The River Has Roots
Amal El-Mohtar
A pretty fairy tale
Here are the finalists for the 2026 Best Novella Hugo Award.
☆☆☆☆☆ Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
☆☆☆☆☆ Cinder House by Freya Marske
★★★☆☆ Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite
★★★☆☆ The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
★★★☆☆ The Summer War by Naomi Novik
★★★★☆ What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher
Amal El-Mohtar's The River Has Roots is written in a lush style.
Now, cards on the table: when I say someone's style is "lush," what I really mean is that I don't like it, and am trying to be polite. As a general rule, I don't like the kind of writing that never stops letting off fireworks. I care a lot about style, but l mostly like the style I don't notice. Although there are rare exceptions (Guy Gavriel Kay and GennaRose Nethercott come to mind), a flowery style feels performative. I want writing that doesn't ask for applause, but just gets out of my way and tells the bloody story.
Pardon me for the throat-clearing. I told you that so that you could discount my lukewarm review if you enjoy a lush style.
That said, there is a rather nice classic fairy love story told here, if you can look through the performative style. In the end I enjoyed it.
The novella The River Has Roots is followed by a second story, "John Hollowback and the Witch," which was an ugly, nasty little thing. I didn't like it at all.
El-Mohtar is a co-author of an epistolary novella, This Is How You Lose the Time War which has been all over my Goodreads feed for years. It swept the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and BSFA novella awards in 2019 and 2020. I have resisted the temptation to read it. Based on The River Has Roots, I think I will continue to resist.