A review by ellie_gard_1998
Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

"Tehanu" is the most complex Earthsea novel by far, and the most challenging. It is slow and sad and approaches, with the ever deft hand of its author, topics of abuse, powerlessness, and trauma. It sweeps a world of wizardry and magic and dragons to the side and says: that's all fine and good, but look at the women. Look at the children. Look at the magic-less, the classical "unheroes," as Le Guin puts it in her enlightening afterword.

I want to read this book again and again in every decade of my life. Especially when I'm fifty. Tenar, you'll be my favorite always.