Uprooted

How it reads

Uprooted is fantasy (fairy-tale fantasy, specifically), and its dominant mood is eerie. It's atmospheric and uncanny, with a sense that something is wrong. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.

It's set in a rural setting, in no single period, told in the first person by a single narrator. Its central concerns are friendship, love and power and politics. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending resolves happily. At 438 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's a mega-bestseller — the book everyone seems to have read.