This is a sweet novella that has a traditional faerie tale vibe, full of magic and family, and, of course, villainy. It has a surprising amount of depth for a shorter story, and the characters feel so lovingly written, yet are quite real enough to feel relatable.

Such a melancholy tale of sisterly love. I thought Ysabel and Esther were drawn beautifully and their relationship is both touching and humorous, it felt soecial, yet real.

Esther meets a love who harks from Arcadia, which reads as a land of faeries. What happens to the women at the hands of a human man is all too familiar.

The story was incredibly compelling and I really enjoyed the sister's story and think it is well written, I felt like I was swept up into a fairy fog when within the pages.

I loved this short story. It is a delightful read, full of love and magic and a bit of nasty to make it a good fairy tale. The use of grammar as a base for the plot was inspired. A quick read and I look forward to seeing the published book with its illustrations better placed than in the eARC that I read.

Many (too many) years ago, I had to write an undergraduate essay about coherence and cohesion, in the linguistics sense, and texts which can have one but not the other. In essence, coherence is about a text having more fundamental, overarching meaning, while cohesion is to do with the more granular, grammatical and structural ways of creating meaning. This essay, and the ensuing supervision, has stuck in mind primarily for the discussions of both the poem Jabberwocky and the game Mornington Crescent, but also because it is a genuinely useful and interesting way to think about texts and their meaning, especially in an SFF context, and doubly so when the author is inclined towards a more abstract, poetic or unusual turn of phrase.

Cue: Amal El-Mohtar and The River Has Roots, a (very) loose novella retelling of The Twa Sisters, a murder ballad full of all the best kind of murder ballad shenanigans, into which she incorporates a heavy dose of traditional fairytale motifs and themes.

Having read her work before, and specifically having read her poetry, I was entirely unsurprised in picking this up to find that she has leaned into the fairytale/murder ballad aspects in the way she uses language and tone – which is to say, with care, deliberation and intense playfulness. Add these up, and you get a story that takes something of the medieval riddle texts and turns it into magic, the sort of logic that exists in fairytales, where meaning shifts in type midway through an idea, from something that seems entirely mundanely obvious, to another type of meaning altogether.

Coherence/cohesion, you see?

The thing is, at every point, The River Has Roots does have both, but El-Mohtar makes you pause, moment by moment in a sentence, to make sure you grasp them. It’s a grammar that keeps you on your toes, forcing you to stop and… wait what? And so, you read more slowly (or at least I did). The text makes a natural path for you to spend more time languishing within it, soaking up the atmosphere, which it has in absolute spades. To what end? Well, none really. But that might be the end in and of itself – this isn’t a book about pace, twists or resolutions. Nor could it be – the inherent burden and boon of being based on a ballad is that many people will come to it with a sense of the story already: there are key themes that crop up, murders, jealous love, swans, singing, harps and a calling to justice of the wrongdoers, as well as the eponymous sisters. So if a reader goes in expecting those, and you don’t plan to thwart their expectations, the value has to come from somewhere else. A large part of the value is exactly that atmosphere – El-Mohtar has made prose I wanted to spend time in, both because it was beautiful, but also because it was intensely, constantly playful.

To illustrate, one of my favourite, tiny moments of the book is a section of text that runs:

Most music is the result of some intimacy with an instrument. One wraps one’s mouth around a whistle and pours one’s breath into it; one all but lays one’s cheek against a violin; and skin to skin is holy drummer’s kiss.

In part, I enjoy this simply for the imagery – plenty of ballads do sex as well as death, and so getting the erotic allusions of wind instruments feels entirely apropos. But also, I’m a basic bitch who loves a little bit of Shakespeare dropped in as a treat. Is it big or clever? Absolutely not. But it gives that sense of lightness, of an airy joy of someone delighting in the talking, that runalong dash of not being quite sure what’s coming next but it may well bring a spark of joy. And the text is full of little moments like that, flashes in the dark of something that invites you to come play too.

To step aside from the prose for a moment – though I focus on it precisely because it is such a draw and so prominent (no streamlined-prose story this) – the plot itself is also well-handled. Having read (and not enormously enjoyed) another retelling of this same ballad, I think much of the skill comes in simply the simplicity. The core story is fairly straightforward and tight, and El-Mohtar has not tried to spin it up too much so that it becomes overburdened by itself: there isn’t an excess of worldbuilding or backstory, save what is needed to serve the emotional core of the story. Magic exists, is seen, and flies past without deep understanding, because deep understanding isn’t needed. What is important is to understand where magic sits with regard to those core interactions, and that it can influence the story in dramatically emotive ways – which is clearly and gracefully set up right at the opening of the story, where the text dwells on the river and the landscape, and the transfigured trees that define the physical world of the protagonists. What comes after, though it may have the form of explanatory text, instead serves to demonstrate that magic is partially knowable and comprehensible, but also difficult, flexible and strange. Not the what or the why, definitely none of the how. Just that it can (and will, with an obvious but not ungainly sense of foreshadowing) affect this small cast of people in consequential ways.

And if it all goes to serve the emotional core of the story… does it? Yes. The version of the ballad I am familiar with is the one where the sisterly jealousy is central, but I know it isn’t the only one, and I’m quite glad another has been picked here. It’s not unsuited – jealous, nasty men are ten a penny in ballads and folklore after all – and I find that switching the core love to being the sisterly bond instead of fighting over the lover moves it away from territory firmly explored in other versions of this I’ve encountered, and other texts I have read recently. Nothing wrong with true love and all that, but I do like to see variety, and this kind of sisterly love does not get the spotlight others do, on the whole. It also brings in a whole extra layer when the story considers change, both in the mundane and magical senses. The love of sisters who have come from the same place, and in the same way, and must grow both together and apart offers a wonderful in for a story that is about transmutation – there is a constant balance of change and choice throughout, starting with smaller scale moments and building up to the crescendo, that is only amplified by setting them within a dynamic that must necessarily weather change without dissolution.

And then, to come back to the prose (because I cannot talk about this book without keeping on doing that), its other benefit in slowing the reading experience down is in helping make a feature of the shortness of the book. At 140 pages, it is relatively svelte, and so carries the risk of rushing on the reader’s part: it would be terribly easy to sit down and just consume it whole in one sitting. The brevity is a feature – the ballad can only bear the weight of so much extrapolation – but if it were told in plainer prose, aside from just being less aesthetically appealing, it would run the risk of feeling insubstantial, because there really isn’t all that much to it as a plot.

Which comes to the crux of it – if you want pace, action and a relatively straightforward narrative, this is a text that will constantly frustrate that desire. The prose is obstructionist in the best possible way. Go into it willing to sit with, to murmur and to chew on it as a text object, as a thing that could only be told in words, because the words are the whole of its art, and the focus of its interest. More than sisterly love, more than murder and betrayal, it is a book in many ways about words and meaning, and how their fundamental magic underpins everything else, and can be used to undo it. That seems trite, when said offhand like that… but works awfully well when turned into something with the lyrical, dreamy and intensely fairy-tale-feeling prose El-Mohtar delivers. She has captured the feeling of both ballad and fairytale, without sacrificing either of them on the altar of “being a normal novel”, and if that’s what you want? Then it absolutely delivers and delights.

The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar is almost too short to be considered a novella. It is practically a short story that has been padded out with beautiful illustrations and has an extra story added to pad out the length. But it is a gorgeously written short story – drawing on a range of fairy tale traditions to craft something that feels both modern and traditional at the same time.
Two sisters, Esther and Ysabel, live on the land that sits on the boundary between the real world and the world of the fae. They sing to two giant willow trees that bound the river Liss, a river that flows from one domain to the other and is itself magical. Esther is being courted but is in love with a fae called Rin. At the same time she is devoted to her sister and knows that a relationship with the fae may impact on that bond.
The River Has Roots is classic fairy tale – full of song, transformations, unbreakable bonds, good characters and bad. It is beautifully written, and the idea that magic is a form of language (or grammar as it is called here) is an effective metaphor. But because of its classic form there are few surprises. The story goes pretty much in the way that readers will expect. And while that can be comforting it fails to fully engage.

I found this book utterly beautiful. I read an eARC of this book so thank you to the author and the publisher.

This is a short book, and often I’m not a fan of this. However with this book it worked. I felt like there was so much quality writing packed in to every page that I didn’t feel like I’d missed out by the book not being longer.

This is such a gorgeous expression of magic and folklore. The world building achieved in this novella is impressive! There’s so much richness to the location created that borders the human world and the magical realm. The integration of elements such as the river, songs and the willows to bridge the gap was beautifully done.

We also explore sisterly bonds, the power behind those cherished relationships. We look at finding companionship in unusual places and how shared values, kindness and compassion matter so much. We see the insidious nature of greed and the danger of callousness.

I was really impressed with this book. Highly recommend.

I really wanted to love this, because it ticks a lot of boxes for my personal preferences. Fae, beautiful writing and a lush fantasy setting should have made this a winner. However unfortunately I really didn't gel with the writing style, which is extremely lyrical and roundabout in it's presentation, to the point that it drove me insane. I just wanted the story to get to the point, especially given for short it is, as I thought too much of the writing was given over to descriptions rather than plot. There's little to no world building and logic, and I think relies far too heavily on vibes alone.

The writing is well done but just not to my taste.

A very solid three and a half for this novella.
A lyrical fairytale is my interpretation of this novella. Two sisters gifted with singing live close to Arcadia or what I could only liken to Faerie . They are devoted siblings and yet very different in so many ways as Esther is feisty and outgoing whereas Ysabel just craves to be well for want of a better word “seen “. Esther has fallen for an Arcadian but sadly a mortal male has ideas of his own when it comes to the sisters and this tale takes a dark course leading to death !
I liked the idea of magic being grammar and of course applaud that the sisters felt so much love for each other. This wasn’t exactly what I expected but definitely held my attention and if you enjoy an old fashioned fairytale than I strongly suspect you will relish this magical story.
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair

The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar is lyrical, magical and simply beautiful. This short fable transported me , allowing me to be swept away by the beautiful prose as I followed the tale of two sisters living on the edge of Faerie and the tragic consequences of the choices they made. There is a dreamlike quality to the writing that I loved and though the story followed the well travelled path of many traditional fairy tales it did so in a way that felt both charming and original. The relationship between the two sisters is at the heart of this book - 'Oh what is stronger than a death? Two sisters singing with one breath' and seeing that play out so tragically yet so beautifully made it impossible for me to put the book down. The author uses a magic system based on grammar and cleverly plays with that motif throughout the book, spells are conjugated rather than cast for example.
This is an ethereal, whimsical tale with a darker edge and I loved every word.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

This story had the potential to be like a Rebecca Ross book with its use of whimsical rhyming and magical tone, but it falls very short for me. It felt disjointed, and confusing, bouncing between characters and ending very abruptly. The illustrations were cute.

Journey to land village of Thistleford that sits at the boundaries of faerie and where the fates of two sisters, singing in harmony, have a bond strong enough to endure beyond death.

This is how you loose the time war was one of my favourite books of 2024 and I was so excited for this solo novella from Amal El Mohtar and it did not disappoint. It has much of the beautiful and lyrical writing that I loved and a story of two sisters that has shades of traditional dark fairytales and gothic elements. It’s about love, both romantic and sibling love. It’s a little queer, a little gothic, plays with grammar and riddles and is very beautiful. It manages to feel both familiar and yet original. I devoured this in one sitting…it’s short but beautifully constructed and the story of Esther and Ysabel I thought was stunning.

Also - and I was relieved to find out this was the case from the authors blog and not just my imagination - heavily influenced by Hope Mirrlees' Lud-in-the-Mist which I would really recommend as it’s fantastic fantasy story, a adult fairytale written in 1926 before such things were commonplace. It’s wonderful and would be a beautiful companion to this.

I love that the magic system in this story was based on grammar and language. El-Mohtar shapes and plays with language in such interesting and fascinating ways. This story read like a true folktale, full of wonder, emotion and magic.

The book can be described as a wild fever dream, reminiscent of indulging in too much candy, and that’s definitely a good thing. Having never read anything by this author before, I was captivated by the skillful way the story is constructed and the beautiful writing that left me breathless. It truly deserves five stars on its own. I also found the relationship between the sisters to be particularly enjoyable; it felt like a brilliant fairytale, adding even more depth to the tale. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

A folklore-inspired mishmash built on the association between the oft-acknowledged etymological link between 'grammar' and 'glamour'. I've seen this done so often before that I was worried El-Mohtar would be heavy-handed, but she has a deft touch with a theme, her exploration has some lovely touches. The idea of magic being measured in 'grams' was cute; and the use of 'conjugation' to refer to spellcasting, because to conjugate means to change -- verbs, people, the possibilities of the past/present/future of the world -- was inspired. The folktales that were woven together into this story were all familiar to me, but they are less commonly used than the ones that make me groan and roll my eyes at yet another damn fairy-tale retelling; and I've always loved the one about the woman whose body is turned into a harp (which I've only ever seen done before by Juliet Marillier in Wolfskin). Also, my own mother used to sing to me I Gave My Love a Cherry, which is very rarely mentioned elsewhere, so I was thrilled to see it here. It has slightly different words from my mother's version, but the interpretation weaves back into the idea of conjugation beautifully. Overalll, this was an elegant book that also spoke to my own childhood associations with folktales, and my own aesthetic values about fantasy narrative, and so worked particularly well for me.

I thought this was wonderful and whimsical and very much an ode to fairy tales. I loved the foreshadowing with the murder ballads and the way of defining magic by grammar

Oh, this felt like a dream!

I wasn't too sure what to expect with this one considering the length, but it turned out to be a delightful little read that packed in a great sisterly bond, an ethereal setting, magic, and captivating characters. It's giving whimsical cottage-core vibes!

I was also (pleasantly) surprised that it was able to make me feel a little emotional at the end too, with it being less than 200 pages. So that's a good sign!

If you enjoy a flowery prose, and don't mind a magic system not being fully explained then I'm sure you'll get on fine with this.

It really did feel like a dream while reading it and I'm not to sure what else I could compare it too? Maybe The Six Deaths of the Saint by Alix E Harrow!

-Sarah

*Thank you to NetGalley + Quercus Books for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A nice fairy tale novella that was beutifully written. I would love to read more from El-Mohtar. Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for giving me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved every single minute of this book which was a shame in a way as it was so short! The Hawthorn sisters, Ysabel and Esther are tasked with singing to magical willow trees on their family's property in order to bring in new seasons and ensure their prosperity. Where the family lives is on the banks of the river floing from the land of Faerie and certain rules and truths exist that must be adhered to. I don't want to say too much about the story in case of spoiling it but it was magical, had sisterly bonds as a major theme, and was just an excelletn way to spend a couple of hours. Easy 5 out of 5 and I can't wait for more from this author.

Finally a novella with substance! I thoroughly enjoyed the story. A dark fairytale feel, portraying the relationship between two sisters. It was refreshing to read a novella that didn’t feel lacking, and although a full length novel would have been greatly received, it didn’t feel necessary like is so often the case.

It was full of magic, love, and change. It was beautiful.

I wish I enjoyed this more. The plot, characters and the actual story was really well done but the writing was hard to follow, being unnecessarily flowery, to the point where it was difficult to follow along at times. I also have no idea what the concept or meaning of grammar is, despite finishing this a few days ago and still trying to work it out!

I'm glad this was as short as it is.