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47 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Roses and Thorns, December 31, 2007
Well, I spent the first 3/4 of this book racked by horror movie syndrome: you know, when you're watching the girl go down the long, dark hall and reach for the doorknob, having split off from the rest of the group, and you're yelling, "Don't do it!" at the screen? Only in this case, I was yelling at Gemma not to trust all the wrong people and misuse the magic she holds. She does both, repeatedly, for hundreds of pages.
Yet Bray's point seems to be that it's hard to know what to do when you're a 17-year-old girl, let alone when you carry far too great a responsibility and everyone around you is clamoring for you to hand it over to them. So while Gemma naturally distrusts the authoritarian Order and the Rakshana, she is more conflicted about her supposed allies in the realms, particularly two--make that three--individuals who are not nearly as dead as they should be.
At the same time, Gemma and her friends are trying to figure out what to do about their oh-so-scripted futures, not to mention troubles with family members. And Gemma worries over her feelings for Kartik, who pulls away, then doesn't, then does, even as she tries to make sense of events in the Realms and the warnings she is receiving in visions.
It kind of reminds me of how Harry Potter and his friends spend the middle of the last book glumly hiding out and quarreling because they lack all kinds of important information--and simply because they're teenagers and really don't know what to do next.
The Sweet Far Thing is a long read, but it is incredibly well written and moves at a surprisingly fast clip. (Watch for some lovely metaphors tucked here and there in Bray's prose.)
As for the ending, I would normally object, but I think this story is clearly focused on Gemma's efforts to make good choices and know, truly know, who she is, rather than on a stereotypical happy ending. A key theme of The Sweet Far Thing is that Gemma feels she is all alone, in spite of her friendships and allies and family--a feeling that this book ultimately confirms, though Gemma does manage to make peace with that knowledge.
The most telling moment for me is when the gate of the Winterlands demands each girl's greatest fear and greatest wish. Gemma's wish is this: "I don't know! I don't know what I want, but I wish I did. And that is the truest answer I can give."
For my part, I wish it were easier for Gemma to untangle the deceit and confusion that buffet her like storm winds, but in the end, she and her friends do what all of us have to do--the best that they can under the circumstances. And yes, they save the world. Bravo, Libba Bray!
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56 of 72 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not everything has a happy ending, January 3, 2008
Gemma and her friends Ann and Felicity are back in Ms. Bray's final installment of the Gemma Doyle trilogy. Gemma and Fee are waiting to enter society as women and Ann is preparing to become a nanny. The girls have much to discover, such as their desires, destines and who are their true friends and enemies.
The book is a long 800+ pages, and to be frank sometimes it felt like it. The book starts out with a lot of talk about balls and the Victorian Era. For people who want to read about the Realms and Kartik the first 200/300 pages maybe a bit tiresome. Also I felt the book could have moved a little more quickly. Around page 600 or so I found myself flipping through the pages in order to get to the good stuff.
The writing is good. The plot dragged a tad, and after much thought I agree Gemma's character didn't progress as I hoped it would.
The ending is bittersweet for Gemma and many readers are having a difficult time with this. I can understand that because when I read Little Women I was upset when Jo refused to marry Laurie. Still, the readers' passion impresses me because these are teens that care deeply for characters in a YA book series. And who says teens don't read!
Gemma's decision at the end was a bit of a shocker. I kept scratching my head thinking "where did that come from?" It made no sense and was never hinted at in the previous two books. It just seemed to happen out of the blue, which was a bit difficult to swallow.
Overall, I did enjoy the novel, but I think that Ms. Bray's characters were able to get away with far too much. Each one got what they wanted in the end, which was rather disappointing. As a person who has studied, and taught history, I thought the girls were far too modern in their beliefs. It would have been nice if one of the girls had been trapped by their station in life and had been forced to mold to society's views.
As a series I enjoyed it very much and I hope that Ms. Bray continues to write.
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25 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
So disappointed because the first two books were great!, February 26, 2008
I am a high school teacher. I love young adult literature and share it constantly with my students. Even when a book is not that well-written from a literary standpoint, I will still review it well if it has a good story that my students would be interested in. I am giving this book a poor review because it was poorly written, apparently poorly edited, and even poorly plotted.
Last year, I found the first Gemma Doyle book, read it, and loved it. I could hardly put it down; it was interesting and even insightful in parts, and I was drawn to the characters. Immediately, I picked up the second book and read straight through it, quickly passing both books on to my students, who also LOVED them. We loved the characters--their problems, their voices, their humor, their struggles and sadness and love or loneliness or longing. They were real to us. We passed the books around and around and counted the days until December 26th when the third book would come out.
Even though I was far from home on the release date, I looked up a book store while on vacation and ran to pick up this book. As I started reading, I could not get into it. I kept reading, thinking that it would get better. It only got worse. I have barely been able to finish reading it within 2 months. I think this last book read like a bad soap opera, in which the actors dressed in their modern finery and put on the fake accents of Victorian-era young people. Unfortunately, my true excitement when I first picked up this 800-page tome ("Yeah! 800 pages!") turned into "Oh my gosh! Do I really have to keep reading 800 pages of this?" The answer for me was yes because I needed to be able to talk to my students about it. All of my students who loved the first two books rushed out to buy the third, and some of them still haven't finished reading it. Those who have finished it are not at all impressed. They tell me they find the plot boring, the characters fake, and the ending random.
On her website, Libba Bray tried to answer "crying" readers' questions about why the book ended the way it did. I did not mind the ending; in fact, by the time I reached it, I simply did not care how it ended. All of my students felt the same way; they felt nothing in the end except for disappointment at reading this far for nothing. I laughed and cried along with the characters (and my students) in the first two books, but I disliked them in the third. Ms. Bray compared her readers' feelings to her own feelings when beloved characters died in books like Wuthering Heights or To Kill a Mockingbird. The difference is that the authors of those books made readers care about their characters, as Ms. Bray did accomplish in the first two books of this series. Ms. Bray was disappointed that readers were so concerned about Kartik dying when there were so many strong, independent female characters in the book. I understand those readers' perspectives because the females in the last book were ridiculous and unreal. We didn't see as much of Kartik, and I think that's why I still cared a little about him.
All in all, I was disappointed. However, I hope Libba Bray will continue to write more books like the first two in this series. I will give her another chance, to be sure.
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