Agnieszka lives in a valley in the shadow of an ominous, corruptive wood, which is protected by The Dragon, a wizard who holds back the wood's spread and otherwise only shows up every ten years to take a village girl to be his servant. When Agnieszka shows magic potential, he takes her and grumpily tries to teach her even though her special brand of magic drives him up a wall with its imprecise nature. She's drawn into the war against the wood, rescuing the corrupted and burning trees mostly because it felt like the thing to do at the time.
One reason why I liked this one so much was because the beginning reminded me of Howl's Moving Castle, one of my favorite books of all time. The Dragon is rude and doesn't feel the need to explain himself, and Agnieszka has more important things in her life than putting up with his attitude or bothering to learn all the complex, academic aspects of preforming magic.
Agnieszka and The Dragon's relationship at first has a huge power differential, which usually throws up all kinds of red flags for me. He's the lord in charge of the valley, he's a mighty wizard, and he's her teacher. But she quickly gives so few shits about any power he holds over her, that he gives up trying to tell her what to do. He gets so frustrated trying to teach her that he gives up trying to instruct her and instead starts picking up techniques from her. They end up coming to the relationship with a grudging respect for each other and mutual infuriation. It's refreshing.
Also refreshing is how The Dragon is not romanticized. Instead of descriptions of his good looks, we're treated to descriptions of how weird his face is. Whenever he's not around and Agnieszka wishes he was, it's always because she thinks he could be useful. I'm so used to stories where the male lead is broody, but mysterious like that's a good thing, and so handsome that it makes up for his attitude problems and borderline abusiveness. Here, she has no delusions. And just kinda likes him anyway once he calms down a bit.
In the second half, where Howl's Moving Castle took a turn for the zany like a wacky Shakespearian comedy, Uprooted introduces battle scenes against corrupted wood monsters with lots of blood and guts and magic cannonballs. The story eases you into it with some minor skirmishes that grow more and more graphic over the course of the story until there are giant stick insects decapitating people. Given the way this one starts, it's surprising how many people die. But it works for me, because you're eased into it and the tone grows more and more tense between battles as well.
I also enjoyed the magic system here, specifically that there is a highly academic and precise way to use magic and then there is Agnieszka's home brew of "it just felt like that's what I should do." It wasn't presented like she was a savant that didn't need to study, but it was more like she was one of those cooks that doesn't measure anything or a self taught musician who can't read sheet music. This worked so well because the way the other magicians treated her in response felt honest. They turned up their noses. They were confused. Even as they tried to work with her, they didn't get it. This felt really relateable to me, both from the side of feeling inadequate or embarrassed to show that you have different methods than the accepted standard, and from the other side where even if you want to stay open minded, working with someone with methods out of left field can leave you uneasy because you don't trust it will hold up.
In the second half, where Howl's Moving Castle took a turn for the zany like a wacky Shakespearian comedy, Uprooted introduces battle scenes against corrupted wood monsters with lots of blood and guts and magic cannonballs. The story eases you into it with some minor skirmishes that grow more and more graphic over the course of the story until there are giant stick insects decapitating people. Given the way this one starts, it's surprising how many people die. But it works for me, because you're eased into it and the tone grows more and more tense between battles as well.
I also enjoyed the magic system here, specifically that there is a highly academic and precise way to use magic and then there is Agnieszka's home brew of "it just felt like that's what I should do." It wasn't presented like she was a savant that didn't need to study, but it was more like she was one of those cooks that doesn't measure anything or a self taught musician who can't read sheet music. This worked so well because the way the other magicians treated her in response felt honest. They turned up their noses. They were confused. Even as they tried to work with her, they didn't get it. This felt really relateable to me, both from the side of feeling inadequate or embarrassed to show that you have different methods than the accepted standard, and from the other side where even if you want to stay open minded, working with someone with methods out of left field can leave you uneasy because you don't trust it will hold up.
There's also a great relationship between Agnieszka and her best friend, Kasia. It's a solid female friendship, and it's front and center in the story, spurring most of the plot and pushing the romance to the back seat. What's great about it is that they both acknowledge that they hold some negative feelings toward each other, but instead of that demonizing them or setting them against each other, here they forgive each other, feel sorry for how they've hurt one another, and stick together. It's so often the case in fiction that female friends are characterized as frenimies and they treat each other with catty disdain. Here they were friends.
All in all, a quality book with healthy relationships and exciting magic action.
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