Sorrow's Knot
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