Award-winning Rachel Hartman’s newest YA is a tour de force and an exquisite fantasy for the #metoo movement.“Tess of the Road is astonishing and perfect. It’s the most compassionate book I’ve read since George Eliot’s Middlemarch.” –NPRIn the medieval kingdom of Goredd, women are expected to be ladies, men are their protectors, and dragons can be whomever they choose. Tess is none of these … can be whomever they choose. Tess is none of these things. Tess is. . . different. She speaks out of turn, has wild ideas, and can’t seem to keep out of trouble. Then Tess goes too far. What she’s done is so disgraceful, she can’t even allow herself to think of it. Unfortunately, the past cannot be ignored. So Tess’s family decide the only path for her is a nunnery.
But on the day she is to join the nuns, Tess chooses a different path for herself. She cuts her hair, pulls on her boots, and sets out on a journey. She’s not running away, she’s running towards something. What that something is, she doesn’t know. Tess just knows that the open road is a map to somewhere else–a life where she might belong.
Returning to the spellbinding world of the Southlands she created in the award-winning, New York Times bestselling novel Seraphina, Rachel Hartman explores self-reliance and redemption in this wholly original fantasy.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR * BOSTON GLOBE * The Chicago Public Library * KIRKUS REVIEWS
Four starred reviews!
“The world building is gorgeous, the creatures are vivid and Hartman is a masterful storyteller. Pick up this novel, and savor every page.” —Paste Magazine
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I wasn’t going to read this third book in the Seraphina series because it is about Tess, Seraphina’s younger half sister. I am so glad I decided differently! I loved every minute of it! It is just as entertaining and captivating as the first two book.
Synopsis
After a youthful indiscretion, Tess embarks on a journey of self-discovery and acceptance.
My thoughts
Hartman is one of my favorite authors. I absolutely adore her books featuring Seraphina as the protagonist.
Tess doesn’t make for as an easily likable protagonist as Seraphina, but as her backstory is revealed and she matures on her adventures, she becomes progressively more likable and sympathetic. By the end, I was 100% rooting for Tess and anxious to go on more adventures with her.
A pleasant surprise – not at all what I expected, but somehow more wonderful. Not your typical fantasy, YA or otherwise, Tess of the Road (a very loose retelling of Tess of the d’Urbervilles) focuses on the literal and metaphorical journey of a young woman who doesn’t fit in, who is forever too much and at the same time not enough, who has been treated cruelly by those she loves yet takes the blame on herself and the weight of the world on her shoulders. This occasionally meandering tale is her odyssey to reclaim herself, and along the way challenge the societal misogyny and rape culture she (and we) is surrounded by.
I loved Tess in all her stubborn, brave, frustrating glory – so relatable, so multi-dimensional. The cast of supporting characters was good as well, especially the quigatl! Also – the audiobook narrator was FANTASTIC.
I loved this book so much. Tess is a great character. Her trials, and her journey of healing and self-discovery, will resonate with many women.
Here is the thing I was one of the readers whom absolutely loved Seraphina but unfortunately it can’t be said about Tess of the road.
The writing style is really similar to the one that author used in her debut novel and while I enjoyed it there, because it simply worked with Seraphina’s story, I still like it with it terse edge and lush atmosphere, the whole thing just doesn’t fit with this plot. A plot that started out great and promising but quite quickly turned into something boring and dragged out. There are a lot of underlying thing going on behind the actual events but all of this just not enough to keep me engaged. I had a really hard time to keep progress with this story even so I was quite excited for it. For such a long book there are just too little dynamic and driving things happening in it.
I really liked Tess character and not because she is a likeable one but because she is different, completely different from the usual YA characters. She is relentless, curious, has an inquiring mind and stubborn. She is a rebel in her time, acts rashly and sometimes even irrationally but that’s exactly why her character was so attracting to me. Even if usually this kind of personality would annoy me to hell. Her character development didn’t exactly went as I hoped it would go but it still was the only reason I finished the book and didn’t DNF it.
It was a shame really because I generally like the author style but I also think that this world she writes her stories in, is not complex enough to be the set for so many and such long stories. But that’s just my opinion.
Loved seeing the world continue but with a new main character!
Tess, an exuberant, imaginative, intelligent girl, is brought up by a religiously strict mother. What could possibly go wrong? Brow-beatten and out of control, she decides that her new boots (women DO NOT wear such) were made for walking the road on the feet of a boy. She finds unlikely friends and comes to terms with herself. The ending wraps up the tale nicely as well as leaving room for a sequel.
So the beginning of this book is boring and long. It really should not have taken so long for us to start with Tess on the Road. Even when you start on the road with Tess it is hard to like her. By then of the book I have come to like Tess, understand her and admire what she did through the book. It really is amazing what Tess does for being only 16 years old and of course being back in the day and not modern time is even more interesting. You have to get past the first part of this book to get to the better parts.
*Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this for my honest opinion*