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    A Great and Terrible Beauty
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    A Great and Terrible Beauty
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    A Great and Terrible Beauty
    Ebook383 pages5 hours

    A Great and Terrible Beauty

    By Libba Bray

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    It's 1895, and after the death of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma's reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she's being followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence's most powerful girls - and their foray into the spiritual world - lead to?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Australia
    Release dateMay 1, 2010
    ISBN9780731814909
    Unavailable
    A Great and Terrible Beauty
    Author

    Libba Bray

    Libba Bray is the New York Times bestselling author of A Great and Terrible Beauty and Rebel Angels, both of which have appeared on ALA's Best Books for Young Adults list.

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    Reviews for A Great and Terrible Beauty

    4/5

    3,170 ratings217 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This one was enjoyable - Teenage girls at a boarding school in the Victorian era. Magic and heartache and all that good stuff. Her friends are kind of awful, but it worked. It was a bit over the top, but I like that. The next on will be on hold for me soon, I hope.
    • 3/5
      Fantasy is definitely not my favorite genre. I blame this entirely on my own lack of ability when it comes to picturing impossible scenarios and imaginary creatures. Still, I enjoyed this book. I liked the four main characters and the boarding school setting. I don't know if I'll continue on with the series or not; I feel like there's definitely more to Ms. Moore's story than we know, and I assume that'll be explored more in the second and third books, which makes me tempted to continue on.
    • 2/5
      The immaturity of the characters wanted me to quit reading many times, but I was reading this for a book group.
      Gemma was raised in India with her parents. She's a teen and desperately wants what she wants when she wants it. And one of the things she wants is to go to London. An argument happens that separates her from her mother and she doesn't get a chance to rectify their argument, because her mother dies. During the even of her mother's tragic end, Gemma had a vision of it while it took place.
      In London at a school for girls, Gemma finds out the truth of her mother.
      Overall, the book is a good read for teen girls. There's a little bit of mystery in it, a little bit of romance. But I'd not recommend this book to any of my adult friends.
    • 4/5
      I found this book to be a great late night read because of all the "sneaking out" and magical imagery. The story is intriguing and the characters were distinct. If you're into magic and underworld type things this series is for you.
    • 5/5
      Really really fucking awesome
    • 3/5
      A gripping and eerie read, this book aimed at tween girls presents a 16 year old struggling with how she should behave versus defining herself as an individual. I really enjoyed this book and had a difficult time putting it down. A bit spooky at times in a somewhat cheesy, but fun way, it made me feel the same jumpiness upon hearing a bump in the night as when I was a young girl reading similarly themed books. In the end it has a good message as we start to see the heroine, Gemma, grow up and transition into an adult. During this book, Gemma evolves from seeing a world that revolves around her to recognizing that she is part of a bigger picture. By the end she no longer sees things in merely black and white, i.e. you support what she wants or are against what she wants, but rather recognizes the complexity and multi-faceted nature of other people and situations. [An aside: This is a lesson in growing up that strangely a lot of the people in our society seem to have missed. Many people from some leading political figures (you know the crew I'm talking about!) to some everyday citizens have a tendency to see only black and white, good vs evil, for vs against. Perhaps they should read this silly little tween novel to learn that most people and situations cannot be summed up so simply. :)]I am definitely looking forward to reading the next book in the series. I would recommend this to the intended audience of 10-12 year old girls and to women who were avid readers as kids and want to return to the giddiness and excitement of reading an unfolding mystery told by a girl on the edge of womanhood. One passage that I liked that captures a good message of the book:"Forgiveness... I'll hold on to that fragile slice of hope and keep it close, remembering that 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, something real. We've got to forgive ourselves that. I must remember to forgive myself. Because there's an awful lot of gray to work with. No one can live in the light all the time."
    • 5/5
      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. 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.
    • 5/5
      Whoa! Picking up this book my first thoughts were that I would love it simply because it dealt with Victorianesq life and love, then I read it and loved it for completely different reasons. Reasons like there was a whole hocus pocus magical world out there full of fairies and monsters, and as Gemma explores this world so did I and boy was it awesome! Now granted it was a big book and took a while for me to finish but only because so much happened! So many amazing and terrifying things happened. Lets not forget the romance that was simple and subdued when it needed to be and red hot at the perfect moments. Another aspect that I picked up on was how Gemma and her friends seemed to illuminate a different aspect of what was expected of women of the time period, making them tragic and trapped, until they find their escape. This deeper theme of being a slave to your role and finding an escape from it really elevated the plot.I have a delicate relationship with Gemma on the grounds that she hardly ever makes the right choices, which is infuriating, but at least she is strong and stubborn enough to try to clean up her messes. I will be reading the second!
    • 4/5
      Good for teenager, YA book. Length may be a problem for some of the younger readers. A Great and Terrible Beauty held my interest in the story and the characters.
    • 4/5
      I picked up this book based on a recommendation in a magazine article on promising YA authors. I am not the author's intended audience, but once I started reading, I couldn't put the book down. Gemma Doyle, a young woman coming of age in India, longs for a far away life in London, that she only knows from her grandmother's letters. On an outing with her mother for her own birthday celebration, Gemma rebels against the controlled life expected of her and is separated from her Mother in the throngs at the market. She runs blindly, to escape her Mother's ire and finds herself hopelessly lost, and on her own. In a swoon she has a vision and among the many things she sees, she witnesses her Mother's murder. Coming to her senses she discovers that her vision is all too real...She is sent to London, under the guidance of her Grandmother and is enrolled in Spence, an exclusive boarding school which turns young girls into England's future wives and mothers. Among the elite young women she begins to develop her gift to enter 'the realms' and explore freedoms unknown to her elsewhere. But is this her path? Or just a convenient diversion? I can't possibly do justice to this amazing story of a young woman living in the Victorian era. The characters are drawn so well and truly emotionally complete you can't help but be drawn to them. Each, in her own way adds a strand that helps complete the story's web. This is book one of a planned trilogy. I'm looking forward to more adventures.I suggest you enter this world. You'll be glad you did.
    • 5/5
       An insanely haunting book. I found it totally addicting. You see these girls suffer through problems that girls today still deal with. All this with a twist of magic and romanticism.
    • 2/5
      I had to push through this one. Listened to it while walking the dog most of the time and I was just never that into it. Several of the characters are annoying and I absolutely HATE books where one character could just tell people what they know and prevent something terrible from happening.

      I won't be continuing this series.
    • 5/5
      Plot: Gemma is 16 and has spent all her life in India. She feels that it is high time that she be allowed to return to England and be presented to society. Her mother does not agree. It looks as though she might never see London. Then everything changes. Gemma has a vision for the first time and her mother is murdered under mysterious circumstances. Before she can come to grips with what had happened, she is shipped of to a boarding school in England. She doesn’t fit in and she has no idea how to deal with her visions or her mother’s death. To make matters worse, an attractive young Indian man is following her, insisting that she not use her new powers. She doesn’t trust him and Spence School is far too involved in the mystery for her to ignore it. She and three of her classmates begin exploring the occult but they must be careful not to repeat the past.I’m a huge Jane Austen fan so I picked this up mainly because it reminded me of Austen. But in truth it is a bit more like the sensational Gothic novels that Austen picks fun at than her own books. Not that that’s a bad thing, necessarily. I didn’t get into the story right away but once I did I enjoyed it a great deal. The magic and the history surrounding it is interesting and she does seem to have a good feel for Victorian England. I liked the girls, even though they all have unlikable aspects to them, although I was a bit frustrated by their need to always make the wrong choice in spite of advice to the contrary. And what is the fascination with love interests who are bossy stalkers? I’d love to see more who are gentle, funny, intelligent… I can’t be the only one?
    • 5/5
      A Great and Terrible Beauty is an intriguing book. I'm going to have a hard time reviewing it because I don't feel that it is over yet. It's the first book in a trilogy and so much was left open. That being said, I enjoyed it a lot.The story begins in India where we are introduced to Gemma and her mother on Gemma's sixteenth birthday. A tragedy occurs that we only begin to understand much later in the book. Next thing the reader knows, Gemma is in London on her way to a finishing school. Gemma immediately falls victim to the popular girls and their pranks. Through a series of blackmail and secrets, the popular girls become her friends. They soon discover a dark past to the school and enter into the Realms, another dimension of sort, where Gemma can be with her mother and all their wishes come true.Gemma is torn between visiting the Realms and staying in reality. As her friends fall deeper into the magic, she tries to pull away. Eventually they learn more about what they are doing and why. This opens the door to the second and third book, which I look forward to reading.While this is a "young adult" book, it should appeal to any age reader who enjoys a little fantasy mixed in with their reality. I'm far from being a young adult and thoroughly enjoyed it. Ms. Bray writes with an open, easy style that is easy to get swept along in. The fact that Gemma is quite snarky and sarcastic only makes me like her more!
    • 5/5
      "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 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.
    • 5/5
      Gemma Doyle is sent to a boarding school in England when her mother is killed. There she meets new friends, begins to fall in love, and discovers her magical background. The realms, as they're called, is another universe, where Gemma and her friends can make things appear by imaging them. But the Winterlands, a part of the realms, is threatening to take over. The spirits of the dead are staying, and threatening to invade the human world.A Great and Terrible Beauty was suspenseful and mysterious. It was the kind of story where you don't always understand what's happening as it's happening, and when the truth is revealed later, everything seems to snap into place. It was definitely a page turner, and I would definitely recommend it.
    • 4/5
      I loved reading this book! It is an excellent book for 7th-11th grade girls especially! Gemma Doyle grew up in India and adored her mother. One day, she foresees her mother's death which actually turns out to be true. Gemma gets thrown into a boarding school in England and the story follows her and her girlsfriends through their school adventures. Except there's a little twist... Gemma soon learns that the vision of her mother's death is actually a magical talent she inherited which makes her part of a secret order that can enter a magical realm! Follow Gemma and her girlfriends as they deal with life at Spence Academy and explore what's inside their magical realm!
    • 4/5
      Fans of Meyer's "Twilight" series will be enchanted by this tale of magic set in 1890s England. Gemma is fiesty, and very real -- selfish, full of self-doubt, wanting to grow up, wanting to stay young. It is truly enjoyable to sit down with a YA/teen book that is so finely written and fun. I am reading the whole series!
    • 5/5
      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 takes place in the olden days, as the language and the descriptions continuously reflect it.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed the creepiness of this book, but for some reason, I have not wanted to read any more in the series.
    • 4/5
      This is the first in a trilogy and a very quick, entertaining novel. The setting is a english boarding school where things are anything but ordinary. Gemma is still reeling from the death of her mother when things begin to get interesting. she and her new friends are drawn to the realms where the mystic order of women once controlled magic beyond comprehension. Things aren't as they seem however, and soon Gemma and her friends are facing a darkness they can't control. The book is written in lovely imagery and is full of suspense, danger and young love. Romantic and dark, this was a fun one.
    • 5/5
      I love this book- it's the best book out there, describing not only some fantasy, but also how a lot of girls at this age feel.
    • 4/5
      The setting and characters are the real stars of this novel. The plot is interesting but it was the world of these Victorian girls that kept me turning the pages.It begins in June 1895 in Bombay, India. Gemma, the heroine of the story is turning 16 and cannot understand why her parents will not take her to London, England. In Victorian culture, women have a short period of time in which to catch a man who will support them for the rest of their lives. Emma wants to join English society and participate in balls, shopping, and dining out. While she does get her wish to go to England, it is through disastrous events that change her life forever.The dynamics of an English boarding school and the division between the social classes is fascinating. These girls live a life most modern teenagers could never imagine filled with restrictions and expectations of their every move and word. Yet, the jealousies and cruelties are no different than those practiced in high school today.The plot centers around a magical realm and powers that draw Gemma and her friends into dark intrigue. The ending was not as satisfying as I had hoped it would be. The revelation of Gemma’s mother’s past destroyed my compassion for her. Pippa’s decision, while understandable, seemed childish and suicidal. The threat from Kartik’s people seemed to go nowhere and was unresolved while the romance between him and Gemma was disappointing.Libba’s writing style is vivid and enjoyable. This is her first book and I would definitely read more of her work.
    • 3/5
      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 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.
    • 5/5
      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 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.
    • 3/5
      An engaging tale of Gemma who is sent to the Spence Academy for girls in England after her mother's suicide in India, and her awakening powers. She possesses the power to cross into the "realms" and create her own destiny there, and to bring some of the power back to this realm. Of course, having access to power leads to unpredictable things happening including the pursuit of Gemma by Circe (Sarah), an evil force looking to control everything. A pretty good tale, but I felt the ending fell kind of flat.
    • 4/5
      A Great and Terrible Beauty is an entertaining tale of powerful magic and dangerous secrets, set against the backdrop of Victorian England. I like how the story tackles gender stereotypes and confronts Victorian Era beliefs regarding class, race, and social propriety. The plot and worldbuilding are intriguing, but it is the realistic, flawed, multidimensional characters that bring the story to life. Overall, I really enjoyed A Great and Terrible Beauty, and I will definitely read the second book in the Gemma Doyle trilogy.
    • 3/5
      I liked the story and am intrigued enough too continue with the series. It is so very open ended that it seems like another book chopped up for the benefit of the publisher (series/trilogies being the rage in YA).
    • 3/5
      You can't really go wrong with a book that combines magic and boarding school, but I wouldn't say that this is exactly the pinnacle of the genre.
      I do have a copy of the sequel that I got at a conference 2 years ago and I still haven't read it.
    • 3/5
      I listened to the audiobook version, and the reader did a very good job, making many different characters including Gemma's internal thoughts, and spoken words, all distinguishable.But I wonder if it was from an unedited version? There are lots of odd mistakes, someone asks a question a few sentences after we're told she left to room, descriptive terms are repeated close together, sloppy little errors.I spent quite a it of time being annoyed by Gemma's modern sensibilities, her internal protest against the values of her time. It seemed a little overbearing and unrealistic. And there is the occasional anachronistic thud - a door appears like a hologram, for example.I didn't buy the relationship of the four girls - one moment, stereotypes of mean girls, the next moment best of friends. And Gemma was so stupid, so often.On the other hand, I cared enough about what was going on to be annoyed by anything that jarred me out of the story. The world has a lot of possibility, and the combination of fantasy, mystery, and Victorian romance could be delightful. I'll read the rest of the series, and keep my eye on the author, in case her craft catches up to her imagination.