Full review here

I pounced on this immediately because I adored Plain Kate, the author’s first. Sorrow’s Knot deals with similar images and themes: unquiet dead, tangled magic, family mysteries, deep and unforgivable mistakes born of human rigidity. Bow’s prose is lyrical and haunting, and she did the research to set both stories in magical worlds based loosely on real cultures. Plain Kate is set in folktale Russia; Sorrow’s Knot‘s people are a sort of vaguely Pacific Northwestern Native tribe. (More on that shortly.) Both are largely bloodless horror novels with a low body count that still manage to be creepy as hell, Sorrow’s Knot even more so than Plain Kate.

What Knot is missing is the humor.... ( )

An absolutely beautiful book about grief and holding on too tight.

Otter grows up believing she will be a Binder like her mother. Binders are crucial to their society, binding the dead and keeping them at bay. Without the Binders the dead--and the especially deadly White Hands--will overrun the towns and kill everyone.

But Otter's mother wants something more for her. So when the current Binder dies, and Otter's mother must finally choose an apprentice, she does not choose Otter. When the White Hand who was the previous Binder comes and touches Otter's mother, who dies, leaving them defenseless, Otter feels helpless.

Otter's society is a matriarchal one. It's rare for a boy to stay in the town; most choose to travel once they are adults. And never are the secrets passed down to a boy. And never are these secrets shared. Otter and her friends defy these conventions while trying to survive and that defiance brings them not only answers but great tragedy.

After this horrible tragedy strikes, she and her best friend journey into the forest with heavy hearts seeking the home of Mother Spider, the first Binder, the place that will hopefully give them answers. What they find changes their entire world.

I loved the world-building. It was well thought out and clear, and it was presented without too much boring exposition. The world lived, Otter lived in it, and that's how we learned. I also liked Otter's extremely strong relationships with her friends. One of the sweetest times in the book was when Otter and her two friends lived together.

I highly recommend this book.

(Provided by publisher) ( )

The dark atmosphere and attention to detail in Sorrow's Knot (an apt title for the story) kept bringing to mind the immersive world of Garth Nix's Sabriel. A great premise which carried through to an intriguing ending. Looking forward to reading Plain Kate. ( )

I absolutely loved Bow’s novel Plain Kate and was very excited to read this second novel by her. This was a well done fantasy with a Native American flare to it. It starts kind of slow but I loved the second half of the book.

The story focuses on a society who uses knotted cords and strings to bind the dead. If the dead are not bound they attack and infect the living, causing the person infected to slowly die. However, something is wrong with the knots and it is up to the young Binder Otter to figure what it is. Otter is the daughter of a powerful binder (her mother) Willow.

This story starts very very slowly. It took me 100 or so pages to really get engaged in it. Once it gets going though it is a very good read. There is a lot of reference to Native American culture and a lot of emphasis on storytelling as a means of defense against the dead.

Otter is set on being a binder but when her mother turns her away from that trade Otter is lost. Willow says she is trying to save Otter from the dangers of being a Binder, but it is all Otter knows.

There are two other characters that are in the story just as much as Otter, they are her best friends and playmates Kestral and Cricket. Kestral and Cricket are very well done and have just as much depth and life as Otter does.

Kestral ends up becoming a ranger and learns survival and battle. She is a beautifully strong and hopeful character who is always steadfast in her support of Otter throughout the book.

Cricket ends up becoming a storyteller, he is one of the few men in the village. Cricket tells some wonderful stories throughout the book. The characters find that the most evil of the dead, the White Hands, can be lulled into complacency with stories. I loved reading and listening to Cricket tell his tales.

The first half of the book is slow as everything is set up. Then our fearless trio takes off on an adventure to find the wrongness of the bindings and things get much more interesting.

I loved the idea behind the story of binding the dead to save them from becoming evil spirits, I also loved how the story unfolded and how these people had to deal with the consequences of restricting their dead by bindings.

Overall this was a magical and beautifully written story. The writing is beautiful there are wonderful descriptions throughout. I enjoyed the characters and loved the caring friendship that Otter, Kestral, and Cricket had. This would have been a 5 star book if not for the slow pacing for the first half of the book. If you can get through the first 100 to 150 pages, the story really starts to pick up and get interesting. While I didn't like this book as much as Plain Kate (which I adored), it still ended up being a good read. I would recommend to those who are interested in a fantasy with a Native American feel to it. ( )

Sometimes you find one of those books that just hurts so good. Sorrow’s Knot is that book. Erin Bow’s other book Plain Kate made me feel this way as well, and I have to say I love it when a book can elicit that much sympathetic pain from me.

As if I’d walked right through a spider web made of razer wire and all that left of me when I reach the other side is my shredded heart. Alright so maybe that’s a bit extreme of a description – but you get what I mean. I love Erin Bow’s stories – I think Sorrow’s Knot and and Plain Kate both embody the dark realities of life: that sadness and tragedy is real, and sometimes you win but more often you lose. And when you lose, dagnabit you lose hardcore. We all have those moments when you want to rail against life screaming “But this just isn’t fair!” – What is fair? Life so often isn’t fair…

However, when those good things do happen – it makes them all the more sweet and beyond precious. Because the fire of those tragedies has burned you clean.

Otter and her friends Cricket and Kestrel live in a small village surrounded by a ward made of knots made of yarn (leather yarn?) and this ward is to keep the dead at bay. Otter’s mother, Willow, is the village’s Binder. She makes the strongest knots and bindings that keep away the dead as well as binding the dead when they die. Otter has always wanted to be a binder. But after the senior binder dies and her mother refuses to take her on as apprentice things quickly spiral into very terrible times indeed because Willow is going mad with grief and the White Handed dead are trying to break through the ward.

Sorrow’s Knot is a slow building tale for at least the first half or more of the book but I was so engrossed in the world and characters that I wasn’t bothered by this. While it is in the YA genre this is an excellent cross over book for adults as well. You do see the teens as youngsters for awhile but they grow up by the time you’ve reached the end and I never feel the juvenile quality about them that I too frequently get aggravated by with other young adult books. The storytelling was an excellent balance of show and tell and I really hope that there will someday be another book to follow this one. I can’t possibly recommend Erin Bow highly enough to readers that enjoy their reading experience with a healthy helping of heartache. ( )