I've never really been a This Is How You Lose the Time War girl, but I am very happy to say, I am absolutely a The River Has Roots girl. The Cruel Sister is a ballad that I've thought about quite a bit since I first read a different reimagining of the story many many years ago when I was a kid, so I loved this interpretation of it, especially the direction Amal El-Mohtar took with it, as well as the world she built and the linguistic aspect of it. This is a book I will absolutely be preordering a copy of for my shelf.

I really, really enjoyed This Is How You Lose the Time War, so I was immediately intrigued by this. Overall, I liked it, but it's the kind of story that will fall out of my head in a few days because my mind couldn't fully sink into it.

I have to compare it to the experience I had with This Is How You Lose the Time War. To this day, I don't understand the world we were in, but I loved the vibes and I connected so much with the strange characters and their compelling love story.

This time, I didn't understand the world we were in or the magic (though what we do learn about the magic felt very unique and creative), and though I liked the vibes, I didn't emotionally connect with the characters. I appreciated the focus on sisterly love and connection, but it made no big impression on me.

The story ends at 70% and the rest of the book is a different short story, which is a preview to a collection that will be coming up if I remember correctly. So it could be that this is just too short for some readers, like myself, to fully connect, and the author should've taken more time to establish/explore things. But also, I don't think that's their style, and that's okay. You're either with it or you're not. I'm with it, but this time it worked much less effectively than it did in This Is How You Lose the Time War.

Many readers like myself have been eagerly anticipating Amal El-Mohtar's debut solo work, and it does not disappoint. With rich prose and loveable main characters, this book was a treat from start to finish.

This is the first book I have read by Amal El-Mohtar. I do plan on reading How to Lose the Time War very soon but I feel like the author accomplished a decent amount in the small page/word count that this novella provides. While in fantasy setting there is not a lot of world building but there is just enough to get the idea across of what this world contains. We have two sisters who love each other very much. They are best friends. I really love the relationship between Esther and Ysabel. If it wasn’t for the relationship that the author solidified between these two sisters I really don’t think I would have cared as much about the outcome of the book. Up until about 75% through the story I would have told you I thought the writing was fantastic but until I got to that last 25ish percent I really would have told you in the end that I liked the story but that I would have had no emotional attachment at all to the characters.
Overall I enjoyed the writing and I am interested to see more of the upcoming short story collection that is previewed in the back of this book.

I fell in love with this book from the first sentence!

The story unfolds through the perspective of characters rooted in both physical landscapes and metaphorical rivers, struggling with loss and finding solace in the continuity of nature and ancestry.

The River Has Roots is a story that shows the power of storytelling as a means of preserving history, making it a read for fans of poetic fiction.
Her writing immediately hooked me, and made my heart so happy.

A big thank you to NetGalley and the author for providing an eARC!

4.5 stars!
This book is SO beautifully written and possesses all the charm and magic of a classic fairytale while retaining its originality. The magic system in this book is unlike any other I've read and the world felt very fleshed out and alive for a short story.
I absolutely loved the relationship between Esther and Ysabel–if you have a sister, you need to read this! It honestly surprised me how quickly I became emotionally invested in each of their individual lives. If you're looking for something short and sweet, yet still emotionally impactful, this is the perfect quick read!

Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Abundantly, soaringly magical, light fantasy.

The story of two sisters, whose bond surpasses death.

This story just flows and undulates—like a river, like a melody—it’s completely transportive.

Opening and enfolding you in its embrace, the writing is immersive, warm and welcoming with beautiful descriptions within an enchanting tale. With ethereal and unique characters, a lush setting and a straightforward magic system that doesn’t get bogged down in details, The River Has Roots is a delightful and enjoyable escape.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Tor, and the Author for access to an eARC. All opinions are my own.

Expected Publication Date: March 4, 2025

Maybe Amal El-Mohtar's stories aren't for me...

I thought This Is How You Lose the Time War was okay. I wasn't totally impressed or anything, but I figured I'd give her solo novella a shot. Sadly, I ended up feeling the same way about this novella that I felt about her co-authored novel.

While The River Has Roots definitely has its dark moments (misogyny, rigid, prescriptive roles for women, etc.), it read too cottagecore for me. The aesthetic is definitely pastels, flowy dresses, magical rivers and plants. There's magic based on grammar and grammatical rules. There's a witch type character that's very forest crone with a touch of fairy godmother.

I think this would be a cute graphic novel, but as a novella, it didn't really make me feel anything.

Oddly, I actually liked the purple prose. It was very descriptive and didn't totally put me off. But I'll admit, it was sort of disappointing to realize that half of the novella was just the author showing off her writing chops with overwrought descriptions, and less to do with the actual storytelling.

Oh well.

Thank you to Tordotcom and NetGalley for this arc.

The River Has Roots is a haunting, beautiful fairy tale about the power of sisterly love and the magic of riddles and songs. Esther and Ysabel live on the River Liss and sing daily to the magical willow trees that their family has long tended. Esther is being courted by their unappealing neighbor, but she has a Faerie lover she would much rather wed.

However, as the way fairy tales go, Esther faces a difficult decision regarding the life she knows with her sister and the love she wants in Faerie. The story that unfolds feels like a truly classic tale of the power of love -- and the danger of thwarted desire.

The novella also includes a short story with complementary themes and tones. The downside is that this means that Esther and Ysabel's story is actually much shorter than the page count might lead one to believe. However, John Hollowback's story has so many parallels to the sisters' tale that the reader can hardly feel robbed of a wonderful reading experience.

This was a truly enchanting reading experience. I look forward to reading the short story collection that was teased with John Hollowback's tale. This book is perfect for any reader looking to be swept away into a classic fairy tale setting of magic, love, songs, and revenge.

Exquisite. Amal El-Mohtar has a rare gift for words and storytelling. For such a short book, it had unexpected depth and such lush, imaginative worldbuilding. The length is really my only complaint. I could have read a thousand pages of this and still wanted more.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Tor for an eArc of this book! I was so excited to read this quick story, especially due to my intense love for This is How You Lose the Time War, I knew that this would be a delight to read.

I was not prepared for such a tragic ending, as you can likely guess, but that was one of the things that made this story so fantastic. The writing was absolutely gorgeous, and I felt completely immersed in the prose of El-Mohtar; the way she is able to weave together words seems like every writers’ dream. The story was simple, yet complex; it was a tragedy and a love story, a cozy fantasy and a tale of sisterly love. This book tugged hard at my heart strings, and made me think of all the things I would do for my own sister.

The only thing I wish was different in this book was the world building; being less than 150 pages, it seems difficult to properly develop an entire fantasy world. I feel as though I was told things but that these things were never explained, such as what grammar is or the relationship between the two worlds and how they affect one another.

Even though I didn’t completely understand the world, I did enjoy exploring it, and I think this was a solid fantasy story. It’s a quick, straightforward, and fun story while simultaneously having layered undertones and deeply emotional scenes.

I didn’t like the very beginning very much, the way it unfolded like an old classic, so I spent much of the early pages predisposed to disliking it. But while the bones of the story are familiar, Esther and Ysabel were charming and the interweaving of magic and reality was interestingly done. Also loved that Rin wasn’t assigned a gender (for how could one condense a storm into a simple binary) and no one batted an eye, just referred to them as Esther’s Arcadian.

It had a nice layer of whimsy and felt very much like a fairy tale. And there was that same yearning lyricism to it that made me love This is How You Lose the Time War

What a poetic and gorgeously lyrical read! This novella packs quite a punch. I often felt like I was getting swept along with story because of the melodic writing. It's unlike anything I've read in a long time, but in the best of ways. Magic and folklore lovers will eat this up.

I’m not usually a fan of magical realism or stories with a surreal, dream-like quality, but I really enjoyed this one. Honestly, part of the appeal might be because it’s so short—it never had time to lose me. But beyond that, I genuinely loved the story. The characters felt well-developed for such a short book, and the pacing was absolutely perfect.

If you’re someone who loves poetic writing and a touch of magic, I think you’ll really connect with this. Even as someone who doesn’t typically go for this type of story, I found myself swept up in the world and the sisterly bond at its heart.

Amal El-Mohtar wrote this fairytale with a meandering lyrical voice that reminded me of Steinbeck describing the Salinas River Valley in East of Eden. The story follows two sisters who have wildly different tastes and desires but who refuse to be separated- even by death.

Amal El-Mohtar’s solo debut is brief but rich. I’m the kind of person who prefers long and dense books—many of my favorites are >1,000 pages. Even with lengthy books, I have difficulty finding myself becoming attached to characters and emotional at their tribulations. In The River Has Roots, I was tearing up on chapter one and sobbing by the end. The eternal love of sisterhood was so real and hard-hitting, and I found myself deeply attached to both Ysabel and Esther. The prose is lyrical and gorgeous, and El-Mohtar has clearly displayed her skills as a solo author. I look forward to more from her.

Thank you @tordotcompub for the eARC!

A fairy story told in riddles and puns and song (and maybe a few murder ballads).

I absolutely adored This is How You Lose the Time War, so I knew I had to grab Amal El-Mohtar's solo novella as soon as I saw it.
El-Mohtar has a way with words that reaches your heart. She carefully crafted a beautiful story that speaks to love between sisters, as well as the mystery of the fae world, in barely 100 pages.

A dark and dangerous story of family, rejection, and love. This was beautifully written and I can't wait to share it.

The River Has Roots is an ethereal, dream-like fairy tale about the bond between sisters. There's magic and fairies and mystical rivers and enchanted lands and romance, and honestly it's pretty much exactly what you'd expect from reading the blurb. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about this one going into it, because the description almost screams “this story is going to have flowery prose that uses too many words,” which is something that I don't usually enjoy. And while the prose does come dangerously close to being purple at times, I think I kind of liked it?

I mean, don't get me wrong, I think this story is a little over-ambitious considering its length. I never truly understood the magic system (called “grammar”), which gets repeatedly mentioned but never really explained. It's presumably why all of the weird bits of this tale are able to happen (like the river flowing backward and one character's physical transformation), but the heck if I know how it all works other than “it's a magic of sorts.” I also felt that the ending was a little rushed – we go from climax to prologue in a matter of pages, and the book's villain is dealt with in mere sentences.

But, still, if you don't expect anything too deep from this one, it's a decently entertaining read. I loved the bond between Esther and Ysabel, and the ending might even have gotten me a bit teary-eyed. And I would be delighted if there were someday an entire full-length novel featuring Agnes Crow, because she deserves far, far more page time than she was allotted in this short tale.

My overall rating: 3.49 stars, rounded down.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Tordotcom for providing me with an advance copy of this book to review. Its expected publication date is March 4, 2025.