Reviews with content warning for Medical content - Tress of the Emerald Sea

This cozy, quirky, clever fantasy lives up to its inspiration—what if in The Princess Bride, Buttercup was the one who went after Westley? In the course of attempting to save her noble true love from the evil Sorceress, a window washer runs away from home, dares life and death at sea, joins a dangerous crew, and unlearns a whole lot about people pleasing, taking charge, and accepting help. A delightful, surprising, heartwarming adventure of a book I’d recommend for fans of Ella Enchanted and Our Flag Means Death!

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kylaeduff's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

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zoeelora's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted 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

4.0

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tinyelfarcanist's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted 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? No

5.0

An outstanding start for The Year of Sanderson.

Tress is one of the most sensible heroines you'll find in YA. She seeks help, talks openly with her parents, and admits when she's scared. She also goes on a suicidal mission for the man she loves, but that's love for you.

This book features beautiful relationships (romantic or otherwise), tons of adventure, and FEELINGS. Even deaths that should have been insubstantial pack a punch. Also, as expected from Sanderson's fantasy novels, a fascinating and innovative magic system. You may need to have read other of his books (The Way of Kings, Elantris) to appreciate it fully.

I LOVED the fairytale vibes. It's no coincidence that it was inspired by one of my favourite books of all time: The Princess Bride. This book has some of the most beautiful prose I've ever read. It's funny, it's witty, and full of insightful lessons. I kept highlighting passage after passage. I hope Sanderson keeps exploring this narrator.

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kaziaroo's review against another edition

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adventurous funny inspiring lighthearted mysterious 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? No

4.25

I've only read Brandon Sanderson's early works (Elantris, Mistborn era 1 and Warbreaker), so I wasn't sure what to expect – but it was actually great. You could definitely tell he had fun writing this, and the inspiration from William Golding and Terry Pratchett was obvious from the start. Unfortunately I'm not a huge fan of comedic books and did find the whimsical narrative style tiring after a while, but I still enjoyed it on the whole.

As expected of Brandon Sanderson, the magic system was fascinating and complex, and the world was interesting. I liked the characters, although I found that again the narration style and identity of the narrator were a barrier to me actually connecting with them emotionally. The book doesn't really have any quiet moments where you see the characters just being themselves and bonding together – everything happens in action with the purpose of either revealing the world and/or furthering the plot. While I love Brandon Sanderson's complex magic systems and clever plots and mysteries, I miss the intricate characters and deep introspection from authors such as Robin Hobb and Samantha Shannon.

One area where Sanderson has definitely improved, is his sensitivity and approach to minorities and their representation. I really respect him for listening to his audience. Until this one, all of his books I'd read were dominated by men, even when the main character was a woman, and somehow the only significant female character(s) always ended up outnumbered by a group of older men influencing and guiding her. Pairing this with the incessant use of male pronouns when referring to abstract concepts (e.g. the men of the city are in danger, a wise man never leaves his sword behind, etc (not direct quotes, just examples – seriously, what's wrong with "people" or "they/them"?)), and his problematic portrayal of an autistic-coded character in Elantris, I didn't have a high opinion of Brandon Sanderson's ability to write about characters who weren't straight, white, middle-aged, non-disabled, clever, men. But Tress of the Emerald Sea showed a lot of improvement and promise in this area, and I was very glad to see that he hired a sensitivity reader for a deaf character.

In summary, I liked this book and it's made me much more interested in exploring the Cosmere and looking forward to the author's future works.

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