Sunday, April 3, 2016

Review: The Sweet Far Thing

The Sweet Far Thing

by Libba Bray
Book 3 (final) of the Gemma Doyle trilogy

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  3.0 Stars
*Side note on 4/3/2016:  The following review has been slightly edited after a thorough reread by myself revealed some typos, grammar errors, and some other stuff that needed some polishing--specifically the apparent over usage of the semi-colon that I apparently was having a love affair with in 2012.

For some more brief personal thoughts about this trilogy that I have at present, see the first Gemma Doyle review here.



My Review:
I really want to give this book a score between "It was okay" and "I liked it," because I can't say that I actually liked this last book of the Gemma Doyle trilogy, but I can't particularly say that I didn't like it either. It's one of those things where the anticipation outweighs what you actually end up getting from the book.  I liked the trilogy as a whole, but I'm not saying that it was the best thing I've read since I first picked up my bookworm mission, and the concluding book to this trilogy really DID lose a LOT of steam halfway through. About 70% into the book and I suddenly felt like I just wanted everything to conclude right then and there and quit dragging the story out until it's bitter end.

Nonetheless, there is very little I really want to say about The Sweet Far Thing--it proved rather consistent in character development and progression. The writing style remained up to par, and I DID find myself wanting to know how the story would end even though a lot of things became rather predictable very quickly. Basically, the ending twist was NOT exciting to me because I had already guessed it--no harm and no disappointment, but a little bit of hope diminished that I'd get a surprise twiste. What I'm saying is, that while I approve of the ending, I'm not completely satisfied. It's a very safe, very smooth conclusion and I know that it fits in well with the story, but I personally would have preferred something different.

That's just me.

Anyway, I have enjoyed the trilogy, and while it took a bit of time for me to even get into the book, once I finally figured out what was going on in the Gemma Doyle world and the story started to take it's course, I was hooked. Ms. Libba Bray does have very good penmanship, and I especially enjoyed her characters of Gemma, Ann, and Felicity, as well as the teachers (of course, I also got pretty annoyed with them too, but at the very least they weren't all Mary Sues out to save the world; defining character flaws are always welcome... though sometimes the character flaws might have gotten out of hand and got some grumbling from me).



This review was originally posted at Goodreads in March 2012.



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