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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
Review from Tenacious Reader: http://www.tenaciousreader.com/2018/03/12/audiobook-review-tess-of-the-road-by-rachel-hartman/
3.5/5 stars
I have to confess, I’ve had a mixed experience with Rachel Hartman’s other books. I did enjoy Seraphina, but I actually wound up DNFing the sequel. Because of that, I was unsure if I would read another book by the author. However, the description of Tess of the Road convinced me I had to give the book a shot.
Luckily, Tess of the Road was an enjoyable read. I think I always will have a soft spot in my heart for female characters that want to break gender stereotypes and expectations and I especially like when they tend to break rules. There are flashback sections that show Tess being quite the troublemaker, or as her sister calls her a “spank-magnet”. But even though she would stir up trouble, she never did so with ill intent. Her breaking point with rules, family and expectations comes on full force and triggers her to forge her own way and take a path unexpected of her as she sets out on her own (using the girl dressed as a boy trope that I tend to be so fond of). Tess is not a perfect character, she does make mistakes and doesn’t always think about how what she does might impact the others around her. Her focus can be tightly focused on herself. But she is also young, and I think part of the story is how she can grow as a person. So traits like that are things you need to just bear with and wait and see how she grows as the book and series progress. If she’s still like that at the end of the series? That will be a disappointment, but I suspect that won’t be the case. In order to have good character growth, you have to give them some faults to overcome.
All that said, there were weaknesses in this book that did impact my enjoyment. I don’t feel like I engaged as fully as I could have, and the pace seemed to stall at points for me, making me disconnect at points during the story. Nothing is worse than suddenly feeling disengaged from a story you were enjoying, making it feel like you have to slog through some slower parts to get to the good parts. I also really think the structure of the flashbacks had a negative impact for me.
Sometimes I feel like issues with pacing and disconnect in a book that involves flashbacks can be exacerbated when you listen to it in audio just because it can be harder to pick up on cues for timeline jumps when listening (and harder to flip to double check). However, I don’t feel like that was this case with this book. It wasn’t too hard to place where it belonged based on the age of Tess since she goes from a child to a young woman, and yet the flashbacks still seemed to disrupt the flow of the story for me. Sometimes I can understand the use of flashbacks to tell two parallel stories that play and feed in to each other despite being years apart. I just don’t think that worked in this book, and it instead broke the flow of both timelines.
So overall, I would say if you were a fan of her first two books, you’ll likely really enjoy this one. If you were on the fence, I think it is still worth trying because there were many fun aspects to it as well.
3.5/5 stars
I have to confess, I’ve had a mixed experience with Rachel Hartman’s other books. I did enjoy Seraphina, but I actually wound up DNFing the sequel. Because of that, I was unsure if I would read another book by the author. However, the description of Tess of the Road convinced me I had to give the book a shot.
Luckily, Tess of the Road was an enjoyable read. I think I always will have a soft spot in my heart for female characters that want to break gender stereotypes and expectations and I especially like when they tend to break rules. There are flashback sections that show Tess being quite the troublemaker, or as her sister calls her a “spank-magnet”. But even though she would stir up trouble, she never did so with ill intent. Her breaking point with rules, family and expectations comes on full force and triggers her to forge her own way and take a path unexpected of her as she sets out on her own (using the girl dressed as a boy trope that I tend to be so fond of). Tess is not a perfect character, she does make mistakes and doesn’t always think about how what she does might impact the others around her. Her focus can be tightly focused on herself. But she is also young, and I think part of the story is how she can grow as a person. So traits like that are things you need to just bear with and wait and see how she grows as the book and series progress. If she’s still like that at the end of the series? That will be a disappointment, but I suspect that won’t be the case. In order to have good character growth, you have to give them some faults to overcome.
All that said, there were weaknesses in this book that did impact my enjoyment. I don’t feel like I engaged as fully as I could have, and the pace seemed to stall at points for me, making me disconnect at points during the story. Nothing is worse than suddenly feeling disengaged from a story you were enjoying, making it feel like you have to slog through some slower parts to get to the good parts. I also really think the structure of the flashbacks had a negative impact for me.
Sometimes I feel like issues with pacing and disconnect in a book that involves flashbacks can be exacerbated when you listen to it in audio just because it can be harder to pick up on cues for timeline jumps when listening (and harder to flip to double check). However, I don’t feel like that was this case with this book. It wasn’t too hard to place where it belonged based on the age of Tess since she goes from a child to a young woman, and yet the flashbacks still seemed to disrupt the flow of the story for me. Sometimes I can understand the use of flashbacks to tell two parallel stories that play and feed in to each other despite being years apart. I just don’t think that worked in this book, and it instead broke the flow of both timelines.
So overall, I would say if you were a fan of her first two books, you’ll likely really enjoy this one. If you were on the fence, I think it is still worth trying because there were many fun aspects to it as well.
I LOVED this, but those who think this is a conventional quest or adventure story might be disappointed. It is a quest, but ultimately an accidental one around healing and forgiveness of the self. It’s very much about guilt and trauma, and how sometimes those two get muddled together.
I really enjoyed this book! The MC is unlikable and unsympathetic, she is everything main stream characters are not, which is why I loved her. Tess is spunky and creative, and only does things her own way. I was slightly disappointed that there weren’t more dragons, but overall this book is fun, compelling and a great read. The person Tess is inspires me to chase after my desires.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm torn with this book.
The world that Hartman created with the Seraphina series is complex and nuanced to the point where it extends astutely into Tess' tale.
However, the first half of the book is a compendium of horrid people and an attempt at seeing how much misery one can heap upon a character.
Tess isn't a saint, but the things she has to go thru to emerge as a positively powerful female character are downright painful to read.
That read, there comes a point in the story where Tess really comes into her own and takes possession of her own story. She finds her path and makes the road her own. Along the way, she meets fascinating characters and grows immensely as a character. These are the things that saved the book for me. I really enjoyed things once Hartman finished heaping misery on Tess. I get the why of why she wrote it the way she did, I just wasn't in the mood for such a heavy dose of people are horrid in my fantasy.
The world that Hartman created with the Seraphina series is complex and nuanced to the point where it extends astutely into Tess' tale.
However, the first half of the book is a compendium of horrid people and an attempt at seeing how much misery one can heap upon a character.
Tess isn't a saint, but the things she has to go thru to emerge as a positively powerful female character are downright painful to read.
That read, there comes a point in the story where Tess really comes into her own and takes possession of her own story. She finds her path and makes the road her own. Along the way, she meets fascinating characters and grows immensely as a character. These are the things that saved the book for me. I really enjoyed things once Hartman finished heaping misery on Tess. I get the why of why she wrote it the way she did, I just wasn't in the mood for such a heavy dose of people are horrid in my fantasy.
This is a welcome, if painful, return to the world Rachel Hartman created in Seraphina and Shadow Scale. Instead of focusing on Seraphina, or Saint Seraphina as she's known now, Hartman makes the Saint's half-sister Tess the protagonist.
Tess is a high-spirited, curious child, and does not get to remain so, as her mother, fully embracing the cruelty of religion, abuses Tess for years, till Tess, making one mistake, confirms her small-minded and cruel mother's belief in Tess' unworthiness and selfishness.
Some years later, Tess is working as the maid of her twin sister Jeanne, upon whom the whole family has pinned their financial hopes to make a good marriage and redeem them from Tess' folly and fall. Tess is miserable, drinking to deal with her anger and sadness. During Jeanne's marriage ceremony, Tess becomes drunk enough to let slip a family secret, breaking her family's barely held tolerance for her, and deciding to finally send her to a convent. Tess escapes in time, and runs into a quigutl friend of hers, Pathka, who's got some family troubles of his own and needs to escape, too. The two do, and begin walking for weeks, Pathka on the trail of a legendary being, a great serpent beneath the earth, and Tess just away from her family and her misery.
By chance, they do find a great serpent, and this has a profound impact on Pathka and Tess, as Pathka bonds with the being, and Tess proves both human and dragon scholars wrong in their smug belief that the serpents are a myth. When terrible things happen consequently, Tess decides she needs to find another serpent for Pathka, and sets out on a voyage with Countess Margarethe, whom she had met at Jeanne's marriage feast.
This was so good. Hartman does a fantastic job of carefully unspooling Tess' memories of her constrained and horrible life, and the reasons behind her drinking to forget, and her reflexive anger towards everyone, save Pathka. The reveal of her trauma and is slow, and Tess' long time spent walking and considering her life, her value, and life’s direction are beautifully rendered.
For a novel so full of pain, misunderstanding and anger, there are moments of kindness and love, as Tess begins opening herself up, thanks to her friendship and dedication to Pathka. She travels both physically and mentally, and though she still has a long way to go, it's the start of a journey into becoming herself. And there are wonderful creatures and people she encounters along the way, and this world is expanded further here, and in book two, which I'm definitely reading.
Tess is a high-spirited, curious child, and does not get to remain so, as her mother, fully embracing the cruelty of religion, abuses Tess for years, till Tess, making one mistake, confirms her small-minded and cruel mother's belief in Tess' unworthiness and selfishness.
Some years later, Tess is working as the maid of her twin sister Jeanne, upon whom the whole family has pinned their financial hopes to make a good marriage and redeem them from Tess' folly and fall. Tess is miserable, drinking to deal with her anger and sadness. During Jeanne's marriage ceremony, Tess becomes drunk enough to let slip a family secret, breaking her family's barely held tolerance for her, and deciding to finally send her to a convent. Tess escapes in time, and runs into a quigutl friend of hers, Pathka, who's got some family troubles of his own and needs to escape, too. The two do, and begin walking for weeks, Pathka on the trail of a legendary being, a great serpent beneath the earth, and Tess just away from her family and her misery.
By chance, they do find a great serpent, and this has a profound impact on Pathka and Tess, as Pathka bonds with the being, and Tess proves both human and dragon scholars wrong in their smug belief that the serpents are a myth. When terrible things happen consequently, Tess decides she needs to find another serpent for Pathka, and sets out on a voyage with Countess Margarethe, whom she had met at Jeanne's marriage feast.
This was so good. Hartman does a fantastic job of carefully unspooling Tess' memories of her constrained and horrible life, and the reasons behind her drinking to forget, and her reflexive anger towards everyone, save Pathka. The reveal of her trauma and is slow, and Tess' long time spent walking and considering her life, her value, and life’s direction are beautifully rendered.
For a novel so full of pain, misunderstanding and anger, there are moments of kindness and love, as Tess begins opening herself up, thanks to her friendship and dedication to Pathka. She travels both physically and mentally, and though she still has a long way to go, it's the start of a journey into becoming herself. And there are wonderful creatures and people she encounters along the way, and this world is expanded further here, and in book two, which I'm definitely reading.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A fantasy picaresque novel that interestingly brings good insights about family and sibling relationships.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes