Sorrow's Knot 12+

About this book

At the very edge of the world live the Shadowed People. And with them live the dead.

There, in the village of Westmost, Otter is born to power. She is the proud daughter of Willow, the greatest binder of the dead in generations. It will be Otter’s job someday to tie the knots of the ward, the only thing that keeps the living safe.

Kestrel is training to be a ranger, one of the brave women who venture into the forest to gather whatever the Shadowed People can’t live without and to fight off whatever dark threat might slip through the ward’s defenses.

And Cricket wants to be a storyteller -- already he shows the knack, the ear -- and already he knows dangerous secrets.
But something is very wrong at the edge of the world. Willow’s power seems to be turning inside out. The ward is in danger of falling. And lurking in the shadows, hungry, is a White Hand, the most dangerous of the dead, whose very touch means madness, and worse.

Suspenseful, eerie, and beautifully imagined.

Reviews

Praise for Sorrow's Knot

Winner of the 2014 Monica Hughes Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy

A Kirkus Best Book of the Year

"A winner. A lovely gem, dark and quiet as the dead but glimmering with life as well. Not to be missed." -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Bow displays the patient, rhythmic pace of a seasoned storyteller, and the spare elegance of her prose manages to inspire both chills and tears as the tale requires.... Dark but ultimately hopeful, this quiet fantasy will leave its mark on readers and have them contemplating shadows in a whole new way." -- Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, starred review

"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. . . Readers will enjoy watching her discover that 'the world was larger than we knew.'" -- Publishers Weekly

"Readers of suspense will love the dark tension of the story line, an ebb and flow that carries through to the very end." -- School Library Journal