The River Has Roots is one of those stories that feels like it was written oh-so-precisely for me. How is it that I’ve just set it down for the first time and I’m already so hungry to open it again? 

We follow sisters Esther and Ysabel, who have a deep bond and know each other inside out. They live in the in-between town of Thistleford, which sits on the edge of the river Liss and borders ancient and powerful Faerie. 

As members of the Hawthorn family, they tend and sing to the magical willows on their land and devote themselves to their care. As the eldest, Esther already has suitors, but when she finds herself entranced by a lover from Faerie, her sisterly bond and both of their lives are in danger.

In this world, grammar is magic. It is the transformation of lands and people, both through puns and through logic. At times it is wickedly clever, at times it is simple and pure, and at times it is cheeky and playful and might prompt an exasperated sigh.

I don’t know how Amal El-Mohtar got me to intimately understand Esther and Ysabel in a few sentences, but I was moved by their bond and was captivated by their push and pull. They raise each other up so beautifully, but of course have to balance their love for each other with their own desires. Esther’s ferocious protection of Ysobel and her need to ensure that her bond with her family remained forever intact is so compelling. It pulls threads from The Two Sisters but forces ill will and jealousy right out of the picture. 

Esther’s lover is nonbinary and frequently changes shape, though their essence is always the same. It’s a beautiful depiction of queerness as transformation, and though you are sometimes cemented in one form, you can still be ever-shifting. 

The prose is DELICIOUS. I expected nothing less. It’s so lyrical and poetic and to me, never felt more than enough. This is a lush, fairytale story & world and the words uphold that atmosphere perfectly. There’s so much playfulness with grammar-as-magic (truly laughed out loud) and also so much beautiful symbolism in the nature surrounding the sisters. 

The River Has Roots left me aching once it ended, both because the story touched me and because I couldn’t believe it was over so quickly. It feels as quick as a chorus, but nestles comfortably in the grimoire of existing folk songs that are as deep as they are simple and stick in your brain. I would have read a full length novel about these sisters, but I also didn’t sense anything was missing. 

I found myself humming The Wind and Rain and The Hazards of Love and all those other songs of love and loss and violence and sisterhood that have become part of my blood and bones over time. Some of them are actually mentioned or referenced, but either way, they’re all part of the same landscape (murder ballads and beyond).

In short: men are worthless, sisterhood transcends everything, and words have immense power. I would like to scream about this to everyone, please!!

CW: murder, death, violence, queerphobia

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(I received an advance reader copy of this book; this is my honest review.)