If you’ve read This Is How You Lose the Time War, you already know Amal El-Mohtar doesn’t just write stories she writes poetry disguised as prose, emotions wrapped in metaphor, and worlds that seep into your bones.

This book is lyrical, hypnotic, and deeply intimate the kind of read that feels like a whispered secret between the pages. It explores themes of belonging, nature, and the unseen forces that shape us, all with El-Mohtar’s signature style that makes you want to pause, breathe, and feel every word.

TL;DR: If you love gorgeous, poetic writing, introspective storytelling, and books that feel like spells woven from ink and emotion, The River Has Roots is a must-read.

Fans of the bestselling Hugo Award-winning novella This is How You Lose the Time War have been dying to read Amal Al-Mohtar’s debut solo novel, and with good reason. This fantasy novel is just as compulsively readable, tender, and lyrical as one would hope. The small village of Thistleford sits on the river Liss and on the edge of Faerie. Two sisters, Esther and Ysabel, tend enchanted willow trees and share a powerful bond, until their world gets upended by a Fae lover. Al-Mohtar is a true poet and this enthralling story of sisterhood, song, and riddles will cast a spell over fans of Holly Black and Alix E. Harrow. And can we spare a moment to swoon for that cover?

As always, OBSESSED with El-Mohtar’s writing style. Everything is so delicately worded and beautifully phrased. This is such a fun twist on fantasy/fae people, with roots (haha) of folklore. It feels like a story you would find in a weathered collection of stories passed down through generations. And there are lessons to be found, but it can just be a story if you want it to be.

I didn’t find myself wanting it to be longer or more fleshed out; the shortness of it actually serves to focus you on the story rather than details that don’t matter. And yet somehow El-Mohtar creates an entire, vivid world that makes sense.

Loved it. Love love love.

Initially it was a tiny bit difficult to get into since the writing felt so ethereal and dreamlike that it was harder to comprehend.

But once I got used to the writing style I was hooked. I was rooting for the sisters. I found myself tearing up near the end.

I absolutely loved This is How You Lose The Time War and could not wait to read The River Has Roots.

Amal El-Mohtar’s The River Has Roots will bring a sense of magic and hope to your life and make you believe that anything has the power to be transformed or conjugated. It is a beautiful story of both romantic and sisterly love.

It reads like a faery tale and a ballad and a riddle all at once with the poetic prose that I grew to love in This is How to Lose the Time War. Once again, love is timeless and shapeless and formless - and because of that, it can do anything we want it to.

Once finished, I wanted to go back to the first page and start again. Read this amazing book!

Only Amal El-Mohtar could make me cry over grammar. This story is gorgeous, the magic system is so beautiful and unique I cannot imagine how she thought it up. This is a story of love. Love of your sister, love of your work, love of your craft, and love of your lover. By the end I had tears in my eyes. I don't want to say anymore, go in blind and enjoy.

I do not think fans of This is How You Lose The Time War who are excitedly tuning in for Amal El-Mohtar’s solo debut will be disappointed by The River Has Roots. It’s got the same poetic and beautiful sentences and Romantic (in the original sense) plot. I wished for only one thing when I was reading it, that it was a little longer. But perhaps I was wishing it longer in the same way that after eating an intense sliver of chocolate cake, you wish for one more bite, but if that bite were to actually be given to you, you might find that you are not as wise as the one who designed the portion. All that to say that this is a very short novella. Not a lacking novella, but it is an intense sliver of a story.

Two sisters sing magic into being on the edge of fairyland. They live in harmony (pun intended) with the land and the trees. When love goes wrong, it will strain their bond almost to the breaking point. This softly intense beautiful story about nature, magic, and family will touch even the most cynical heart. A little cozy bubble in these chaotic times.

I received an advance reader copy in exchange for this honest review.

Review posted and links added closer to pub date.

The River Has Roots has the wonderful flowery prose that Amal El-Mohtar is known for. The story is short but emotionally impactful. I loved the characters and while I'm satified with how this story wrapped up, I would love more stories in the future with other charcters from Arcadia. I would recommend this to Fantasy and fairytale lovers, or anyone who was a fan of This Is How You Lose The Time War and wasnt turned off by the prose. It can feel complicated at times but I believes it is well worth it and makes for a beautiful reading experience.

Thank you @tordotcompub for the complimentary copy.

Magical! The language made me feel like I was reading an old fairytale. It took me a little bit to get into it and understand the grammar (magic) but once I did, I really enjoyed it. I loved the bond between the sisters. I would have liked a little more in the way of Esther’s relationship because up until close to the end I wasn’t entirely sure if her feelings were reciprocated or if it was all one sided. I absolutely loved the ending, I read it twice and can see me reading it again.

I have been meaning to pick up "This is How You Lose the Time War" by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, but it's never on the library's shelf (that's a great thing!). Since I heard so much about El-Mohtar's lyrical writing, I thought I would give her solo debut novella a shot. "The River Has Roots" does not disappoint!

It is a beautiful, lyrical, and spellbinding original fairy tale that celebrates sisterhood, the promises we keep, and the sacrifices we make for love. I love how this tale unfurls as if we the reader are gathered around a campfire listening to someone who is telling the story. I loved the play on words whether through murder ballads or riddles. I was utterly captivated.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan/Tor for an advanced readers copy of the book.

Imaginative, whimsical, and confusing- everything I've begun to expect from El-Mohtar! The prose is spectacular, both somehow precise and inexact. This felt like a classic with the story unfolding really wonderfully. A story of sisterhood, love, and peculiarity of writing. Grammar is magic, and El-Mohtar knows how to create it.

Thank you to Tor Publishing Group and NetGalley for the eARC!

This is practically a modern fairy tale, a classic in the making. It was lush, atmospheric, and so magical. It was beautiful and tragic, but hopeful in the end. This is in my top 5 reads of the year for sure, even though it's only January. I absolutely adored this and can't wait to get a physical copy of my own. No sophomore slump in sight! This is an absolutely enthralling novel, and I beg everyone to please read it!

I don't know how to describe this story without just telling the whole thing, as it was quite short. There's two sisters who sing to two willow trees on a river. Why? I don't know. They live on the edge of faerie, where time and space doesn't work the same as the regular world. They are each other's whole world but one sister, Esther is rebuffing the advances of an aggressive suitor because she's in love with a Fae. Her sister is worried her sister is going to leave her behind and run away with the Fae even though she promised she wouldn't leave her behind. There's also something about grammar? I think like, actual language grammar. I don't understand that point either. This is very apathetic summery because I don't have much to take away except this is one of the most beautifully written books I've read. I could picture the trees and faerie forest and the river. But I don't understand the point, it's written like a fairy tale and it's obviously some sort of parable or allegory but I couldn't tell you what that was.

This. Book. Was. Stunning.

My ONLY complaint is that it wasn't long enough. The prose is beautiful. The story was enchanting. Magical sisters. Grammar as a magic system. Romance. Pining. This was everything.

While this story may have benefited from a bit more length, it was ambitious and poetic and emotional. I was taken aback by how quickly I cared for these characters. Like a fable, this was brief, beautiful and hard-hitting. I'll be rereading this closer to the release date and I'm so excited to share this with others.

Magic is grammar is magic — what a unique concept, capable of transforming (or translating, as it were) something as rote and boring as grammar into something exciting and special. The real magic at the heart of The River Has Roots is the relationship between two sisters, Esther and Ysabel, whose love for one another carries the story along the River Liss, winding through time and throughout the land in a way that makes it easy to tear through this book in one sitting. Between the stanzas of songs and riddles and the twining river running north to south, the lyrical nature of this gorgeous novella shines through. Encapsulating El-Mohtar's stunning turns of phrase and the whimsy and mystery of Faerie, fans of the Cruel Prince series or the Emily Wilde series will love this.

The River Has Roots is a stunning, lyrical novella. It's a fairy tale recrafted like a meandering river, with clever touches and nods to the traditional murder ballad form. It's a world where the magic system is built on grammar. (oh my heart!!) There's enough plot to carry the book through, too, which is pleasing, because the style risks being form over substance.

Ysabel and Esther Hawthorn are sisters who live by the River Liss. The Hawthorn family is responsible for singing to the willows, and Ysabel and Esther love each other as dearly and completely as they love the singing. Esther is being courted by her neighbor Samuel Pollard, who she cannot abide, and and Arcadian named Rin who "is a feeling, a lightness in her step, a burr in her throat..." as ethereal as the land they come from. Love and power can be a treacherous game though, and Esther comes to a crossing point where she must face the most difficult of choices.

This has perhaps my new favorite twist on an old favorite murder ballad, The Two Sisters/The Cruel Sister/Bonny Swans, wherein the sisters are dearest friends rather than bitter enemies, and yet the outcome is still much the same. For those familiar with folk songs, you'll find other recognizable ballads lightly referenced throughout. There are some similarities in lyrical style to Time War, and with the same amount of whimsy, but with perhaps more grounding in plot.

I look forward to reading and rereading this story over the years. Simply put, it's gorgeous.

This book is absolutely the loveliest!

Synopsis:
Esther and Ysabel live in Thistleford at the edge of Faerie lands, where they love to sing to the magic willows praising them for their abundant harvest. Esther is totally smitten with Rin who lives in the enchanted lands of Arcadia. When Esther declines the advancement of another suitor Samuel Pollard, her life is put in danger. Esther must decide between saving her sister and being with the love of her life.

My Thoughts:
Amal El-Mohtar’s writing is so beautiful it is like reading a dream. The prose describing the magic system called grammar are captivating and clever. I am not sure I have read a book before where I can describe the use of language as hypnotizing. I was hypnotized! The bond between the sisters is endearing and I dearly loved this tale.

This was stunning! I requested The River Has Roots because I loved This Is How You Lose the Time War, and I loved this one even more. With Time War, I felt confused the entire time, like the book was saying "look how clever I am, keep up if you can." This book instead takes you by the hand and leads you along so you can feel clever, too.

I adored the sisterly relationship, the concept of grammar as magic, the beautiful ways language is played with, and the way this blends a classic folkloric feel with something new!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc! Opinions are my own.

"This thing you are used to, it has a past, and that is part of it."

I read this directly following This Is How You Lose the Time War, so I was in the zone for another unique short story where I don't fully understand the world, but you pick up on things along the way. I flew through that one in a day, so I expected to do the same with The River Has Roots. At 144 pages, it surprisingly took me a few days. 

After reading the bio, I expected a sweet magical story around sisterhood and to dive into the land of the Faerie - which it was. Still, I was caught off guard opening into the rules of Grammar, and how this world's magic system appears to be run by it. 

El-Mohtar's writing is beautiful, poetic, and magical. I could read 144 pages of her painting the picture of water flowing over rocks alone. I digress...

Once we moved on from our Grammar lesson, the story picked up for me. The backstory of the "Professors" was lovely, and I could picture myself standing in their shade with a slight breeze on my face while watching the water flow down the river. I adored the love shared between sisters Esther and Ysabel, and I wish I could listen to them harmonize for the "Professors." 

I enjoyed the riddles, the songs, and I loved that Ysabel preferred murder ballads most of all. I was glad Esther didn't want to settle for Pollard, because he succeeded at being terrible, and that Ysabel wanted Esther to be happy. I adored Rin's lines and their magic, and how above all they wanted to make Esther happy, regardless of the outcome. 

Ultimately, I wish this was longer so there would have been more time to better understand the Grammar world which always left me confused, have more time in Arcadia, and have a less rushed ending. I think the world could have been magical without Grammer being part of it - every time this reentered the scene it pulled me out of the story.

I believe many El-Mohtar fans will love this, I fell a little shy of loving it. I am looking forward to reading more from El-Mohtar.