Brooke C. (brookereviews) reviewed on 2/5/2009 + 50 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

Sixteen year old Gemma Doyle didn't grow up like other girls her age. She spent most of her childhood in India with her mother. But when she has a vision involving her mother's death, and that vision turns out to be true, Gemma is sent to England and enrolled at Spence Academy. When she arrives at Spence she is snubbed by the popular Felicity and her best friend Pippa, and even Ann her dumpy new roommate brushes her off. Things don't start looking up for Gemma until she blackmails Felicity in order to get her and Ann into Felicity's clique.

Gemma becomes distressed when she is confronted by Kartik, the handsome young man who was following her in India, and he warns her about fighting off the visions. If she doesn't fight off the visions something terrible will happen, but what could possibly be so terrible if they lead her to the old diary of a former Spence girl, and even to her mother?

A Great and Terrible Beauty has a slow build up that could be boring, but instead is a dark and mysterious page turner. Libba Bray has some exquisite writing in parts of this book, and then sometimes it falls flat. Even though the reform/boarding/finishing school is kind of played out in the Young Adult genre (I guess the lack of parents make story writing more exciting), this one is kept interesting by being set in Victorian Britain. I loved reading about the girls venturing through the realms, and into a different reality where anything they wish can be theirs. The side effects of using the magic afterwards are dangerous, and the girls wanting to go back for more is reminiscent of a drug addiction. I really enjoyed this story, and I can't wait to read Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing in the Gemma Doyle Trilogy.

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