I adored This is How You Lose the Time War, and I’d been meaning to get around to more work by Amal El-Mohtar. After reading three other Hugo nominees, this seemed like a logical next step. It is the third fairy tale novella nominated for the Hugos this year. I didn’t dislike this book, but I also didn’t fall in love with it like so many others have. Certainly I’d put it lowest in my Hugo rankings.
The Premise:
Esther and Ysabel are sisters who grow magical willow trees on the banks of a river flowing from the fae realms. Their devotion to each other and the songs of their work keep them as close as sisters can get. However, Esther has suitors; a neighbor looking to expand his financial empire, and a fae whose customs are alluring and frustrating. The story’s focus places relatively equal weight on the sibling and romantic relationships, with Esther getting a heavier focus than Ysabel.
Read If Looking For: the power of sisterhood, conjugation-as-magic, unknowable fae, lush prose, high quality audiobook production
Avoid If Looking For: tense plotting, twists and surprises, rigorous thematic work
What Worked for Me:
The writing in this story is so pretty! As with This is How You Lose the Time War, it’s a lush and evocative book, though this story has more vibes and less plot than El-Mohtar’s previous novella. I particularly enjoyed Mohtar’s approach to magic: the story has several monologues on the nature of grammar, and how grammar is inherently a tool for change. Songs and music featured prominently (the audiobook was beautifully narrated), and there were some fun moments of magic and wordplay. El-Mohtar leaned into the stereotypes around fae and their love of creative language to get around the restrictions of their existence, and baked those ideas into the core of the world. The entire story lives in something of a liminal space, and it feels like there’s a constant tug between worlds throughout the entire tale. I do wish we’d seen more examples of magic. There was a lot of commentary about magic, but only one example of it in action.
I feel like familial bonds don’t get much attention in Fantasy stories, and sister bonds even less than other relationships. I loved seeing it get full focus here. While Esther’s romantic life certainly features prominently, the novella is mostly interested in exploring how that shift in dynamic is affecting both sisters, and their love for each other is ultimately the core that the story is built around. More siblings in Fantasy please! This was great.
What Didn’t Work For Me:
My biggest issue with The River Has Roots was its lack of tension. The narrative was painfully straightforward, which was at odds with El-Mohtar’s prose. We know the villain of the story fairly early on, and there isn’t much build up towards the main conflicts (either Ysabel fearing her sister is leaving her behind or Esther struggling to get a man to take the hint and leave her alone). It got resolved in a similarly straightforward manner, and the bittersweet ending wasn’t enough to give it the complexity that the novella’s style was asking for. The story just sort of … happened? Yes it was heartfelt and beautiful, but I kept feeling like the story was a bit aimless.
Simplicity can work in fairy tale stories. After all, they’re inspired by stories that are themselves fairly short and lacking complexity. Some of my favorite books in this genre have a simplicity to them. Typically though, that simplicity allows readers to build tension with their previous knowledge of fairy tale stories. Here, I just never felt tension or betrayal or shock. Yes the story was simple, but told in a way that sapped interest from what should have been engaging. It could have been a short story without losing much meaning or depth. Was the beautiful prose (and singing in the audiobook) enough to anchor the length of a novella? Not for me, I think.
Conclusion: A book about sisterhood, the mysteries of magic, and how life changes. Gorgeous prose, but without much tension.
Marked for Plot 