The Sweet Far Thing

Today I finished the Gemma Doyle Trilogy. I never made a post about the second book Rebel Angels by my sister did. You can read her review below. 

In The Sweet Far Thing, Gemma and her friends Felicity and Ann try to solve the mystery of the Magic of the Realms. The Realms is a magical land of good and evil and everything in between. The story depicts this place as where you go after you die before you go on to heaven or wherever else you go according the Libba Bray. 

Gemma, in all three books, has visions that direct her to solving the mystery of this magic that is within her. In this, the third book, she tries to solve the mystery of the Tree of all Souls. She has the magic of the Realms within her and she has to decide what is the best course of action, on what to do with it. Who is to be trusted who should she turn from. I think this is a good example of why you should not judge a book by its cover and that you can't always trust what is in your heart for it is the first to deceive you. There are people that she trusts that she shouldn't have trusted and people that she should have trusted that she didn't. But that is real life if you ask me. One lesson that she learns through all three books is that you can't live in the past and regret the choices that you have made but to move on to the future and make the best of what was made. 

I find that there is a bit of controversy over the ending of the series. I do agree that the third book is a bit long and that it is a bit scattered. I think that Libba shouldn't have put a limit on herself to making a trilogy and left it open to writing more. She could have split the book in two and developed more and had it less like a run on sentence but thus she has not and like I said in the last paragraph you cannot live in the past. But back to how I feel about the ending. There are parts that make me very sad. I know that my sister thinks that Bray could have done something else but I feel that the course that the book took was more to reality (granted this is a fantasy book, a fairy tale; still it left me with a feeling that that is how life is) that not everything turns out how you would hope. There is not always going to be a happy ending in real life. You will be heart broken, you will cry for days, you will be disappointed and you will loose things very dear to your heart and mind. That is life. There is  time for everything, happiness and heartache. It comes, that is the way of life. I feel that the choices that Gemma made for her life were good choices. I feel that she was true to herself and who she was as a person. I am glad that she chose to allow herself to think and not be conformed to the mold that society tries to force on you. Good job Gemma. 

Do I recommend this book? Yes, I do. Even though it could have been better I still think it is a good story. I think that if you are to read any of these books that you should read them all. It is a continuing story after. 

Happy reading

~Christine