Review: UPROOTED, by Naomi Novik

UPROOTED, by Naomi Novik

Narrated by Julia Emelin

Random House Audio  2015 

My Rating (out of 5)

 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

"Our Dragon doesn't eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley.

   
Every ten years, The Dragon - the wizard in the valley - picks one girl who is turning seventeen and takes her; and while he doesn't eat them, they are, in a manner, consumed.  The women who return after ten years, appear only for a brief while before leaving the town again, to settle elsewhere to live a solitary life. In return for the girl he takes every ten years, The Dragon keeps the dark forces of The Wood at bay and protects the village.

The Dragon always chooses someone who has a special quality.  This year, Agnieszka knows he will choose her best friends Kasia, and everyone else in the village knows it too.

But everyone is wrong, and the choosing does not go as expected. 

The dark force of the woods is creeping into the village

I came to this book by way of Novik's more recent work SPINNING SILVER. After enjoying it, I went looking for more of Novik's work. Novik's writing (in my opinion based on these two books) has a certain darkness and "old-world" style to it. These darkly beautiful works have a certain "earthy" quality to them - as if the tales themselves were born of the lands of the eastern regions of Europe.  They feel like they have a life of their own.

Another thing that these two books share in common is the style of narration. By having the book read in a Slavic accent to further add to the "old-world" air.

This book was narrated by Julia Emelin, and her narration was pleasant, well delivered, and well suited to the story. 

Enchanting, bewitching and engrossing, this book is why you are never too old for fairy tales!

Happy Reading,

Christine