by Amal El-Mohtar
144pp (Hardcover)
My Rating: 8/10
LibraryThing Rating: 4.04/5
Goodreads Rating: 4.17/5
When I first heard about The River Has Roots, I was simultaneously intrigued by it and hesitant to read it. The idea of a story about Faerie and sisters based on a murder ballad appealed to me, but my only previous experience with Amal El-Mohtar’s work was a sample from the novella she co-authored, This Is How You Lose the Time War—a book that for all its awards and accolades has now failed to draw me in and demand I read more of it on at least two occasions. However, I had the opposite reaction when I read an excerpt from the beginning of The River Has Roots, with its lovely prose and enchanting description of a river filled with grammatical magic. Between this and the short story at the end (“John Hollowback and the Witch,” which was included as a peek at her upcoming short story collection, Seasons of Glass & Iron), I’ve concluded that Amal El-Mohtar’s other work might actually be more compatible with my personal taste.
On the shorter end of novella-length at approximately 20,000 words, The River Has Roots is a fairy-tale-like story where magic is mysterious but also feels alive and real. There is a romance and a villain, but at its heart, this is a book about sisterhood: a retelling of a seventeenth-century murder ballad, “The Two Sisters,” and some of its variants, that remakes the story into one showing the unbreakable bond between the two eponymous characters instead of tearing them apart.
There was a time when grammar was wild—when it shifted shapes and unleashed new forms out of old. Grammar, like gramarye, like grimoire. What is magic but a change in the world? What is conjugation but a transformation, one thing into another? She runs; she ran; she will run again.
— page 1
These two sisters, Esther and Ysabel Hawthorn, live near the border to Faerie, where a river flows with grammar. For generations, the Hawthorn family has tended and harvested the willow trees that absorb this magical water, making them ideal for creating objects like grammarians’ wands and enchanted furniture. However, the Hawthorns’ most important responsibility has always been singing to the trees in thanks for the gifts they provide. Though they are only required to do this once per season, Esther and Ysabel are especially dedicated to this task, going out to the trees and uniting their beautiful voices in song each sunrise and sunset.
A man in possession of land alongside that belonging to the Hawthorn family has been pursuing Esther’s hand in marriage, believing it would be profitable to join their estates. There are two problems with his attempts at courting Esther: she hates him, and she has fallen in love with someone from Faerie. But no matter how clear Esther makes her disdain for this man, he is relentless in his pursuit of her, and his affections and desires put both sisters in danger.
The River Has Roots is a difficult story to describe since it’s short and hard to summarize without giving too much away, and I think part of my initial hesitancy about reading it was due to not really getting a good feel of what it was about from its description. This book’s appeal is largely the magic of its prose and the way the story is told. It incorporates songs and riddles, and like its inspirations, it’s lyrical and poetic (though I did find that the narration was stronger than the dialogue, and earlier passages were more striking and memorable than the rest). It’s about love (both romantic and sisterly), transformation, and a difficult choice, but ultimately, language and wordplay are what made this story work for me given it didn’t have much character depth or a deep, nuanced dive into themes.
However, I do love a good fairy tale, and I liked this one more than most stories around the same length, enjoying its overall plot and ending. This also has some lovely scenes along the way, such as the story of Esther and Ysabel wandering into Faerie as children and how Esther first met her beloved Rin, who appeared to her in three different forms before revealing themself to her. (Their first few meetings made them very interesting to Esther, who had a special fondness for riddle ballads.) I also thought the conflation of grammar and magic was wonderfully done and beautifully written.
The River Has Roots is a fairly short, self-contained story with some lovely prose, a bit of fairy tale whimsy and romance, and an unshakable bond between sisters. The hardcover edition I read contains linocut art by Kathleen Neeley, and the audiobook version (narrated by Gem Carmella) contains music performed by the author and her own sister, Dounya El-Mohtar.
My Rating: 8/10
Where I got my reading copy: Finished copy from the publisher.
