devafagan 's review for:

Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman

5.0

---

I usually prefer my fantasy on a grander scale but this character-driven story of smart, damaged, prickly Tess's journey sucked me in as deeply as any of my favorite epic adventures. Hartman's language is gorgeous, with so many touches of humor and beauty. Tess sets off in search of a fabled "World Serpent" but also to escape some fairly wrenching and infuriating emotional abuse from her family (and society). There's a lot of tough stuff here (including sexual violence and persistent misogyny) but it's also a book that made me feel like my heart and mind were stronger for having read it. This is set in the same lush and vivid medieval fantasy (with shapeshifting dragons) world as the authors previous duology, but I don't think you absolutely need to have read them (I have not yet read Shadowscale myself).