Books like Uprooted
What should you read after Naomi Novik’s novel? It depends on what you loved most about it.
- Naomi Novik
- 2015
- Fairy-tale fantasy
What did you love about it?
Choosing one reorders everything below.
Best books to read after Uprooted
Ranked overall. Pick what you loved above to re-rank them.
Best overall matchThe Bear and the Nightingale
Katherine Arden
Slavic folklore taken seriously, a girl the village decides is dangerous, and a cold older being who becomes her ally. The nearest book to Uprooted in print.
- Polish folklore underneath
- An impatient, instinctive witch
- A prickly older mentor
- First of a trilogy
Worth a look — with a warningThe Queen of the Tearling
Erika Johansen
A plain, stubborn young woman handed power she was not trained for, opposite a neighbouring queen whose magic is genuinely foul.
- An impatient, instinctive witch
- Corruption that spreads like illness
- Worldbuilding gets muddled
Great matchThe Golem and the Jinni
Helene Wecker
Two magical beings learning what they are by living among people, in a novel as interested in folklore's rules as Novik is.
- A standalone that finishes
- Polish folklore underneath
- A friendship between two women
- Historical New York setting
Great matchSpinning Silver
Naomi Novik
Novik doing it again and, many readers say, better: Rumpelstiltskin reworked with three women narrating and a winter kingdom that wants something from each.
- Polish folklore underneath
- A standalone that finishes
- A friendship between two women
- Colder, more transactional
Best for a shorter readThe Enchantment of Ravens
Margaret Rogerson
A mortal artist and an autumn prince, faerie bargains with binding wording, and the whole thing done in 300 pages. Uprooted's romance shape, at speed.
- A standalone that finishes
- A prickly older mentor
- Polish folklore underneath
- Slight, fast plot
Great matchStardust
Neil Gaiman
A fairy tale for grown-ups that keeps the old rules — wicked witches, binding promises, a wall you shouldn't cross — and never winks at you.
- A standalone that finishes
- Polish folklore underneath
- A forest that is actively evil
- Much lighter in stakes
Best for the folkloreDaughter of the Forest
Juliet Marillier
The Six Swans retold in early medieval Ireland, with a heroine who suffers through the tale's actual conditions. Old story, no softening.
- Polish folklore underneath
- A forest that is actively evil
- An impatient, instinctive witch
- Graphic assault early on
Great matchSorcery of Thorns
Margaret Rogerson
Grimoires that scream, a library apprentice with no formal training, and a sorcerer who is much better company than he first appears.
- An impatient, instinctive witch
- A prickly older mentor
- A standalone that finishes
- Lighter and more comic
Great matchThe Girl in the Tower
Katherine Arden
Arden's sequel, where Vasya rides out disguised as a boy and the folklore turns political. The middle book that most readers rate highest.
- Polish folklore underneath
- An impatient, instinctive witch
- A friendship between two women
- Second in a trilogy
Best for the menacing woodThe Hazel Wood
Melissa Albert
Fairy tales with the cruelty left in, and a wood that functions as a place stories go to happen to you. Closest thing to the Wood's malice.
- A forest that is actively evil
- Corruption that spreads like illness
- An impatient, instinctive witch
- Contemporary American setting
Great matchThe Ten Thousand Doors of January
Alix E. Harrow
For readers who loved how Uprooted's language works — magic as a matter of finding the right word, and a heroine who learns to write herself out of confinement.
- Magic learned badly, then brilliantly
- A standalone that finishes
- An impatient, instinctive witch
- Historical, not folkloric
Worth a look — with a warningThe Star-Touched Queen
Roshani Chokshi
A girl married off to a stranger with a kingdom she does not understand, in prose so ornate it becomes the point. Indian myth instead of Polish folklore.
- A standalone that finishes
- A prickly older mentor
- Polish folklore underneath
- Plot is hard to follow
Great matchThe Night Circus
Erin Morgenstern
If what stayed with you was the sensation of magic being made — the effort, the smell of it — this is 400 pages of that feeling and not much else.
- A standalone that finishes
- Magic learned badly, then brilliantly
- Very little narrative drive
What should you read after Uprooted?
Uprooted by Naomi Novik works on several levels at once, and which book you should read next depends on which of those levels got you. For most readers the closest match is The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden — slavic folklore taken seriously, a girl the village decides is dangerous, and a cold older being who becomes her ally. The nearest book to Uprooted in print.
If what stayed with you was an impatient, instinctive witch, read The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen instead: a plain, stubborn young woman handed power she was not trained for, opposite a neighbouring queen whose magic is genuinely foul. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker is the other strong option — two magical beings learning what they are by living among people, in a novel as interested in folklore's rules as Novik is.
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