Reviews with content warning for Rape - Tehanu

got much darker than i expected but so good - i loved getting to see how tenar has changed as a character and in her relationship with ged although i won’t lie i really didn’t like that it became romantic/sexual :( i’m a little stuck on the fact that they met when she was 15 and he was an adult and even that aside i always liked their weird platonic/familial/mentoring combination bond. that’s my singular gripe with this book so good otherwise the characters conveyed the themes so well the writing was beautiful as always

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sun_reads's review against another edition

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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

you really REALLY need to read le guin's "afterword" for this one. initially, i was disappointed in this book - it is not a flashy, magical adventure like the first 3 books. quite the opposite: this book takes place in mostly domestic settings and revolves around ordinary life and problems. the main characters, Tenar and Therru, are an old widow and a child, rather than the great mages, dragons, and other mystical beings we met in prior books. i thought there were interesting (if not obscure) mediations on gender and power, but that overall the book was quite slow and i wasn't sure what purpose it served in the Earthsea cycle.

having finished the book AND supplementing it with the afterword, this is probably one of my favorite books in the series (so far). how often do authors have the courage to directly question and challenge their previous works (especially ones that made them famous in the first place)? how often do fantasy series take the time to slow down and seriously weigh the perspectives of those who are least powerful and inconsequential in their worlds? this book felt incredibly courageous, honest, and vulnerable in a way that deeply touched me. this is the kind of genius that only the greatest artists can achieve. this is a demonstration of a patient, consistent growth, discipline, and inner reflection that i'm so so happy le guin chose to share with us. this book is a unique gem that transcends the fantasy genre entirely. give this one a chance!! sit with it. take your time. read le guin's reflections on it. it's well worth it, i promise!!

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conspystery's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing 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? Yes

5.0

This book was so good, I wrote a final paper on it completely unprompted. Tehanu is definitely one of my favorites in the Earthsea series, and maybe out of all books.

I love how Le Guin presents and examines identity in Earthsea, and Tehanu makes that its central concern. In a world where power, gender, and identity are so closely entwined, the distinctions between them and their lived impacts on people permeate through every layer of society-- social biases, especially sexist ones, root themselves in the minds of even the most well-meaning people. Tenar is a wonderful character through whom to explore these themes. Even though she herself is intimately familiar with the variance of identity (as the text reminds us, quite cleverly, by switching between the names Goha and Ar-ha and Tenar), she still internalizes biases against women and projects them onto those around her. Ged does much the same in this novel. Tehanu is Tenar’s journey to deconstructing those biases and embracing her identities as a woman.

How Le Guin communicates that journey, through a slow-paced narrative with an often cleverly quotidian yet hunted tone, is phenomenal. For me, this was the most immersive book of Earthsea because of Tenar’s inner monologue (and the moments where it breaks from that were all the more interesting for it.) The plot felt grounded in the reality of its world, whereas previous books like A Wizard of Earthsea felt to me more like a recounting of an epic. Which is also amazing! One of my favorite things about the first book is how much it feels like an epic legend, and the same holds up for The Farthest Shore and even The Tombs of Atuan, to an extent. But Tehanu feels different, in an equally amazing way.

I annotated this book while reading it for recurring images, and what I found was extremely satisfying: there are a lot of opposite motifs, like heat and cold, fire and water, light and dark. I absolutely loved the emphasis on these opposites. The Tombs of Atuan obviously had a lot of light and dark imagery (Ged’s speech to Tenar about being “made to hold light” is one of my favorite pieces of writing ever), and so seeing it echoed in Tehanu was so fitting for Tenar’s character-- and seeing how it applied to Therru’s character was genuinely fascinating to me.

Therru

Spoiler

herself is a contradiction in Earthsea’s society. She occupies opposing roles. She’s a victim of violent assault, a curious youth, Tenar’s daughter, a force of immense power, born of dragons, a girl: in the power structure of Earthsea’s society, these things cannot be true at once. She opposes herself, breaks the rules, forces the people around her to confront the dissonance in their worldviews… just like the repeated opposing images. When she’s given her true name at the end, Tehanu, Tenar realizes the coalescence of her daughter’s identity, finally understanding that she is multifaceted rather than contradictory. And so is every woman, and man, and person, and dragon in Earthsea.

It’s a powerful, meaningful sentiment, and Le Guin communicates it much more beautifully than I just did. Please read this book.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again: Le Guin is unparalleled. Tehanu is phenomenal, almost mythological in its implications, and I truly think it’s one of the best in the series. I love it.

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friend_of_sappho's review against another edition

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emotional reflective relaxing slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I love that Le Guin took the time to tell a story from the common folks with common problems. Also the way trauma is talked about is absolutely incredible in the way it effects the characters in their lives.

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