Books Like Uprooted — 8 Folkloric Fantasy Reads for Naomi Novik Fans
Naomi Novik's Uprooted is one of the decade's most beloved fantasy novels — a feminist fairy tale built from Eastern European folklore, with a heroine who finds her magic in the most unexpected way and a slow-burn romance that earns every degree of heat it eventually delivers. The eight books below share its essential qualities: lyrical prose, atmospheric world-building drawn from folklore rather than invented wholesale, and heroines whose relationship to power is the real story.
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Spinning Silver
by Naomi Novik
Novik's most celebrated novel after Uprooted: a moneylender's daughter bargains with a cold Fae king in a Russian winter and discovers her power in the negotiation. Same author, same folklore sensibility, same feminist revision of fairy tale tropes — but the heroine's weapon is financial acumen and the romance is built on an even more charged power dynamic.
Russian FolkloreBargainFeminist Fairy TaleSlow Burn🌶 Cozy - 2
The Bear and the Nightingale
by Katherine Arden
A wild girl in medieval Russia refuses to fear the frost demon at the edge of her village — while her family and the Church try to tame her. The most direct Uprooted companion in contemporary fantasy: same Russian folklore, same fierce heroine resisting domestication, same lyrical prose that makes winter feel magical rather than cold.
Russian FolkloreFierce HeroineMythologyHistorical🌶 Cozy - 3
Piranesi
by Susanna Clarke
A man lives in a house with infinite halls, a tidal ocean in its corridors, and statues in every alcove — and knows almost nothing about how he came to be there. Clarke's puzzle-box novel shares Uprooted's literary quality and its sense of magic with old, deep rules that must be understood before they can be survived.
Puzzle MysteryMagical WorldMemoryLiterary FantasyClean - 4
A Deadly Education
by Naomi Novik
A student at a magical school with an extraordinary gift for destructive magic refuses to use it — and must survive by wit alone. Novik's Scholomance series has her trademark character-first storytelling and wry voice, with a heroine whose relationship to her own power mirrors Agnieszka's in Uprooted.
Magic AcademyDark HumorSurvivalReluctant Power🌶 Cozy - 5
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
by Susanna Clarke
Two magicians attempt to restore practical magic to Regency England — one a cautious scholar, one a reckless genius — and both are drawn into the Faerie king's court. Clarke's debut is the most ambitious literary fantasy of the last twenty years, and Uprooted readers who want the same investment in magic-as-system and prose-as-pleasure will find it here in full.
Historical FantasyMagic SystemFaerieLiterary FictionClean - 6
Circe
by Madeline Miller
The witch of Aeaea finds her power among gods who underestimate her. Miller's literary prose and mythological depth hit the same notes as Uprooted for readers who responded to Agnieszka's arc of self-discovery and the complicated relationship between a powerful older figure and a young woman finding her strength.
Greek MythologyFeminist RetellingMagicComing of Age🌶 Cozy - 7
The Goblin Emperor
by Katherine Addison
The youngest and least regarded son of an emperor is thrown onto the throne after his father and brothers are killed. Addison writes a fantasy of decency — a protagonist who refuses to become the system he now leads — with the same warmth and character focus Novik brings to Uprooted.
Reluctant RulerKindness as StrengthCourt PoliticsFound FamilyClean - 8
Strange the Dreamer
by Laini Taylor
A librarian obsessed with a lost city finally finds his way inside — and into a world of gods, monsters, and a girl born of nightmare. Taylor's lyrical prose and layered mythology feel immediately familiar to Uprooted readers, and the romance is built with the same patience and earned pay-off.
Lost CityMythologySlow BurnLyrical Prose🌶 Cozy