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A Great And Terrible Beauty (Readers Circle) (平装)
by Libba Bray
| Category:
Bestsellers, Fiction, Gothic fantacy, Ages 9-12, Children's books |
| Market price: ¥ 118.00
MSL price:
¥ 108.00
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| Stock:
In Stock |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
A fantastic combination of a historical fiction, a delicious, elegant gothic fantasy, and a teensy bit of romance, incorporating a very modern view adolescence and a particularly insightful depiction of female friendships. |
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AllReviews |
1 2   | Total 2 pages 16 items |
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Frances Wheeler (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
After reading my favorite book The North Kingdom, I found it difficult to find another book that I wanted to read. Luckily, I came across A Great and Terrible Beauty and what a treat it was to find. It is set in my favorite era the Victorian Age and takes place at a school for young ladies to help them become society's women and marriageable prospects. Gemma quickly finds herself on the ins with the popular girls. There is the usual mischief that adolescents find themselves in drinking sneaking out, but Gemma and her friends soon learn about a secret order that used to exist at the school many years before until a terrible fire occurred resulting in two deaths. And Gemma has the power to bring it back as she is able to enter the realm. This novel is both intriguing and a delight to read. I had trouble putting it down and even before I was finished with it I went out and bought the sequel. So read A Great and Terrible Beauty today, you won't be disappointed! |
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Olivia (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
This was the most enchanting book that I have read in a while. Libba Bray describes the Victorian Era so well you feel like we have moved back in time.
This book is full of romance, adventure, and hard ship. Gemma and her friends Ann, Felicity, and Pippa come together to figure out the mystery of Mary Dowd and Sarah Rees-Toome's connection with The Order. This book I would recommend to any one. It is a quick read that keeps you entranced till the very end. Libba Bray did the most wonderful job with this book. It is truly beautiful. |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
A Great and Terrible Beauty is a great book that I would recommend to teens and adults alike. It is a fantastic combination of historical fiction, gothic fantasy, and a teensy bit of romance. The characters are very easy to relate to, and they seem so real! Besides the fantasy aspect of the book, many of their problems are probably similar to those of teens today. You really get to know them, and almost feel as if you have met them in real life. Throughout the book I often found myself cheering them on, feeling sympathetic for them, etc. Depending on what was happening in the story.
This book is very hard to put down. It's the type of book you want to curl up under the covers with on a rainy day with some hot cocoa. It has the perfect blend of chilling gothic fantasy and humor! The overall plot is this: A young woman named Gemma is sent to a boarding school to teach etiquette to young ladies after witnessing her mother's, and another mysterious man's death, through a vision. At the boarding school, she struggles to fit in among the other girls, and eventually finds friendship among the most popular girls, as well as one of the most insecure. Soon Gemma finds herself receiving more and more of the mysterious visions, as well as visits from a mysterious young man, named Kartik, warning her to shut the visions out. Soon, with the aid of Gemma's strange visions, she finds the diary of a girl who seems to have the same powers as her. As she reads more and more, she discovers many different things about her backround, as well as the boarding school's backrounds. And soon, she will find that more than she had expected is at stake, and she might be the only one to stop certain sinister events from unfolding...
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
This is one of the best books I have read in a while. It was truly great; Libba Bray seems an awesome author. Make sure you read Rebel Angels, the sequel to this book. I can't wait for the third one. This book has everything, even though it is set back in Victorian times, the characters are very real and you can relate to them. It is fantasy and has magic in it, but there are also other teen girl issues in it that have to do with real life. It was a great book. I strongly recommend it to teens and adults too. |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
I am an extreme book lover, and had picked this up in October 2005. I hadn't really thought about it for a while, because I misplaced it. Reading the book jacket was what got me hooked. The picture itself was attracting. I found it back in April on a shelf, and decided to start reading now that I had time. I was sucked into the novel's beautiful descriptions, and the storyline bleeds excitement. I had read many books before, but what really set this one apart was the marvelous fantasy part of it, Greek mythology (taken from the mentioning of Circe) etched carefully into it. The story, which you think at first would be a historical fiction, is indeed more fiction than historical. It teaches you to never look past covers. It takes the properness of the Victorian Age, and throws a beautiful rebel redhead in a corset in there, and gives it much more depth and excitement. It really shows the bond that's between friends, and makes you inwardly wonder about the quiet things no one ever knows. Gemma Doyle, after her mother's tragic demise in India, is sent off to Spence Academy in London, after having her very first vision of her mother's death, being encompassed by a dark creature. Her mother gave her an amulet to wear around her neck, not long before her death. There, Gemma meets three very different girls: the beautiful and soft Pippa, the power-hungry, seductive Felicity, and the poor, troubled Ann. These four girls together seem to define/symbolize the general characteristics of people and secrets in society, even to this day. Together, they find out about Gemma's secret, and that she is more powerful than she thinks. Eventually, after hearing about a place called the "realms", a beautiful spirit-world, they also find that they can get there, as long as Gemma opens the door of light for them. The Realms is a world where fantasies and beauty and fiction collide - anything one wishes can happen there, where the dead roam silently and unseen, where the fruit if eaten will make you stay there forever. Gemma finds out that there is more to the realms than the beauty masking the real darkness beneath it. With the help of her friends, a mysterious and alluring guy named Kartik (who also lost his brother to the darkness, and is sent to protect Gemma), an unnerving diary, and a friendly teacher, they discover the truth of Circe, the dark witch responsible for her mother's death. She finds out about her mother's true past with a group called "The Order", a bond of sisterly women and girls who once used the magic of the realms for good... until it all went rather wrong one day, when one of their number wanted the power for herself, and would do anything to get it. All in all, a beauty in itself and Ray's ability to capture a scene and characterization, "A Great and Terrible Beauty" is just the beginning of an extremely delicious trilogy. I've read the sequel, "Rebel Angels" which is even better than the first, leaving you on a cliffhanger that calls you coming back for more, introducing more depth and character. Can't wait for the final book. Guarantee you won't be disappointed, unless you're a real history junkie and can't stand to hear about Victorian-Age Brits breaking the rules and having some fun, intoxicating romance, and fantastic adventure. I recommend this book for girls aged 14-18 (and maybe 19-20, if you will). Or anyone who enjoys Greek mythology and doesn't immediately say "Witchcraft! Omgz! It's evil!" |
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Michelle (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
Appearance, status, hiding imperfections is all that it comes down to. Sometimes it feels like that, but in the 1800s it was the norm, especially at the high-class finishing school, Spence, in London. As Gemma and her three acquaintances turn from enemies to closest friends, their secrets come lose. Gemma's mother was really murdered, Ann wishes she were beautiful and is an orphan, Pippa wants true love and has epilepsy, and Felicity wants power and her family to care about her. These 16-year-olds are drawn together by an interest in The Order, a magical group from the past, and a dead girl's diary. But when they get more serious and enter another realm, their amazing adventures turn terrifying and even deadly.
I was addicted to this book from the strong beginning to the surprising ending, and I could feel the emotions and desires of every girl as they dealt with growing up, plus the new powers they found. The author mades you see, feel, hear, even smell all of the girls' adventures and dropped me right into the school with them. If you like books about teenage girls or magic, you would like this book because it is both, with a horror twist. |
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Nicole (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
A Great and Terrible Beauty was a somewhat different from most of the books people usually come to read, which makes it so special and interesting because it is almost like taking a breath of fresh air. The author Libba Bray creates a captivating plot that takes readers back in time to the Victorian age. Where you meet 4 young women all different but exactly the same, they all want power, the power of choice. A power that before they were all denied a power they could only dream of. Until one day a door is opened and all that changes right before their very eyes. They enter a world, a world in which any thing can happen, a world in which they never again have to feel hurt, pain, or sorrow, a world in which never again will there dreams be denied, and a world where they are not looked upon by judgmental eyes. But just like everything, there are always consequences. Once one door is opened another one is shut. In this English tale you will come to see these consequences these four young women will face entangled with deception and lies in which they must sort from to see if they are beyond belief, fact or fiction. |
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Lindsay Pearce (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
This book was absolutely amazing. Libba Bray completely threw caution to the wind and didn't hold back at all when writing this book. The conversations between the foursome (Gemma, Ann, Fee, and Pip) are very real, and they are completely believable characters. The girls are very well developed individuals with conflicts and problems. I loved how Bray made Gemma a very strong, sarcastic, and actually quite witty character who is also somewhat a dreamer. Felicity is a spirited firebrand who isn't afraid to burn anything in her path. Pippa is the beautiful Victorian goddess who really wants true love despite her strange character traits. Ann is an orphan who is very insecure, but has an amazing singing voice which she throws all of her energy into. The girls form a group that they name "The Order" after the group made by "goddesses" before them. Gemma has a special gift of seeing visions of the future (in which see witnessed the death of her mother). They begin to enter a place called the realms, which is like an Eden or Heaven. Gemma also has a love interest. Kartik, the dark angel whom I instantly fell in love with while reading this book. I almost wished it was me dreaming of him and not Gemma. This book is very difficult to summarize because you want to leave all of the details of Spence (the girl's boarding school) and the characters and relationships. I absolutely LOVED this book and if I could rate it higher, I would. Long Live Libba Bray! May you write forever! |
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Sara (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
This book is "a delicious, elegant gothic" as Publishers Weekly touts it. I think that some of the material is a bit "mature" for very young readers. I feel this book is better geared towards girls 15 and over and women of all ages. Some men may enjoy this book, but I think this book would definitely qualify as a chic book if any book does. A theme that resonates throughout the book is that we are all fallible shades of gray, sometimes living in the light, sometimes living in the darkness (likened to the chiaroscuro of great artists). Even the greatest among us can't always live in the light. Under certain conditions, otherwise good people can make terrible mistakes. This book discusses choices and consequences. If we make poor choices, we must try to repair the situation. If we can't undo our mistakes, then we must learn to live with the consequences. Guilt, atonement, and forgiveness are also explored. I think I have figured out who Circe is. A reviewer for the sequel, Rebel Angels, says it is someone from the first book. One of the characters seems like Katherine from "Mona Lisa Smile" or the girls' version of Robin Williams' character in "Dead Poets' Society." Miss Moore's comments are filled with wisdom, but I fear she is Sarah Rees-Toome renamed. I don't know this for sure-it's just a hunch. |
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Pudgee (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-31 00:00>
This story starts out in India where Gemma Doyle, a fifteen year old girl is tired of her old-fashioned lifestyle and wants to go to London where all is perfect. One day as she yells at her mother she is in a vision where her mother has committed suicide. It is horrible, but the worst part is it is true. That is the first in several visions. She goes off to Spence Academy for girls and makes best friends with her enemies there. She finds out over time her mother's mysterious link with the Order and the Rakshna. After discovering the beautiful realms, having the guilt of killing her friend, and all her responsibilities are building up she finally finds peace for the time being. I liked this book but not very much. I was well written but slightly predictable. Despite this the book is exceptional. I love the Victorian setting and the constant troubles between home, school, and spirit. My favorite and least favorite parts were the same. It was when Gemma's mother dies or should I say kills herself. It literally took my breath away and that is a sign of great talent. It was my least favorite part because it was so sad. I almost cried after. The Great and Terrible Beauty is a wonderful, breathtaking, gothic book that shows a combination of talent, magic, and courage. |
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1 2 | Total 2 pages 16 items |
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