Sorrow's Knot

October 14, 2013
Otter is the daughter of Willow, the most powerful woman in a matriarchy that exists on the edge of a dangerous forest. Willow, the binder, casts yarn into “wards” that protect the village by keeping the dead at bay. Although Otter has inherited her mother’s magic, Willow mysteriously refuses to teach her spells, expels her from home, and chooses another girl as her apprentice. Otter must rely on two best friends: Kestrel, a ranger in training, and Cricket, who plans to become the village’s storyteller. When Cricket runs afoul of head ranger Thistle, the three friends leave the village for an uncertain future. Bow’s background in science is evident in her Northern American setting; everything from the botany to the zoology feels authentic. Her prose is painterly, though the pacing occasionally lags under the weight of descriptive exposition. As with Bow’s debut, Plain Kate (2010), this dark fantasy has an old-fashioned feel: there’s a strong-willed protagonist with little knowledge of how to channel her power, and readers will enjoy watching her discover that “the world was larger than we knew.” Ages 12–up. Agent: Emily Van Beek, Folio Literary Management.

Starred review from October 1, 2013
Grief beats at the heart of adolescence in this fantasy version of North America. For the free women of the forest, death is a complex, dangerous thing: The dead are bound, and some rise again as White Hands, whose touch brings madness and transformation. Bow's lyrical writing, which beats like the storyteller's drum Cricket and, later, Orca wield, tells a story both specific and timeless. The conflict between tradition and change, the tensions between mothers and daughters, and the journey west (itself both physical and metaphorical) all play a role. Within the grand thematic scope is a simpler story, reminiscent of the timeless hero's journey: Otter, the binder's daughter, untrained and called upon to face great threats, must use the tools of tradition and forbidden knowledge (a secret story echoes throughout the novel) to remake the world. Add to that epic scope two love stories, a genuine portrait of friendship, a nuanced exploration of loss and letting go, and a fine tracery of humor as well as plenty of tears, and you have a winner. A lovely gem, dark and quiet as the dead but glimmering with life as well. Not to be missed. (Fantasy. 13 & up)

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January 1, 2014

Gr 6-8-In this story about loss and letting go, Otter, like her mother, Willow, is a binder, a person who can banish the dead using the magical strength of knots. The more powerful the binder's magic, the stronger the knots' hold. Otter's skills, along with those of the rangers and storytellers, are necessary to protect her matriarchal society, the Shadowed People, from the dangers of the dead spirits that prey on the living. However, Willow warns her daughter before her death that there is something terribly wrong with the knots. There's some romance, but the theme of binding things too tightly and the problems that arise with not releasing loved ones dominates the story. Sorrow's Knot is a dystopian novel that does not deal with the destruction of the broader world. Rather, it delves into the mythology of a group of people and how their prejudices and resistance to change came to be. Readers of suspense will love the dark tension of the story line, an ebb and flow that carries through to the very end.-Sabrina Carnesi, Crittenden Middle School, Newport News, VA

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2013
Grades 7-10 In the small remote pinch (forest town) known as Westmost, Otter believes she will follow in her mother Willow's footsteps as the village's knot-making binder, the person responsible for creating wards against ghosts. But when Willow is infected by a White Handa ghost so powerful that it transforms its victims through madness and death into Hands themselvesOtter must find a way to unknot the misbegotten practices that created the Hands in the first place. This is an atmospheric, haunting tale of friendship, love, and loss, told in a unique voice evoking Native American lore and language, although the acknowledgments make it clear that the Shadow People are a mix of many indigenous cultures. Bow's world building is rich and sometimes harsh, with details about ways of living, the natural world, and cultural norms. Although there are hints aplenty about how to unravel the deadly problem, Otter's eventual understanding is well paced and allows readers to walk alongside her as she finds her way.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2014
After Otter's mother, a binder of the dead, dies rather than allowing herself to be possessed by a ghostly White Hand, Otter and her friends venture beyond the bounds of their forest settlement to find the White Hands' origin. This spirit-filled fantasy world gives a hair-raising sensation of being surrounded by unknown dangers and evokes Native American cultures without caricaturing them.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

March 1, 2014
In the forest settlement of Westmost, Otter, Kestrel, and Cricket grow up together: Cricket to be a storyteller; Kestrel to be a ranger and travel outside the wards; and Otter to be a powerful binder, tying the knots that bind the hungry dead. When Willow -- the community's binder and Otter's mother -- is touched by a White Hand and kills herself rather than let the spirit take over her body, Otter is left puzzling over Willow's words: "Something is wrong, Otter. The knots are wrong." A clue may lie in a story Cricket learns as an apprentice storyteller, about Mad Spider, the first binder, and how she bound her mother's spirit too tightly, trapping it between here and there and creating the first White Hand. But for revealing a tale held secret among the storytellers, Cricket is banished and left to wander defenseless through the forest. The spirits of the dead are sketched with tactical vagueness, heightening the hair-raising sensation of being surrounded by unknown dangers. The magic of yarn and knots mixes the familiar and exotic to good effect, while the setting gestures toward Native American culture without caricaturing it. As Otter and Kestrel set out to find Cricket in defiance of their elders' rules, their journey takes them to Mad Spider's own territory, where, face-to-face with the oldest of the White Hands, they will either appease her -- or be turned into White Hands themselves. anita l. burkam

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)