Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar
Seasons of Glass and Iron
by Amal El-Mohtar
Fantasy | Short Stories
196 Pages
Released March 2026
Rating: ★★★
Goodreads
Content Warnings
Last year, I read The River has Roots and it quickly became one of my favorite reads of the year. It was also the first book I’ve read by Amal El-Mohtar and I instantly fell in love with her lyrical writing style. Needless to say, I was very curious about her next book.
Seasons of Glass and Iron is an anthology, just a smidge longer than a novella. In it are seventeen different artistic works, ranging from stories to poetry.
I am sad to admit this book did not fully live up to my expectations. I had hoped for something a little more firmly rooted in folklore and fantasy but this anthology is quite a spread.
The biggest thing that I struggled with is that the book felt rather disjointed. There are definitely some common themes and threads among them (birds, flowers, finding oneself when dealing with immigration) but I really could not find the cohesion among these stories.
Some of the stories felt very polished, while others felt like rough drafts that never fully formed. The genres are also quite varied, ranging from fairy-tale-esque to science fiction.
Immigration is a major theme of this book, and many stories reflect the emotional struggle of trying to integrate as a citizen of a new nation, especially as someone deemed having a “less desirable” ethnicity/religion.
One thing I think El-Mohtar does very well in this novel is convey emotion. Feelings like frustration, desire, and hurt really come through in these pages, even if I cannot fully comprehend the story’s message. This book felt incredibly personal to the author, and at times felt a bit voyeuristic to me, like I was reading the author’s diary. I also really loved that this book still shows El-Mohtars beautiful prose and I found many of the stories still quite beatiful, even if they did not always resonate with me.
If you’re a fan of short stories, this is a really great book. Just don’t necessarily expect everything to be fully connected.