Absolute catnip for whimsical grammarians everywhere, THE RIVER HAS ROOTS is a gorgeous murder ballad / love ballad full of the transformative magic of everyday life, a gleeful love of language, and a deeply felt musicality.

In the village of Thistleford, so the story goes, sisters Esther and Ysabel weave willow branches to sell at the market. More importantly, they weave songs to thank the pair of mighty willows that temper the wild magic in the river that flows from Faerie. Until one day their sisterly idyll is disrupted by the trailing roots of a childhood trip to Faerie and a persistent entanglement of suitors. Will it, can it, be restored by the unruly grammar of ballads and riddles [and] the grammar of Arcadia, which breaks the real into the true"? And what might that restoration look like at a time when grammar is wild…

A story of sisterly love and loyalty, of transformation and justice, like all good fairytales, this one manages to be both tender and brutal, cutting and lyrical, poignant and playful. 

Pair it with "Nettle & Bone" by T. Kingfisher to double your pleasure in sister-love-and-justice fairytale novellas. And to find another unexpectedly significant chicken.