#the sweet far thing

[the-heartlines]

| lena headey as sarah rees-toome/circe aesthetic |

“do you know what it is to have your power taken from you? to forever surrender to someone else? i held power in my hands, i controlled my own destiny, and they took that away from me.”

- rebel angels by libba bray

[booksbeyondimagining]

Polished Read:

The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray paired with "Mural" from Clionadh Cosmetics.

[thesensethatyouchoose]

“And for a moment, I understand that I have friends on this lonely path, that sometimes your place is not something you find, but something you have when you need it.” -Libba Bray

[litandlifequotes]

It is funny how you do not miss affection until it is given, but once it is, it can never be enough; you would drown in it if possible.

The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray

[felicity-worthington]

“Do you think they missed him terribly when he fell? Did God cry over his lost angel, I wonder?”

- Felicity Worthington (Gemma Doyle Trilogy)

[brightgnosis]

But the past cannot be changed, and we carry our choices with us, forward, into the unknown. We can only move on.

From The Sweet Far Thing, published 2007; Libba Bray

[iwaschangedforgood]

“Do you ever feel that way?" "Lonely?" I search for the words. "Restless. As if you haven't really met yourself yet. As is you'd passed yourself once in the fog, and your heart leapt - 'Ah! There I Am! I've been missing that piece!' But it happens too fast, and then that part of you disappears into the fog again. And you spend the rest of your days looking for it."

Libba Bray, The Sweet Far Thing

[freckled-lili]

Made a startling revelation about two books I read recently.

[catmint1]

People have a habit of inventing fictions they will believe wholeheartedly in order to ignore the truth they cannot accept.

—Libba Bray, The Sweet Far Thing

[twicedailyquotes]

And that is how change happens. One gesture. One person. One moment at a time.

Libba Bray

The Sweet Far Thing

[the-heartlines]

| felicity x pippa | sapphic aesthetic |

"something i cannot name passes between them, and then pip’s lips are on fee’s in a deep kiss, as if they feed on one another, their fingers entwined in each other’s hair." - the sweet far thing by libba bray

[thatbookishbtch]

The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray

1/14/2023-1/30/2023 2nd read

5/5 stars

Once again, I love this series. It will always have special place in my heart. However, reading it as an adult with an adult life (and unmedicated ADHD) it did feel like it could have been made shorter. Maybe that's just my impatience because I had completely forgotten what happens in this book. It really did show Gemma's uncertainty in what to do regarding the power of the realms, but I think some of those uneventful visits could have been left out, or those passages shortened. I still love this book with my whole heart and I will absolutely read it again, but this go around did make me realize how differently I read as a teen vs an adult.

Favorite quotes:

"We create the illusions we need to go on. And one day, when they no longer dazzle or comfort, we tear them down, brick my glittering brick, until we are left with nothing but the bright light of honesty. The light is liberating. Necessary. Terrifying. We stand naked and emptied before it. And when it is too much for our eyes to take, we build a new illusion to shield us from its relentless truth."

"True affection and love have a purity which shall always prevail over bigotry."

[editorauthoranna]

THE GEMMA DOYLE TRILOGY: THE SWEET FAR THING (Book 3) Review

By Libba Bray

Gemma Doyle drove me up the wall with her indecisiveness in The Sweet Far Thing. This book is over 800 pages. It didn’t need to be. There are a fair few subplots that simply didn’t need to be there, and Gemma spends an ungodly amount of time doing the “Will I? Won’t I? Should I?” in regard to what to do with the magic in the realms. As an editor, I wanted to get my hands on the author and help them tighten up their manuscript.

Another thing that bothered me somewhat in The Sweet Far Thing was how Pippa and Felicity’s relationship was handled. No, it didn’t particularly feel like an unnatural progression, but I also got the distinct feeling that the girls’ relationship was forced into the narrative through flashback and an outside character going, “Oh.” I have a few reasons I think this may have actually been the case. And these girls deserved more than being an afterthought.

1) Felicity didn’t want to marry. Okay, fine, but you don’t have to be gay to not want a marriage and desire to live your life freely.

2) Felicity was always freer with her body and more confident in herself, but her desire to wear trousers and more avant-garde fashions of the late 1890s was something completely new in The Sweet Far Thing, and it mostly came off as part of Felicity’s admittedly rebellious nature instead of a true want or need to be happy and herself.

3) Pippa very specifically dreamed of a knight in shining armor to marry her and sweep her away.

4) Felicity has been with at least one man already. Yes, she could easily be bisexual (or any other sexuality attracted to more than one sex) but because Felicity and Pippa show nothing anywhere close to the type of relationship Felicity has shared with others, their kiss feels false. Not like a “forbidden love” and more like the afterthought it is by the author.

The ending is . . . something else. I didn’t dislike it, but Gemma suddenly speaking up for herself and her entire family simply allowing it doesn’t feel genuine. I wanted her to fight for what she wanted. She’d done her fight and growing up in the realms—more or less—and now it’s time for her to go back to her real life and fight there, too, but with confidence this time. Felicity and Ann both find a path toward the lives they want, so their stories are neatly tied with a bow as well.

The conclusion in the realms was about what I expected; Bray wasn’t showing signs of letting Kartik and Gemma be happy together, so I figured she’d off one of them. I found her method of doing so a little odd, but not unreasonable given the genre. However, the moment Kartik and Gemma share in the realms is heart-wrenchingly beautiful and very well written. It felt like a last bastion of hope before the coming war, swimming with possibility without the interference of fate. Alas.

Which leads me to the last thing: I still enjoy Libba Bray’s writing style, and I’d like to see more of it in the future. Did The Sweet Far Thing need more work before hitting the shelves? Yes, I believe it did. Was this a terrible book that should never see the light of day? No. Is this book one I’m okay with shelving or handing off to the next reader? Yes.

~ Anna

[litandlifequotes]

It seems that I am always in a state of wishing and rarely in a state of contentment.

The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray

[lucabyte]

Taking pride in One's own appearance.