Great and Terrible Plot Hole

So here are my thoughts on A Great and Terrible Beauty:

This book had high goals, but didn't successfully achieve them.
The parts outside of the supernatural--the social commentary, the psychology of the girls, etc--were ambitious in all the right ways, but they would have benefited from all the metaphors not being shoved down my throat. Things were a bit too expositiony.

As for the magical elements...to be honest, it seemed like the author didn't even want to write those parts. It seemed like she wanted to write a book about women and the challenge of power in a confining culture. She picked magic as a way of symbolizing that power, but the parts where the girls use magic are rushed and ill defined and all-in-all gave the impression the author was in a big hurry to get back to the social commentary.

But the thing is, when you create a supernatural cannon for your story, you can't phone it in and still have a good book. The "Realms" (note the plural) consisted of two, maybe three settings, the Order is barely explained and poorly built upon, and the rules of the magical road are not defined at all.

I'll give this book major props for not shying away from the dark human flaws the society of 1895 created in its women--the characters are the only reason I finished it, however much they lacked subtlety--but it looses points for poor storytelling.

Aaaaand those are my two cents. On a book. On an art website. Yeah.