Book Review: Rebel Angels by Libba Bray
Jul. 14th, 2006 05:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
juushikaTitle: Rebel Angels
Author: Libba Bray
Published: New York: Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2005
Page Count: 560
Total Page Count: 22,624
Text Number: 64
Read For: my own enjoyment
Short review: The sequel to A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels continues the story of Gemma and her friends. Also set in Victorian England, this time over a school holiday, it is another gothic story of magic, otherworlds, and a battle of good against evil. Although Gemma did what she could in the last book to prevent the magic of the Realms from falling in to the wrong hands, that magic still needs to be safely sealed away. Gemma and her friends search the Realms for the Temple, a magical strong hold where Gemma will be able to seal the magic. Meanwhile, Circe is still on the lose, in search of Gemma and of power, and the girls are distracted by the social and family issues as they spend Christmas break in London. Rebel Angels improves over the original novel, offering a more coherent and satisfying plotline, additional character backstories, and a more mature writing style on Bray's part. However, the plot twists that make up the end of the novel are forced and unrealistically unpredictable, and both the protagonist and story remain a little bit immature, abrasive, and insulting. I don't really recommend either book in the series, but if you do read A Great and Terrible Beauty then I highly recommend you also read Rebel Angels. It moves quickly and shows a lot of improvement over the first book, creating a more enjoyable and complete story.
I read this book in a single day, in only one or two sittings—the book isn't challenging but it is easy to get immersed in and it reads quickly. It serves well as an amusing, light summer read. It's also a vast improvement over A Great and Terrible Beauty, and is a necessary companion to that novel. The writing style is cleaner, moves faster, and doesn't seem as gothic-horror-cliche as Beauty did. Gemma remains the narrator, but now that that fact wasn't merely exacerbating Bray's immature writing style, I found her a lot easier to read and put up with. The plot of Rebel Angels picks up where the prequel left off and provides a much needed continuation in terms of plot, characters, and resolution. Beauty has a climax, but the outcome is left largely unresolved and the size of the climax doesn't seem to fit the scope of the build up. Rebel Angels, however, resolves the previous book and also provides a solid plot of its own with a climax that is a pretty close fit to the build up and scope of the novel. The reader is left much more satisfied, the text feels more complete, and everything is much more exciting and worthwhile.
Rebel Angels is definitely not without its faults, however. Much of the book is spent on researching the history of the Order and attempting to determine the identity of Circe. When identities are finally revealed, they come as a shock—a huge shock that makes them seem entirely unjustified. When the reader can look back and the text and see, in retrospect, that it all makes sense now, the writer has truly accomplished a skillful plot twist. When the reader, as is the case with Rebel Angels feels confused, cheated, and worried even after reflecting on the rest of the text, the writer has failed. The only sensical part of the plot twists are that they don't make any sense, and are rather done to surprise the reader and keep her on her toes. It's an insulting trope and made the end of the book, in terms of character more than action, very disappointing. I felt like Bray had resorted to dirty tricks in order to keep her novel dramatic and interesting—not exactly the mark of a fine author.
I think there are many good children's and young adults' series out there that are worth reading, and I would recommend all of them before Libba Bray's work. Her settings are cliche, she is an immature, clumsy writer, and her first person narration is grating. That said, both A Great and Terrible Beauty and Rebel Angels are amusing, quick reads. However faulted they are, they are fun, move quickly, and provide a nice, light read with some truly enjoyable gothic and magical elements. If you chose to read the first, I highly recommend you read the second. It puts the first in perspective and finishes up the story, creating a more satisfying plot. These aren't books I plan to come back to, but they were fun, if disappointing and frustrating, reads.
Review posted here at Amazon.com.
Author: Libba Bray
Published: New York: Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2005
Page Count: 560
Total Page Count: 22,624
Text Number: 64
Read For: my own enjoyment
Short review: The sequel to A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels continues the story of Gemma and her friends. Also set in Victorian England, this time over a school holiday, it is another gothic story of magic, otherworlds, and a battle of good against evil. Although Gemma did what she could in the last book to prevent the magic of the Realms from falling in to the wrong hands, that magic still needs to be safely sealed away. Gemma and her friends search the Realms for the Temple, a magical strong hold where Gemma will be able to seal the magic. Meanwhile, Circe is still on the lose, in search of Gemma and of power, and the girls are distracted by the social and family issues as they spend Christmas break in London. Rebel Angels improves over the original novel, offering a more coherent and satisfying plotline, additional character backstories, and a more mature writing style on Bray's part. However, the plot twists that make up the end of the novel are forced and unrealistically unpredictable, and both the protagonist and story remain a little bit immature, abrasive, and insulting. I don't really recommend either book in the series, but if you do read A Great and Terrible Beauty then I highly recommend you also read Rebel Angels. It moves quickly and shows a lot of improvement over the first book, creating a more enjoyable and complete story.
I read this book in a single day, in only one or two sittings—the book isn't challenging but it is easy to get immersed in and it reads quickly. It serves well as an amusing, light summer read. It's also a vast improvement over A Great and Terrible Beauty, and is a necessary companion to that novel. The writing style is cleaner, moves faster, and doesn't seem as gothic-horror-cliche as Beauty did. Gemma remains the narrator, but now that that fact wasn't merely exacerbating Bray's immature writing style, I found her a lot easier to read and put up with. The plot of Rebel Angels picks up where the prequel left off and provides a much needed continuation in terms of plot, characters, and resolution. Beauty has a climax, but the outcome is left largely unresolved and the size of the climax doesn't seem to fit the scope of the build up. Rebel Angels, however, resolves the previous book and also provides a solid plot of its own with a climax that is a pretty close fit to the build up and scope of the novel. The reader is left much more satisfied, the text feels more complete, and everything is much more exciting and worthwhile.
Rebel Angels is definitely not without its faults, however. Much of the book is spent on researching the history of the Order and attempting to determine the identity of Circe. When identities are finally revealed, they come as a shock—a huge shock that makes them seem entirely unjustified. When the reader can look back and the text and see, in retrospect, that it all makes sense now, the writer has truly accomplished a skillful plot twist. When the reader, as is the case with Rebel Angels feels confused, cheated, and worried even after reflecting on the rest of the text, the writer has failed. The only sensical part of the plot twists are that they don't make any sense, and are rather done to surprise the reader and keep her on her toes. It's an insulting trope and made the end of the book, in terms of character more than action, very disappointing. I felt like Bray had resorted to dirty tricks in order to keep her novel dramatic and interesting—not exactly the mark of a fine author.
I think there are many good children's and young adults' series out there that are worth reading, and I would recommend all of them before Libba Bray's work. Her settings are cliche, she is an immature, clumsy writer, and her first person narration is grating. That said, both A Great and Terrible Beauty and Rebel Angels are amusing, quick reads. However faulted they are, they are fun, move quickly, and provide a nice, light read with some truly enjoyable gothic and magical elements. If you chose to read the first, I highly recommend you read the second. It puts the first in perspective and finishes up the story, creating a more satisfying plot. These aren't books I plan to come back to, but they were fun, if disappointing and frustrating, reads.
Review posted here at Amazon.com.
