Is Tess Mental?

I was thinking the same thing. Not sure. I was just thinking that is how she made her books come to life in her head.

I think it happened for the most part, but she was very mentally unstable as well. Her narration supported that conclusion toward the end. She seemed to be a "functional" schizophrenic.

Weird and confusing story; Tess was not a very likable character.



"Don't get chumpatized!" - The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)

That's really what bothered me most about this movie. I didn't read the book, so I'm just going by what was presented on the screen. I felt as if they were implying that only a mentally unstable person would seek revenge against those who brutally attacked her and left her for dead. I think even a sane person would do the exact same thing.

In the book she is kind of a loner but not crazy (she talks to her cat and her tomtom). It's not til after the attack that they talk back to her. It's all in her head as she tries to cope with the trauma of being attacked and the knowledge that he's done it before. Once she investigates (she's something of an amateur sleuth from doing research for her books) and finds out that the trucker is related to the librarian that sent her on that route she decides that people that sick and evil can't be properly dealt with by the authorities. I'm just watching the movie now and I missed the beginning so I don't know if they include the other victims bodies. Either way, Stephen King is always better in print and this is only a novella only a little over a hundred pages and totally worth the read. It is featured in Full Dark, No Stars. Check it out.

Not everyone who talks to themselves or has imaginary friends is "mental". She was a little eccentric and the rape trauma might've heightened that, but I don't think she was really schizophrenic. What was more insane with her behavior was that she was killing anyone in her path who got in her way, as if that would solve the problem. I wouldn't blame her, after all the rapist was a disgusting pig, but she really should've reported the rape rather than just kill the guy. I think he deserved to rot in jail forever for what he did, and the deaths of the other women in the culvert should've been reported. I don't think she was nuts though, just really traumatized and confused. She seemed to have really bad PTSD and her imaginary friends were just a coping mechanism to help her stay sane, not to make her insane.

Canada, eh? 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦 :)

"The 21st century is all flash but no substance." ~ Smog City

No. she's experiencing severe post traumatic stress. The events occurred. Authors routinely think of their creations as "alive" and only Tom is a figment of her imagination. The story relates it all much better.

No, I don't think she's schizophrenic.

Having her talk to herself or think in terms of "hearing" her Tomtom or her novel's character speak back, is just a mechanism to show the viewer her internal thought processes.

Plus, she herself said at the start of the movie when she gave the speech at the book signing, that this is the way she writes her novels -- she says she "hears thing" but in a creative sense of hearing her own thoughts basically, not in a crazy sense.

I compose music and I often initially just "hear it" in my head as if it's something that already exists playing on a radio (in my head), even though it's an original piece that doesn't exist yet.

Mental? What is this 1970? You must be some sort of square, daddy-o.