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Editorial Review Product Description
IT HAS BEEN A YEAR OF CHANGE since Gemma Doyle arrived at the foreboding Spence Academy. Her mother murdered, her father a
laudanum addict, Gemma has relied on an unsuspected strength and has discovered an ability to travel to an enchanted world called the realms, where dark magic runs wild. Despite certain peril, Gemma has bound the magic to herself and forged unlikely new alliances. Now, as Gemma approaches her London debut, the time has come to test these bonds.
The Order - the mysterious group her mother was once part of - is grappling for control of the realms, as is the Rakshana. Spence's burned East Wing is being rebuilt, but why now? Gemma and her friends see Pippa, but she is not the same. And their friendship faces its gravest trial as Gemma must decide once and for all what role she is meant for. ... Read more Customer Reviews (175) 
One of the best series I have ever read!
I feel abit sad reviewing this because this was the final book in the series. I hate endings..they make me sad!Infact I tried to readthis book as slowly as possible ... However I was glad that The Sweet Far thing was a long book because I could savor it longer. I wish the series would have been unendingthough! Gemma doyle trilogy has to be one of my very favorite series. It is much more than a young adult book or just one more fantasyseries. Tht's what i love about these series-it's beauty and the fact it is so much deeper than it appears to be. I fell in love with the first book,with its message to women ,about independence ,about chosing one's own identity and the fact that awoman is so much more than a wife, sister , daughter etc.It was about daring to choose a path less taken. I was a tiny bit disappointedwith the second book, because at times it seemed to drag and I felt like skipping some parts . But what remained constant in both books wasLibba Bray's beautiful lyrical prose that made me want to read some lines over and over again. No, this series is not yet another fantasyadventure, for me , it has been a beautiful ride which has made me think and contemplate. I live in a country where so many many women arestill struggling to break free of all that binds them..all that stops them from living a life of teir own choosing.That is why this book isso important to me.I , as a woman, am still searching and trying to make a mark of my own, in a society that is dominated by men.
Wow! I could go on and on. But let me come to the book itself now-The Sweet far thing , Part 3 of the Gemma Doyle trilogy.
In this final part , Gemma has more powers than she could ever have imagined ..at times she is unable to control it and at the same time she feels more powerful and reluctant to part with it. However , the Order is no more her friend because they are seking to have all thepower .Gemma is compelled to forge an allegiance with the creatures of the realms but is confused . She is afraid of what all the creaturesare capable of , once they have magic of their own. Further, she is reluctant to let go of her powers or share it with anyone else.Felicity and Ann expect her to share the magic with them and Gemma is not entirely sure whether she wants them to, but is compelled bytheir friendship.
I felt Gemma was more mature in this book. She has to grapple with so many things-whom to trust, wherer to part with her magic, herfeelings for Kartik and her friendship with Felicity , Ann and Pippa.At times , she feels qute alone because she doesn't know where to turnand feels Kartik slipping away from her.She has to deal with family tensions, with confusion about her real place in the world and so on.She even grapples with whether the magic is boon or bane- it creates a world of lies, an illusion which is only temporary.
Felicity is still not likeable to me. I feel she is selfish and cruel at times. As for Ann, I felt she has grown a bit stronger and moreconfident , with the magic of the realms. She is able to talk back and take a stand.
I felt so happy because there is more of Kartik in this book. There are some beautiful moments with Gemma and Kartik. I found myselfwaiting for more Gemma-Kartik moments! Who can resist this guy?? Moreover Kartik is from my own country..that makes him even moreswoonworthy I guess..I keep on looking for guys who look like Kartik..but Alas! noone comes close!!*sigh*
Anyways, on a serious note, I love how we get to know Kartik more in this book.Here , Kartik is no his arrogant and "oh-so-confident" self .
In fact we are shown his fears and his doubts. He is somehow more human in this book.
Gemma feels herself desiring Kartik even more. She knows it is dangerous even imagining something between them ,but is drawn towards himand is torn between her feelings and doing "what is correct". What I liked was Gemma was not afraid of her sexuality,her feelings,herdesires..she didn't feel ashamed of them , the way women were made to feel at that time and still are , in so many societies. There aresome beautiful and passionate Kartik-Gemma moments.
This novel raises many questions , which is relevant even in today's world. Haven't we all wondered where is it that we truly belong?
Haven't we all struggled to be more than just ordinary? Haven't we all , sometime or the other, felt so alone and misunderstood, even whenwe are surrounded by people? So many of us , atleast once in our lifetime, have wanted more from our life, more than what is "destined" forus..we have wondered whether there is more to life than being just "someone's something." I admit this series further reinforces myfeminist views. Further this novel explores the subjects of homosexuality and child abuse.
I understand people were very disappoined with the ending. I myself was on the verge of tears. But reasonably speaking that was the only way to end.
Overall
Amazing series! This trilogy is about a girl, who lived in times when women were "corsetted", when it was "scandalous" for a girl to have a
mind of her own, when getting a rich husband was a woman's only aim in life - this novel is about a girl who questioned ,a girl who daredto follow a different path.It evoked so many emotions in me.The beautiful passages from this novel themselves bring a lump to my throat.Irecommend this book to all you women out there , whether you are adults/young adults or whether you like fantasy or not!All I can say is"WOW!".How I wish Libba Bray had written more books in the series . This novel is for every adult/young adult who wants to read a well- written intelligent fantasy.
Recommended: Hell YES! To every woman! And to everyone who has ever questioned life or struggled with identity issues.
Big Giant WTHeck? Moment
I adored the first two Gemma Doyle books by Libby Bray.They were so different than anything I previously had read.I immediately adored Bray's world.Gemma atteneds Spence Academy after her mother's murder in India.She makes friends with three girls attending the English boarding school.Beautiful Pippa, fiesty and scandulous Felicity, and charity case Anne.The girls discover a mysterious, magical place called The Realms.The Realms aren't all goodness and light.There are many dark forces at play and everyone wants power over the Realms and the real world as well.
For three LONG novels, I have been invested in the Realms and the many factions fighting for the power.I have been enamoured with the four main girls who all exhibit signs of light and dark as well.I have pitied the girls, laughed with them, and even shed a tear or two along the way.
While "The Sweet Far Thing" is not a bad book, by any means, it does fall short of the first two.One reason is at 800+ pages it is too long.If these pages were filled with important content or thread closures it might be the perfect legnth.Unforunately I found it to have more filler than usual.There are several new characters and I don't usually think adding new characters into the series on the last book is a good idea. Here it definitely is not.This made the book feel like Bray backed herself into a corner and had to quickly put in some new characters and plots to get herself out of them.
Just this week I read the last book in the Hunger Games trilogy.Many fans are upset with the choices that author made.She sacrificed some beloved characters as well as made a brazen choice of what to do with one of the members of the love triangle.I spoke out in my review stating that while sad and disappointing, these choices felt natural to the book.They were well thought decisions that stregnthened the series and gave it a satisfying conclusion.
With "Sweet Far Thing", Bray also made some decisions for Gemma and her friends.A couple felt natural. (Pippa, Anne, and Felcity ended up in places that felt in line with the series storyline arc)The other controversial choice was where Kartik ended up.This has to be the biggest "What the Heck?" moment I've come across in my reading.There was no build up to this, no reason for it.It was a jarring and disappointing choice for Bray to make.It will certainly make me think twice about recommending this series to others.
After investing the time and money, not to mention the heart, to this series, I feel that there is ultimately no payoff.Something is missing.Both with Kartik and with the status of Realms at the end.I don't need a happy ending and I don't need all my personal preferences met in a novel, but this was so ridiculous and out there.I give it three stars because I did enjoy it up until the end and I did like the resolutions for some of the characters.
Inept, Tedious, Poorly Imagined, and Repetitive
The magical world of the Realms is very poorly imagined. There is no explanation of how it's meant to work: rules are invented and discarded, and it's obvious that the author has very little capacity to create a rich and meaningful world or to animate the characters in it. In the non-magical world of this book, all of the characters are one-dimensional and wooden. The primary theme of the oppression of women is repeated over and over and over, and it is simply a rip-off of territory covered by Jane Austen and Ibsen and many others in the last century. The imitation of the author in this case cannot be taken as flattery, however, since her writing is so terrible. The dialogue is flat, the action is idiotically plotted, and the denouement is a chaotic mess of events. By the end it was a struggle to read each page--the lack of writing skill had drained any remaining interest that I had in the characters.
The thing that made me write a review, however, was the author's choice to publish an interview with herself at the end of the book. It's crude self-promotion. She apparently thinks she's a real wit, but at least the intellectual dullness of the interview confirms my reading of her prose.
The worst part of the whole thing is that she's clearly planning sequels since she's sent the heroine off to college with a promise to return to the Realms to finish the work of righting them. I can't wait--yawn.
A grand conclusion
This book concludes the Gemma Doyle trilogy. Like the rest of the books in the trilogy, it is extremely engaging, well-written, almost addictively readable. It's a bit longer than the other books, weighing in at 819 pages. This is where the complex plot details are brought to a conclusion. Gemma and the girls must find their way in their soon-to-be adult lives, and Gemma must decipher messages given to her in visions by a mysterious spirit named Mina. She must decide what to do with the magic that is within her, who to share it with. And she must protect it from the evil spirits that long to claim it for their own.
The book, like the two before it, is filled with social intrigue, romance, adventure, at times outright gore, and more. It is very compelling that Gemma is a hybrid of a Victorian girl yet so modern that girls today can relate to the struggle and issues that she faces. Although she battles supernatural elements, the crucial problem she must solve is discovering her true self.
The ending leaves much open to the reader's interpretation, and Libba Bray states in the interview that is included in the book that she intends for it to be that way and doesn't know if the trilogy will turn into a series or not.
Sadly disappointing...
This trilogy has excellent reviews, but personally I was disappointed.The heroine Gemma, is the best part of the books. Although she drives me crazy by continuing to be friends with girls that aren't true to her but profess to be best friends, only caring about the magic she possesses.That really bugged me!I was terribly bored at parts and wanted to skip through, but if you do you miss important clues for the mysteries.It wasn't uplifting, it wasn't that fun. I was totally disappointed in the ending, she had a love interest throughout the books and at the end.... I won't tell you.Overall I would say the books contents are imaginative, she deals with racism and other hot topics in a fair way, but not enough principal or backbone in the books to make them meaningful, too many contraditions from the first book to the last.When I finished I told myself what a waste of precious time.
I really like the author's personality in the question & answers sections at the end of the books, those were the best part of the books.In the interviews Libba Bray is hilarious and down to earth, quick whitted and engaging.I only wish her stories had more depth.
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