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A review by chloesumner1317
Without Tess by Marcella Pixley
4.0
I really enjoyed this book because I loved reading about Tess, who is, without a doubt in my mind psychologically disturbed. She doesn't eat, she's convinced Merlin is real, and rather confusingly turns into a wolf. In my opinion psychologically imbalanced characters are often written really well, which makes them exciting to read, so that's why I tend to gravitate towards books which feature them. Also TV shows and movies-prime examples are Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender and Nina from Black Swan, both are extremely excellent things you should watch!
Back to my review, I actually didn't really care for the part of the story without Tess (ha, ha pun). I was really interested in learning about how she died, and Lizzie was a really great voice but I just didn't connect to her in some ways. I also thought the bit with Niccolo was just too cliche. I, however, loved the scenes with her therapist, he was awesome.
The inclusion of a lot of poetry in this book made it better, in my opinion. There are poems by both famous writers and Tess, and so it was interesting to see the contrast between the two. The Tess poetry was actually quite good, and you could definitely hear Tess' voice.
Religion was a really heavy theme throughout the novel. Lizzie is Jewish, but her friend Isabella and Niccolo are both Catholic, and so the difference in holidays, beliefs, and prayer rituals are all explored. I actually thought it was quite eye-opening. I've never sat down and compared Jewish and Catholic ideologies, so I really enjoyed reading the disagreements.
I actually kind of guessed what was going to happen to Tess a while before the end of the book, but that didn't make it any less shocking, or resonant.
I couldn't quite understand where geographically this book was taking place. Maybe I just didn't see the name of a city or something, but I felt lost trying to place it in my mind.
Also, the cover would have benefited from a different font, and less text over the lily. In my opinion, anyway.
Back to my review, I actually didn't really care for the part of the story without Tess (ha, ha pun). I was really interested in learning about how she died, and Lizzie was a really great voice but I just didn't connect to her in some ways. I also thought the bit with Niccolo was just too cliche. I, however, loved the scenes with her therapist, he was awesome.
The inclusion of a lot of poetry in this book made it better, in my opinion. There are poems by both famous writers and Tess, and so it was interesting to see the contrast between the two. The Tess poetry was actually quite good, and you could definitely hear Tess' voice.
Religion was a really heavy theme throughout the novel. Lizzie is Jewish, but her friend Isabella and Niccolo are both Catholic, and so the difference in holidays, beliefs, and prayer rituals are all explored. I actually thought it was quite eye-opening. I've never sat down and compared Jewish and Catholic ideologies, so I really enjoyed reading the disagreements.
I actually kind of guessed what was going to happen to Tess a while before the end of the book, but that didn't make it any less shocking, or resonant.
I couldn't quite understand where geographically this book was taking place. Maybe I just didn't see the name of a city or something, but I felt lost trying to place it in my mind.
Also, the cover would have benefited from a different font, and less text over the lily. In my opinion, anyway.