Uprooted

Uprooted (2015) is a high fantasy novel by Naomi Novak and is a modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Warner Brothers plans to release a movie version of the book produced by Ellen DeGeneres. Unlike other novels by Novak, which are parts of a multi-book series, Uprooted is a standalone novel with a self-contained plot.

The novel opens in the village Dvernik in the nation of Polnya. Dvernik is under the protection of the Dragon, the local wizard who defends the town and its people from evil creatures that live in the woods. Every ten years, the Dragon takes one of the local girls as a tribute. The main character, seventeen-year-old Agnieszka, was born in a tribute year; however, she does not expect she will be chosen by the Dragon since he only takes the brightest girls of the village and Agnieszka is clumsy and unremarkable. Most of the villagers expect Agnieszka’s beautiful friend, Kasia, to be chosen as a tribute, but at the choosing ceremony, the Dragon surprises everyone by picking Agnieszka.

After they return to the white tower where the Dragon lives, he reveals that he chose Agnieszka as a tribute because of her latent magical powers. The Dragon begins teaching Agnieszka small magical spells to aid her in her household duties, but Agnieszka finds the magic unnatural and does not think she has any talent for it.

The Dragon leaves Agnieszka alone in the tower while he deals with a monster in the woods. While he’s gone, Agnieszka learns that her village is under attack from demonic wolves. Though it is against the Dragon’s rules, Agnieszka leaves the tower to protect her friends and family. Using her newfound magical powers, she fends off the wolves until the Dragon arrives. He is wounded defending Agnieszka and Kasia, but Agnieszka heals him by mastering a powerful spell.

Soon after, Agnieszka hears from Kasia’s mother that Kasia has been captured by creatures from the woods. The Dragon does not believe that anyone who is taken into the woods can come back alive, but Agnieszka uses magic to find and rescue Kasia, who is comatose from her ordeal. Her soul has been corrupted by the dark energy of the forest; the Dragon proclaims that she must be killed. However, Agnieszka uses a summoning spell to determine that Kasia’s soul is still trapped in her body. By combining her magic with the Dragon’s, they are able to heal Kasia.

News of Kasia’s recovery reaches Prince Marek, the youngest son of the royal family. He comes to Dvernik with his wizard, the Falcon, and requests that Agnieszka retrieve his mother who was lost in the woods twenty years previously. Together, they form a search party, entering the woods, where, after being attacked by monsters, they find and rescue the Queen.

Prince Marek brings Kasia and the queen back to the royal court to prove that they are no longer corrupted by the woods. Agnieszka earns recognition for her part in the rescue, as well as an opportunity to train with other witches and wizards.

Meanwhile, the queen casts the blame for her disappearance on the rival nation, Rosya. Along with Prince Marek, she arranges for the murder of the current king as well as the Crown Prince of Polnya. Agnieszka and Kasia rescue the prince’s children before they can be executed and flee to the Dragon’s castle for protection. There that they learn that the queen has been possessed by the spirit of the Wood Queen, an evil monarch who was killed by her subjects centuries before.

Kasia confronts the Wood Queen and, though she is unable to kill her, she drives her back into the woods temporarily. Agnieszka convinces the Dragon that they must use this opportunity to vanquish the evil in the woods once and for all. They find a corrupted grove of trees in the heart of the woods where they confront the queen. She defeats them both in battle. Agnieszka has a vision of the past. In it, she learns that the Wood Queen was once a forest spirit who married a human king. Upon the king’s death, his people turned on the forest spirits. The spirits turned themselves into trees to protect themselves, and the Wood Queen continues to feed the trees human bodies in order to keep them alive.

Agnieszka, escaping from her tree prison, offers herself voluntarily to heal the tree that contains the Wood Queen’s sister. She decides to stay behind in the woods to help free it from evil. Realizing that Agnieszka is capable of protecting Dvernik on her own, the Dragon leaves for the capital to serve as the wizard to the surviving heirs of the royal family. Agnieszka gradually learns to tame the creatures of the woods, putting them to work rooting out corrupted trees and planting new, healthy ones.

Uprooted has won multiple literary awards. In 2016, it won a Nebula Award for Best Novel, a Mythopoetic Award for Adult Literature, and a Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel. In the same year, it was also nominated for a Nebula Award for Best Novel.