Book Review: TEHANU (Earthsea Cycle # 4) by Ursula K. Le Guin

Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"Despair speaks evenly, in a quiet voice."

My God. This book ought to come with a trigger warning! IT IS ABSOLUTELY NOT FOR CHILDREN. I can't emphasize this enough. And even for adults, one shouldn't expect this to be anything at all like the previous three books in the series.

TEHANU is a raw wound, beautiful but deadly. The emotional scarring starts at the beginning: a child is found, burnt, with the unthinkable done to her, by her own family. This is the story of her hard-won salvation.

If Book 3 was tropey, Book 4 is its polar opposite. There is almost nothing in it to recommend its being fantasy (except for a dragon appearance at the very end). For we find our hero and heroine from the previous trilogy, grown to middle age, but left without any magic.

"He thought he had learned pain, but he would learn it again and again, all his life, and forget none of it."

How does one fight home invaders and evil child abusers without spells? How does someone from the pinnacle of power learn to live as the humblest of mortals?

I think this book will resonate with older readers, especially teachers and parents. At its core is the fundamental question: how does one bring up a child? Especially after so much trauma?

I think I have never hated any character in my life with the same righteous passion I felt in this book. But Ursula Le Guin preaches the false joy of anger: "Leave them to their hatreds, put them behind her, forget."

I cannot forget this book. I will never stop recommending it, but also, I do not foresee a time that I shall reread it because it broke my heart too much this first time.

To be fair, there is a lot of beauty in it, too. There is the rediscovery of first love in middle age, of the reminder that women's domestic lives are every bit as heroic as daring quests. There is the joy and peace of embracing one's duty: "I know all that all I understand about living is having your work to do and being able to do it. That's the pleasure and the glory, and all."

Not for kids. But perhaps the best EARTHSEA book of them all. On to Book 5!

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