The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray
Title: The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray
Pages: 819
Rating: 2/5
Genre: YA Lit/Fantasy
Summary (off Goodreads): 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.
Review: I had heard a lot of good things about Libba Bray's series. While the first book dragged a little, it was interesting enough to pick up the second book in the series. I felt that the second book was the high point. It had enough action mixed with information that I didn't get bored. It was fun and humorous. I expected the last book to be phenomenal. A Sweet and Far Thing fell short of my expectations.
The first thing that really bothered me about this book was how much it dragged. I felt that the first six hundred pages could have been condensed down into about two hundred. All I saw was the three girls making the same mistakes over and over again. I heard about a million times how Felicity was going to come out and get her inheritance. First it was Lady Denby that stood in her way, then her mother's reputation, then her mother's reputation again. Ann went to go become an actress twice. I didn't need to hear about that twice and I think making Ann reject the idea the first time, just to have her go back to it later was redundant. Yes, they were two different circumstances and the idea behind it was to tell the reader that you had to do things for yourself as yourself, but it was a lesson beat over my head through three story lines of three girls, multiple times.
Gemma's mistakes were also infuriating. The book ended up exactly as I thought it would (minus one part.) I knew it was a bad idea when Gemma gave magic to Circe. I knew that Circe would break free. I knew that the creatures of the realm would become angry with her and that not sharing the magic with them would end in disaster. I knew giving Pippa magic was a colossally bad idea. All of her mistakes were SO bad that it left no surprise at the end of the book.
There were a few interesting surprises; I didn't expect Fee to be gay and it was an interesting way to handle it and was a likely outcome after the sexual abuse she endured from her father (edit: sorry for the poorly worded sentence. It's not really MY feeling on the issue, but something Bray actually implies in her book. I did not mean to advocate that homosexuality is linked to abuse.) I like that Circe didn't turn out to be all terrible, just mostly. I liked when Gorgon came to fight and finally shed all that guilt that she had been feeling all along.
The other thing that really bothered me was Kartik's death. I understand that Bray wanted to get her readers emotionally involved, wanted to do something that surprised them but after slogging through all those pages, his death angered me more than anything. I had waited three books for Kartik and Gemma to finally figure things out and then, when they do, he sacrifices himself to save her. I almost put the book down right there, refusing to finish it. It's not that I mind sad endings. I have read many a tear jerker in my day but Kartik's death didn't feel like it fit with the rest of the book or series. After his death, Gemma runs off to America, Fee to Paris with her inheritance and Ann to the stage. Other than the fact that Kartik died, everyone has their happy endings. It was like Bray was trying to have the best of both worlds and ended up with the best of neither. The other thing is that her books didn't really scream depressing to me as I read them. They all had generally positive endings, even if some things went wrong in the books. Then, out of no where, half of the main love interest dies.
Pippa was another character that really bothered me. I understand that hers was supposed to be the tragic story but she just annoyed me more than anything. It was Pip's decision to stay in the realms, her decision not to cross over, her decision to make a pact with the Winterland creatures because she couldn't handle the fact that she had screwed up her own life. She stayed in the realms to escape her life and then hated the life she chose as much as the life she left behind. She was constantly guilting Gemma and Fee into doing things, making them feel as if it were their faults that Pip was stuck in the realms. When she finally died, I was glad as opposed to sad, which I don't think is the reaction Bray was trying to convey.
The fight scene was interesting and Bray is very good at making you feel suspense. When I finally got to the climax of the book (around page 650,) I enjoyed myself. Other than Kartik's untimely death, I really enjoyed the ending and how the girls handled things. However, after reading the beginning, by the time I got to the interesting part, I just wanted the experience to be over. As good as the ending was (because I DID enjoy it), it wasn't enough to counteract the sheer boredom I felt in the beginning.
I really wouldn't recommend these books to anyone. The first two are fun but the ending was so disappointing it left a sour taste in my mouth. I feel that, for a third book, it should have been so much more.
Books So Far This Year: 23/75
Currently Reading: What's Really Hood!: A Collection of Tales from the Streets by Wahida Clark & The Naming by Alison Croggon
You can read this review and all others at im_writing or my Goodreads Account.
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