Fairy tale retelling / Fantasy / Naomi Novik

Uprooted

Escalated “Beauty and the Beast”

This book kind of started out as a “Beauty and the Beast”- retelling. You have a small village with a ‘Beast’ in a tower next to it. Every ten years one girl is selected to go live with the Dragon in the tower. The Dragon is a wizard nicknamed the Dragon. He protects the little villages, in the valley around his tower, from the woods. In exchange, he demands a girl every ten years to live with him for the next ten years. After these ten years, the girl usually goes on with her life in a better way than before.

This time it is different. Between the girls, that he can pick from, is one girl who has a talent for magic. Now he has to choose her and train her. After some time, she saves her best friend from the woods. This made her determined to find a more permanent solution to fight the woods.

However, during the battle with the woods, she got to know them better and learns their motives. Eventually, she becomes an intermediary between the woods and the villagers.

My opinion:

I have read one of the Temeraire books before, so this is not the first Naomi Novik book I read. What these two books have in common is the original storyline, the beautiful setting and an abundance of details.

Now you think, how can a retelling have an original storyline? Well, by wandering away from the original storyline. I actually appreciate this because this gives me a new story.

But if you are someone who reads to relax and get your mind off things, this is not the book for you. There are so many details that you have to keep focused to keep track of them all. It was already better than the Temeraire book, so maybe her more recent works will be even better.

I have one more Naomi Novik book on my TBR and if that book shows the same features, I will stop reading her books. It is too bad though the worlds she creates are always so beautiful and vivid, but once you relax you have to reread. Now I put all my hopes on “A Deadly Education”.

These books have a wonderful world to use in a Dungeons and Dragons game. So Dungeon Masters maybe you should read these!

Either way, if you have read it, let me know what you thought about this book.

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Learn more about this author on: Naomi Novik