The Sweet Far Thing

3.75 stars!!!!!!

my favorite book in the trilogy! gemma was so much more likable and much more independent and seeing that growth in her makes me so happy!!!! i love libba bray's writing soooo much, only 3 more book then i think i've read all of her novels (before the devil breaks you, vacations from hell, and it's just jump to the left for those wondering)

I'm late coming to this but I'd loved Libba Bray's other books and figured I should check these out. (Also I read all 3 together in a week of quarantine without pausing to review between them, so they've blurred together in my mind.) Basically there is a lot to like but also...well...Libba Bray has deffo grown as an author. These are messy and draggy books, and the ~mystery~ is unnecessarily prolonged and I kind of just wanted to keep shaking Gemma to be like NO, ASK A FUCKING QUESTION AND GET AN ANSWER ALREADY!!!!

But I like Gemma and I like the realistically messy characters.

(I used the same review for books 1 and 2 and all this still applies but also I STILL feel unsatisfied with the worldbuilding of the realms?? Like this was so long and still didn't answer my questions. Mild props for making the queer subtext text. Mild un-props for killing off the British-Indian love interest [esp when the nature of the magical sacrifice is still unclear?!])

Whatever. I'm glad this trilogy got Libba Bray her start and maybe in some ways her training wheels before writing the fantastic DIVINERS series that I love with my whole heart.