"Such was the contrarian nature of Tess--especially against Seraphina--that she would have tossed out ten babies and drunk their bathwater rather than take a hint. She would have cut off someone else's nose and swapped it with her own, the better to spite everybody's face. She would have walked twenty miles backward through a snow storm for a bowl of bitterness if there were a proverb about that--and maybe even more so if there wasn't. The proverbs were going to have to keep up with Tess. She outstripped them at every turn." ~ p. 84
"Even though she knew, or thought she knew, that the little quigutl was humoring her, Tess clasped a hand to her heart (she felt it beating even through Florian's jacket) and wished with all her might. Not for the classical piratical standbys--vengeance, fame, or fortune--but that she might shed the past like a skin and walk on with nothing, empty and new. The breeze tickled her newly shorn scalp, as if in answer. It seemed a good sign. She would walk on one more day." ~ p. 152
Synopsis:
Tess of the Road picks up a few years after the events of Shadow and Scale. It is set in the familiar world of Seraphina--with dragons who can take human form and the quigutl (a subspecies of the great dragons that have hands instead of wings). Our intrepid heroine is Tess Dombegh, the younger half sister of Seraphina, who has a cameo role in the novel. Tess's story is very different from Seraphina's. Tess is troubled, prickly, and refuses nearly all of Seraphina's attempts to help her. She may be very young, but she has already lived through quite a lot. Her backstory unfolds slowly throughout the novel, though it's clear from the beginning that she is viewed as "ruined" or a fallen woman by her family, especially her mother. Finally, with the help of a new pair of boots from Seraphina, Tess does exactly what she needs to do--run away from home. She is joined by her childhood friend, a quigutl, Pathka, and together they set off to find one of the World Serpents--part of quigutl storytelling and mysticism, but Tess believes in Pathka and his dreams of the giant serpent. On the road, Tess will find more than giant serpents. She will find pain and hunger, embarrassment, but also kindness and understanding, until she will eventually find her calling and herself.
My Two Cents:
This book features some heavy subject matter (not that Seraphina or Shadow Scale did not, but Tess much more so than the other two). You can tell right away that Tess is someone who has known great loss--and eventually her story is told. I appreciated the slow revelation of Tess's devastation, her out of wedlock, teenage pregnancy, the loss of her baby, and her realization that she is strong enough to keep moving no matter what has happened to her or what she has done in the past. One thing I could not get off my mind while reading this book was the connection to another Tess--Tess of the D'Urbervilles. At first I thought there would be no other connection besides the very tenuous similarity in the title and the application of "fallen woman" to the main character, but more and more similarities popped up as I read on. However, I will say that this is definitely not a straight retelling of Tess of D'Urbervilles. It seemed more like Hartman creating a new Tess to reclaim some of the themes of previous one and setting it in the world of the great dragons, quigutl, and giant serpents. Maybe if Hardy's Tess had had a talking, reptilian, childhood friend and a half-dragon older sister, things would have gone a bit better for her. Also...there was no reiteration of Angel Clare for our Tess of the road. THANK GOODNESS. (Unless you count Brother Jacomo, who is not a love interest, but like Angel skips out on seminary).
All in all, I absolutely loved Tess and her story. Hartman deftly weaves sorrow and loss into a tale of adventure and talking reptiles.
Up next I will be reading The King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo. I can't wait to return to the world of the Grisha! Nikolai was one of the more intriguing side characters of the Grisha trilogy, so it will be interesting to now follow the thread of his own story.
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