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taliaissmart's review against another edition
5.0
Disturbing. Horrible. Grotesque. Magical. Beautiful.
dfram's review against another edition
1.0
If I could have given this book less than one star, I would have. Mental health is not dealt with the delicacy that such topic requires. The author fails to draw the line between imagination and psychosis since the kids in the story seem to be so engaged in the weird things they do, it almost seems hard to believe that there’s something “off” about Tess when the other children act somewhat alike when they’re around her. I don’t know who told Marcella Pixley that it was a good idea to write about a character who suffers from an eating disorder at the age of eleven and avoid to describe anything that would validate such diagnosis. Tess “dies by suicide” and this isn’t even addressed the proper way, because it just comes off as if she was a selfish and stubborn little girl who wanted to have things her way. Lizzie’s character was annoying; she didn’t have the courage to stand up for herself a single time in the whole story. I hated how she allowed Tess and Isabella to boss her around and dictate what she believed in. Also, it’s quite ridiculous how not only did she open up to Niccolo after speaking to him once— compared to pretending she was fine when she spoke to Kaplan during their weekly sessions for FIVE years —but she kissed him or he kissed her. Whatever way it was, it was wrong. It doesn’t make sense for someone who feels responsible for a death to make out with the first person that says “it wasn’t your fault”. It just came off as if the author was trying too hard to integrate a good thing— which OBVIOUSLY had to be romance —into the plot but it was just forced and wasn’t relevant to the story at all. The whole idea of Lizzie using her sister’s poems as assignments is just stupid. The way she narrated the story was more poetic than the actual poem she wrote. Also, the whole religious aspect did not contribute anything to the story. There’s also this scene where Marty, the girls’ dad, physically forces Tess to take her medication and it’s just wrong— I understand that as a parent, he could have been frustrated to the lack of cooperation of Tess in her recovery but I don’t see how it would make sense for him to be so insensitive to her own thoughts about the treatment and the fact that she seemed compliant after he basically shoved the pills down her throat just shows that it wasn’t a good way to handle the situation. I’m sure I could go on about everything else I hated about the book, but I’m tired of complaining about it.
This was the worst book I have read in months.
This was the worst book I have read in months.
librariann's review against another edition
4.0
Ages 13+ (guilt and unflinching mental illness)
Unusual and poignant. Teen volunteer Moira warned me to have kleenex on hand for the end (she also warned me it was "weird") but although it was sad, I wasn't snuffly about it. My favorite part was Tess' poetry, which was beautiful and strange and heartbreaking all at once.
Unusual and poignant. Teen volunteer Moira warned me to have kleenex on hand for the end (she also warned me it was "weird") but although it was sad, I wasn't snuffly about it. My favorite part was Tess' poetry, which was beautiful and strange and heartbreaking all at once.
kfussner15's review against another edition
4.0
At first, I didn't really care for the book. The fantasy part was just plain creepy but as it went on I understood the psychological part of it that I didn't get at first. Knowing how Tess died really threw me for a loop & the small romance the guy had for Lizzie was charming.
shelleyrae's review
4.0
Without Tess is a haunting tale of mental illness, grief and survival. The blurring of imagination and reality in childhood is one of it's immense joys, I remember pretending I was a mermaid while swimming and hoping to find fairies in the garden. Eventually most of us lose that sense of possibility but in this novel, Tess retreats into her fantasies and is lost.
Alternating between the present and the past we learn of fifteen year old Lizzie's overwhelming guilt and grief over her lost childhood relationship with her sister, Tess. At ten Lizzie idolises her older sister, Tess is bold and imaginative and their play is characterised by make-believe. As the sister's story unravels it becomes obvious to the reader that Tess is mentally ill especially as their innocent play becomes something dark and sinister. Eager to please her eleven year old sister, Lizzie lets herself be drawn into Tess's games but is never sure if Tess is only pretending or really believes her wild fantasies. The tension builds as Lizzie's confusion grows and Tess's behaviour becomes more outlandish.
I thought Pixely captured Lizzie's struggle with her sister's behaviour realistically. She is on the cusp of maturity where a child still longs for magic even though they know it doesn't really exist. The emotional and intellectual conflict for Lizzie is intense and as a child she is torn by her loyalty to Tess and her growing awareness of what is accepted behaviour. I didn't find it all surprising that at fifteen Lizzie was still unable to reconcile her feelings about her late sister, particularly when the issue of her Tess's illness was ignored at home both before and after her death.
Tess is revealed through Lizzie's memories and the legacy she left in the form of a journal. The author skilfully and cleverly reveals how Tess's imagination slides inexorably into delusion. The reader is aware before Lizzie is that there is something wrong with Tess. I watched a documentary on childhood psychosis not too long ago and I feel the author really captured the eerie demeanor and thought processes of a mentally ill child. I sympathised with Tess, a mere child dealing with psychosis that probably frightened her almost as much as Lizzie, but I was simultaneously creeped out by her.
The first person point of view gives is a sometimes odd mix of childish naivety and maturity but the language of Without Tess is lyrical. Tess's poetry from her journal precedes each chapter, with each piece more disturbing, adding to the atmosphere of the novel. The pacing is perfect, building slowly to the tragic conclusion without ever losing tension.
Without Tess is labeled as YA but I think in general it as best suited to an older reader but I can see great value in this novel for teens of any age who have a mentally ill sibling. Without Tess is a compelling read that examines a difficult subject in a sensitive yet honest manner.
Alternating between the present and the past we learn of fifteen year old Lizzie's overwhelming guilt and grief over her lost childhood relationship with her sister, Tess. At ten Lizzie idolises her older sister, Tess is bold and imaginative and their play is characterised by make-believe. As the sister's story unravels it becomes obvious to the reader that Tess is mentally ill especially as their innocent play becomes something dark and sinister. Eager to please her eleven year old sister, Lizzie lets herself be drawn into Tess's games but is never sure if Tess is only pretending or really believes her wild fantasies. The tension builds as Lizzie's confusion grows and Tess's behaviour becomes more outlandish.
I thought Pixely captured Lizzie's struggle with her sister's behaviour realistically. She is on the cusp of maturity where a child still longs for magic even though they know it doesn't really exist. The emotional and intellectual conflict for Lizzie is intense and as a child she is torn by her loyalty to Tess and her growing awareness of what is accepted behaviour. I didn't find it all surprising that at fifteen Lizzie was still unable to reconcile her feelings about her late sister, particularly when the issue of her Tess's illness was ignored at home both before and after her death.
Tess is revealed through Lizzie's memories and the legacy she left in the form of a journal. The author skilfully and cleverly reveals how Tess's imagination slides inexorably into delusion. The reader is aware before Lizzie is that there is something wrong with Tess. I watched a documentary on childhood psychosis not too long ago and I feel the author really captured the eerie demeanor and thought processes of a mentally ill child. I sympathised with Tess, a mere child dealing with psychosis that probably frightened her almost as much as Lizzie, but I was simultaneously creeped out by her.
The first person point of view gives is a sometimes odd mix of childish naivety and maturity but the language of Without Tess is lyrical. Tess's poetry from her journal precedes each chapter, with each piece more disturbing, adding to the atmosphere of the novel. The pacing is perfect, building slowly to the tragic conclusion without ever losing tension.
Without Tess is labeled as YA but I think in general it as best suited to an older reader but I can see great value in this novel for teens of any age who have a mentally ill sibling. Without Tess is a compelling read that examines a difficult subject in a sensitive yet honest manner.
perfect_escape's review
5.0
Beautiful, beautiful book. It touches on mental illness and the negative affects it can leave on someone. But it also is about letting go of the one who mattered most; it's about moving on after the death of a loved one. Without Tess is one of my favorite books and it's a really easy read. I read it in two or three days.
heykellyjensen's review
3.0
This was a middle of the road novel. I feel like it tackled a lot of things and tread a lot of territory that IMAGINARY GIRLS did, but it did so with less beauty in the writing and less of the mystery and intrigue.
I was hand sold this novel at ALA, and while it was enjoyable, I think it might ultimately be kind of forgettable for me.
Full review here: http://www.stackedbooks.org/2011/09/without-tess-by-marcella-pixley.html
I was hand sold this novel at ALA, and while it was enjoyable, I think it might ultimately be kind of forgettable for me.
Full review here: http://www.stackedbooks.org/2011/09/without-tess-by-marcella-pixley.html
annakat's review against another edition
challenging
dark
Content Warnings
Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Child death, Eating disorder, and Toxic relationship
csquared85's review against another edition
3.0
A solid 3.5, but Goodreads doesn't allow half stars.
My thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC.
I had conflicted feelings about Without Tess.
Author Marcella Pixley skillfully reveals how Tess and Liz's innocent childhood games and play-acting can turn sinister very quickly, and the horror is very real. Tess's cruelty is almost guileless at times, making it even more terrifying. The girls' invented game of Crab Carcass Bingo is gross and macabre, but not unrealistic. While Tess's darkly vivid imagination and desperate belief in magic are strange and she becomes a kind of de facto antagonist, Pixley is able to make her worthy of sympathy though she is not at all sympathetic. The reader realizes just how dangerous Tess is long before young Liz does, creating interesting narrative tension. Liz loves her sister deeply, despite the constant hurts Tess inflicts upon her, but she also resents her destructive behaviors and jealousy. The dynamic between the sisters is suitably complex.
As if the subject of mental illness weren't enough to handle, Pixley also tries to tackle religious confusion. Liz's family is Jewish, but not particularly religious, while her neighbor Isabella is a devout Catholic. While Isabella uses her religion to solve her problems and encourages Liz to turn to Jesus, Liz has difficulty trusting in her faith. Scenes of Isabella and Liz taking Communion are juxtaposed with Tess taking her medication, and both sisters reject their respective symbols; the body of Christ and Tess's pills cannot serve as a panacea for the girls' respective problems. While this particular comparison is interesting, the religious subplot in its entirety seems superfluous, especially since I didn't feel it was completely resolved.
What I didn't particularly like were the girls' voices. They just didn't sound like children to me. Tess and Liz are 11 and 10 respectively for much of the story's action, and some of their conversations (and Tess's poetry especially) were way too mature. There's a certain childishness in the scenes with Isabella and Liz that is sorely lacking in those between the sisters. I suppose that may have to do with the fact that this is a YA novel that is about 75% flashback to the sisters' elementary years. Its mature subject matter demands a more mature audience, but most of the action occurs while the girls are still immature. Their behavior certainly reflects this, but not their conversations.
Tess's poetry is utterly unbelievable, and while several characters refer to them as childlike and magical, they really aren't.
For example, "Queen of Toads": Ghosts of toads still haunt my dreams / Scratch my cheeks with desperate nails / Leather lips still jeer and scream / And mouths drip blood on muddy trails. Interesting poem, but not one I would describe as "childlike" or "magical", and just not believably penned by an 11-year-old. The poems are used as a framework for the narrative, and while they intrigue me, they don't entirely work because they don't feel age appropriate. I just cannot buy that these poems are Tess's voice.
Tess and Liz's parents seemed like good people that actively parented while still allowing their children certain freedoms, which makes it difficult to understand why they didn't notice that Tess's disordered eating was a part of a larger problem. Tess is never depicted as acting any differently around her parents than she does with Liz, so I didn't think she was being duplicitous or manipulative, but somebody, somewhere down the line should have picked up on some behavior problems. Issues like Tess's would never go unnoticed by schoolteachers. It didn't make sense to me.
I found teenage Liz rather unlikable, and while I don't need to love my protagonists to enjoy their stories, it really didn't help when compounded with the other problems mentioned above. She's bitter, jaded, and utterly passive - not a fun character to inhabit.
The writing is solid, but it's difficult to enjoy a story like this, and I didn't feel as moved as I wanted to be. The resolution satisfied me, but didn't resonate as strongly as it could have if I believed more in these characters, or if I liked Liz more.
My thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC.
I had conflicted feelings about Without Tess.
Author Marcella Pixley skillfully reveals how Tess and Liz's innocent childhood games and play-acting can turn sinister very quickly, and the horror is very real. Tess's cruelty is almost guileless at times, making it even more terrifying. The girls' invented game of Crab Carcass Bingo is gross and macabre, but not unrealistic. While Tess's darkly vivid imagination and desperate belief in magic are strange and she becomes a kind of de facto antagonist, Pixley is able to make her worthy of sympathy though she is not at all sympathetic. The reader realizes just how dangerous Tess is long before young Liz does, creating interesting narrative tension. Liz loves her sister deeply, despite the constant hurts Tess inflicts upon her, but she also resents her destructive behaviors and jealousy. The dynamic between the sisters is suitably complex.
As if the subject of mental illness weren't enough to handle, Pixley also tries to tackle religious confusion. Liz's family is Jewish, but not particularly religious, while her neighbor Isabella is a devout Catholic. While Isabella uses her religion to solve her problems and encourages Liz to turn to Jesus, Liz has difficulty trusting in her faith. Scenes of Isabella and Liz taking Communion are juxtaposed with Tess taking her medication, and both sisters reject their respective symbols; the body of Christ and Tess's pills cannot serve as a panacea for the girls' respective problems. While this particular comparison is interesting, the religious subplot in its entirety seems superfluous, especially since I didn't feel it was completely resolved.
What I didn't particularly like were the girls' voices. They just didn't sound like children to me. Tess and Liz are 11 and 10 respectively for much of the story's action, and some of their conversations (and Tess's poetry especially) were way too mature. There's a certain childishness in the scenes with Isabella and Liz that is sorely lacking in those between the sisters. I suppose that may have to do with the fact that this is a YA novel that is about 75% flashback to the sisters' elementary years. Its mature subject matter demands a more mature audience, but most of the action occurs while the girls are still immature. Their behavior certainly reflects this, but not their conversations.
Tess's poetry is utterly unbelievable, and while several characters refer to them as childlike and magical, they really aren't.
For example, "Queen of Toads": Ghosts of toads still haunt my dreams / Scratch my cheeks with desperate nails / Leather lips still jeer and scream / And mouths drip blood on muddy trails. Interesting poem, but not one I would describe as "childlike" or "magical", and just not believably penned by an 11-year-old. The poems are used as a framework for the narrative, and while they intrigue me, they don't entirely work because they don't feel age appropriate. I just cannot buy that these poems are Tess's voice.
Tess and Liz's parents seemed like good people that actively parented while still allowing their children certain freedoms, which makes it difficult to understand why they didn't notice that Tess's disordered eating was a part of a larger problem. Tess is never depicted as acting any differently around her parents than she does with Liz, so I didn't think she was being duplicitous or manipulative, but somebody, somewhere down the line should have picked up on some behavior problems. Issues like Tess's would never go unnoticed by schoolteachers. It didn't make sense to me.
I found teenage Liz rather unlikable, and while I don't need to love my protagonists to enjoy their stories, it really didn't help when compounded with the other problems mentioned above. She's bitter, jaded, and utterly passive - not a fun character to inhabit.
The writing is solid, but it's difficult to enjoy a story like this, and I didn't feel as moved as I wanted to be. The resolution satisfied me, but didn't resonate as strongly as it could have if I believed more in these characters, or if I liked Liz more.
chloesumner1317's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this book because I loved reading about Tess, who is, without a doubt in my mind psychologically disturbed. She doesn't eat, she's convinced Merlin is real, and rather confusingly turns into a wolf. In my opinion psychologically imbalanced characters are often written really well, which makes them exciting to read, so that's why I tend to gravitate towards books which feature them. Also TV shows and movies-prime examples are Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender and Nina from Black Swan, both are extremely excellent things you should watch!
Back to my review, I actually didn't really care for the part of the story without Tess (ha, ha pun). I was really interested in learning about how she died, and Lizzie was a really great voice but I just didn't connect to her in some ways. I also thought the bit with Niccolo was just too cliche. I, however, loved the scenes with her therapist, he was awesome.
The inclusion of a lot of poetry in this book made it better, in my opinion. There are poems by both famous writers and Tess, and so it was interesting to see the contrast between the two. The Tess poetry was actually quite good, and you could definitely hear Tess' voice.
Religion was a really heavy theme throughout the novel. Lizzie is Jewish, but her friend Isabella and Niccolo are both Catholic, and so the difference in holidays, beliefs, and prayer rituals are all explored. I actually thought it was quite eye-opening. I've never sat down and compared Jewish and Catholic ideologies, so I really enjoyed reading the disagreements.
I actually kind of guessed what was going to happen to Tess a while before the end of the book, but that didn't make it any less shocking, or resonant.
I couldn't quite understand where geographically this book was taking place. Maybe I just didn't see the name of a city or something, but I felt lost trying to place it in my mind.
Also, the cover would have benefited from a different font, and less text over the lily. In my opinion, anyway.
Back to my review, I actually didn't really care for the part of the story without Tess (ha, ha pun). I was really interested in learning about how she died, and Lizzie was a really great voice but I just didn't connect to her in some ways. I also thought the bit with Niccolo was just too cliche. I, however, loved the scenes with her therapist, he was awesome.
The inclusion of a lot of poetry in this book made it better, in my opinion. There are poems by both famous writers and Tess, and so it was interesting to see the contrast between the two. The Tess poetry was actually quite good, and you could definitely hear Tess' voice.
Religion was a really heavy theme throughout the novel. Lizzie is Jewish, but her friend Isabella and Niccolo are both Catholic, and so the difference in holidays, beliefs, and prayer rituals are all explored. I actually thought it was quite eye-opening. I've never sat down and compared Jewish and Catholic ideologies, so I really enjoyed reading the disagreements.
I actually kind of guessed what was going to happen to Tess a while before the end of the book, but that didn't make it any less shocking, or resonant.
I couldn't quite understand where geographically this book was taking place. Maybe I just didn't see the name of a city or something, but I felt lost trying to place it in my mind.
Also, the cover would have benefited from a different font, and less text over the lily. In my opinion, anyway.