Uprooted: A Novel

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Dragon Tower, Sarkan´s home. The tower protects the valley and it is built over the ruins of an ancient civilization.

And I understand that these words are often used in negative ways when describing a book but here I want to use them in the most positive way imaginable. The beginning of the story started out really nicely in a whimsical fairytale sort of way. I thought this will be the next best thing to add into my Favourites shelf. But by the time I reached past 5 - 8% I had already lose my interest and started to wish that I had never, ever bothered with this.

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No one went into the Wood and came out again, at least not whole and themselves. Sometimes they came out blind and screaming, sometimes they came out twisted and so misshapen they couldn’t be recognized; and worst of all sometimes they came out with their own faces but murder behind them, something gone dreadfully wrong within.

Once again, I like assholes. I like anti-heroes, but they have to self-redeeming. The "Dragon" in this book is none such.

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The narrator's voice is so heavily accented that I was frequently unsure of what word it was that she was attempting to pronounce (was that "clothing,""clawing," or "clearing"? "feeling" or "filing"? "onion,""oven," or "open"?) and at some points literally couldn't understand her at all. If this had been a personal memoir narrated by the author or something, this sort of narration style could serve an interesting purpose, but this is fantasy; there's no "real" way of pronouncing the non-English words. The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows – everyone knows – that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia – all the things Agnieszka isn’t – and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her. Interviews: SFFWorld (2006), Strange Horizons (2006), Ain't it Cool News (2007), Locus Online (2007), The Portalist (2016)