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Rootbound
Rootbound
is a gripping young adult climate fantasy novel bursting with hope, heart, adventure, and mystery (think Greta Thunberg x Percy Jackson + heaps of swoony, slowburn romance).
After her beloved sister Aspen disappears during a climate protest, seventeen-year-old Mira Bracken refuses to accept that she’s gone. Mira spends her days combing an uncaring world for any trace of Aspen, driven forward by a blistering pain in her limbs and the voice of her missing-probably-dead sister in her mind.
When a shocking act lands Mira in the hospital, a mysterious stranger insists that she’s a “treetalker,” a powerful one, and that an ancient evil is hunting her. She laughs it off, until the stranger adds one last thing—this underworld group has been kidnapping youth climate strikers.
Desperate to learn more, Mira throws her lot in with the mysterious stranger and the other treetalkers, who call themselves rootbound. Soon she’s swept into a secret magical war that spans centuries, inching closer to discovering the fate of her sister.
Join the magic. Join the movement.
From climate misinformation scholar and long-time youth climate organizer, Dr. Grace Nosek.
After her beloved sister Aspen disappears during a climate protest, seventeen-year-old Mira Bracken refuses to accept that she’s gone. Mira spends her days combing an uncaring world for any trace of Aspen, driven forward by a blistering pain in her limbs and the voice of her missing-probably-dead sister in her mind.
When a shocking act lands Mira in the hospital, a mysterious stranger insists that she’s a “treetalker,” a powerful one, and that an ancient evil is hunting her. She laughs it off, until the stranger adds one last thing—this underworld group has been kidnapping youth climate strikers.
Desperate to learn more, Mira throws her lot in with the mysterious stranger and the other treetalkers, who call themselves rootbound. Soon she’s swept into a secret magical war that spans centuries, inching closer to discovering the fate of her sister.
Join the magic. Join the movement.
From climate misinformation scholar and long-time youth climate organizer, Dr. Grace Nosek.
245 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 25, 2024
3 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
About the author
Grace Nosek
1 book8 followersDr. Grace Nosek is a legal scholar focusing on climate misinformation, protest, and democracy, as well as a long-time community organizer. She centers justice, joyful community, hope, agency, civic engagement, and systems change in her work and scholarship. As a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto, Grace is researching novel strategies to empower youth in democratic decision-making and to inoculate youth against climate despair. Grace is a past Canada-U.S. Fulbright recipient, and she holds a BA from Rice University, a law degree from Harvard Law School, and a Master of Laws and PhD in law from the University of British Columbia. Her research and non-fiction writing has been published and shared widely. To make the research as accessible as possible, she has given more than a dozen media interviews and a hundred talks, to academic, professional, civil society, and public audiences. Most meaningfully, Grace has spoken (and listened) to thousands and thousands of youth, and plans to speak to many thousands more. She’s never met a dance party she didn’t want to join.
If you would like to contact Dr. Grace Nosek about speaking to your school or organization, please go to www.gracenosek.com.
If you would like to contact Dr. Grace Nosek about speaking to your school or organization, please go to www.gracenosek.com.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 1, 2024
The premise of this book was really neat. The magic system, of connecting to the mycorrhizal network to talk to trees and plants, is a super cool idea. And I liked the concept of the hidden group of people who can connect to plants and animals, taking on the big bad executives controlling the masses. I think if you're a young person, concerned about climate and the state of the world, this might be a really great book for you. It was a little too on the nose for me and the plot felt a bit disjointed.
June 8, 2025
I want to preface this by saying I am not criticizing the call to action. I fully understand this book as a work of activism, not purely a novel. I honestly was overlooking many of the plot issues for the majority of this book because I was bought in and I was enjoying it, easily a solid 4 stars until the end. That's where the issues persisted and became too big to ignore. I would love to read more books like this and see them on store shelves. However, I do think that they should be good books and not leave the fact that they're a narrative novel on the back burner.
All of my issues can be summed up with this: Mira does nothing. She is inactive in the story.
The story is set in her first-person POV.
Mira has no arc in this book. She never comes into her magical powers, she doesn't start as someone opposed to Aspen's climate activism and slowly learn that her sister was right, she doesn't even find her sister herself in the end (another character does it for her! and if she's never been taken for a ride by the supporting cast, it never would have happened). This makes this entire book one big info dump, which makes the pacing very odd. Things happen in a quick timeframe, but we spend 10ish consecutive pages learning about all of the different magical powers these teens have. Even with that, I don't have a very clear picture of the magic system other than some strings of facts. I don't know how it interacts, as we only ever see it affecting Mira or as something she witnesses happening.
Mira explains everything about her sister's disappearance to us in the first chapter, which is forgivable as this is a debut book. But then we start to get into the secret order, and everything is told to Mira again. In order to break it up a bit, the supporting cast will drug her or make her sleep before she gets another big info dump. and so on and so forth. This is a rare occasion where I am advocating for another 100 pages. This way, there will be the time needed for Mira to become an active character and slowly figure these things out for herself.
Like I said, I was enjoying the book. The writing is decent. I was happy to be along for the ride until all the twists at the end. I was not invested in them emotionally. They come up out of seemingly nowhere and are TOLD to Mira (and thus us, the audience) by other supporting characters. Mira's one big motivator is finding her sister, and she does not even do that. The secret society finds her as a consequence of her existing, it seems. She doesn't seek them out or stumble upon them accidentally. Or do anything, even after they find her. For a supposed activist, she is very passive.
The book is also very on the nose about everything, telling the reader what to think about stuff instead of showing why it's bad. I'm not disagreeing with any of the stances taken in this book, but the delivery won't be convincing to people who are already skeptical.
I do think the author has a lot of potential to be a great writer if she focuses on improving her narrative skills. I've seen similar issues (though not usually to this extent) in traditionally published works and seen improvement in later books as the authors get better and writing and find their narrative voice. I think once Nosek nails that, she'll be dropping banger after banger.
All of my issues can be summed up with this: Mira does nothing. She is inactive in the story.
The story is set in her first-person POV.
Mira has no arc in this book. She never comes into her magical powers, she doesn't start as someone opposed to Aspen's climate activism and slowly learn that her sister was right, she doesn't even find her sister herself in the end (another character does it for her! and if she's never been taken for a ride by the supporting cast, it never would have happened). This makes this entire book one big info dump, which makes the pacing very odd. Things happen in a quick timeframe, but we spend 10ish consecutive pages learning about all of the different magical powers these teens have. Even with that, I don't have a very clear picture of the magic system other than some strings of facts. I don't know how it interacts, as we only ever see it affecting Mira or as something she witnesses happening.
Mira explains everything about her sister's disappearance to us in the first chapter, which is forgivable as this is a debut book. But then we start to get into the secret order, and everything is told to Mira again. In order to break it up a bit, the supporting cast will drug her or make her sleep before she gets another big info dump. and so on and so forth. This is a rare occasion where I am advocating for another 100 pages. This way, there will be the time needed for Mira to become an active character and slowly figure these things out for herself.
Like I said, I was enjoying the book. The writing is decent. I was happy to be along for the ride until all the twists at the end. I was not invested in them emotionally. They come up out of seemingly nowhere and are TOLD to Mira (and thus us, the audience) by other supporting characters. Mira's one big motivator is finding her sister, and she does not even do that. The secret society finds her as a consequence of her existing, it seems. She doesn't seek them out or stumble upon them accidentally. Or do anything, even after they find her. For a supposed activist, she is very passive.
The book is also very on the nose about everything, telling the reader what to think about stuff instead of showing why it's bad. I'm not disagreeing with any of the stances taken in this book, but the delivery won't be convincing to people who are already skeptical.
I do think the author has a lot of potential to be a great writer if she focuses on improving her narrative skills. I've seen similar issues (though not usually to this extent) in traditionally published works and seen improvement in later books as the authors get better and writing and find their narrative voice. I think once Nosek nails that, she'll be dropping banger after banger.
September 15, 2025
Rootbound was an amazing and entertaining read!
The best way I can describe it is a plot and magical world reminiscent of Percy Jackson. The whole concept of the magical network felt intricate with well thought out lore, and a creative take on people having powers.
The book is a great read for its audience range, its message on climate action was moving, and while I did want a bit more romance (purchased at a romance bookshop!) and was left wanting/missing some few things with the ending, I would still pick up the book again and loved it all the same 🩷
The best way I can describe it is a plot and magical world reminiscent of Percy Jackson. The whole concept of the magical network felt intricate with well thought out lore, and a creative take on people having powers.
The book is a great read for its audience range, its message on climate action was moving, and while I did want a bit more romance (purchased at a romance bookshop!) and was left wanting/missing some few things with the ending, I would still pick up the book again and loved it all the same 🩷
December 24, 2024
[4.0]
This was a great read!
I thought the world building was stellar and very creative. And I also loved the fact that it is unapologetically an environmentalist book. It was wonderful to read such an interesting story, and have the plot be weaved into advocating for climate action. It is clearly meant to be educational but it is far from uninteresting, and I think we need more books like this that spell it out plain and simple.
I think the only thing that detracted from it a bit was the pacing of the plot. Sometimes, I felt like I was being taken from one point to the other without being given time to fully sit in the moment.
I also would have loved to know more about the Rootbound, especially more on the characters, their upbringing, their motivations. I felt the pacing didn’t allow me to gain as much insight into them as I would have liked. That being said, I still loved the characters and their dynamics.
In all, its a great fantasy novel for youth and young adults wanting to combine leisure with learning. As a budding environmentalist, I definitely would recommend this book!
This was a great read!
I thought the world building was stellar and very creative. And I also loved the fact that it is unapologetically an environmentalist book. It was wonderful to read such an interesting story, and have the plot be weaved into advocating for climate action. It is clearly meant to be educational but it is far from uninteresting, and I think we need more books like this that spell it out plain and simple.
I think the only thing that detracted from it a bit was the pacing of the plot. Sometimes, I felt like I was being taken from one point to the other without being given time to fully sit in the moment.
I also would have loved to know more about the Rootbound, especially more on the characters, their upbringing, their motivations. I felt the pacing didn’t allow me to gain as much insight into them as I would have liked. That being said, I still loved the characters and their dynamics.
In all, its a great fantasy novel for youth and young adults wanting to combine leisure with learning. As a budding environmentalist, I definitely would recommend this book!
October 21, 2024
Does doing chaos yoga surrounded by dozens of rescue dogs and cats sound like your kind of fun? ❤️
If you love love, friendship, nature, animals, the earth, joy + magic, and fighting climate change, this book is for you.
Rootbound is a captivating story that follows Mira Bracken on a journey of self-discovery, love, friendship, and resistance. Through vivid storytelling, the novel explores finding joy and building community in the fight against climate change and the capitalist forces that drive it. Nosek’s writing not only brings the richly imagined magical Rootbound Universe to life but also challenges readers to reflect on the power of collective action and environmental stewardship.
A must-read for humans of all ages that yearn to protect our beautiful world today and into the future. I love it!!! ❤️ 🌍 🌲 🌊 🌞
If you love love, friendship, nature, animals, the earth, joy + magic, and fighting climate change, this book is for you.
Rootbound is a captivating story that follows Mira Bracken on a journey of self-discovery, love, friendship, and resistance. Through vivid storytelling, the novel explores finding joy and building community in the fight against climate change and the capitalist forces that drive it. Nosek’s writing not only brings the richly imagined magical Rootbound Universe to life but also challenges readers to reflect on the power of collective action and environmental stewardship.
A must-read for humans of all ages that yearn to protect our beautiful world today and into the future. I love it!!! ❤️ 🌍 🌲 🌊 🌞
December 2, 2024
Not only is this an amazing read with amazing character development, worldbuilding, and plot, it resonates so deeply with my own experience and that of my peers with climate activism and provides a critique and narrative illustration of the climate crisis through story. Definitely one of my top reads of the year!
May 29, 2025
I just finished Rootbound by Dr. Grace Nosek and I enjoyed the young adult novel. The novel had a unique magic system and really all of the world building was captivating! This book is a fantasy fight for climate justice and I loved it.
The rest of my review is available on my blog at: https://vickyposts.wordpress.com/2025...
The rest of my review is available on my blog at: https://vickyposts.wordpress.com/2025...
January 7, 2025
Romance, fantasy, AND environmentalism…need I say more?? I was hooked the entire time! Beautiful story that builds on the transformative power of love, friendship and community in the face of all the evils of the world. Never have I ever wanted so bad to be part of a book world!!
October 19, 2024
I absolutely loved this book. I wish more than anything that I could have read it when I first got involved in climate activism as a teenager and was struggling with climate anxiety. Reading Rootbound was profoundly life-affirming and healing - it reminded me why I do the work that I do and fuelled me more than anything has in a long time. Thank you Grace!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews