• Author: Naomi Novik
• ISBN: 9780804179034
• Genre: Fantasy

The above ISBN is to the hardcover edition, but I listened to the audiobook I purchased.

Uprooted is the type of updated old world fairy tale that I love.  If you stripped the story down to it’s bare bones, it could easily be the kind of story found in Grimm’s Fairy Tales.  However, Naomi Novik adds the deep friendship of Agnieszka and Kasia and a touch of “Beauty and the Beast” style romance in such a way you would think she is herself a witch, and you’ve become spellbound.  I’m not talking about the Disney version of a fairy tale, though.  This is definitely an adult book.

Besides the friendship, I think what I love the most about this story is the Wood being the enemy.  Perhaps because my all-time favorite book, The Hobbit, also includes a sinister forest, and there’s just something about the woods in general that is both inviting and slightly menacing at the same time.  There is no “slightly” where the Wood is concerned, but it does lure people into its shade when it’s not grabbing and taking them, never to return.

I highly recommend getting the audiobook and bumping up the speed a bit (the narrator, Julia Emelin, talks too slowly IMO), unless you already know how to pronounce Slavic names or don’t care.  I think the audiobook helped bring me further into the world of the story, but there were several people complaining about the narrator’s heavy accent on the Sword and Laser discussion forums on Goodreads.  Regardless of the edition, if you love fairy tales, you’ll love Uprooted.