A very beautifully written fable, easy to devour in a single sitting. It did leave me wanting, I wished we had just a little bit more time in this world and with these sisters. I eagerly look forward to Amal’s next project.

3.25 stars

Amal El-Mohtar has crafted a rich story in a small number of pages. The fairytale-folktale essence was evident, but the story was unique. Beautifully done. I only wish that it was longer - the story and characters could have been realized even further. The beginning was confusing with talk of Grammar, but I eventually understood this to be a kind of magical and literal manifestation of a story, a sort of metaphor for the fact that all stories that are written down are composed of language, composed of words which are arranged in a grammatical structure. Not a surface-level concept, and not an easy one to establish in such a short book. But I enjoyed this book very much and thought it very beautiful.

Such a stunning story! Very fairytale-like and read in one sitting. Made me tear up on the plane and thought about it for days after!! Thank you NetGalley!!

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the ARC.

The description doesn't give it away, but this is a retelling, or at least inspired by, a popular folk murder ballad called "The Two Sisters", or "The Twa Sisters", or "Wind and Rain" with some contemporary covers of the song. El-Mohtar takes this traditional story of jealousy and greed between two women, and turns it into a story of sisterly love despite their differences and the lengths we'll go to reassure our loved ones. Also, it's got a queer romance with faeries. Just like the prose in This is How You Lose the Time War, her writing style is exquisite, romantic, and lyrical to match the influences. There was also a sneak peak at her upcoming short story collection, another queer folk story. I ate this all up, I can't wait for more from El-Mohtar.

This was a weird but delightful little fantasy book.

The story follows two sisters and their stories and also veers into a small romance while primarily being about the magic system called Grammar. The way conjugations were used to describe the magic and its intentions and how it can be changed from person to person was unique and fascinating.

I supplemented this with the audio once the book officially came out because I was so curious how they were going to integrate the singing portions, and I'm happy to report that this is the only audiobook with singing I have ever listened to that did not make me viscerally cringe.

After this solo debut, I'm incredibly interested to see what Amal El-Mohtar comes up with next.

Thank you so much NetGalley, Tor Publishing Group, and Tordotcom for this magnificent arc

5/5 stars

This was such a beautiful, lyrical, haunting book about sisters, love, music, and magic. I cried a few times in this short but stunning book, and it's stuck with me for weeks since I've finished it. Such an impactful story in such a smol package! Just, no words. So gooood 😭😭😭

This book is beautifully written. I liked the idea of a slow transition from a more mundane world into a more magical one as the river flows. The author clearly loves to play with words. The idea of "grammar" as related to magic "grimoire", for example, was neat. But she didn't really do anything with her wordplay that mattered to the story.

The story itself wasn't much. It's a basic retelling of a fairy tale that might be familiar to you. I didn't get anything original from it, although again, it was prettily told.

This book seems to be all about the vibes and atmosphere, not the plot. YMMV.

A quiet, enchanting story about two sisters whose bond is tested by a brush with the fae. The magic here feels ancient and strange in the best way—rooted in song, memory, and language. It’s a small story in size, but rich in mood and meaning.

El-Mohtar’s prose is luminous, the kind that makes you want to read slowly and out loud. I was especially taken by how she blends the mythical with the personal—there’s real heart beneath all the magic. If you like fairy tales that feel both timeless and intimate, this one’s worth your time.

Rating: 4.5 stars

The River Has Roots is a short story about two sisters and their entanglement with the faerie world.

I was so excited to pick up something else by El-Mohtar! The writing is stunning, as expected. I loved this story that explores the bonds of sisterhood. Esther and Ysabel's family take care of magical willows. It is Esther and Ysabel's job to sing to them to thank them for their magic. The sisters are extremely close. When a man Esther is not interested in tries to court her, it ends in Esther and Ysabel being separated which leads them to having to find a way back to each other. I loved the magical/faerie elements of this story. Every aspect of this story are so enchanting.

If you enjoy stories about sisters, magic, and fae, this is a great story to pick up! I love how this author is able to convey ideas in such a unique way through such beautiful prose.

*e-ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

What a beautiful fable!

El-Mohtar's writing is just delicious, so evocative and musical. She crafts compelling world building through a magic system rooted in translation and song. Through all the mysteries and codes of that magic, there is always a healthy appreciation and fear for its ever-changing nature.

Of the interpersonal relationships in this book, I was most moved by the love between the sisters. It was such a plainly special bond, and one that charted the course of the entire story. El-Mohtar showed a lot of care in how their characters interacted, respecting each other's growth and wanting so much to stay in each other's lives no matter what. The romance, slightly secondary to the sisters' relationship, was lovely; light but profound. The tension of their star crossed love was great, and the banter and wooing swept me away!

I thought the ending was absolutely perfect, and once again showed how masterfully El-Mohtar landed the fable structure. I was perfectly content with the slightly bittersweet resolution, but it served the characters well.

I would recommend this for a quick read that is mature, whimsical, romantic (in so many different ways), and hopeful. Happy reading!

El-Mohtar’s prose is always beautiful and playful and The River Has Roots is no exception. If the opening lines are a bit much for you, hang on—Esther and Ysabel will draw you in.

I am not generally an emotional reader, but this book gave me chills and had me tearing up. It helps that it references one of my favorite ballads.

This was a quick, sweet fairy story novella about sisterly love.

Esther and Ysabel are sisters whose family has long tended the magical willow trees growing along the banks of a river flowing out of Fairy (there are different terms used in the story, but that’s the gist). They live on the edge between worlds, both in terms of where they live and the nature of their livelihood. Though they’re as close as sisters can be, it’s pretty clear that a divergence is coming at some point: Esther is drawn in her heart to the Fairy lands, and Ysabel is drawn towards the mortal world.

The plot of the story (without giving away spoilers) centers on the two suitors of Esther, the elder sister. One is their neighbor; a marriage would unify their two properties, to the increased prosperity at all. A very sensible, solid match. The other suitor is a fae; wild, exciting, but unpredictable and with many questions of what Esther would have to give up to be with them.

The story is sad, and sweet, and very lovely. It made me very interested to read *This is How You Lose the Time War*; I’m a big fan of Max Gladstone, but this novella was so very different from anything he’s written that I’m extremely curious how the two would play off of each other.

One final note: Publishers, please stop stretching the definition of “debut” so much when marketing things. This novella was marketed as El-Mohtar’s “solo debut,” but she’s a published author, with a Hugo Award and co-wrote a well-received novel. The word “debut” is carrying an awful lot when a better description is “longest-form solo work written to date.”

This is not that.

In 2019, Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone had a surprise hit with their co-written, nonlinear narrative novella This Is How You Lose the Time War. Despite its challenging style, people enjoyed the antagonism and poetry of the literary love letter across time. While professionally sabotaging the other, two agents of the warring blue and red factions drop secret notes to each other across time and alternate universes. At worst it was a five dimensional Spy vs Spy; at best a genre-defying masterpiece.

One of the most beautifully written stories I have ever read.

Sitting on the edge of Faerie the river Liss is not just a river, it is the source of grammar. In a completely unique magic system, two sisters help tend the Professors, two willows on either side of the river Liss, by singing to them. When one sister, Esther, rejects a suitor both sisters lives undergo a remarkable change.

I honestly had to stop myself from just highlighting the whole novella. While I have read other books that include language based magic systems, I have never seen a magic system like this. It is truly impressive how Amal El-Mohtar was able to create such an enchanting world in just 133 pages.

Social media reviews to come.

This book was pure poetry in motion. The lyrical way that this is written is nothing short of magic. I loved the characters I thought the two sisters were well written. Rin was a really fun character as well and I liked that they were so good to Esther. There are so many fantastical elements working together in this book, ones that I would have never thought to put together but worked so well. I also will say that I was not expecting to cry at the end but it was so lovely. This is a book that I will add to my list of yearly re reads.

"What is a river but an open throat? What is water but a voice?"

THE RIVER HAS ROOTS by @amalelmohtar is a dizzyingly dreamlike fairytale with a fierce feminist twist. Thank you to the author, @netgalley and the publishers @tordotcompub and @macmillan.audio for the e and audio-ARCs.

Esther and Ysabel Hawthorne are two devoted sisters living in the town of Thistlefoot where they sing ballads to The Professors, the great Willows near the River Liss. Esther, elder of the two, is gregarious and certain, fending off the advances of local slimey misogynist Samuel Pollard while shy, reserved Ysabel finds the idea of any man's attention rewarding. When Esther meets a genderqueer Arcadian shape shifter known as Rin who enchants Esther immediately which sets into motion events beyond their control...

The prose, the descriptions of nature, the ode to grammar in all forms, the Goblin-Market-esque English folklore of the fae and the fully formed characters in this novella made it an absolutely delightful and mesmerizing read. Or I should say, listen, as I went the audio route on this one and am so happy I did - the production is full of sounds to immerse you in the setting of Thistlefoot. The subversive storytelling sealed this one with a deadly kiss for me and I will not soon forget Esther, Ysabel and the River Liss.

I leave you with one more gorgeous excerpt: "But that is the nature of grammar. It is always tense, like an instrument, aching for release, longing to transform present into past into future - is into was into will."

Rating: 5/5
I received the eARC for my honest opinion.

What a fantastic book, beautifully lyrical fairy tale, that is written and illustrated so beautifully in this great novella.

In this book you will meet two sisters who can make beautiful music by singing. They live on the edge of the faerie, but they don’t live in faerie, they have visited there when they were younger and were able to make it out without any issues but one day one of the sisters goes to faerie and not because she would have chosen too. I can’t say too much about this book because it is so short, and I know if I do that, I will spoil something.

All I can say is this is a wonderful book that everyone should read, even if you haven’t gotten into the world of fantasy books this would be a great book to dip your toes into. I loved that you will find LGBTQ rep in this book and the way that the author wrote their representation of this person, they really don’t have a gender, more like they can choose what they show themselves as. I enjoyed all the characters in this book and found that they each had a role in bringing this book to life.

I want to thank NetGalley and Tor for the opportunity to review this book.

I thought the writing and overall prose was beautiful, but the story itself was a bit hard for me to really get into.

brilliant, incredible, amazing! i did not go into this expecting to read a truly gorgeous retelling of a folk murder ballad i am personally obsessed with, but sometimes the world drops unexpected gifts into our laps.

this is a quick and beautiful read that does exactly what i want books to do: it gave me characters to love, made them love each other in life-altering ways, put them through tragedy and loss, and then found ways to bring them satisfaction. it's a neat little package of catharsis, especially if you, like me, really enjoy stories where the strongest and most crucial relationships are not the romantic ones. the Twa Sisters of this retelling, Esther and Ysabel, are devoted; they each want better for the other, though they disagree on what better might be. i fell in love with their surety and their singing! and i was also very charmed by Esther's fae lover Rin, and un-charmed (in good narrative ways) by her pushy human suitor.

and the worldbuilding! so cool! magic in this story is called grammar, and its rules and quirks are all described in linguistic terms, which was very lovely. it has a familiar feel to anyone well-read in European folklore and fairy tales, but puts new spins on things that delighted me.

i would read so much more of this place and these characters, but what we get is such a perfect shiny pearl of a thing!

Here's a most remarkable, lyrical fantasy. The river in question is the river Liss, which flows between small town Thistleford and Faerie. It's also a tale of two very close sisters, gregarious Esther and shy Ysabel Hawthorn. The boundary between Faerie and human lands is where the river meets two great enchanted willows on the Hawthorn family holdings.

As the story opens, Esther has fallen for a magical being, Rin, but doesn't know where this will lead as she won't leave her family, especially her beloved sister. Locally, the insufferable Mr. Pollard courts Esther, wanting to increase his own holdings. Tragedy strikes. How it is all resolved and justice (a harp and a secret song are key) served completes a story that will stay with you long after you turn its last page.