I love the fantasy/paranormal creatures and elements incorporated into this series. Luckily, she did, and she did it quite well. In the second book, Rebel Angels, readers finally got to fully experience the magic of the realms, and I knew that in this book Bray was going to have to maintain that experience. I mean, there were times when I almost liked Gemma Doyle in this book, and believe you me that would be a hard task to accomplish.Īnother big selling point in this book is world-building, setting, and creativity. I think it says something when an author’s skill with words can effectively mask flaws and give readers the illusion of perfection. It’s powerful, compelling, completely engaging, and addicting. Libba Bray’s prose is really quite amazing. It was, honestly, too much, and it was only Bray’s astounding skill and creativity that kept me reading. Add in a few fairly unrelated adventures such as Gemma’s “rivalry” with an American heiress and Felicity and Ann’s struggles to be themselves. Who gets the magic? Is Gemma lying? How can they trust each other? On and on it goes for 500 pages. The middle sections grow tedious with the back-and-forth between Gemma and the tribes in the realms. The Sweet Far Thing, probably, could stand to lose 200-300 pages. And, in spite of my very best efforts to be annoyed, Libba Bray continues to make me love her anyway.

I have a thing for seeing series through to the end, though, so in spite of my best judgment I took the time to read this rather massive novel. Five years ago, someone spoiled the end of the Gemma Doyle trilogy for me, and I more or less lost interest in reading the final book. There were several points while I read The Sweet Far Thing that I rolled my eyes, grew frustrated, and wondered why I was bothering to read this.

The sweet far thing by libba bray