In 2020 I read Naomi Novik’s, Spinning Silver, which I found to be an excellent reimaging of Rumpelstiltskin. I finished the review with, “Uprooted is going on my “wish list”. Between then and now I got Uprooted in a Cannonball fundraiser but it has sat on the shelf. I had this slated for the “Bird” square in Cannonball Bingo because of the bird on the cover. However, I ran out of time and used Transmetropolitan volume 2: Lust for Life instead.
I’ve long been a fan of what I consider to be the ‘original’ fairytale. A quick bit of Googling tells me that I’m familiar with the Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont version of the story. Anyone else read a version with illustrations like these?
Belle is my favorite Disney Princess and I have a soft spot for the 1991 Disney animated version. Between Spinning Silver setting expectations for another fairytale adaptation and my love for the Beauty and the Beasty story, I had high hopes. While there is much that I enjoyed in Uprooted it isn’t as steeped in the fairytale as Spinning Silver is to Rumpelstiltskin. In my review I said, “The Rumplestiltskin story is barely recognizable but thematic elements are the bones for Spinning Silver. “ Uprooted is more striped down than that. As a result it didn’t land as well for me because I was expecting more parallels to the original versions of the story. Your mileage may vary on whether this will be of consequence to you.
What I did like was that this was an adaptation told through a Polish lens. Being of Polish descent I loved that this is set in a reimagined Poland and our heroine is named Agnieszka. I enjoyed the description of magic and how Agnieszka interprets and feels out her own way of casting magic. While other powerful witches and wizards relay on rigid castings, Agnieszka is more intuitive. I was engaged by the story of a malevolent Wood manipulating human events with the intent to wipe out humans. I became invested in the relationship between Agnieszka and her Beast counter part, Sarkan, referred to as the Dragon and lord of the Valley in which she lives.
I did enjoy Uprooted however in comparison found Spinning Silver to be the slightly overall better book.
Note: Sosuke isn’t letting me leave until I post this review!
