Title: A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing
Author: Libba Bray
Year Published: 2003-2007
Genre: Young adult, supernatural, gothic, historical fiction
The Gemma Doyle trilogy is a supernatural
Victorian boarding school story for young adults. That alone should tell you
whether you want to read this series (for me the answer was, of course: hells
yeah). There’s an indulgent, ‘comfort read’ quality about it despite its dark
themes. While this normally would be fine for me, some of these themes weren’t
your typical dramatic fantasy problems but rather actual real life issues. And
that’s why I ultimately found the series problematic.
There are a number of seeming contradictions in
the nature of the series itself, as if it is trying to be too many things at
once. On the one hand, it's easy to luxuriate in the girly girl passages about
the girls’ shopping expeditions and the social niceties of Victorian London –
reminiscent of your Jane Austen type of stories, which the author references a
number of times. On the other hand, there are plenty of gruesome ghostly things
mentioned in the supernatural part. Then again, there are your ‘serious’ scenes
describing family dysfunction, abject poverty and child sexual abuse – the
latter of which I really wasn’t expecting in such a squishy sort of read.
There was so much going on that I felt that a
number of these heavier themes shouldn’t have been included at all. Other than
creating mood whiplash, I felt they weren’t given their proper dues. I kept
thinking of the phrase ‘out of sight, out of mind’, as each ‘problem’ rarely
transcends the scene in which it’s mentioned. For example, Gemma spouts a
lot of pretty and ~profound~ insights about her dysfunctional family, but only
ever seems to think about them when she’s in their actual physical presence.
While Gemma describes problems – particularly
the ‘ordinary’ real-world ones – and how horrific they are, we can’t disagree;
at the same time though, they’re given so little attention that there’s almost
a passive tolerance of them. In this
regard, it was Gemma’s musings on child sexual abuse that really made me
irrationally angry – she talks as if she knows all about it, but then she
doesn’t seem too bothered about it in the next scene, nor does she ever do
anything about it – to be fair, I don’t know what she could do in those cases,
but nevertheless I felt it made her concerns seem ungenuine.
Despite it being 1895, the behaviours and voices
of the heroines are very, very modern. When the girls have ‘radical’ thoughts,
it doesn’t feel very radical at all as they haven’t actually moved very far
from who they already are. As for Gemma, well, her decision at the very end
came as a surprise to me – her thoughts were so varied and unfocused throughout
the series that it was surprising she even had that goal in mind: she never
once mentioned it during the entire series.
Now, despite all my groaning, there’s still a
lot you can enjoy in this series. I don’t doubt that a lot of people would be
attracted to the gothic setting of the series, and there’s an indulgent pillowy
quality you can get lost in – indeed, despite my misgivings I read all three
books pretty quickly. This is the sort of series you let wash over you, without
trying to keep track or think too much about, lest you spot the problems. There
isn’t a lot of plot to be honest – it gets worse in the second and third books,
where there’s more and more telling instead of showing, and the tale expands in
breadth rather than depth. It seemed to unravel as things went on, and became a
bit of a chore to read in the end. Be warned also that the ending isn’t exactly
a happy one.
I did like that the main love interest was
Indian, but I’m in two minds as to whether this series provides a positive
example of non-white characters. There was surprisingly more sensuality than I
would’ve anticipated, particularly given how simple the language is, so I’d
probably say it’s suitable for those aged 13+. I was a little disappointed in
the character development too – some of Gemma and Kartik’s relationship is
retconned in the third book, and I was surprised to hear Felicity, Pippa and
Ann described as Gemma’s “best friends” in Rebel
Angels after their uneasy and bullying-tinged interactions in A Great and Terrible Beauty, as well as
the fact that none of them seemed to actually like each other, except for
Felicity and Pippa. I’m not sure what it says about me, or the book, but I
found Felicity and Ann to be a lot more likeable and interesting than our
heroine Gemma.
So in conclusion, I had a number of issues with
this series – namely plot, character development and the handling of themes.
It’s also very faux Victorian, if that’s something that will bother you. What’s
left to recommend it then? Well, there’s an addictive quality in the writing,
and an attractiveness in the mood and setting. There are also moments of great
tenderness and poignancy, though these instances were too few and far in
between. I don’t regret reading this series, but I doubt I’ll read it again.
Alex’s
Rating: 2.5/5
