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In the
Victorian society of The Sweet Far Thing, girls born
into well-to-do families are raised to be beautiful but empty-headed
dolls for rich gentlemen, and girls born into poor families
are molded to become servants. In the secret fantasy world
within this historical novel, however, author Libba Bray examines
facts that still exist—that power is fleeting, and that
people become corrupt with it, but without it, they fight
to gain it.
The third
book in Bray's popular Gemma Doyle trilogy, The Sweet Far
Thing begins with rebellious English girl Gemma Doyle
and her friends nearing the end of their school year at Spence
Academy for Young Ladies. While Gemma practices curtsies and
learns her lessons, she is secretly yearning to return to
the Realms, a magical world formerly accessible to a secret
group of women called the Order but now only open to Gemma.
She is the only one who holds the magic that the power-hungry
people of the Realms are impatient to receive, and she has
made a promise to make alliances with them. Meanwhile, she
and her friends are trying to change their own lives with
the magic, and Gemma is worrying about the corrupt creatures
of a place called the Winterlands and Circe, her enemy and
her mother's murderer, whom she thought she had destroyed.
Gemma's
narration has lost a bit of the humorous and sarcastic tone
it had in the trilogy's first book, A Great and Terrible
Beauty; now, it is more serious, more thoughtful, and
there are fewer parts about daily life at Spence, showing
that she has grown, and that the matters on her hands are
bigger and much more important to her life. As she takes her
journey into womanhood, she experiences new changes in her
life: excitement, sorrow, and anger. And as she copes with
these changes, she starts to realize how much freedom matters
to her and her friends—how much they want and need to
choose their own paths in life.
Bray's
writing takes on a new style in this book, and Gemma expresses
her turbulent emotions with less confidence, letting the reader
know and feel that Gemma is unsure of her own feelings. Meanwhile,
the things that Gemma is certain about—her will for freedom
and her deep unending love for both her best friends—are
depicted beautifully, passionately, and extremely well for
a girl who is bursting inside but has to hide her feelings
behind a pleasant smile. However, her creation of suspense
is not as effective as her portrayal of emotions, and when
readers realize that the girls have discovered something frightening
or shocking, Gemma restates it in a slightly repetitive way,
dampening the effect of the suspense and shock.
As the
story progresses, Gemma becomes more and more uncertain of
whom she can trust, but she can't deny her friends the promised
magic that will shape their otherwise hopeless futures of
doing their families' bidding. The forest folk are demanding
that Gemma hand over the magic, and her dead friend Pippa—who
has stayed in the Realms instead of crossing over to the next
world like the rest of the dead—is pleading for more.
This leaves the reader questioning each character's intentions
and is a good replacement for traditional action-based suspense
because readers become eager to find out everyone's motivations.
In the
real world, Gemma and her friend Felicity are furious about
the shallow society of women whose thoughts extend only to
the next ball or a new dress or whom their daughters would
be marrying. Gemma's friend Ann, who is a scholarship student,
feels frustrated and helpless about her situation of having
to become a governess for the rest of her life. All three
girls are trapped and vow to escape, to build their own futures
with the magic, teaching readers the important themes of freedom
and the ability to make one's own decisions.
Filled
with emotions ranging from desperate confusion to seething
anger, and rich with an interesting form of suspense, The
Sweet Far Thing is a work of well-written fantasy. At
the same time, Bray manages to convey messages about trust
and holding power, producing a beautiful young adult novel
about a girl who, in a world where young ladies are like "pretty
horses to trade," tore off her blinders to see another path
in life.
(February,
2008)
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