ll do a big round-up post if/when I finish. Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series was also recommended, but I won’t review all nine books here. I told one person I was looking for fantasy recommendations and received a massive reading list.
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