Rebel Angels

Locations
Call Number: Teen Book / Fiction / Fantasy / Bray, Libba
On Shelf At: Pittsfield Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Pittsfield Teen Books 4-week checkout	Teen Book / Fiction / Fantasy / Bray, Libba	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Gemma and her friends from the Spence Academy return to the Realms to defeat her foe, Circe, and to bind the magic that has been released.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

really good submitted by ColeenT on July 15, 2011, 11:49am wonderful series

loved it submitted by ersmith.maps on July 22, 2012, 6:42pm My favorite out of the trilogy!

Rebel angels submitted by Jacy on June 16, 2013, 8:28pm Rebel angels is one book from a wonderfully written series. Definately for older teens though

a diverting pleasure to read submitted by torikaebaya on February 4, 2017, 12:22pm Gemma reminds me of so much of a Tori Amos song. She is incapable of repression—a juggernaut of willpower and righteousness. The only problem is, Gemma’s too young and naïve in the ways of the world… but not for long.

Unlike its predecessor, Rebel Angels allows the girls of the Neo-Order to really grow and flourish into cunning, unafraid young women. While Gemma finds herself squarely situated as the heroine in the tempus immemorial never ending struggle between good and evil, the reader finds herself falling fast into a yin yang bittersweet journey. Felicity, or as I will heretofore refer to her as that “Railing Maleficent Oddity” (thank you Ms. Bray for causing several embarrassing bouts of uncontrollable laughter on the bus) is one of the best fleshed-out supporting characters a young adult novel could ask for. Though often petulant and decidedly stuck in a Victorian England (ie. devoid of Spice Girls) chamber of etiquette horrors with her reprehensible mother, Felicity blossoms into a loving, compassionate sister at arms (both literally and figuratively). Ann Bradshaw (AKA Fukuzawa Yumi) delivers a joyful rejoinder to the uppity bourgeoisie caste-sensitive aristocracy. Ann’s super-sleuth moonlighting brings out a much-needed Holmes to Circe’s Moriarty; possessing a quicksilver clarity that strung-out Gemma lacks, Ann is worth more as a cleric triumvirate than as a sister-in-law (no, this is not a spoiler--I am merely extrapolating).

As sequels go, Rebel Angels holds its own. Tantalizing, yet dour; frightening yet vindicating, surreal and then some; treated to a healthy amount of author research and schema coaxing, it is no less fulfilling than its antecedent with just the right amount of tapestry stark. You go girl!

However, I was more than a little disappointed with Kartik. The reader has even fewer reasons to like his character in Rebels than in Beauty, and his personal motivations are bland (if it indeed they even exist). As a love-interest Kartik is a fickle childish prude with zero development (albeit taking a backseat in this installment to the imho far more interesting but base Simon Middleton) and even less imagination (“I give unto you this pocket knife of protection…”). It’s obvious to everyone he’s destined to marry Gemma and thereby overcome the low-birth adversity that denied his older brother Mary (an educated guess, not a spoiler)… but I don’t have to like him or buy into him.

All-in-all, Rebel Angels is a diverting pleasure to read/devour and a gripping surreal jaunt for the senses (disclaimer: not for a weak constitution).

Okay submitted by zmclaugh on July 25, 2018, 5:00pm I love the aesthetics of this series so much. I like the setting and I like the plot. I do not like Gemma as a main character and I find the relationships hard to believe or sympathize with.