Monday, October 24, 2011

Review: Without Tess by Marcella Pixley

Book: Without Tess by Marcella Pixley
Pages: 224 Pages
Release Date: October 11, 2011
Publisher: FSG
Source: Publisher
Synopsis:  Tess and Lizzie are sisters, sisters as close as can be, who share a secret world filled with selkies, flying horses, and a girl who can transform into a wolf  in the middle of the night. But when Lizzie is ready to grow up, Tess clings to their fantasies. As Tess sinks deeper and deeper into her delusions, she decides that she can’t live in the real world any longer and leaves Lizzie and her family forever. Now, years later, Lizzie is in high school and struggling to understand what happened to her sister. With the help of a school psychologist and Tess’s battered journal, Lizzie searches for a way to finally let Tess go.
My Thoughts:
Without Tess was a magnificent, sad story about a teen girl Lizzie who's sister, Tess, had a mental illness and couldn't get better. 

Lizzie was definitely a strong main character. I liked hearing what she actually thought about Tess and how sometimes when she was still alive, Lizzie wanted Tess to be dead. This book wasn't some sappy sugarcoated lie, it was real, deep, and actually meant something. 

The chapters would skip from flashbacks to present time and my favorites were the flashbacks. Those chapters would include Tess and Lizzie with Tess sinking deeper into her fantasy. It was really sad because I'm an older sister and I couldn't imagine me trying to get my sister to believe in delusions Tess believed in.

Without Tess has great writing and it isn't just about mental illness, it's had religion in it and it's also about friendship and learning to let go. I really liked this book.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are like bananas:) yum yum yum