November Reviews: The River Has Roots
El-Mohtar (TorDotCom)
The Canadian-Lebanese poet and co-author of This Is How You Lose The Time War (TIHYLTTW) makes her solo debut with The River Has Roots. And?
Hmm.
Do you remember what I said about Rio’s Grave Yard Shift ? How it wasn’t long enough to even be categorised as a novella? That it cost me £7.50?
Well. Well now. Now. Well. Now then. Then now…
The River Has Roots is maybe 20,000 words. Twenty thousand? What? I produce more words than that in my sleep every night. And this (admittedly hardback) book cost me £12.50. Therefore, each word cost me approx. 0.06p. 10-15p to read a single page!
I knew it was a short book. I’d seen that in the description, yet even when it arrived it looked satisfactorily chunky for a novella. Then I opened the pages to the light of day, to find that the text is drenched in (frankly) mediocre artwork. Bunnies. Flowers. Trees. Frilly scrollwork. It then became obvious that I could read and finish this book while I slept (so I did).
Let me stop being nasty for a moment and say I loved the novel she wrote with Max Gladstone (TIHYLTTW). And her poetry is genuinely moving. But did El-Mohtar miss her opportunity with this lightweight folk tale? I won’t bore you with a quick synopsis, because you can read the entire novella /novellallalla /flash fiction the next time you have an afternoon nap, and probably faster than I could recap the story (such as it is).
Nevertheless, El-Mohtar is gifted. No question. The prose is gorgeous. This isn’t enough to prevent me buying and reading anything she publishes. Not yet. But —
This is a piss-take. And a damn shame, to boot. She almost saves it through sheer talent. Nevertheless —