A review by csquared85
Without Tess by Marcella Pixley
3.0
A solid 3.5, but Goodreads doesn't allow half stars.
My thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC.
I had conflicted feelings about Without Tess.
Author Marcella Pixley skillfully reveals how Tess and Liz's innocent childhood games and play-acting can turn sinister very quickly, and the horror is very real. Tess's cruelty is almost guileless at times, making it even more terrifying. The girls' invented game of Crab Carcass Bingo is gross and macabre, but not unrealistic. While Tess's darkly vivid imagination and desperate belief in magic are strange and she becomes a kind of de facto antagonist, Pixley is able to make her worthy of sympathy though she is not at all sympathetic. The reader realizes just how dangerous Tess is long before young Liz does, creating interesting narrative tension. Liz loves her sister deeply, despite the constant hurts Tess inflicts upon her, but she also resents her destructive behaviors and jealousy. The dynamic between the sisters is suitably complex.
As if the subject of mental illness weren't enough to handle, Pixley also tries to tackle religious confusion. Liz's family is Jewish, but not particularly religious, while her neighbor Isabella is a devout Catholic. While Isabella uses her religion to solve her problems and encourages Liz to turn to Jesus, Liz has difficulty trusting in her faith. Scenes of Isabella and Liz taking Communion are juxtaposed with Tess taking her medication, and both sisters reject their respective symbols; the body of Christ and Tess's pills cannot serve as a panacea for the girls' respective problems. While this particular comparison is interesting, the religious subplot in its entirety seems superfluous, especially since I didn't feel it was completely resolved.
What I didn't particularly like were the girls' voices. They just didn't sound like children to me. Tess and Liz are 11 and 10 respectively for much of the story's action, and some of their conversations (and Tess's poetry especially) were way too mature. There's a certain childishness in the scenes with Isabella and Liz that is sorely lacking in those between the sisters. I suppose that may have to do with the fact that this is a YA novel that is about 75% flashback to the sisters' elementary years. Its mature subject matter demands a more mature audience, but most of the action occurs while the girls are still immature. Their behavior certainly reflects this, but not their conversations.
Tess's poetry is utterly unbelievable, and while several characters refer to them as childlike and magical, they really aren't.
For example, "Queen of Toads": Ghosts of toads still haunt my dreams / Scratch my cheeks with desperate nails / Leather lips still jeer and scream / And mouths drip blood on muddy trails. Interesting poem, but not one I would describe as "childlike" or "magical", and just not believably penned by an 11-year-old. The poems are used as a framework for the narrative, and while they intrigue me, they don't entirely work because they don't feel age appropriate. I just cannot buy that these poems are Tess's voice.
Tess and Liz's parents seemed like good people that actively parented while still allowing their children certain freedoms, which makes it difficult to understand why they didn't notice that Tess's disordered eating was a part of a larger problem. Tess is never depicted as acting any differently around her parents than she does with Liz, so I didn't think she was being duplicitous or manipulative, but somebody, somewhere down the line should have picked up on some behavior problems. Issues like Tess's would never go unnoticed by schoolteachers. It didn't make sense to me.
I found teenage Liz rather unlikable, and while I don't need to love my protagonists to enjoy their stories, it really didn't help when compounded with the other problems mentioned above. She's bitter, jaded, and utterly passive - not a fun character to inhabit.
The writing is solid, but it's difficult to enjoy a story like this, and I didn't feel as moved as I wanted to be. The resolution satisfied me, but didn't resonate as strongly as it could have if I believed more in these characters, or if I liked Liz more.
My thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC.
I had conflicted feelings about Without Tess.
Author Marcella Pixley skillfully reveals how Tess and Liz's innocent childhood games and play-acting can turn sinister very quickly, and the horror is very real. Tess's cruelty is almost guileless at times, making it even more terrifying. The girls' invented game of Crab Carcass Bingo is gross and macabre, but not unrealistic. While Tess's darkly vivid imagination and desperate belief in magic are strange and she becomes a kind of de facto antagonist, Pixley is able to make her worthy of sympathy though she is not at all sympathetic. The reader realizes just how dangerous Tess is long before young Liz does, creating interesting narrative tension. Liz loves her sister deeply, despite the constant hurts Tess inflicts upon her, but she also resents her destructive behaviors and jealousy. The dynamic between the sisters is suitably complex.
As if the subject of mental illness weren't enough to handle, Pixley also tries to tackle religious confusion. Liz's family is Jewish, but not particularly religious, while her neighbor Isabella is a devout Catholic. While Isabella uses her religion to solve her problems and encourages Liz to turn to Jesus, Liz has difficulty trusting in her faith. Scenes of Isabella and Liz taking Communion are juxtaposed with Tess taking her medication, and both sisters reject their respective symbols; the body of Christ and Tess's pills cannot serve as a panacea for the girls' respective problems. While this particular comparison is interesting, the religious subplot in its entirety seems superfluous, especially since I didn't feel it was completely resolved.
What I didn't particularly like were the girls' voices. They just didn't sound like children to me. Tess and Liz are 11 and 10 respectively for much of the story's action, and some of their conversations (and Tess's poetry especially) were way too mature. There's a certain childishness in the scenes with Isabella and Liz that is sorely lacking in those between the sisters. I suppose that may have to do with the fact that this is a YA novel that is about 75% flashback to the sisters' elementary years. Its mature subject matter demands a more mature audience, but most of the action occurs while the girls are still immature. Their behavior certainly reflects this, but not their conversations.
Tess's poetry is utterly unbelievable, and while several characters refer to them as childlike and magical, they really aren't.
For example, "Queen of Toads": Ghosts of toads still haunt my dreams / Scratch my cheeks with desperate nails / Leather lips still jeer and scream / And mouths drip blood on muddy trails. Interesting poem, but not one I would describe as "childlike" or "magical", and just not believably penned by an 11-year-old. The poems are used as a framework for the narrative, and while they intrigue me, they don't entirely work because they don't feel age appropriate. I just cannot buy that these poems are Tess's voice.
Tess and Liz's parents seemed like good people that actively parented while still allowing their children certain freedoms, which makes it difficult to understand why they didn't notice that Tess's disordered eating was a part of a larger problem. Tess is never depicted as acting any differently around her parents than she does with Liz, so I didn't think she was being duplicitous or manipulative, but somebody, somewhere down the line should have picked up on some behavior problems. Issues like Tess's would never go unnoticed by schoolteachers. It didn't make sense to me.
I found teenage Liz rather unlikable, and while I don't need to love my protagonists to enjoy their stories, it really didn't help when compounded with the other problems mentioned above. She's bitter, jaded, and utterly passive - not a fun character to inhabit.
The writing is solid, but it's difficult to enjoy a story like this, and I didn't feel as moved as I wanted to be. The resolution satisfied me, but didn't resonate as strongly as it could have if I believed more in these characters, or if I liked Liz more.