I was surprised to love this story much more than I expected. It’s one of the best stories I’ve read this year. However, I’m learning that I have a much harder time talking about why I love a book than criticizing what I dislike about it.

In essence, this is a very classic faerie tale (it’s actually a retelling). It’s the tale of two sisters (Esther and Ysabel Hawthorn) who live at the edge of Arcadia (the land of faerie), by the magical River Liss, and tend to the willow tress that grow there by singing to them. Their sisterly love is strong (reminding me a lot of the sisters from Disney’s Frozen, if that helps), but their relationship is tested when a couple of suitors enter the picture: one a human (Sam Pollard), whose lands neighbours their own; and the other (Rin), a faerie from Arcadia. So even though the story itself is fairly classic, it’s the way it’s told that makes this so enjoyable. Amal El-Mohtar is both a poet and a writer, and that is obvious in how the language is wondrous and beautiful (the way that faerie tales should be). I was dazzled by how the world was described in terms full of natural and elemental imagery, where feelings can be a force of nature. One description of the changeling Rin arriving as a storm demonstrates this: “The wind howled, spun around the mill three times, and whirled down into an icy looking Rin a head taller than Agnes [a witch in Arcadia]. Looming over her, their eyebrows and hair were rimmed stiff, their eyes were wholly black and their whole aspect was of a vicious blown snow, the kind of dry cutting powder that billows in the wind like sand and cuts cold and hard against the skin of anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in it.”

At first, I had trouble getting into the story—which I listened to as an audiobook. The narrator speaks in a strong West Country English accent, with its rolling Rs and dropped Ts (think of Harry Potter’s Hagrid), and I had some trouble with some of the words and couldn’t quite keep up. However, the accent really works with the story (and was possibly affected intentionally). The language, though lyrical and poetic, required a bit more concentration to follow. This story rewards attention as many scenes and details come back to bring added meaning in later parts. By midway (which isn’t that long, since the whole story takes a mere 3 hours) the plot really ramped up and I was eagerly interested in how the rest of the story played out.

I also loved how magic was described in this story in a very ancient way. It’s directly tied to primal creation, speaking things into existence, names, words and language as an expression or manipulation of those forces. In fact, it’s never even referred to as “magic” but “grammar” (and wizards and witches are known as “grammarians”) further enforcing that connection. But it’s still that powerful energy that can shift the forces of nature, forming and manipulating the shapes of creatures and people, even altering life and death. A further extension of grammar is singing, as an even more powerful form of speaking. Esther and Ysabel’s singing has more power than they even realize, and as a theme, singing is a huge part of this story. 

The audiobook was superb. Because music is so important to the story, the audio contributed another layer to the experience. The narrator actually sings the songs that are featured in the narrative. The most prominent one is a classic folk song, popularly known as “I Gave My Love A Cherry” (and if you recall the sitcom Family Ties, it featured prominently in an episode where Mallory fell for a rakish poetry tutor). The narrator (at least I assume it’s her voice) sings the songs very nicely, a cappella, along with other tunes, including some in a magical made-up language. I have joked that the songs are so good that there could be a soundtrack album for this audiobook. The music adds so much to the immersiveness and enjoyment of this story, that I can’t imagine reading it from the bare page.

In this review, even more than others, I realize that I haven’t fully explained or expressed why I think this book is so good. What I have said doesn’t come close to adding up to 5 stars. Partly that’s my own inadequacy (I’m sure many others have probably said this all better), but the more I try to summarize and draw conclusions, the more it feels like I’m reducing and diminishing the story and El-Mohtar’s writing. All I can say is that I went in not expecting to be very impressed, and in the end I was swept away and overjoyed. One of my criteria for 5 stars is if when I’m done, I immediately want to go again. With this one, not only did I feel it, I actually read the story again the next day. 

5 stars

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