A Great and Terrible Beauty (The Gemma Doyle Trilogy)

A Great and Terrible Beauty has edged its way onto many a tabletop display in bookstores and I finally decided to break down and see why. To start, the cover is pretty darn alluring for its market of adolescent girls. Giant type over a beautiful girl in a corset... immediately, we're clued in that

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we're going to find a historical novel with some luscious undertones and most likely a romantic (though probably forbidden) storyline in the background, but with one girl's struggle to fit into a particular mold of society taking precedence. (Or at least if you study bookcovers like I do, you might think this.) And this is true... somewhat. I'll admit, though, I was surprised when the back of the book told me about the supernatural elements at play that were more than the usual ghosts and suspense found in Gothic novels.

This is the first in a trilogy of books set in the late 1800s about Gemma Doyle, a young British girl raised in India. On her sixteenth birthday, she feuds with her mother over her desire to visit London and runs off, only to then have her mother and another man die in a strange and mysterious way. Also mysterious is the fact that Gemma witnesses their deaths in an overpowering vision, but cannot understand what forces are at work, both in their deaths and in her vision. Gemma's father, whose hold on things already seems tenuous at best, suffers a nervous collapse and they return to England, where Gemma will attend the prestigious Spence boarding school for young ladies.

At Spence, she is immediately faced with the structured Victorian lifestyle that requires young ladies to be well-bred, compliant to the wishes of their elders, and highly accomplished. But let's not forget we're also dealing with adolescent girls and evidently, they remain the same no matter what the time period might be. At Spence, there is a strong clique of beautiful and wealthy girls that Gemma at once despises and yet feels pulled towards. At the same time, Gemma is still having flashes of visions and she discovers that she's been followed to England by a young Indian man (the brother of the man who died with her mother) who warns her to block out the visions at all costs. At this point, I find it hard to summarize without laughing a little bit... girl is unsure of her powers; girl is led to find a secret diary of another Spence girl who had similar powers; despite being warned by the Indian boy, she tries her powers out with her friends and they enter "the realms," a place where everything is shaped by their desires; girl is reunited with mother in these "realms" and mother warns her about taking magic into the real world; girl and friends do this anyway and subequently get in way over their heads with some darker force named Circe. Yeah. I suppose the less laughable summary would be: "As she struggles to keep her secret and still learn more about the powers she seems to possess, she and three friends play dangerously with forces beyond their understanding." but that's not quite as honest.

I admit right off the bat that I have a soft spot for young adult literature. There's something fascinating about work aimed towards a period of life where there's so much going on in terms of one's psychological development, education, and personality... not to mention the outward expression of it with inter-personal relationships. Young adults are finding out who they are and who they want to become. There's this interesting issue of trust at work whenever you're dealing with children's and young adult literature. What the author chooses to convey to the reader could shape this young person's life in ways they might not realize. It's fascinating and that's the logic I use whenever I think I should be reading a grown-up book. In addition, I really enjoy historical novels, so I was guiltily assuming that I'd really enjoy this series.

Not so much. On the teen education front, clearly Libba Bray's focus here was on the idea of personal insecurities and the question of coming to terms with one's self and having sincere friendships with others. There's also a healthy dose of forgiving each other and ourselves for the wrongs we've done or think we've done. Certain members (the leaders, really) of the pack of cruel girls at Spence become some of Gemma's closest friends (though honestly, it seems that this happens because of limited options) and they all have their own secrets, even as they bluff their way through appearing perfect. I feel that I'm not alone in thinking that these girls are not terribly likeable, but then, they're teenage girls. They do mean and hateful things to each other. When first entering the realms, Gemma is asked if she really trusts these girls and she immediately said yes -- which rather shocked me. Trust had not yet been earned and despite the professed bonds by the end of the book, I'm not sure it ever was merited. But, as I mentioned, we are dealing with teenage girls and at least Gemma herself is not some shining and perfect example of trust, honesty, and goodness. Everyone has flaws, though we might be a little too forgiving towards some of them. The historical features of the novel are more or less used for background elements and and when convenient in plotpoints -- one girl is being forced to marry a rich older man, gypsies (in a very stereotyped portrayal) populate the woods, there's the general backdrop of girls in a society that has specific expectations of them when they have different desires, etc. The time frame basically gave us some more Gothic elements, but clearly these girls were clearly created to seem more modern as a means of getting adolescent readers to relate to them. There are some steamy fantasies and underage drinking... definitely things that seem engineered to be more modern.

In the end, I also wasn't terribly swept away with the idea of "the realms" and the magical things taking place. Intrigued, perhaps, but never really convinced that they would be fantastic. In addition, I found most everything to be quite predictable, so I wasn't surprised by any betrayal, death, or revelations of character. And here's an incredibly petty criticism, but I was surprised when I discovered that Libba Bray herself is a redhead, as Gemma is not a convincing one. She lacks the spark of personality and there was a complete lack of a reaction from surrounding characters to this fact (and surely at the time, there would be something snide about Ireland or Scotland mentioned to Gemma once she reached Spence, and in India it would have been even rarer and comment-inducing). A bigger deal was the fact that she has her mother's green eyes. Alas.

What I did appreciate, I suppose, were the great pains taken to suggest that we're all flawed and no one is perfect. There was also a good emphasis on how there were very limited options for girls in Victorian times (even if everything didn't quite feel accurate enough). And perhaps another benefit might be that the adolescent girls reading this might end up reading real Gothic literature as a result, and fingers crossed that they won't stop reading when they realize they won't be getting the same kind of steamy scenes and blunt, modern language in the older stuff.

So... will I be reading the rest of the trilogy? Normally, you'd assume that a reviewer with these opinions would say no, but then you have to remember that I have trouble letting go of things. And when it's so easy to read young adult novels quickly, I find it hard to justify the abandonment of them. In the end, I'll let my pocketbook make the call. If I end up finding them at a used bookstore or on super sale, then I'll continue, but I will not be paying market price, even for a fellow redhead.

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When Gemma's mother dies of mysterious circumstances that Gemma foresees in a vision, Gemma is packed off to a London boarding school for girls where she hopes to become the sort of girl who will be able to get a good husband. There, she quickly gains entry into an elite circle of new friends -

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Felicity, a power hungry Admiral's daughter; Pippa, a stunning beauty about to be married off to a much older man; and the unlikely Ann, an orphan whose best hope in Victorian England is to gain a place as governess to a wealthy family. Among her new friends, with the help of secret diary discovered in another vision, she learns that she has the power to transport herself and her friends into magical realms. As the powerlessness their gender dictates for them is revealed, the allure of the magical realms where they get to choose and their best hopes are realized grows. As the four bring magic back to their own world, danger lurks, and only Gemma has the power to stop it.

Despite its historical setting complete with its implications for the girls, A Great and Terrible Beauty's characters face similar situations to today's teenage girls. For Gemma, as for many teenagers, there is always that dangerous line between being herself and changing herself to fit in with her peers. Her friends' activities are at once attractive and repulsive to her, but Gemma is by no means perfect. She is spunky, opinionated, and outspoken. She is blunt and tactless when perfect manners are expected of her. She knows what's right but she does what's wrong. In other words, she is a very real character and one who is easy to sympathize with.

Bray's writing is richly atmospheric, effortlessly evoking the many settings of her story. From a busy Indian marketplace to a slightly spooky girl's boarding school in London to incredible magical realms, Bray's beautifully rendered places play almost as important a role in her story as the girls themselves. Her rich descriptions make this novel a particularly engaging page-turner.

Most significant of all is Bray's skillful handling of the problems inherent in being a young woman in Victorian times and her use of these issues to further our understanding of the particular grip the magical realms have on Gemma, Felicity, Pippa, and Ann. Girls are sent to Spence not to learn for the sake of knowledge but to store up the lessons that will make them good and cultured wives for some wealthy gentleman of their parents' choosing. Bray's characters are strong-willed young women who desire husbands and beauty and fluent French but also want to have their opinions heard, to be able to have the power to influence the courses of their lives, to accomplish things that women aren't even allowed to attempt. This understandable desire for choice and for power plays beautifully into the girls' growing obsessions with the magical realms that will open for Gemma alone.

My heart's a stone, sinking fast. We make polite conversation. Grandmama tells us of her garden and her visiting and all about who is not speaking to whom these days. Tom prattles on about his studies while Ann hangs on his every word as if he were a god. Father is lost to himself. No one asks how I am or what I am doing. They could not care less. We're all looking glasses, we girls, existing only to reflect their images back to them as they'd like to be seen. Hollow vessels of girls to be rinsed of our own ambitions, wants, and opinions, just waiting to be filled with the cool, tepid water of gracious compliance.

A Great and Terrible Beauty is a delicious, spooky page-turner that doesn't shy away from serious themes. One of my favorite reads of the year.

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I almost didn't make it through this book, and as it is I skimmed through the last fifty pages or so. This is the first book in a trilogy based upon a Victorian-age teenager who discovers her mystical powers while attending a boarding school near London.

A small bookseller recommended this book to

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me on the basis that I enjoy historical fiction, which is astonishing because this book bastardizes the historical period to such an extent you can't even suspend your disbelief. Gemma and her three "frenemies" from school think, talk and behave like modern-day teenagers in corsets. None of the characters are believable or likable in any way. The backdrop of the magical realms into which Gemma and her friends visit and the danger lurking there is not compelling enough to make up for the dismal character development.

I read the book to preview it as a possible gift for my seventh-grade niece. I will pass. Perhaps the author felt her characters had to have modern sensibilities in order to engage young adult readers, but I think it's condescending to assume that a girl of one era can't relate to a girl of another, especially once they understand the difference between the cultures and expectations of the historical period and the modern day. Books should both entertain and educate. This one falls short on both counts.

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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

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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. [taken from back cover of book]

Firstly, I want to say that I absolutely loved Ms. Bray’s descriptions of colonial India, Victorian England and The Realms - such very different places but so vividly detailed. Oh and Spence... {sighs} I love Victorian finishing schools. I liked Gemma - I thought Ms. Bray did a great job depicting her as a normal teen with all the emotional turmoil, teen angst, pettiness, selfishness, etc., that you would see in any teen. I liked that she wasn't perfect - that she had her flaws and in the end that was what won me over. My only complaint was that (on certain occasions) the way she talked and expressed herself was not very true to that of a Victorian young lady - I found it somewhat modern.

I liked the friendship that the girls sparked - I thought they were all so different (some likeable, some not so much) but in the end, they made it work. I also enjoyed how Kartik was woven into the story - especially in those dream sequences (wink wink). I wasn’t sure if to like him or not (somewhat the way Gemma feels about him) but I think there’s still hope for him yet. I really had to appreciate that Ms. Bray managed to tell an entertaining story, while trying to instill ideas of feminine power.

My only issue with this book is that they paint suicide in such an easy light. I really don’t want to spoil or give anything away, so I won’t be able to discuss this in as much detail as I’d like, but there is more than one suicide and the characters just seem “okay” with this.

All in all, I still thought that the story flowed really well and had plenty of twists and turns to keep me guessing. There were plenty of loose ends - but alas, there are two more books in this trilogy which I’m sure will remedy that. In the end, I found A Great and Terrible Beauty entertaining and definitely a page-turner. I would definitely recommend to lovers of historical fiction with a (slightly creepy) magical twist.

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After a tragedy, a girl returns from India to a boarding school in England. She has frightening visions that she cannot control. As she enters the social world of the boarding school, she draws other girls into the world of her visions.

I liked it, but I think it had the potential to be a much

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better book. It bothered me that the protagonist resented the arrogance of the inner circle while she was on the outside, but was perfectly happy being exclusionary as soon as she was on the inside. But more importantly, the author could not seem to figure out how to handle the other world. Early glimpses of it were eerie. A scene involving a public seance was particularly good. But it rather devolved into a static shared daydream, and in the end the book runs out of momentum.

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I can see why this book earned such acclaim. It's a fast young adult read that blends teenage angst with a gothic, creepy Victorian boarding school setting. Add into that dark magic, murder, sexual awakenings, and there's a whole lot going on. I did find major plot elements to be fairly predictable

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but there were some nice twists along the way, including the surprising friendship between four girls who start as vicious enemies.

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This book is recommended for teenage girls; but, I didn't know that when I went to the library and found the title calling out to me. This is a story of a 16 year old girl named Gemma who was living quite comfortably with her mother and father in India until a dreadful day brought about the death

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of her mother by a mysteriously evil being. Gemma is then sent off to a finishing school in London. While there, she meets several other girls, all of whom have problems of their own. Emma finds that most of the girls deal with their own internal pain (like her roommate) by not sharing it with anyone while still others by emotionally tormenting other girls who were weaker than themselves. During the settling-in and adjusting to this charged atmosphere, a diary that Gemma finds forges bonds between her and several of the other girls. The diary tells of two girls who had attended the same finishing school years earlier and both of these girls had practiced magic. This was of great interest to Gemma because of the mysterious death of her mother and she is now experiencing visions that she's unable to control. During an outing, Gemma meets a mysterious boy named Kartik who she discovers was the same boy she had seen running from the scene of her mother's death. He tells her that her visions are dangerous. But between the book, the visions, her relationships with girls in her close circle, and other events, Gemma is not disswayed and with the other girls she and they would find each day brings them closer to uncovering secrets that only magic holds.

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looked to be promising at the onset; quickly deterioriated into a foolish story too loosely connected

I loved this book. I wasn't sure I would and I bought the novel on a whim. I didn't realize it was a part of a trilogy, but I went out and bought the other two books right away. At full price. That alone is amazing, because I love buying my books but I almost always wait for a good deal. The book

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started off a little rough. I wasn't feeling the setting in Victorian times in India. I thought the main character, Gemma, whiny and spoiled. Before the scenes in India were over, I was fully interested and invested in the tale. Things pick up when Gemma's mother dies and Gemma is moved into a boarding school in London's Spence Academy. There, Gemma makes friends and enemies. She learns the secrets of the school and finds a diary of a girl named Mary Dowd who once attended the Academy. Soon Gemma learns how visit the Realms, a mystical place where all one's hopes and dreams can come true. Once a person can really work the magic there, they can carry the magic back into the real world also. The interaction amoungst the girls is what carries the book more so even than the excitement in the Realms or the mysteries the girls solve. There is definitely more going on in the story with the girls than what meets the eye and some of it is quite gripping. The book was a very quick read and I enjoyed it and was saddened to see it end. The immediate storylines are completed but some of the bigger story arc is left to entice us to read further. This was a great story and one I can suggest to both teens and adults.

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This is SO much better ~ more intelligent, more fascinating, better written ~ than Twilight. No vampires or werewolves (so far), but magic? Yes! No hot panting romantic encounters, but some wonderfully written romantic yearnings. Plus murder, deceit, drug use, teenage angst, danger, humor, delight,

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monsters, magic. Can't wait to get back to that world in The Sweet Far Thing and Rebel Angels.

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I liked the story, but the characters were a bit underdeveloped and the story was extremely slow, except for at the end where it felt like the author rushed the story.

A Great and Terrible Beauty is book that deals with supernatural powers in a young girl’s life. This book is about Gemma Doyle’s discovery of not only herself but of a new power that she has received. The story takes place in 1895, a time when young ladies went to prestigious schools to learn

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how to be proper ladies of society and perfect wives. As Gemma is learning how to do this, she is trying to make new friends to fit in and also learning about the “gift” that she has. Not only does this book deal with the social pressure of making it in a new place it deals with self discovery. A Great and Terrible Beauty is told form the perspective of Gemma, a girl who has just lost her mother to a horrible death and never knew her father.
This novel has a sequel titled Rebel Angle which I have also read. When I picked up this book I knew that it had a second part so I was able to take in the hints of what might happen in the next book. A Great and Terrible Beauty was able to set up Rebel Angle very well while still giving a full story. I loved the development of the characters and the way that very little of the book was predictable. There was always a twist and there was also a little bit of mystery. Also during her development she moved. In the beginning of the book she lived in India and after the tragic loss of her mother Gemma moved to London to live with her grandmother and start her training to be a proper lady. This is when she starts her adventure at Spence Academy. At Spence is where she learns about her gift and finds out about her mothers true identity. A Great and Terrible Beauty is one of my favorite books. It is a wonderful novel that I am glad caught my attention one day while I was walking through Borders.

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It was ok. I think I missed something, though, because I don't know what the title has to do with the story. It seemed like a story of what might have happened to Sara Crewe or Mary Lennox if magic had been real in their worlds, but their stories are far more magical. Maybe my expectations are too

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high - most of the YA books I have read recently have either been old favorites (which means all sorts of authorial sins can be forgiven) or new favorites with an inspiring level of writing ability (such as Scott Westerfeld). I expected the writing to be more lyrical; it was too flat for the times and places and events that were being portrayed.

Also, while many things were left unexplained at the end of the book, the events within it were tied up neatly. This left me with a vague curiosity about some things (what was the Order? why was that boy chasing Gemma? what are the Realms and what will happen to that girl now?) but no desire or need to read further in the series.

This is a classic case of 'don't judge a book by its cover'. The cover art is beautiful, and the title brings great expectations, and neither quite lives up to its promise.

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It was great to see one of my fantasies played out into an actual novel. A Great and Terrible Beauty is about a girl in the 18th century I'd say [or 19th] who moves from India to go to a finishing school where she discovers a piece of herself and a whole new magical realm. It's easy to believe it

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takes place in the olden days, as the language and the descriptions continuously reflect it.

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These young Victorian schoolgirls are artfully crafted as is the world of magic entered through their boarding school turning both books into books to reread again and again. With the cuts and snubs of the Victorian upper-class and rigid expectations for young women, the series will appeal to

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lovers of Jane Austen and the Jane Austen mysteries as well as older female readers of the Harry Potter books. Similar in flavor to Theodosia and the Serpent of Chaos.

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This was a nice distraction, but overall I found it pretty predictable and unoriginal. The characters were interesting and the plot was fine, but I felt like I had read this book hundreds of times before and nothing surprised me.

Amazing book, I just recently finished the series (all the books are wonderful), and this book is by far the best out of all of them. It incorporates magic, fantasy, and a victorian setting into one book. I really love the parts where they talk about/ are set in India, that to me was a nice touch.

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The only part that I did not enjoy, is that the story seemed to get a little muddled and then extremely repetitious as the book progressed. Oftentimes I found myself skimming the book, sometimes skipping paragraphs because the story repeats itself so much. When I wasn't skimming the repetitious parts, the story was amazing, I became throughly inthralled in the story. I found that the book lacked research, or it seemed to not necessarily stay true to the period it was set in. Overall wonderful book.

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Gemma Doyle, 16, saw her mother die in India and then was packed off to school. She always wanted to go to school in England but not under these set of circumstances. Added to that, her horror of discovering something strange within her. We then follow Gemma as she tries to assimilate herself in

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the school, gaining friends, making enemies, and at the same time, discovering who she really is.

I have to admit that the beginning annoys me a bit, she's so adolescent. The characters are actually quite realistic (including the flaws of teen girls) and I guess that's what's really annoying me, I find them frustrating as I'm not a teen. But I really enjoyed the mystery and can't wait to continue onto the 2nd book.

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Pretty good, this book focusses a lot on building the action and setting a lot of things up. Worth reading, but I have a feeling that the sequel will be quite a bit better.

Gemma's mother dies in mysterious circumstances so she leaves India and finally gets to go to the boarding school in England she's been hoping for; meets the challenges of her own powers and pwerful cliques; this book gets better and better as it progresses and the look at cliques/class warfare is

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really interesting; burgeoning feminism; some mention of sex

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A popular YA book about the supernatural powers of a young girl, Gemma, 100 years ago. VERY ODD! But also very intriguing. Intriguing enough that I kept reading and am super excited for the third book in the series that comes out in Dec 07. This book is about Gemma moving to England to live at a

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boarding school and her discovery of her powers. I enjoyed it and suggest it for you to read--but be prepared for oddness.

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"In each of us lie good and bad, light and dark, art and pain, choice and regret, cruelty and sacrifice. We're each of us our own chiaroscuro, our own bit of illusion fighting to emerge into something solid, real. We've got to forgive ourselves that. I must remember to forgive myself. Because

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there's an awful lot of gray to work with. No one can live in the light the whole time."

This is my favorite quote from the book and I think it sums up the main point pretty nicely.

I loved this book - the author is amazing, the storyline multi-faceted, the characters well developed - and I gave it 4-1/2 stars. I would've given it 5 had it not been for some of the confusing scenes concerning the realms and its magic.

I would highly recommend this book to others and I have bought the second book in this trilogy, entitled Rebel Angels, so I can start reading it immediately!

The author Libba Bray was so convincing in her account of 1890's London that I assumed she was British - I was shocked to find out she is a Texan living in New York. She writes as if she had been a student at Spence Academy.

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A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray is without a doubt one of my favorite books. This addictive story tells of the adventures of a young girl in the time when women stood in the background, polite and obedient. Gemma Doyle attends Spence Academy after losing her family, and it is here that

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she has intriguing visions. Gemma's tale of unraveling her family's past gets her caught in a web of love and evil that is truly enthralling. Make sure you have time to read this book, because you will not be able to put it down.

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Loved this book a lot. THe history of it and events that go on in this book is great.