Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Misty

I was a little leery of reading this. I didn't really like the first
book all that much, though I thought it had potential. But I am taking
part in a summer YA reading challenge, so I thought I'd give this a
shot.


But first:

Rebel Angels continues the story of Gemma Doyle, a 16 year old girl at Spence, an English boarding school. In A Great and Terrible Beauty
Gemma discovers she is a very powerful girl, daughter of a member of a
group called the Order, and able to enter "the Realms" and use magic.
She also learns that all is not well in the Realms, and bad people
would like to harness the magic for evil. In Rebel Angels, Gemma
continues to secure the Realms and learn to manage the magic. The lines
between good and bad blur a little more, and Gemma finds herself facing
a number of difficult choices, among them who to trust and even who to
love.



I did think it was an improvement over the first, though some of the things that bothered me about A Great and Terrible Beauty
are still present in this, though to a lesser degree. In #1 I felt that
the characters were flat and the story predictable, and I feel Bray has
improved that here, though there is still room for further improvement.
The dialogue, too, wasn't as cheesy in this one (I only rolled my eyes
a few times). But I felt the relationship with Simon was underdeveloped
(they meet each other a handful of times and he's one of the most
wealthy, handsome and eligible bachelors in the country, and he's
already hinting at marriage? Seems a bit much). Bray's handling of this
is fairly indicative of her writing style in general. Rather than layer
and develop things fully, she tosses them in in an exciting way, and
then lets them fade or drags them out, but never really makes them feel
authentic. She comes closer in this book, but still...