Uroosa Arshad Arshad থেকে Hathimara, Jharkhand 816106, India থেকে Hathimara, Jharkhand 816106, India

Yaaaawn। হার মানা.

By far the most notable thing about Without Tess is the gorgeous prose. Marcella Pixley’s writing is lilting and lyrical and lovely. It was perfect for a story about a dreamy girl who lives in a world full of fairies and flying horses. Pixley gives the novel a dreamy feeling, but darkness almost always edges in, leaving the reader unsure of whether Without Tess is a pleasant dream or a nightmare. Much of this darkness comes from Tess, the titular character. Tess is quirky and filled to the brim with imagination, but she’s also psychotic and reckless. Tess’s world of delusions is vivid and terrifying, and though her Pixley lets us glimpse into the mind of someone truly insane. Through flashbacks we get to see Tess sink further and further into her imaginary world, and while it’s a bit horrifying, it’s also fascinating and very absorbing. You can’t help but read on, wondering about Tess’s ultimate demise. Another enjoyable thing about Without Tess is the poetry sprinkled throughout. The poetry is truly beautiful, and it’s whimsicality really helped portray what kind of child Tess was. The way the poems lead up to a flashback, too, was very well done, and I liked trying to compare Tess’s perspective (the poems) and Lizzie’s (the narrative). Lizzie’s narration has two sides—there are the flashbacks, where she’s a naïve child who looks up to her sister, and there is the present, where Lizzie tries to explain to her therapist why she won’t let Tess go. I personally enjoyed Young Lizzie’s narration the best—her innocence provides an interesting perspective, and because of her youth, everything is candid; there is no unreliable narrator. I found Lizzie’s current predicament to pale in comparison to her experiences with Tess; perhaps shedding light on why she refuses to forget her sister. Still, the interactions between Lizzie and her therapist were fun, and I enjoyed the ongoing gag about Lizzie using Tess’s poetry to pass her creative writing class. Without Tess is another rare YA story that could be considered magically realistic. There are elements of fantasy—so fans of make-believe will enjoy those parts—but there are also contemporary and psychological themes that ground the book in reality. Because of this, Without Tess will appeal to all YA readers—young and old. I definitely enjoyed reading about Tess and Lizzie; their adventures were fun and occasionally scary, and their tie to each other was otherworldly.