The Sweet Far Thing

I'd hoped that by this book, the heroines would start showing a little sense...a greater notion of themselves and the world around them. But despite promising hints in book 2, they've remained just as selfish, weak-willed, emotional, and wilfully ignorant as they were in book 1. I actually found myself rooting for the villain, because at least she had some notion of how to go about getting things done. Add 800 pages of ill-paced, rambling plot, too much of which involved rehashing the plots of the previous 2 books, and I'm not really sure how I managed to finish it. Pure stubbornness, I suspect. And the futile hope for a happy ending.... ( )

This last of the trilogy (A Great and Terrible Beauty and Rebel Angels) finds Gemma Doyle with all the magic of the realms bound to her and a decision to make about her powers. Whom should she trust? The Order—the group of powerful priestesses of which her mother was a part? Or the creatures in the realms that want to make an alliance and share the power with her? What does she do about the Rakshana who have become jealous of the power of the Order and now seek to grab the power from Gemma? Her visions continue in this volume leading her through more adventures with her friends--beautiful and demanding Felicity and plain and timid Ann—in the realms, the Rakshana court her brother to get back at her for holding all the power, Kartik is back but more distant and cold than ever, and Pippa seems to be becoming more and more a creature of the realms. The story of Gemma’s struggles with her decision about the magic of the realms and other mysteries that need solving lags through the first half of the book as she shares the magic with Felicity, Ann, and Pippa, who become more greedy for it as time goes on. It is not until the second half of the book, over 400 pages in, that the action and tension build to the climax. This last volume provides a satisfying ending for Gemma Doyle fans, if the length doesn’t discourage them. ( )

I love Libba Bray, but these books are okay, not amazing. They're interesting, but they seem a bit longer than they need too, and the characters are a bit idiotic. Libba is still awesome though. ( )

I listened to the audio book for this as well as the other 2 books in the trilogy, and just like before, the narration of this book was absolutely stunning. I highly recommend this book, but especially the audio book of this book to absolutely everyone. I give the trilogy as a whole 5 stars! I thoroughly enjoyed all of them. I really liked how this story tied everything up. It wasn't all happy endings, but it was a very nice wrap up. I actually think that it may have even been left where there could be a possibility of more in the future, but it is also written in a way where it will be perfectly fine ending where it ended. I would love to know if Libba Bray has considered expanding the series with Gemma Doyle. ( )

With a sigh, I resign myself to combing through it page by page, though 502 pages is so many to wade through, and I curse authors who write such lengthy books when a few neat pages of prose would do.

-- Roughly halfway through a nearly 1000 page book


[b:The Sweet Far Thing|127459|The Sweet Far Thing (Gemma Doyle, #3)|Libba Bray|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1358704741l/127459._SY75_.jpg|3072872] is a doorstopper conclusion to a series, which for the most part does everything the previous books does only more so. We do finally get to a conclusion, but really, the vast majority of the book I probably could have done without.

Things that annoyed me about this book:

- Gemma

The entire book revolves around the time where she will make her 'debut' into society and become a woman. She has the magic of the realms at her disposal--never really explained what that actually mains. And yet she spends the entire book mind controlling her family and others around her and wining about how hard it is to actually make a descision and stick with it.

IT IS A TEDIOUS SORT OF DAY AT SPENCE. WE SPEND THE whole of our French lesson conjugating verbs. Frankly, I do not care whether it is I have dined on snails or I shall dine on snails, as I do not intend ever to allow a snail past my lips and so the entire lesson is moot.

I mean. It's funny, but it's just a very different sort of scale.

- Ann

I get where the whole lack of belief in herself comes from, but oh does it grow grating after a while.


“I’m sorry, Gemma.” She tries to touch me but I shrink away. “If I leave now, I can remember that day as it was. I can always believe that I could have done it. But if I take that chance—if I go to them as myself and fail…I couldn’t bear it.”


Not to mention (too late) that after the fiasco of using magic to pretend to be someone she's not last book backfires... she does it again? Oy.

- Felicity

So it turns out that she's actually either a lesbian or bi and had a relationship with Pippa before she died? But this is only mentioned in the last part of the last book? I think I actually like her the most of the main trio, but she's still very much a young adult/teenage girl.

Things that I actually liked:

Kartik's story line and (believe it or not) even his ending (spoilers). He's stuck in a hardest place but I think makes the most about it all through the book. So it goes.

Overall, not my favorite book series and this one in particular could have been shorter. But it's still not a terrible reading.

Onward!
( )