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The Sweet Far Thing (The Gemma Doyle Trilogy) By Libba Bray ( Delacorte Books for Young Readers )
Release Date: 2007-12-26
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List Price: $17.99
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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.
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Interesting conclusion to a fascinating trilogy. ( chicbookfiend )
Set in England during the late 1890s, this fantasy trilogy that began with A Great and Terrible Beauty brings us back to Gemma Doyle -- the sixteen-year-old with special powers that give her the ability to visit the equally beautiful and terrifying Realms -- and her friends Felicity and Ann. On the outside, she is experiencing things most girls her age go through. She is about to have her debut as she struggles with self-esteem issues and tries to be there for her two best friends, who have problems of their own. Ann's biggest fear is having to move with some distant relatives to work as their children's governess. She has a beautiful singing voice and discovers she has a knack for acting as well. Will she be able to achieve her goal and become an entertainer, or will her plain looks get in the way? Felicity wants two things -- power and independence. She longs to live life on her terms and enjoy the comfort and luxury of her inheritance. But her close friendship with Pippa and the interference from Felicity's debutante sponsor get in the way. As mentioned before, Gemma has her own issues. Her father is still on opium, her brother is still a callous rogue, and her grandmother is in denial of the problems around her. To make matters worse, Kartik, former member of the Rakshana and the Indian gypsy she's had a crush on since AGATB, is avoiding her. But those problems are nothing compared to what Gemma is facing in the realms. Pippa is acting strangely, Circe wants Gemma's powers, and the Winterlands creatures have threatened to pass over to the real world if Gemma doesn't give her powers to them. Her visions have returned, and they seem to be sending her warnings and signs that she doesn't understand. What secrets must she uncover to protect the creatures in the realms and her schoolmates at the Spence Academy? There are many twists throughout the novel.
As some people have said, we discover things here about Felicity that come as some surprise. She is the most complex character in the book, and therefore the most compelling, since she is obviously depicted as a feminist, but the things that unfold regarding her personal life are nevertheless shocking... or at least they were for me. Gemma has always been a wonderful young heroine with some teen angst of her own. In this book, she is too much in her head, describing her insecurities and lack of insight when it comes to solving the problems in the realms over and over again. There is a twist here with Kartik that is somewhat sad, but there is no other way for this romance to end, since there is no way that a proper English young lady and a gypsy could be together in a story set in Victorian England. Still, this twist left a bad taste in my mouth. Couldn't they have make it a go in some way, or at least keep Kartik... don't want to spoil it for you. All in all, The Sweet Far Thing is an interesting conclusion to this fascinating series. I neither love it nor hate it, but I do know that it's not quite as compelling as the first two books.
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 Angieville: THE SWEET FAR THING ( angieville )
And so ends the trilogy that began with A Great and Terrible Beauty (The Gemma Doyle Trilogy), continued with Rebel Angels (The Gemma Doyle Trilogy), and concludes in this final volume, THE SWEET FAR THING. I liked the first one well enough because of its unique blend of a wild, magical, mythical realm barely constrained behind stiff Victorian curtains. I really got into the second one as the plot became more complex, Gemma came into her own powers, Felicity and Ann's stories became more layered, and poor beautiful Pippa was relegated to the Realms indefinitely. When I saw how thick the third one was, my eagerness ratcheted up a notch. After all, I have been sitting around lately asking for longer books. Suddenly, here one is.
Unfortunately, 800 pages later, the best thing about it remains the first four words, it's lovely title, taken from a poem by W.B. Yeats. And it does capture the extremely bittersweet feel of the last portion of the book. But somehow this installment failed to capture my imagination. It frustrated me more than anything. Instead of making good use of everything she fought for in Rebel Angels (The Gemma Doyle Trilogy), Gemma spends the entire novel trying to decide whether or not to do what she decided to do at the end of the last book. Not until the final pages does she get a grip on herself and do what needs to be done. I thought we were done with crippling indecision in the previous books. I wanted the Gorgon to just let loose and throttle her! Meanwhile, Felicity and Ann are apparently thirteen again and spend the majority of their time being petty and distrustful, backstabbing Gemma whenever they get the chance. Pippa is the most interesting of the original friends, munching on the berries of the dead in all her Miss Havisham glory. But her path is extremely predictable. And Kartik? Fiery, beautiful Kartik? Sigh. The end to his story had far too much in common with Merlin's fate for my taste. I will say that the scene where Gemma and Kartik place their hands inside the stone was achingly beautiful. But, as with much in this hefty book, it was too little too late and I'm left feeling sad. Wishing, somehow, it could all have gone differently.
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A Great and Sad Beauty
The first book A Great and Terrible Beauty in this series is irrevocably my favorite book. I felt the second book Rebel Angels was somewhat lacking. It was a great story but not such a great novel. The Sweet Far Thing is my second favorite. (*Spoiler Alert*) It is, of course, sad that Kartik dies. The reader is left in mourning. This I think is necessary. Truthfully I was saddened but also satisfied by the ending. Had Gemma and Kartik married and had the happily ever after, etc. (which would have proved interesting if not impossible in that era), I would have come away from this trilogy (sadly) even more saddened. It would have been too easy. Neither the second nor the third would have matched up to my great opinion of the first.
Some (if not all) fans may be screaming to wrench my hair out after me saying "it's necessary" for Kartik to die. To make my point short, to end such a beautiful story, it was necessary for the hero to make a sacrifice and in this the reader learns the trueness of their love.
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 Perfect Ending
I love this series and the last book is no exception. It is quite long but I was glad for the extra pages as I wanted to spend as much time as possible in this fictitious world. I am a sucker for happy endings so I was upset to hear that perhaps this wasn't going to be a fairy tale ending. I even put reading the book off, nervous that the end would ruin the whole series for me. Luckily I decided to read it, and I am definitely glad. While everything may not end up peachy keen, I think it helps to deliver a subtle message in the book that most YA novels are lacking...*hint - has to do with feminism.* I loved this series and The Sweet Far Thing was a great final installment.
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 Mixed Feelings Abound ( astraeaantiope )
To get one thing out of the way, like a previous commenter, I read YA novels as an adult because I find "adult" literature to be over saturated with promiscuity and explicit sex/violence/drug use. I am interested in a good story, not cheap thrills. I got a little wary when Kartik and Gemma were getting more alone time, but thankfully Ms. Bray did not veer into Harlequin territory. For that, I thank her. As for themes of incest, self-mutilation, drug use, and homosexuality; these things have been present since ancient times. The fact that they were so thoroughly hushed up during the Victorian era does not mean they didn't exist, and I think Ms. Bray introduced them in a consistent and thoughtful manner.
I plowed through this book in four days, so I'm certain I must have enjoyed it. However, I remember my overarching feeling while reading was that of frustration. Ann and Felicity were so selfish and petulant for most of the book, unable to spare any compassion or thought for Gemma's feelings, that I found myself hoping Gemma would just tell them off and go on her merry way. I know Felicity had her reasons but she was particularly odious right up until the last 100 pages or so.
I don't have the anger the younger readers might have over the Kartik storyline because I was never that invested in it. I found that burgeoning romance to be a bit gimmicky and a way to shoehorn the issues of race, caste, and sexual repression into the novel. On the other hand, I never expected Gemma and Simon to end up together, but discovering that Simon was a pawn in someone else's game seemed to steal a lot of the weight from the second novel (Rebel Angels, which I enjoyed very much). It also seemed like an afterthought, given the reason why Gemma split with Simon. If he was really recruited for that purpose, shouldn't he have given the right answer to continue the ruse and gain the Rakshana's end?
More than anything else, I had a problem with the pacing of this book. There were numerous drawn-out passages of "parties" in a moldering castle where the girls always danced in circles while Gemma felt left out, then when Gemma did something like travel all the way from London to Spence into the realms up the mountain to the well of eternity, it would be covered in one paragraph! That got a bit confusing, as one minute Gemma would be in bed and the next talking to Circe and I'd have to re-read to figure out what the heck happened. I had a tough time believing Gemma wouldn't realize Circe could use magic to escape from the well after everything, especially when Circe pressed her repeatedly to say she gave the magic of her own will. The endless waiting for Gemma to make a decision about what to do in the realms was quite annoying as well. She never really did decide, either, it all just sort of happened at the end.
I was ok with Ann and Felicity's endings, they seemed somewhat believable. I was glad Ann grew a spine in time to seize her chance, and Felicity has the fortune and force of personality to make her way. Gemma's ending is the one that bothered me. It seemed to come out of nowhere. Seemed a little cheesy and overwrought. Feminism hooray! All the "corseted minds" stuff seemed pretty forced and Disney-fied. One minute she's looking forward to her debut and altering Grandma's mind for the extra-fancy dress, the next she's done a complete 180.
One final observation, I agree with the reader who noted that the girls got away with far too much. The way Gemma was acting she would have been packed off to a Sanatorium long before the halfway mark. The girls were very closely watched when it served the story, then sent alone into a gypsy camp full of men when that was useful.
I feel like they didn't give Ms. Bray enough time to prune and fine-tune. I'd rather have a great read than one that met the deadline.
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