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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Classism
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
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
Tess of the Road is a new novel set in the world of the Seraphina duology by Rachel Hartman. I read Seraphina (which I loved) when it was first published, and I think it's necessary to read at least Seraphina before starting Tess of the Road. I was excited to return to the world of dragons and saints Rachel Hartman has created, and Tess of the Road does not disappoint. Tess Dombegh hasn't had an easy life. Now that her twin sister is happily married, Tess faces spending the rest of her life as the family pariah or in a convent. However, Tess decides to forge her own path on the Road of life, teaming up with an old friend and setting off on an epic adventure.
Tess is such a fully realized character. She makes mistakes and learns from them, and has a deep compassion for others that really resonated with me. Her backstory comes to light through flashbacks and lends an understanding as to why she reacts to situations the way she does.
I really enjoyed reading this book and I can't wait to read more stories featuring Tess. For now I'll reread the Seraphina series!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.
Tess is such a fully realized character. She makes mistakes and learns from them, and has a deep compassion for others that really resonated with me. Her backstory comes to light through flashbacks and lends an understanding as to why she reacts to situations the way she does.
I really enjoyed reading this book and I can't wait to read more stories featuring Tess. For now I'll reread the Seraphina series!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.
*I received this book through netgalley in exchange for an honest review*
DNF @ 15%
See, I'm not sure if I can rate this... I feel like I might like or understand the world more if I had read Seraphina first. I knew this book would take place in the same world, but I didn't know it would overlap so much... So, there is a lot I don't know. Although, perhaps I still wouldn't like it because of how negative Tess is about Seraphina...not that I entirely blame her.
The other reason I turned this one down was because although the writing is entertaining and well done, the I really dislike the main character. Yes, she is in a negative and horrible situation, but she feels the need to be a martyr and live with it rather than just leave. She doesn't even do martyr very well considering how she gets drunk....
I was excited about the dragons, but the way the book talked about dragons, I wasn't too excited to meet them either, unfortunately.
So, I won't rate this in case not having read Seraphina is the biggest factor in understanding and connecting with this book.
DNF @ 15%
See, I'm not sure if I can rate this... I feel like I might like or understand the world more if I had read Seraphina first. I knew this book would take place in the same world, but I didn't know it would overlap so much... So, there is a lot I don't know. Although, perhaps I still wouldn't like it because of how negative Tess is about Seraphina...not that I entirely blame her.
The other reason I turned this one down was because although the writing is entertaining and well done, the I really dislike the main character. Yes, she is in a negative and horrible situation, but she feels the need to be a martyr and live with it rather than just leave. She doesn't even do martyr very well considering how she gets drunk....
I was excited about the dragons, but the way the book talked about dragons, I wasn't too excited to meet them either, unfortunately.
So, I won't rate this in case not having read Seraphina is the biggest factor in understanding and connecting with this book.
I don't like to read reviews before I've jotted down my own impressions of a book, though I usually cast my eyes rapidly down the Goodreads column, picking out words here and there. While doing that to this book, I got more whiplash than usual: superlatives in one chunk of text would be followed by "bored" "hated" "impossible" and the like.
I guess I can see that. My own impression of this book, which I finished a few days ago, and have been contemplating since, is "a glorious mess."
Things I liked: the dragon creatures and their anarchic, truly weird, customs and outlook and (rather gross) physicality.
I liked Tess's entire arc. It's an earned arc. I might have misgivings about how we got there, but when we arrived it was so satisfying, and the underlying emotional damage resonated with soul-damaging truth.
I found the generosity and hard-won beginnings of wisdom at the end positively exhilarating, and I hope readers make it all the way to find those pages, and read them again and again. The dash of a sense of wonder given through the discovery of the great worms (and how different people react to the news, and what happens) intensified everything.
I loved the writing, with its closely observed bits of human behavior, contributing to complexity. (And some really nifty turns of phrase, with only one grammar bobble in the entire thing, so rare!) Hartman writes with such rich, wild imagery, and zings of humor when one least expects it.
I loved the nuns we met later in the book, including older women with refreshingly acerb and practical outlook, while squarely placed in the given worldview. These are not twenty-first century Americans shoehorned into a fake-fantasy world with a religion specifically designed to be horrible. (Though at first it read that way.)
Which brings me to stuff I had trouble with.
I also had trouble reading Tess's alcoholism and self-destructive, angry lashing out. I believed it. I've known people like that. I also know there are readers who will hail that very aspect as totally awesome when it's a female character acting out, because yay for books in which women get to be jerks too, but I don't like reading about jerk protagonists whatever their gender.
I had trouble with the cross-dressing, as the detailed descriptions of highly gendered behavior made it clear that whatever Tess looked like, I couldn't believe anyone would take her as male for two seconds: whatever her hair and clothes looked like, she would move like someone raised from early childhood to Be Female.
Finally, though I could understand the sudden jump from young Tess to older-teen Tess, hinting at Terrible Things in-between--in other words, highly repressed--I felt that there were too many flashbacks through the middle that stuttered the pacing to a halt.
But these are all highly subjective reactions, which I hesitate to call flaws. Which is why I think of the book as an eminently readable, insightful, glorious mess.
Copy provided by NetGalley
I guess I can see that. My own impression of this book, which I finished a few days ago, and have been contemplating since, is "a glorious mess."
Things I liked: the dragon creatures and their anarchic, truly weird, customs and outlook and (rather gross) physicality.
I liked Tess's entire arc. It's an earned arc. I might have misgivings about how we got there, but when we arrived it was so satisfying, and the underlying emotional damage resonated with soul-damaging truth.
Spoiler
Hartman does an excellent job with the self-hatred that too often results from the betrayal of trust by someone we love, whether family, friend, or lover. There is a scene in which Tess is given a massage--after prickly mistrust of letting someone that close physically--in which the massager works the muscles where we hold pain, and Tess's emotions unlock with shocking power. It happens, just like that.I found the generosity and hard-won beginnings of wisdom at the end positively exhilarating, and I hope readers make it all the way to find those pages, and read them again and again. The dash of a sense of wonder given through the discovery of the great worms (and how different people react to the news, and what happens) intensified everything.
I loved the writing, with its closely observed bits of human behavior, contributing to complexity. (And some really nifty turns of phrase, with only one grammar bobble in the entire thing, so rare!) Hartman writes with such rich, wild imagery, and zings of humor when one least expects it.
I loved the nuns we met later in the book, including older women with refreshingly acerb and practical outlook, while squarely placed in the given worldview. These are not twenty-first century Americans shoehorned into a fake-fantasy world with a religion specifically designed to be horrible. (Though at first it read that way.)
Which brings me to stuff I had trouble with.
Spoiler
I had trouble getting into this book because it seemed at first yet another puritanical women-are-the-devil fantasy, and there are so very, very many, which seem to be protesting against a way of life nobody actually has been living for many generations. The news makes it plain these days that there are still horrible problems with power imbalances, but society led by punitive scriptures and priests preaching Female Sinfulness just is not one of today's problems. Whereas dangers at school and the workplace, in entirely secular settings, are.I also had trouble reading Tess's alcoholism and self-destructive, angry lashing out. I believed it. I've known people like that. I also know there are readers who will hail that very aspect as totally awesome when it's a female character acting out, because yay for books in which women get to be jerks too, but I don't like reading about jerk protagonists whatever their gender.
I had trouble with the cross-dressing, as the detailed descriptions of highly gendered behavior made it clear that whatever Tess looked like, I couldn't believe anyone would take her as male for two seconds: whatever her hair and clothes looked like, she would move like someone raised from early childhood to Be Female.
Finally, though I could understand the sudden jump from young Tess to older-teen Tess, hinting at Terrible Things in-between--in other words, highly repressed--I felt that there were too many flashbacks through the middle that stuttered the pacing to a halt.
But these are all highly subjective reactions, which I hesitate to call flaws. Which is why I think of the book as an eminently readable, insightful, glorious mess.
Copy provided by NetGalley
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
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
One of my favorite books. It deals with so many big topics like miscarriage and finding your place in the world, but through a very grounded lens. Tess just has to keep walking each day, and she runs into so many unique and interesting people and places. This book might make you cry or laugh, and it’s so worth it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage, Rape, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry
DNF at 65%
I just... don't care about this and I cannot carry on.
The writing is fine, but that's really all it has going on.
I just... don't care about this and I cannot carry on.
The writing is fine, but that's really all it has going on.