fuck-yeah-monsters-and-villains:

UPROOTED by Naomi Novik

Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.

But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.

Check out this book on Goodreads: Uprooted https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22544764-uprooted

Reblogging the first entry of my blog. This book more or less was the incentive to start blogging about villains and monsters. @metamashina mentioned it on their first episode of their podcast and it made me very happy that finally someone was talking about exactly the kind of fiction I’m interested in. So thank you for inspiring me!

While lurking in the Star Wars fandom I’ve seen Reylos recommending stuff to each other but it was always sporadic and unorganized. Why was no one running a recommendations blog for stuff that is similar to the reylo dynamic? Why was no one blogging about exactly the things I’m interested in? Whyyyyy? Oh. Ok. Guess I have to do it. Story of this blog. 😊

Also read this book! Capable heroine, grumpy, but sexy wizard, creepy woods, elements of Polish folklore and graphic depictions of female friendschip…