The River Has Roots

Reviews / Votes

Half delicious murder ballad, half beguiling love story, Amal El-Mohtar transports us to Faerieland so seamlessly it seems as though she just stepped out of it * Holly Black, New York Times bestselling author of The Cruel Prince * When it comes to storytelling, Amal El-Mohtar is like one of the grammarians of Thistleford, a magician capable of deftly transforming the familiar into the unfamiliar and the numinous into the humane. The River Has Roots is an utterly enchanting tale of love and longing, language and song, and the unbreakable bond of sisterhood * Fonda Lee, author of the Green Bone Saga * Gorgeous and glorious! Every sentence sings! Amal El-Mohtar weaves a lovely and poignant fairy tale that will linger in your heart * Sarah Beth Durst, New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop * This book is lyrical, elegant, and above all, kind. I devoured it in one sitting. This story feels like the smell of rain. This is a fairy tale wrapped in brilliant language. An absolute must-read. Amal El-Mohtar is quite simply one of the best writers on the scene in ages * T. Kingfisher, New York Times bestselling author of A Sorceress Comes To Call * The River Has Roots is the perfect fable: both bright and brutal, very old and brand new. It's a story that outlasts itself, lingering like a song; I adored it * Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling author of Starling House * Amal El-Mohtar's genius fairytale reflects a truth we can never forget: words carry enormous power. The River Has Roots is truly exquisite * Zoraida Cordova, USA Today bestselling author of The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina * The River Has Roots is a beautiful, musical, and loving story, perfectly rendered in El-Mohtar's beautiful, musical, and loving prose. This novella has all the dark comforts of an old tale and all the light vigors of a new classic, and will inspire you to raise your voice in song with those you love * Emma Toerzs, author of Ink Blood Sister Scribe * A powerful, gorgeous little story of sisterly love, the power of words, and revenge as a dish best served in verse * SFX (five stars) * A pitch-perfect story of love and sacrifice, yearning and discovery, like a classic folk tale, but freshly minted * The Guardian * A rich and evocative story that's one part fairy tale, one part murder ballad, and one part ode to the magical power of language itself * Paste * One consequence of the spell that El-Mohtar weaves is that the reader is taken out of the mundane everyday world of seconds, minutes and hours. There are sentences and paragraphs here, not to
mention the riddles, which induce reverie and contemplation such that one loses track of the passage of time . . . All in all, this is a book to savour and wonder at. * ParSec *