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    The Sweet Far Thing
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    The Sweet Far Thing
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    The Sweet Far Thing
    Ebook849 pages12 hours

    The Sweet Far Thing

    By Libba Bray

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    The gripping conclusion to the critically acclaimed New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestselling Gemma Doyle trilogy, an exhilarating and haunting saga from the author of The Diviners series and Going Bovine.

    It has been a year of change since Gemma Doyle arrived at the foreboding Spence Academy. Her mother murdered, her father alaudanum 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.

    "A rare treat . . . beautifully crafted" --People

    "A huge work of massive ambition.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

    A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
    A #1 Book Sense Bestseller
    A New York Times Bestseller
    A Publishers Weekly Bestseller
    A USA Today Bestseller
    A 2008 New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age
    CCBC Choice (Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison)
     

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRandom House Publishing Group
    Release dateDec 26, 2007
    ISBN9780375890604
    Unavailable
    The Sweet Far Thing
    Author

    Libba Bray

    Libba Bray is the New York Times bestselling author of A Great and Terrible Beauty and Rebel Angels, both of which have appeared on ALA's Best Books for Young Adults list.

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    Reviews for The Sweet Far Thing

    4/5

    81 ratings79 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I'm not sure why I enjoyed this series so much. The story is all over the place, the girls are often awful to each other and the denouement dragged a bit, but it was great fun. The reader was adept at creating character voices that reflected them well (there was only one part where I wondered if she'd mixed them up a little) I'd be willing to check out any more that Libba Bray has to offer.
    • 3/5
      Very glad to have finally finished this series finale (5 years later!). I love Libba Bray, but I found Gemma and her friends to be so tedious in this book. Overall, I love the themes of this series -- a group of repressed Victorian girls find a door to a hidden world in which they are rulers. There's so much good stuff here. I really wish this last book could have been condensed, because it went pretty scattershot at the end.
    • 4/5
      Now that Gemma has eliminated the threat posed by Circe, she can take her time to decide the ultimate fate of the realms' magic she bound to herself. However, not everyone is content to wait. Strange stirrings in the Winterlands, disturbing visions of a mute lady in violet, and startling signs of life from Circe start to convince Gemma that she doesn't have as much time as she thought. When her family becomes a target, she has to learn quickly who to trust. Will she choose wisely? I think I liked Gemma the least in this third novel of the trilogy. She really became a spoiled, self-centered teenager here, using the magic in incredibly irresponsible ways. At 800+ pages, she had ample opportunity to grate on one's nerves! In the second book there seemed to be hope that she would understand the great responsibility that she has, but that understanding came much too late for way too many people in this third and final book. The ending was unsatisfactory as there is much left to be done in the realms to forge a lasting peace, and I just don't see Gemma as being quite self-sufficient enough to make the choice the does in the end. All in all, though, a great trilogy.
    • 4/5
      Venture into a tale in which life was different then how it is now. Where only men had all the power and all a woman had was her own reputation and a tale where real magic happens. Libba Bray's The Sweet Far Thing will ensnare you in in a book of twists and turns of magical confusion. Gemma Doyle is a girl who lives life in London in a time where girls wore corsets and pretty dresses, as those with no money live on the streets. Gemma is attending Spence Academy, a school for young ladies where it is grand and magnificent. Though Spence Academy is part of a cursed area, which burned down long ago ashen and dead. Moving on Gemma is no ordinary girl she is not a lady with fair skin, she is a lady who has seen the sun and felt it's heat in India. Gossip and parties do not spark an interest in her for she worries about something more urgent. That urgent thing is, the Realms, a place of inbetween or magic, where dreams come true or they come to be shattered. Also a place for those to pass over. In this place there are places of good where flowers shall bloom and thrive, and there are places that brings a cold that may chill you to your bone, as people hang from trees like forbidden fruit, it is known as the Winterlands, cold and resentful. Evil will rise, and Gemma must come forth to stop it. Betrayals will happen, and secrets revealed. Nothing is certain in the realms. Even though there is much more to this story, I will not be the one to spoil it. The book ends with an air of sastification, and an ending with sayings that are meaningfull and true. This is a book for those who likes to read fantasy books and who enjoys a plot filled with unexpecteded ends. But truly it is for those who love happy endings. Reader you will be given a magical story of twists and turns.
    • 5/5
      This is without a doubt, the best book in the trilogy. I have to wipe my nose and some tears from my eyes as I close it.Let me just say this book is 100x better than Breaking Dawn. The resolution is bittersweet.
    • 5/5
      I very much enjoyed this series. I thought it was beautifully written with wonderful plot lines highlighting the peaks and valleys of love, friendship, and the harsh realities we are forced to see as we grow older. It is a wonderful 'coming of age' story that is fitting for any age to read. It is a clean read, so parents should not hesitate to let their teens read it; yet at the same time, is written with enough sophistication to appeal to older crowds. I would definitely suggest giving this series a try...at the very least, pop in the book on cd and listen to a bit of it while you are driving. The reader is wonderful!! But be careful...cause that is how i got hooked. If you already love historical fiction, you will devour this read. If not, it's a great place to start.
    • 1/5
      Long, boring, and relatively pointless. I read Going Bovine first and it was an awesome book, so I had high hopes for the rest of her work. I was very dissapointed by this series, especially since I love seeing stories out there about girls that don't fallow the set path. This book doesn't deliver a memorable story though. The one good thing I can say is that at least it's not one of those books brainwashing teenaged girls into buying more jimmy chu shoes.
    • 4/5
      A satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. There are quite a few surprises along the way and not everything is pretty, but in the end you are happy for how things turn out for Gemma, Ann and Felicity.
    • 4/5
      What Bray does best in this series is use the fantasy elements in the story to talk about the real emotional plight of women at the time. The freedom of the fairy land is a good way to illustrate the stifling social customs in the real world. This is my favorite of the three, because Gemma really comes into her own. The series would fit well in a unit on women's studies.
    • 5/5
      This is one of my favorite books I read it around the time it came out and I have read it four times since then. This book is the third and last book in the Gemma Doyle sieres it is beautifully written and has a very intrresting plot and story line it has calm momments throughout the book but they are never boring...This book is amazing!!! You wont want to put it down untill you have read every singel page...
    • 3/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      Trilogies tend to let you down in the final book - they can't sustain the weight of the story told so far and resolve things satisfactorily in the time remaining. That is NOT the case with this book. I couldn't stop reading it until I had finished. Bray has a way of drawing the reader into her characters' lives; it's like if you stop reading, you'll let them down. The battle that ended the war that had been brewing for 2 books was suitably epic, and the individual fates of the characters following the end of the war were bittersweet - not overly sugarcoated. That added a level of maturity to the ending, which otherwise might have been trite. Beautiful trilogy.
    • 4/5
      This is the third, and final book, of the Gemma Doyle series by Libba Bray. Although this was an excellent book; I think it was the weakest of the series.This book picks up with the girls back at Spence Academy looking forward to a new school year. Gemma is struggling to use her magic to summon a door to the realms and also finds out that the wing of the school that burnt down is being rebuilt. Gemma has more visions and eventually they lead her to find that there is a door to enter the realms in the old wing of the school. When Felicity, Ann, and Gemma enter the realms they find that things have changed; the creatures from the Winterlands are missing. Gemma is pressured by the forest folk to share the magic that she bound to herself in the last book and is unsure of who to trust throughout the whole book.There is a lot to say about this book. The book was very long; a bit too long. It is a long time until Kartrik enters the story and initially you are left wondering if you'll ever see him again. Gemma's character became kind of frustrating to read about. She knows that what she does with the magic is really important, yet she seems to spend a lot of time playing with the magic. This seems inconsistent with her character; usually she gets things done. In this book she spends a lot of time using the magic for frivolous purposes. I am not sure if this was supposed to portray Gemma's immaturity or what the purpose was.This book had some interesting political overtones; which were different from previous books in the series. There was more of a women's rights and worker's rights theme to this book. I thought it was strange that politics enter into the storyline fairly prominently. This was something the girls never worried about much before. Maybe the politics were supposed to show us that the girls were maturing and starting to pay more attention to society outside of their little happy sphere.I am not surprised at how things ended between Gemma and Kartrik. I am surprised that so many readers were caught off guard by the result of their relationship. Really, to stay at all true with the times, that was probably the best way to handle things. Felicity, Gemma, and Ann are already bolder than I think the society of the time would really allow for; what happens with Gemma and Kartrik brings a bit of realism to the story.I though Felicity and Ann's storylines were well done and wrapped up nicely. I especially like how Ann's story went; that girl deserved a nice turn in her life. I think Felicity's story ended on a more positive note than it would realistically. As for Gemma's final story; I have to agree with other reviewers that that was totally out of left field. No idea at all where that came from. Gemma's decisions about her future didn't seem to fit with the rest of Gemma's interests and life style. It was odd. I am not sure if the author's sole intention was to surprise and shock but, well, I guess if that was the intention, it worked.Overall the book was well-written, ended okay, and left the characters in pleasant (almost too pleasant) stages of their lives. I wish the story had been a bit tighter, that Gemma's character had stayed more true to her, well, character, and that things hadn't ended on such an absurdly positive fairytale-ish note. Other than that it was a very satisfying read and a good conclusion to an absolutely wonderful series. It will be interesting to see what Miss Bray writes next!
    • 4/5
      3.5 / 5

      I'm a bit conflicted about this book. I read A Great and Terrible Beauty quite a while ago and enjoyed it, even though I thought there were flaws; then I started to read Rebel Angels and gave up on it halfway through. I probably would have given up on the series if I hadn't read and enjoyed Libba Bray's new book, Beauty Queens.

      Things I liked: I was entertained; I was surprised by the ending, but thought it was good/appropriate; Felicity.

      Things I didn't like: the language felt a bit sloppy/awkward at times - to give one example, the characters "groused" lines of dialogue on at least three occasions, two of which were quite close together.

      I felt that there could have been more description in certain places. It often seemed jarring when the characters traveled in the realms, because they go so abruptly from one point to the other with little description of what each point actually looks like or what they see in between.

      While I enjoy long books, it felt like this one could have been condensed in several areas.

      Anyway, I'm glad I read it. I'm interested to see what Libba Bray's new series will be like.
    • 5/5
      This book is amazing, one of my favorite books of all time. It is a bit long, but I didn't care I couldn't put it down. It is the last book that has to tie loose ends, it normally is long anyway. I loved that Kartik and Gemma got together in this book. Again beautiful language, and an ending that left me in tears. When an author is brave enough to kill off a major character, you have something that stands out as more complex and therefore special, to invoke such emotion in the audience. If you have not read this book, I suggest you do so because you are missing out.
    • 4/5
      In this concluding novel from Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle Trilogy, Gemma and her friends at Spence Academy deal with the strict rules of their Victorian society, worry about making their debuts and becoming women, and hope to find a way out from under the tight control of their fathers and brothers. At the same time however, they must sort out the lethal mystery that surrounds the Realms, a complex alter-universe peopled by mythical creatures and the undead. Gemma must decide what to do with the magic that is bound to her - which tribes to make alliances with, and which to deny, for the safety of all concerned. In this book she will discover her strengths and the fears and desires she holds closest to her heart. She must decide who to trust, and who needs to be let go.The only beef I have with this book is that it did seem overly long in parts. I felt the full weight of the 800+ pages, especially toward the beginning. I could have done with less tedious information about parties and balls and talk of the girls' debutante "season", and had more time in the Realms. It's the magical part of the novels that I enjoyed the most.Libba Bray is a fantastic writer with an incredible imagination . You sort of fall into her books, and she makes you see everything through the eyes of her wonderful characters. The story was really thrilling and enchanting. I was so anxious to learn the fate of the girls, and at the same time I wasn't ready for the story end. This is such an epic, moving story and 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. But after finishing the book, I realize that it needed to end the way it did. It was a heart-wrenching, beautiful conclusion to the trilogy.This series is a journey of four young women searching for their place in the world and managing the magic inside themselves. They suffer the same hopes, dreams, fears and insecurities as the modern young woman. I would recommend this book to young women who like mysteries and intrigue, and fantasy stories that drag you into the lives of the characters. The Sweet Far Thing is a masterpiece of Gothic fiction.
    • 4/5
      Now that I've finished the entire trilogy I have to say that Libbra Bray's characters and plot may be a bit overdone/melodramatic but they still lure in readers all the same. It's hard not to like Gemma Doyle and understand her plights as a young woman on the brink of adulthood in Victorian England. The magic she wields proves to be both problematic and helpful. I think this trilogy is a great recommendation for girls. It explores the hardships of what it means to be a girl and/or woman in the world while not talking down to its audience. Overall, the trilogy (and this installment) is thoroughly enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      As the third book in this excellent series, I thought it held its own. The writing remained excellent and the characters returned to use even more complex and defined. However, I did not this one to be as pleasurable a read as I had the previous two. Maybe that is because this is the darkest of the three books, with each character being forced to faced the darkness within themselves -- all their fears and even their own ugliness. It therefore makes sense that our heroine is going to make mistakes that, unsure of what to do and bearing the great burden of all the magic, that she should foolishing wish to hold onto the power she has fought so hard to protect. Each mistake, eash bad decition came straight from the heart of her, from her fears and doubts, but all this foolishness made it harder for me to get through. I kept finding myself not wanting to read more, not wanting to know more, not wanting to see how bad it was going to get, for it was clearly going to get worse. And I loved her so much and wanted to protect her from all her bad decisions, but I couldn't, I slowly faced this book and watched her work her way through her troubles, bravely, nobly, foolishly fighting to figure out what is right. In the end it was the brutal reality of life that made this book hard for me to read. But also like life, one must struggle through the confusion and troubles to get to the light somewhere at the end of it all. Truely a lovely and satisfying end to the series.
    • 4/5
      One of my favorties of the Gemma Doyle series. I would recomend this book to many others! It was great!
    • 4/5
      Libba Bray is wonderful. This last book in her trilogy of Gemma Doyle, her friends and the realms ~ what a fitting end. What a way to end a story. Full of love, friendship, family, loyalty, doubt and finally personal growth. It truly is a very fitting end. Libba Bray should be proud of her work. But for some, do not be put off by some of the slower parts toward the begining of the book - the pay off is worth it.
    • 4/5
      This is the slightly unsatisfying conclusion to the story of The Realms. Gemma Doyle is a society misfit a few months from her London debut, a school girl and friend, and the current holder of all the magic of another world. Sometimes she can be annoyingly blind, but she is charmingly full of impulsive generosity and occasional spite. While nothing on par with the ghost girls dragging their toes across the floor, there are some really creepy moments.But it is in the horror that I though this book fell a little flat. BY the time we visited the winterlands, I found them so full of gore I started to ignore it. I found the sudden transitions from tension in the Realms to pettiness at school quite jarring.And I felt that there were too many plot ends to be tied up - some of resulting knots felt forced, and Gemma's final plans seemed a little pat.
    • 4/5
      Good ending but I think I was looking for a little more variety, kind of felt it was much the same thing as the first two books. I enjoyed the first book of the trilogy the most. A lot of repeated info in this book from the first two, too much...
    • 3/5
      I thought this trilogy was compelling but strange. I liked it but I didn't love it. It has been a few months since I read the books but some of the fantasy took off in a strange direction. too strange...
    • 4/5
      This definitely filled my craving for a good series! I enjoyed all the books and the characters offered a good variety of good and evil, magic and the hum drum of everyday. The historic aspect lent an extra bit of interest to the writing as well.
    • 5/5
      Okay, there are not enough words nor time to properly give this book the review it deserves, but I will try! I loved this book, the whole series, actually, and even though I had wished for a slightly different ending, I was still very happy while reading the series, especially this book. Libba Bray is able to write the story so well that you feel like you are actually there with Gemma and her friends, exploring their world and the magical realms. Anyone who doesn't like this series, I am sorry to say, must have some problems!
    • 4/5
      if you want to see a spoiler-full review, scroll down. if not, avoid this review. this book left me luke-warm. but at the same time, there were so many lovely moments in the book that i liked it better than "rebel angels."good tie-up to the series, i wasn't left with many questions.so. he dies. and seriously, i saw it coming, i respect that the author has little to no control over who dies, and i see the ending that she was trying to achieve.as a feminist, i appreciate that ending.as a teen librarian, i can name about one teen out of twenty that *might* understand that ending and appreciate it. especially considering the first two books in the trilogy are this back and forth, back and forth, on-again, off-again love/hate affair between these characters.i, myself, was upset at the ending after re-reading and reading over 2,000 pages. a simple task for me. i can't imagine a teen's reaction to the book after that.i feel almost like the audience was over-estimated. that the good lesson -- girls can be independent, they don't need a boy -- was heavy handed. and that gemma's story was completely unresolved. and i've been bummed ever since i closed the book.maybe a re-read will set me right. but even reading libba bray's explanation about the ending didn't make me feel right. even if she *did* quote "no one is alone," which is one of my favorite songs *ever.*however, this - in my opinion - does not detract from the trilogy. and i know that i will definitely be re-reading it.
    • 3/5
      Gemma is forced to (finally) decide what to do with the magic of the realms now that forces of evil have begun to openly move to seize it. The time has also come for the girls to leave school and make their debuts along with choices about their futures.OMG that was soooo loooooong. (Apparently teen Victorian lit puts me in the mood for txt speak.) Seriously, make a decision. Any decision. The realms and your lives are in danger. Do NOT play games in a castle.I enjoyed most of the themes here, and, for the most part, I was glad of the way things ended, as well, but by the end of it, when she talked about every character's longing, I was mostly just longing for her to get on with it. Yay for strong female characters. Still pretty glad I read the series.*Spoilery Bits!!!*++++++++++++++++++1. Thank goodness Ann finally had some strength, but I wish she had kicked a little more booty in the realms, too. She was kind of inconsequential there. 2. Yay for GLBTQ characters, but did she really have to be abused as a child first? 3. Kartik being gone was really the easy way out. It would've been a lot harder to explain how they got on with their life if he had continued to exist in this world.
    • 2/5
      Well, it's over. The Sweet Far Thing is the last in this trilogy of books by Libba Bray that depict young women in Victorian England with access to magical realms (creatively called "the realms") and yet don't have any idea what to do with this magic, so they spend three books trying to figure that out while dodging all adult advice/manipulation. Of course, just because it's the last book doesn't mean that it's a fast conclusion. Oh no. You've got 819 pages to savor the end of the series. It's Harry Potter proportions... only I haven't found this series to be anywhere near as compelling.Here's the thing. It's the third book, so if you've made it through the first two, it means that you either (a) love these books and so you're excited or (b) are like me and have an obsessive need to finish what you've begun. Either way, you're probably going to read it, having made it this far, so I don't feel like I need to sell anyone on this.Gemma is still seventeen, in her last few months attending Spence's boarding school for young ladies, and she's still trying to decide what to do with this power she's been given -- and everyone else is quick to demand that she hand it over. The Order, the Rakshana, Circe... yes, I know that Gemma thought she killed her in book two, but as you know if you've read these books, people who have been killed aren't nearly as dead as they should be when the realms are concerned. Pippa, who was already lost to the realms, is now assured that she's certainly stuck there and her own sense of self-importance is fanned by a coterie of adoring girls (victims of a factory fire also stuck in this limbo) who might not be cultured, but worship Pip. Circe is still somehow present in the realms' temple and all too easily works her way into Gemma's confidence. (Um, Gemma? This woman is responsible for your mom's death. Remember that?) And then there's Amar, the brother of Gemma's love interest, Kartik, and member of the Rakshana. He's prowling around as a corrupted being like Pippa and he seems to be commanding an army of Winterlands creatures in a bid to keep the magic for their own use. How are the mighty fallen.Of course, Gemma has to come a long way before she realizes that curtsying correctly for her presentation to Queen Victoria is not exactly something she can compare with all the difficult decisions ahead. It's too easy for Gemma to use magic for her own purposes... whether that's making her family a little happier or making herself seem more powerful and wanted by Simon to upset his father, a member of the Rakshana. Sure, she's a teenager, but even she should know better by this point. When it comes down to the big decisions, a lot of them are made off the cuff, without much forethought. Spur of the moment things that are meant to show bravery or somesuch nonsense, but really just seem to suggest that no one can think ahead.Suffice to say that since this is the last book, we finally have some resolutions about things. The Felicity/Pippa connection (if you haven't figured out that they're not just friends by now, then I'm not sure that you actually read the previous two books) is built up to this huge unveiling, but since that seemed obvious, it was a bit annoying... and particularly annoying is Fee's absolute conviction in her inclinations. Being only a teenager at this time period, I should think that she would still be figuring it all out as opposed to being so convinced of her orientation. Those looking for Gemma and Kartik to finally get together should feel pleased... for a few minutes. Kartik's utter devotion to Gemma might seem unrealistic, but given the out-of-the-ordinary circumstances that unite them, I accepted it as sweet and chivalrous, because at least you knew he had struggled with his decisions. Though the fact that they get together before we're close to the finale should be your first indication that nothing can end well. It did, however, annoy me that Bray settled on the path that allows their love (which could probably never exist in the real world outside the realms, given the time period) but takes the easy way out as far as resolutions go. Ultimately, I have a hard time seeing how all this trouble can be attributed to anything but Gemma's inability to make up her mind and part with her powers. She acts much younger than her age, particularly given how most everyone else around her seems capable of rising to their challenges. She may be the narrator and thus, the one we are supposed to identify with and root for, but my sympathy for Gemma only goes so far.As for the writing, I feel as though Bray isn't quite where she needs to be. She moves much too quickly through her descriptions, particularly as it concerns the action. It's as though she assumed by writing quickly, we'd hurry through it and the only important part, really, is the outcome so we'll focus on that instead. And that's an odd feeling to have... for eight hundred or so pages. Even three lengthy books didn't seem enough to encompass an adequate description of this fantasy world that Bray created. I would have preferred a storyline much more compact in its scope and more detail about the realms. Or if epic was the objective, then something else needed to give way. I felt as though very few decisions were made... which rather makes me equate Gemma with Libba Bray in that sense.If you enjoyed the series up to now, you'll probably still like it because you're predisposed to such a decision. If you're on the fence, then I think you might be swayed towards annoyance. I do appreciate Bray's expansive imagination that allows for such fantastic creations, but ultimately I think she needs to learn that writing is about making choices... which seems to be the lesson that she's trying to teach Gemma throughout this trilogy, so it would be a good one to take to heart.
    • 5/5
      Amazing books, all three of them!
    • 3/5
      Ah, Kartik!

      This series was very fun to listen to. I'm not sure if I would have READ them, but the reader of the audio books was very good. I loved having a fun, interesting story to listen to in my car. Also, my Indian accent is WAY better now. :D