- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish Date: March 4, 2025
- Duration: 3 hours 53 minutes
- Author: Amal El-Mohtar
- Read by: Gem Carmella
- ASIN: B0D3QQWKWK
The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar is beautiful fairy tale novella. It is a love story, telling of a love between family, of sisters for each other, of a people for their land and their trees, of a woman for a being from up the river a bit. I think it also the author’s love story to language.
The Hawthorn sisters, Esther and Ysabel live on the family land that borders the edge of Arcadia, a land of faerie that operates differently than the human lands. In their youth, the sisters accidentally stumbled into Arcadia, and unlike most visitors, found their way home again. The sisters also sing together, in particular to the ‘professors’ the two ancient willow trees that mark the borderlands between Arcadia and the town of Thistleford. On the other side of the Hawthorn lands are the lands owned by the boorish Samuel Pollard. Pollard seeks the affections of Esther, but they are not returned.
This is a relatively short book. The audiobook is just under four hours, and that includes a bonus story from an upcoming collection (that is also a really good story). I do recommend the audiobook as it mixes in songs and music that fit the flow of language and fantasy that drift through this book, like the river that runs through the Hawthorn land. I hesitate to say much more. El-Mohtar spins language in her own way. She uses language to twist language. Grammar becomes the magic that makes the world and twists the world. She writes beautifully, and it is a joy to leap into the language and be carried down river to Thistlewood, and back into Arcadia. You really should read, or better yet, listen to this book.
Matt Truxaw’s newest book is Monster, which released on 1/12/2026. This urban fantasy, horror, thriller will keep you turning the pages.
He is also the author of the hard science fiction thrillers: “Plastiphobia/Plastivore” and “Anthrophobia: A Teacher’s Tale”
You can find them all on Amazon in Paperback, Hardback, Kindle and/or free to read with Kindle Unlimited.
When you read any of them, he would really appreciate a review/rating on Amazon or your favorite book seller/book reader site.
More about Matt:
He was born in Orange County California many years ago and he still lives there. He has been reading books for most of those years and writing up book reviews for the last few years. He gets MANY of his books out of the library/Libby so expect a lot of old science fiction classics book reviews and other science related reviews in addition to newer books he comes across.
If you want to be ‘in-the-loop’ on these and other works, you can follow his author’s page on Amazon or his Facebook page.
For more reviews and articles by Matt here on Amazing Stories (Click here).
Monster: A Novel by Matt Truxaw
