And Only Say
The River Has Roots
By Amal El-Mohtar
15 Nov, 2024
Amal El-Mohtar’s 2025 The River Has Roots is an upcoming historical fantasy novel.
Thistleford borders Faerie. The town’s prosperity is in part built on this proximity. Magic is so terribly useful.
The Hawthorns have long tended the magic willow trees along the River Liss, which flows out of Faerie. They are therefore a family of some significance. To marry either Esther or Ysabel would be financially strategic. How convenient that the girls are so pretty.
It’s less convenient that Esther and Ysabel have minds of their own.
Esther and her sister Ysabel survived a childhood venture into Faerie1. Perhaps they are more magic-touched than most young women. In that case, it’s not surprising that Esther’s fancy falls on not on a fellow Thistleford resident, but rather on a faerie named Rin.
Rin’s shape is ever-changing. This is not a problem for determined Esther. What is a problem is that marrying Rin (or the Faerie equivalent) means moving to Faerie. That would mean leaving her sister behind, which Esther does not want to do.
These irreconcilable issues become moot, thanks to Esther and Ysabel’s neighbor, Samuel Pollard. The gentleman farmer has pretensions to being a poet. He is also practical. If Pollard can win Eshter’s heart, he would gain a pretty wife and the Hawthorn wealth. The match is so obviously perfect, it is inconceivable that Esther would say no.
Poor Pollard. He is such a preening drip that even if Esther’s heart were not Rin’s, she would reject him. No argument Pollard can bring to bear can sway inconsiderate Esther. Therefore, Pollard has no choice but to drown Esther in the River Liss and woo Ysabel instead.
A more prudent man would not have murdered a woman with a faerie lover in the water of a magical river. Pollard may think he is done with Esther. Esther is very much not done with Pollard.
~oOo~
Yeah, we’re back in “deferred gratification only makes sense if you think there’s actually a payoff waiting” territory. Thanks, America. Accordingly, you’re getting reviews when it strikes my fancy to read something, whether or not it is out yet. If it’s practical, I will repost the link when the book is published.
Amazon will tell you that this work is 144 pages. That’s not wrong. However, in my e‑arc, only 75% of the book is River. Also included is a sneak peek at Amal El-Mohtar’s upcoming short story collection. I mention this for readers who somewhere around the sixty or seventy percent mark start wondering about the pacing.
But to return to the book: Pollard is aware of Faerie and magic. Gaining access to it is part of the reason he pursues the Hawthorn sisters. He has surely heard murder ballads about the doom that invariably follows people like him doing things like he did, if only because Ysabel likes murder ballads. My theory is that Pollard assumed the lack of witnesses and his social status would protect him.
As one would expect, this is a finely crafted tale, even if it was (thanks to the ancillary material) a bit shorter than I expected. El-Mohar provides her characters with seemingly irreconcilable goals, and her readers with an antagonist they will revel in loathing. In short, everything one could want from a faerie tale.
The River Has Roots is available for pre-order here (Amazon US), here (Amazon Canada), here (Amazon UK), here (Apple Books), here (Barnes & Noble), here (Chapters-Indigo), and here (Words Worth Books).
1: Given the ease with which one can enter Faerie, I suspect there’s a constant flow of people into Faerie. For reasons provided in the story, most will not return.