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Average Customer Rating:

A repetitive dissapointment

Customer Rating:

I felt those 800 pages. Like others, around pg 600 I began to skim to move things a long. Gemma was just to stupid. Giving Circe magic, and Pippa for that matter. Her friends had almost no redeem qualities to them. I began to like Felicity in book 2, but in this book she had no personality other than selfish and spoiled. The friendship of the four girls just became unbelievable because they were all so unlikeable. It was a disappointing end, mostly because nothing happened.

The Perfect Ending

Customer Rating:

This is a perfect fast paced and gripping finale to the Gemma Doyle trilogy. Readers will love to follow Gemma as she grapples with personal, social and magical dilemma's. In this final installment of the trilogy friendships are tested, new worlds explored and romance discovered. I was hooked from the very beginning of this book, and found my heart racing along with the plot line. My biggest problem with this book is that it was the last one. I was completely drawn into the Victorian and magical worlds created by Libba Bray. When it was over I felt like I had lost my friends. I highly reccomend this and the other Gemma Doyle books.

Interesting conclusion to a fascinating trilogy.

Customer Rating:

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.

Angieville: THE SWEET FAR THING

Customer Rating:

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.

A Great and Sad Beauty

Customer Rating:

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.