Uprooted by Naomi Novik

From an author who specializes in making fantasy novels based on (mostely eastern) european fairy tales, I'm going to assume this is not her best work. While the premise and ending are satisfying enough, it felt like she was struggling to get her word counts up enough to make the grade. Instead of filling her sentences with tedious adverbs, she makes up medieval-style idioms whenever possible, a technique which might aid in the illusion of a fleshed-out fantasy world, but fails.

Most of the characters in this story serve little purpose aside from elongating the story, told by teen girl, Agnieszka, from a quiet village near the corrupted Wood. Every ten years, an ancient but young-looking wizard comes to the village and takes a girl to live with him for ten years, where the corruption of the wood will be cleansed from her. And Agnieszka is the chosen one, but why? She's not good in any conventional sense, but it turns out she's very special and the things that make her special also make her especially adept at magic.

This old wizard, while over a hundred years old and abusive, becomes her love interest. The kingdom royals insist on fighting back against the corrupt woods instead of nurturing it. In fact, the queen of Polnya had been captured by one of the Woods' heart trees. Prince Merek wants to rescue his mother, which most advise against, and the controversey draws Agnieszka and the Dragon to court, where it's further affirmed that our heroine is a village girl instead of a courtly heiress. But she's especially gifted in magic, sourced from books and spells. And there are a lot of pages put into the casting of spells, like intimate songs cast by the Dragon and our heroine.

There are metaphors upon metaphors for the state of said spells, and the activity of their casting. Irrelevant details pile every page, leaving me exasperated in my search for the actual story. With an apparently boundless magic system, I never knew what to expect or what to hope for, and our age old wizard could never manage to make a wise or logical decision in resolving conflicts. In a world where only teenage girls have the gift of common sense, this is a true fantasy.

While this book has almost nothing to offer me, I can see why others might enjoy it, people who identify with our protagonist. It can be immersive and exciting if you don't think too much about it. But I found the whole thing to be tedious and lacking in substance.