Tess of the Road
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
.jpg) Cover of first edition | |
| Author | Rachel Hartman |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Simon Prades |
| Genre | Young adult fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Random House |
Publication date | February 27, 2018 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and electronic book) and audio-CD |
| Pages | 520 |
| ISBN | 1101931280 |
Tess of the Road is a 2018 fantasy novel by Rachel Hartman. A companion novel to Hartman's previous books Seraphina and Shadow Scale, the novel follows the story of Tess Dombegh, a younger sister of Seraphina. While some characters from the previous novels make appearances in the book, Tess of the Road is not a direct sequel to those novels, but is the start of a new duology. It was published by Random House on February 27, 2018. Tess of the Road was nominated for the 2018 Andre Norton Award and the 2018 Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book. The sequel, In the Serpent's Wake, was published in 2022.
The main character of the story Tess of the Road is Tess Dombegh. Tess is the younger sibling of Seraphina, the main character of the previous books by Rachel Hartman, along with her twin sister, Jeanne. She is (supposedly) the younger twin, and thus her role in life is to help her sister find a good husband and live a proper life. Tess is often the scapegoat of the family, and her mother often blames her for everything that goes wrong. Tess helped her sister arrange to marry Lord Richard Pfanzlig, and her sister invited her to stay with her as a nursemaid. The brother of Lord Richard, Brother Jacomo, hates Tess for reasons unbeknownst to her in the beginning, although it becomes clear that he hates her because he is a follower of St. Vitt, who damns premarital sex, and Tess had a bastard son. Tess's mother is also a follower of St. Vitt, and that is the reason she hates Tess so much. During Jeanne's wedding night, Tess got drunk and punched Brother Jacomo in the nose. She then was sent to live with Seraphina for a few days while they decided what to do with her. It is revealed at this time that Seraphina was pregnant. Seraphina hints that Tess should run away instead of joining the convent of St. Loola, which is what her mother wanted. Tess reluctantly runs away, and runs into her old friend Pathka. Pathka is a quigutl. He was a female quigutl when Tess first met him, but he changed his sex as he could likely no longer bear eggs. It is revealed that Tess saved his life, because when he was laying his egg, it got stuck, and she pulled it out. She then taught herself the quigutl language, Quootla, and became friends with Pathka. Tess decides to pose as a man to be afforded more freedom during her journey, and adopts Jacomo's name as a way to gain favor with people. She walks with Pathka, and they try to find a world serpent, which are deities that the quigutl worship. They make many stops along the way to Anathuthia, one of the world serpents. She faces trials both inner and outer, and makes many friends. In the end, her newfound philosophy of "just keeps walking" allows her the peace to move on from her trauma.