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A review by mcgbreads
The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
fast-paced
3.0
ARC review; thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the access to this ebook. Pub date: Mar 04, 2025.
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.
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.