The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar [Fantasy Review]

Summary 💬

In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family.

There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honour an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family’s latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees.

But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters’ bond but also their lives will be at risk…

Goodreads

Review ✍🏻

In Which I Prattle on a Bit Too Much About Length

The River Has Roots is too short for one of my full reviews. But I’d already drafted this post by the time I realized that, so on we go. I sat on my couch one afternoon after work and started reading in Kindle. After not too long, I was surprised to find I was already 50% in. I was doubly surprised when the book ended at 72%. Goodreads says the physical copy is 144 pages – I guess 28% of that reduces the page count to 104. I imagine the pages sparsely populated. I would love to know the final word count. I am curious to see a finished copy for myself. Anyway, that’s enough of that. Moving on!

Just kidding. After I wrote the above paragraph, I found out the word count: about 20,000 as per the author. I dunno, I’ve never thought, “I want to read something this length.” I find it an awkward length. I admittedly prefer my novels on the shorter side. I enjoy a good fantasy novella as much as anyone else. But this is cutting it a bit too fine. Does anyone know the word count on the Singing Hill novellas? I feel like those may be similar length, but to me it feels like those have more story to them. (They’re listed at about 100 pages as well… hmm…)

Folk Story Adaptation

All that is to say – The River Has Roots gently expands on the Scottish murder ballad “The Two Sisters”. (I didn’t recognize that myself – thanks to The Gothic Librarian for noting the source tale). This version repairs and strenghtens the sister relationship and incorporates fairies with a touch of magic. If you’ve ever read original folk or fair tales or listened to a traditional ballad, you’ll know such stories are quite sparsely written, often just a few pages long. You get the bones of a story as best suited for oral storytelling. In this novella, there’s not much change or expansion to plot (there are some characterization changes, given the positive relationship between the two sisters), just mostly expanded description. One distinguishing feaure is the non-human/nonbinary love interest.

Magic System?

The talk of ‘grammar’ as a magic system is is the other distinguishing feature, though the slim length and focus on other things means it’s barely explored. I found it served as a little bit of window dressing but all you could skip all references to grammar the story would have had the same impact, imo. The atmosphere would be slightly adjusted, but its removal wouldn’t have any impact on the plot or characters. And perhaps that’s not fair of me to say… I’m sure the author put that stuff in there for a reason! But for my view, it wasn’t worth much.

But It’s a Fine Read, Really!

This is one of those books where the ‘negatives’ (which really aren’t that serious) were easy to write about it and the positives are easy to gloss over. I didn’t dislike this book. The writing style and locale apeal to the fairy tale lover in me. It just wasn’t nearly as fleshed out as the sort of the stories I like to spend my time on. If it was more fully developed, it could have been a favourite. But for me it wasn’t meaty enough. The story is just fine.

I would definitely be curious to read the opinions of folks who have read both This is How You Lose the Time War and The River has Roots…

Well, look at that. I’ve written a ‘full review’ after all.

The Bottom Line 💭

A fine fairy tale fantasy, The River Has Roots makes for a pleasant if unmemorable read, given its lack of depth. If El-Mohtar pens a full novel one day, I will be sure to check it out.

Further Reading 📰

🍂 Read an excerpt
🍂 Author website
🍂 Interview @ Publishers Weekly
🍂 Reviews: The Gothic Librarian, Sahi @ My World In Books
🍂 Related: other fairy story books

What’s your ideal book length?
Have you read any good fairy tale retellings lately?