A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
Title: A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
Pages: 403
Rating: 4/5
Genre: YA lit/Fantasy
Summary (off Goodreads): A Victorian boarding school story, a Gothic mansion mystery, a gossipy romp about a clique of girlfriends, and a dark other-worldly fantasy--jumble them all together and you have this complicated and unusual first novel. Gemma, 16, has had an unconventional upbringing in India, until the day she foresees her mother's death in a black, swirling vision that turns out to be true. Sent back to England, she is enrolled at Spence, a girls' academy with a mysterious burned-out East Wing. There Gemma is snubbed by powerful Felicity, beautiful Pippa, and even her own dumpy roommate Ann, until she blackmails herself and Ann into the treacherous clique. Gemma is distressed to find that she has been followed from India by Kartik, a beautiful young man who warns her to fight off the visions. Nevertheless, they continue, and one night she is led by a child-spirit to find a diary that reveals the secrets of a mystical Order. The clique soon finds a way to accompany Gemma to the other-world realms of her visions "for a bit of fun" and to taste the power they will never have as Victorian wives, but they discover that the delights of the realms are overwhelmed by a menace they cannot control. Gemma is left with the knowledge that her role as the link between worlds leaves her with a mission to seek out the "others" and rebuild the Order. A Great and Terrible Beauty is an impressive first book in what should prove to be a fascinating trilogy.
Review: This is the second time that I've read this book and I did enjoy it more this time than the first, but it still doesn't quite live up to the expectations of the hype it has been given.
Gemma Doyle is the main protagonist and I actually really loved her. She's a witty, sarcastic and strong willed girl living in a time when it's improper to be all these things. Women in her world are meant to be demure, obedient and always polite and refined. Gemma, who has been raised away from Engl...more This is the second time that I've read this book and I did enjoy it more this time than the first, but it still doesn't quite live up to the expectations of the hype it has been given.
Gemma Doyle is the main protagonist and I actually really loved her. She's a witty, sarcastic and strong willed girl living in a time when it's improper to be all these things. Women in her world are meant to be demure, obedient and always polite and refined. Gemma, who has been raised away from England and these expectations, is none of those things. She's sarcastic and impatient and generally doesn't want to deal with the silliness of the girls around her. However, that doesn't stop her from being drawn to the "popular" girls. She knows that they're ridiculous and that they're obnoxious but, at the end of the day, she still doesn't want to be alone. She still feels the need to belong.
I also liked how all of these supposedly well brought up girls all had their flaws. They weren't as perfect as they presented themselves. Felicity was the Queen Bee and she had a mother who left her father to be a courtesan. Felicity also never sees her father, yet can't seem to stop idolizing him. Pippa has a dark secret (or at least, it's dark for her time period.) She has epilepsy and parents who are hoping to marry her off before anyone finds out. Ann is forever doomed to be poor and some rich man's governess and Genna is still reeling from her mother's death... as is her father. Gemma's father is a ghost of who he was, no longer able to function without her mother. I loved the characters that Bray created because they are wonderfully flawed living in a world where they're expected to have no flaws. As a reader, you really don't like these girls to begin with but, by the end, you can't help but feel sorry for them.
In the midst of Gemma's personal tragedy, she begins to have visions. One of these visions leads her to the diary of Mary Dowd, a girl who is part of an occult called the Order. Gemma learns to cross over into a different realm, a realm where her mother still exists. Gemma also brings her friends to this other realm. I loved the dream realm because it allowed you to see another side to these girls. It let you see them as they wish that they were. Felicity wanted to be strong, Ann beautiful, to be seen, and Pippa wanted romance in her life. Gemma got to spend time with her mother and learn about herself and her new-found powers.
But they were powers that had to stay in the realm. If Gemma brought them out, she could allow Circe in, a creature trying to gain more an more power and who had been cut off from the realms for years. This is where we really get to see how relationships between mothers and their daughters never change. Despite how much she missed her mother, how sad she was when her mother died and how happy she was when her mother returned, Gemma still fought with her mother like before her death. They were still at odds. Gemma wanted to bring the magic into the world to help her friends, to make life better for them and not to subject them to the misery that was to be their well-bred lives. Her mother warned her, repeatedly, against it.
Bray also adds a little bit of mystery from multiple places. It's Mary Dowd's journal that allows her to discover the realms, but it's Kartik that continually warns her away from them, scared of what will happen if they're opened again and reasonably so. Circe is looking to destroy everything. If the realms are opened, she will have access to that power. You don't really know much about Kartik other than he's a gypsy and Gemma seems to continually dream about him. His brother also died, protecting Gemma's mother.
It's not until the end of the book that you find out Mary Dowd was actually Gemma's mother. And Mary's friend, Sarah Reese-tomb, is now Circe. Gemma's mother helped turned her friend into the monster that she is now, however unintentional it was. I liked that it helped you see Gemma's mother as a person who made large mistakes in her life, mistakes that cost many people dearly. It allowed Gemma to see that her mother wasn't perfect, which inevitably changed their relationship.
The thing about this book, however, that really I didn't enjoy was that it's not really memorable. I enjoyed reading it and I liked the characters and writing and plot but I didn't come out of the book thinking, "wow, that was amazing." I've heard a lot of good things about this series and I understand the praise but honestly, I don't come away with the need to continue the series (which is probably why I didn't the first time I read it.) I never made it to book two and while, yes, that's my intention now, I don't feel like I need to pick it up right this minute to find out what happens. I guess that I'm just disappointed that a book that is actually very good, isn't able to instill that feeling of "WOW" in me.
Overall, it was enjoyable and well written. I really love Libba Bray (her blog is about the most hysterical thing I've ever read) and enjoyed the book, I just wish I could see her blog writing translate into her book writing. We see glimpses of it with Gemma but it never really comes to life. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy novels and YA lit. It's an easy read and fun.
Books so far this year: 19/75
Currently Reading: Rebel Angels by Libba Bray
You can read this and all my reviews at im_writing or my Goodreads Account.