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A Great And Terrible Beauty (Readers Circle) (Paperback)
by Libba Bray
| Category:
Bestsellers, Fiction, Gothic fantacy, Ages 9-12, Children's books |
| Market price: ¥ 118.00
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¥ 108.00
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 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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Author: Libba Bray
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Pub. in: March, 2005
ISBN: 0385732317
Pages: 432
Measurements: 8.0 x 5.2 x 1.1 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BC00278
Other information: Reprint edition
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- Awards & Credential -
A winner of the New York Times Bestseller |
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- MSL Picks -
This book has it all: Rich descriptions, romance, adventure, magic, and more. Libba Bray pulls you into this book- and you can't get out. This book is called A Great and Terrible Beauty- because Gemma and her friends find power in the book. Power- in some ways is beautiful, but in others, it’s terrible. 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 Doyle is a young English girl who has grown up in colonial India with her family. When Gemma's mother is suddenly killed under mysterious circumstances Gemma and her family returns to England where Gemma is sent to Spence Academy for Girls - a seemingly joyless boring school. Gemma's roommate, Ann is a scholarship student who is plain, painfully shy, has no prospects, and a tendency to cut herself. Her nemeses seem to be Felicity, a rather manipulative rich girl and her sidekick, the beautiful Pippa. Gemma takes on the role as Ann's protector and in doing so learns that things at spence are hardly what they seem. In an attempt gain the aide and protection that a friendship with Felicity and Pippa would offer Gemma drawn into a prank that leads all four girls to a discovery of The Order: a secret society of women who guard the power and magic of the Realms- an otherworld place full of beauty and danger. Gemma is the only one of the girls who can access the realms, though she warned away by Kartik- a mysterious young Indian man belonging to a secret society. Katrik begs Gemma to stay away telling her that she is in great danger- though Katrik himself might present a danger. He represents a mysterious brotherhood with their own agenda with regards to the realms, and he appears to be following Gemma.
As Gemma and her friends delve deeper into the realms they begin to discover their own latent power- not just magic, but their intelligence and creativity- something society tries to keep a tight lid on. But with the discovery of that power they come to learn more about Spence's dark history. Years earlier two other girls had discovered the Order and the magic of the realms. The knowledge drove them to commit a crime that has tainted both Spence and the Realms ever since; a crime whose repercussions include the murder of Gemma's mother. Gemma slowly begins to realize that her arrival at Spence is no accident of fate.
Libba Bray manages something similar to JK Rowling in that she creates a world that appeals to adults just as much as the teens it was written for; and complete with it's own mythology. But while the Harry Potter books deal with the use of magic in a place designed for just that, Bray's world deals in layers of masks. No one's agenda is clear and each new discovery that Gemma and her friends make is the means to revealing a new layer. Into this context Bray also incorporate a very modern view adolescence and a particularly insightful depiction of female friendships. As the first book in a trilogy, Bray is off to a great start: she leaves the reader wanting more.
A Great and Terrible Beauty does not fit neatly into any one genre. At times it is decidedly historical fiction as we are given a feel for the life of a teenaged girl at an English boarding school in the late 1800s. At other times it is gothic as we move into decrepit areas of a school, spooky woods, and mysterious strangers who show up unexpectedly. It is also fantasy as magic springs to life, and finally, it is contemporary in that it shows the relationship between girls of different stations in life getting to know and appreciate one another.
Bray blends all of these genres seamlessly into one excellent tale that will keep you involved as you turn the pages. Libba Bray puts intense descriptions into this book, and the characters are as vivid and lifelike as can be. In some cases, you find yourself screaming at character because of they do, or your unbelievably happy for them. Bray's writing brings these girls to life and leads the reader into their souls. A Great and Terrible Beauty is a wonderful mix of genres that works well and pulls you in immediately. The ending leaves you ready for the sequel, Rebel Angels. This is an engaging read and is recommended for anyone who enjoys a gripping tale.
Target readers:
Young Adult
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Libba Bray has worked as a waitress, a nanny, a burrito roller, and an advertising copywriter. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and son.
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It's 1895, and after the suicide 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 been 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?
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"Please tell me that's not going to be part of my birthday dinner this evening."
I am staring into the hissing face of a cobra. A surprisingly pink tongue slithers in and out of a cruel mouth while an Indian man whose eyes are the blue of blindness inclines his head toward my mother and explains in Hindi that cobras make very good eating.
My mother reaches out a white-gloved finger to stroke the snake's back. "What do you think, Gemma? Now that you're sixteen, will you be dining on cobra?"
The slithery thing makes me shudder. "I think not, thank you."
The old, blind Indian man smiles toothlessly and brings the cobra closer. It's enough to send me reeling back where I bump into a wooden stand filled with little statues of Indian deities. One of the statues, a woman who is all arms with a face bent on terror, falls to the ground. Kali, the destroyer. Lately, Mother has accused me of keeping her as my unofficial patron saint. Lately, Mother and I haven't been getting on very well. She claims it's because I've reached an impossible age. I state emphatically to anyone who will listen that it's all because she refuses to take me to London.
"I hear in London, you don't have to defang your meals first," I say. We're moving past the cobra man and into the throng of people crowding every inch of Bombay's frenzied marketplace. Mother doesn't answer but waves away an organ-grinder and his monkey. It's unbearably hot. Beneath my cotton dress and crinolines, sweat streaks down my body. The flies-my most ardent admirers-dart about my face. I swat at one of the little winged beasts, but it escapes and I can almost swear I hear it mocking me. My misery is reaching epidemic proportions.
Overhead, the clouds are thick and dark, giving warning that this is monsoon season, when floods of rain could fall from the sky in a matter of minutes. In the dusty bazaar the turbaned men chatter and squawk and bargain, lifting brightly colored silks toward us with brown, sunbaked hands. Everywhere there are carts lined with straw baskets offering every sort of ware and edible-thin, coppery vases; wooden boxes carved into intricate flower designs; and mangos ripening in the heat.
"How much farther to Mrs. Talbot's new house? Couldn't we please take a carriage?" I ask with what I hope is a noticeable annoyance.
"It's a nice day for a walk. And I'll thank you to keep a civil tone."
My annoyance has indeed been noted.
Sarita, our long-suffering housekeeper, offers pomegranates in her leathery hand. "Memsahib, these are very nice. Perhaps we will take them to your father, yes?"
If I were a good daughter, I'd bring some to my father, watch his blue eyes twinkle as he slices open the rich, red fruit, then eats the tiny seeds with a silver spoon just like a proper British gentleman.
"He'll only stain his white suit," I grumble. My mother starts to say something to me, thinks better of it, sighs-as usual. We used to go everywhere together, my mother and I-visiting ancient temples, exploring local customs, watching Hindu festivals, staying up late to see the streets bloom with candlelight. Now, she barely takes me on social calls. It's as if I'm a leper without a colony.
"He will stain his suit. He always does," I mumble in my defense, though no one is paying me a bit of attention except for the organ-grinder and his monkey. They're following my every step, hoping to amuse me for money. The high lace collar of my dress is soaked with perspiration. I long for the cool, lush green of England, which I've only read about in my grandmother's letters. Letters filled with gossip about tea dances and balls and who has scandalized whom half a world away, while I am stranded in boring, dusty India watching an organ-grinder's monkey do a juggling trick with dates, the same trick he's been performing for a year.
"Look at the monkey, memsahib. How adorable he is!" Sarita says this as if I were still three and clinging to the bottoms of her sari skirts. No one seems to understand that I am fully sixteen and want, no, need to be in London, where I can be close to the museums and the balls and men who are older than six and younger than sixty.
"Sarita, that monkey is a trained thief who will be begging for your wages in a moment," I say with a sigh. As if on cue, the furry urchin scrambles up and sits on my shoulder with his palm outstretched. "How would you like to end up in a birthday stew?" I tell him through clenched teeth. The monkey hisses. Mother grimaces at my ill manners and drops a coin in its owner's cup. The monkey grins triumphantly and leaps across my head before running away.
A vendor holds out a carved mask with snarling teeth and elephant ears. Without a word, Mother places it over her face. "Find me if you can," she says. It's a game she's played with me since I could walk-a bit of hide-and-seek meant to make me smile. A child's game.
"I see only my mother," I say, bored. "Same teeth. Same ears."
Mother gives the mask back to the vendor. I've hit her vanity, her weak point.
"And I see that turning sixteen is not very becoming to my daughter," she says.
"Yes, I am sixteen. Sixteen. An age at which most decent girls have been sent for schooling in London." I give the word decent an extra push, hoping to appeal to some maternal sense of shame and propriety.
"This looks a bit on the green side, I think." She's peering intently at a mango. Her fruit inspection is all-consuming.
"No one tried to keep Tom imprisoned in Bombay," I say, invoking my brother's name as a last resort. "He's had four whole years there! And now he's starting at university."
"It's different for men."
"It's not fair. I'll never have a season. I'll end up a spinster with hundreds of cats who all drink milk from china bowls." I'm whining. It's unattractive, but I find I'm powerless to stop.
"I see," Mother says, finally. "Would you like to be paraded around the ballrooms of London society like some prize horse there to have its breeding capabilities evaluated? Would you still think London was so charming when you were the subject of cruel gossip for the slightest infraction of the rules? London's not as idyllic as your grandmother's letters make it out to be."
"I wouldn't know. I've never seen it."
"Gemma..." Mother's tone is all warning even as her smile is constant for the Indians. Mustn't let them think we British ladies are so petty as to indulge in arguments on the streets. We only discuss the weather, and when the weather is bad, we pretend not to notice.
Sarita chuckles nervously. "How is it that memsahib is now a young lady? It seems only yesterday you were in the nursery. Oh, look, dates! Your favorite." She breaks into a gap-toothed smile that makes every deeply etched wrinkle in her face come alive. It's hot and I suddenly want to scream, to run away from everything and everyone I've ever known.
"Those dates are probably rotting on the inside. Just like India."
"Gemma, that will be quite enough." Mother fixes me with her glass-green eyes. Penetrating and wise, people call them. I have the same large, upturned green eyes. The Indians say they are unsettling, disturbing. Like being watched by a ghost. Sarita smiles down at her feet, keeps her hands busy adjusting her brown sari. I feel a tinge of guilt for saying such a nasty thing about her home. Our home, though I don't really feel at home anywhere these days.
"Memsahib, you do not want to go to London. It is gray and cold and there is no ghee for bread. You wouldn't like it."
A train screams into the depot down near the glittering bay. Bombay. Good bay, it means, though I can't think of anything good about it right now. A dark plume of smoke from the train stretches up, touching the heavy clouds. Mother watches it rise.
"Yes, cold and gray." She places a hand on her throat, fingers the necklace hanging there, a small silver medallion of an all-seeing eye atop a crescent moon. A gift from a villager, Mother said. Her good-luck charm. I've never seen her without it.
Sarita puts a hand on Mother's arm. "Time to go, memsahib."
Mother pulls her gaze away from the train, drops her hand from her necklace. "Yes. Come. We'll have a lovely time at Mrs. Talbot's. I'm sure she'll have lovely cakes just for your birthday-"
A man in a white turban and thick black traveling cloak stumbles into her from behind, bumping her hard.
"A thousand pardons, honorable lady." He smiles, offers a deep bow to excuse his rudeness. When he does, he reveals a young man behind him wearing the same sort of strange cloak. For a moment, the young man and I lock eyes. He isn't much older than I am, probably seventeen if a day, with brown skin, a full mouth, and the longest eyelashes I have ever seen. I know I'm not supposed to find Indian men attractive, but I don't see many young men and I find I'm blushing in spite of myself. He breaks our gaze and cranes his neck to see over the hordes.
"You should be more careful," Sarita barks at the older man, threatening him with a blow from her arm. "You better not be a thief or you will be punished."
"No, no, memsahib, only I am terribly clumsy." He drops his smile and with it the cheerful simpleton routine. He whispers low to my mother in perfectly accented English. "Circe is near."
It makes no sense to me, just the ramblings of a very clever thief said to distract us. I start to say as much to my mother but the look of sheer panic on her face stops me cold. Her eyes are wild as she whips around and scans the crowded...
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| View all 16 comments |
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! |
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. |
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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