I recently finished the Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray;
about a girl in Victorian England who’s sent to boarding school to be a lady
after her mother is killed. While there, she realizes she has the power to
enter the Realms, a place of magic that was sealed off twenty-five years ago,
and can restore the magic to it. Of course, that’s like saying Harry Potter is
about a boy who finds out he’s a wizard and has to defeat an evil one. There is
so much going on it’s impossible to just summarize.
A big theme throughout the novels is the idea of illusion
and reality, and how much of it is carried on to both the realms and the real
world. In the ‘real’ world, Gemma and the other girls at Spence are taught to
act in a certain way, to project an illusion of who they really are: polite,
well-mannered, without strong opinions and convictions. Scandal most always be
denied and covered, such as Gemma’s family lying about her father’s addiction
to opium or Felicity’s mother’s affair in Paris. In the society they live in,
and in many ways the one we live in, unpleasantness is glossed over, or
ignored. Gemma herself feels stifled by this world, she describes it as being
in a skin that doesn’t fit quite right, she is constantly trying to adjust
while everyone else seems to fit theirs easily.
In Rebel Angels, the second book, she is keenly aware of
this when she’s pursued by Simon Middleton, an eligible bachelor and is
constantly aware of how she appears. She wants to project a lady who is
everything Simon thinks she is: adventurous, charming, witty, and
well-mannered. However, even as she is attracted to the role, she is
uncomfortable within it; doubting that Simon would be able to understand her as
she really is—in relations to the realms, and the difficult choices and horrors
she has faced there—she breaks off the relationship.
One of the things I enjoyed the most about this series is
the way Libba Bray made this so relatable to the real modern world we live in,
despite the historical setting and fantasy element. The characters are
wonderfully alive, and their emotions and struggles are so relatable. How many
of us have tried to pretend to be someone we aren’t to fit someone else’s
ideals; whether it’s a family member’s, a partner, or a friend’s? Some people
choose as Gemma does, to remain alone or unsatisfied until we can find someone
we don’t have to hide or pretend from, but many people take the other course,
slimming themselves down to become someone else until who they really are
becomes unrecognizable even to themselves. Many of the characters of Gemma’s
world are comfortable settling, allowing someone else to form their mold.
In comparison, the realms, which is a world of magic and
illusion, they are shown as they truly are. Felicity, whose high-spiritedness
is something to be tamed in the real world runs naked with a huntress, learning
archery. Ann, the scholarship student who is at Spence to learn to be a
governess to her richer cousins, is shown as the beauty she truly is, if in the
real world she didn’t try to her pain beneath too many sweets and cuts on her
wrists, free of shame. It is in the world of illusion that they first truly see
and believe in their true potential.
In another capacity, there is the illusion of who is really
good or bad. There really aren’t truly evil creatures in this novel apart from
the Winterland creatures, because everyone has many different sides. Gemma
mistakenly places her trust in some, mistrusting others she shouldn’t. One way
the author does this is with the hidden names members of the Order used
throughout the books; such as Miss Moore, a teacher Gemma comes to love, trust,
and rely on for guidance, who is really the sorceress Circe who killed her
mother and has been attempting to use her. The reader, like Gemma, is shocked
and feels betrayed by this character, since the illusion she’d projected had
been so masterful. This worked for me on so many levels, because in the world
those we should mistrust don’t often walk around with an evil face. Gemma, like
many people, is taken in by the illusions of friendship from someone who didn’t
have her interests at heart.
Beyond Miss Moore, there is Kartik, who is pulled by the
Rakshana and by his growing affection for Gemma. He tries to play both sides,
showing both the loyal soldier and the friend. I found this so interesting
because it’s so easy to understand why he would struggle, and his choice makes
him all the more likeable as a character than if he’d simply renounced the
Rakshana from the beginning and gone completely over to Gemma’s side. The
Rakshana are his security blanket, his belief in where he belongs, and it is
frightening to completely shed one skin for a more uncertain one beneath it.
https://twitter.com/#!/KarenWapinski
