Great and Terrible Beauty
Title; A great and terrible beauty.
Genre; Fiction
Author; Libba Bray
Reviewed by Cassidy Tompkins
Rating; 4 out of 5 stars.
Book one in the Gemma-Doyal Trilogy. Gemma, 16, has had an unconventional upbringing in India, until the day she 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 of Mary Dowd 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 wi! th the knowledge that her role as the link between worlds leaves her with a mission to seek out the “others” and rebuild the Order. But when she finds out the truth behind who Mary Dowd is Gemma’s life will be ever changed.
I really enjoyed this book, It is boring at some parts. But it’s a twist of love, and loss. There are things you’d never expect. The author uses a way of describing this book in a lot of detail, so you feel as if you are Gemma Doyal, and you become a piece of her adventure. That’s why I give this book four out of five stars.
