picked this up after a friend kept talking about it in a GR group I belong to,
I'm really glad I did pick it up, I was sucked into the book from page, The author definitely has a way with words, . . She painted such a vivid image of the surroundings that I felt as though I was there with the characters in the book,
The plot moves very well, and there were a number of 'cliffhangers' which kept me turning the pages, There was a nice mixture of fantasy and realism, that made for a great read,
I liked the main character, Gemma, She felt very real and I could relate to her more than I have done with main characters in other books, I liked the friendship she built with the other girls especially Felicity, even though at first they didn't get on at all,
I liked how the character of Kartik was woven into the plot, and I felt that the author had a good understanding of the feelings that girls of Gemma's age felt especially in the dream sequences.
A really great read, and I will definitely be picking up the other books in the trilogy, sitelink
I don't know why for so long I just assumed I wouldn't like historical fiction, it's not as if I don't love history I picked it for one of my A levels in college.
But, I guess it's just one of those genres that sounds tedious and you imagine it to be all oppressed sexuality and prim and properness, sitelinkDiana Gabaldon forever changed my mind with her oversexed and aggressive depiction of history and it was only a matter of time before I looked towards other works of historical fiction.
This book is both everything I expected and also everything I didn't expect, It's set for the most part in a boarding school for educating girls in the art of being 'ladies', or in other words: wives, The girls were expected to be reserved, polite and, most importantly, beautiful, This I was prepared for, I was also prepared for the customs, superstitions and blatant sexism of the times, However, it never occurred to me that this novel would be simply ath century take on a modern school, There's gossiping, bitchiness and bullying of those who are different in this case, from a lower class,
It's a good dose of chick lit as well as a historical book, And that's before we've even gotten to the whole magic/fantasy aspect, This novel completely transcends genres and does it well, I didn't see the whole otherrealm mysticality thing coming but I loved it, The gypsies are awesome as well, we have crazy gypsies, fake fortunetelling Ispeakwithdeadpeople gypsies, sexy gypsies don't believe the rumours,th century girls didn't just lie back and think of England.
And that's another thing I liked: the exploration of the girls' sexualities behind closed doors, It may not be the most reliable source, the book was written in modern times, but it's easy to imagine that beneath the surface of Victorian society's repressed sexuality, girls probably did talk about 'having' thousands of men: Earls, Dukes, Barons, Princes.
. . Anyway, lost myself on a smutty tangent, I was saying that I liked the idea of weaving fantasy into history, I'm all for spicing up times gone by,
I didn't give itbecause it wasn't quite up there with my otherstar rated books, I liked it, I loved the many different elements that made the novel hard to categorise and I liked the characters, I always like it when things aren't just as simple as "she's a bitch" and "she's a freak" in any kind of genre, I liked how, even though Gemma lost her mother at the beginning, the relationship was still built up throughout, I liked that the protagonist wasn't a pushover, even more so because the novel setting was in a very sexist society, And I love anything with dreams and/or visions,
Why did I wait so long to read this Such a great adventure! Strong, smart heroine with untapped magical potential, Loved the historical setting, too, Sign me up for the series! ltMysterious Sexy Boy: “So Gemma, isnt it exciting to be attending your first Grateful Dead concert”
Gemma Doyle: “Yes, but Jerry Garcia has been actually dead for years.
. ”
MSB: “Not for the purpose of this review, he isnt, Just go with it”
GD: sniff sniff “Hmmm whats that smell” giggle “And why am I suddenly craving pizza with chocolate” giggle
MSB: “Son of a bitch! Gemma, that is second hand marijuana smoke.
If you inhale enough you will get super duper high and will enjoy this concert immensely, For the love of god, do not inhale it!!!”
GD: “How do you expect me to not inhale it when it is all around me I cant very well control the air I breathe, can I” sniiiifffff
MSB: “That is your problem to figure out.
Just dont inhale. ”
GD: turns to hippie on her left “Whats this Oh, I put it in my mouth and breathe in Like this” cough
MSB: “Goddammit Gemma! I tell you not to inhale second hand smoke and now you are smoking a joint!”
GD: “How can weed be so bad if it makes me feel so good, man”
MSB: “Im not telling you.
Even though you are feeling awesome right now, you are not to smoke any more pot, Ever. I will compel you with my mysterious and sexy ways to do as I say, ”
GD: “Suck it mysterious sexy boy, Getting high is fun. Im gonna go hang with these hippies and you cant stop me, ”
Does trouble ensue Of course it does, We have read this plot dozens of times in countless paranormal YA books, Oh, not getting high at a Dead concert, Excuse me A young girl with newly discovered and tempting powers who is not supposed to fully explore them for no reason other than she is told not to, Even so, A Great and Terrible Beauty was a pleasurable read,
Set in a Victorian era all girl finishing school, A Great and Terrible Beauty tells the story of Gemma Doyle, Gemma is a teenage girl who has lived her entire life in India and only recently traveled to her home country of England after the unexpected death of her mother.
Despite the setting, this story is thankfully fairly modern in its dialogue, plot pacing and many of its ideas, Victorian novels always sound appealing to me, but frequently bore me to tears when I actually attempt to read them, This novel explores the constraints of Victorian society, the way teenage girls manage to be constant frenemies, and a pretty cool paranormal world,
A Great and Terrible Beauty is a solid three, It is not the best this genre has to offer, but it is far from the worst, As the first of a trilogy it contains the inevitable set up and uncompleted threads, However, it does not end on a nasty cliffhanger, so those who just arent feeling this after reading it shouldnt be left wondering too much at the end of the book.
Shall I tell you a story
A new and terrible one
A ghost story
Are you ready
Shall I begin
Once upon a time there were four girls.
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One was pretty,
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One was clever,
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One charming, and one
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One was mysterious,
But they were all damaged, you see,
Something not right about the lot of them,
Bad blood.
Big dreams.
Oh, I left that part out,
Sorry, that should have come before,
They were all dreamers, these girls,
One by one, night after night,the girls came together,
And they sinned.
Do you know what that sin was
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Their sin was that they believed,
Believed they could be different,
Special.
They believed they could change what they weredamaged, unloved,
Castoff things.
They would be alive, adored,needed,
Necessary.
But it wasn't true,
This is a ghost story, remember
A tragedy,
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They were misled,
Betrayed by their own stupid hopes,
Things couldn't be different for them, because they weren't special after all,
So life took them, led them, and they went along, you see
They faded before their own eyes, till they were nothing more than living ghosts, haunting each other with what could be.
What can't be.
There, now.
Isn't that the scariest story you've ever heard I am not someone who can watch scary movies, Now, I like scary movies not full of blood, but full of suspense but I have a problem in that I don't stop being scared when they're over Lady in White, What Lies Beneath.
My dad is a big Dean Koontz fan and so I read a book when I was younger, It was so scarythe walls even attacked people! I couldn't walk down our narrow hallway without feeling scared, Irrational Absolutely. Why am I mentioning this Well, because this book had a touch of the supernatural suspense that I don't handle well, I am undecided whether I'll go on to read the other books in the series or not although I was intrigued so I might try itI'll wait a few more days to see how many nightmares I have before deciding for sure.
The story follows Gemma Doyle from the death of her mother in India to her placmeent in a finishing school back in England, Gemma has a strange ability to transport into a different realm where she sees visions, She makes friends at the school and together they begin to adventure as they learn more about the realms and what Gemma's purpose might be,
Gemma is a great character, but her friends are not so easily likeable for me, Well, likeable, but they seem such superficial friends in many ways that some of what happens doesn't come as a surprise, I think it is nice that Bray makes the characters have flaws but I don't know that I particularly appreciated them, However, some of their foibles self mutilation for example is something that may bring stuffy victorian characters to life for teens nowadays,
That said, I sometimes question what the label "Young Adult" means, I didn't feel that this was inappropriate for young adults except for a few things, Mary Dowd's sacrifice but that might be because it was almost too much for me, so why should a teenager have to deal with it
I recently went on a crusade to read the books my local high school was requiring it's students to read.
I thought I would be exposed to authors I hadn't heard of, my understanding of young adult fiction was limited and I looked forward to exapnding it, I found most of the books horrible, offensive, and not wellwritten, I wonder what makes a novel a young adult book
It seems that having a teenage character is the only requirement, Whether it is suitable for teens or anyone else doesn't matter,
Okay, back to the book, . . I enjoyed it but it didn't bowl me over and I admit that I expected that after hearing some reviews and reading some QampA sessions with Libby Bray, We'll see if I read the other ones, . .
Prereview: I want to read this book because I'd heard good things about it, but after reading sitelinkthis review, I'm not sure anymore,
Note: I read the Chinese translation of this book, and I'm not sure whether the translator had mistakenly make the Main Character a young lady from thes Victorian era sound like an airheaded modern teenager, or was it Libba Bray's own fault for giving her own MC such kind of misplaced voice.
Actual review here:
I give this book a Nothing Special,stars
Well, . . A Great and Terrible Beauty isn't the worst book I've ever read, comparing with A Discovery of Witches which I'm sure I'm going to Do Not Finish it's highly enjoyable.
It's a quick, easy read and it doesn't charge you too much brain cells, but I still won't recommend it to people who've already read a few paranormal YA novels before, because the story really is Nothing Special.
First, let me tell you I needed to keep telling myself to calm down when reading this book, and that's the only reason why I managed to avoid throwing a bitch fit during the reading process.
Why Here're a few reasons:
The story begins with the MC arguing with her mother on the street of Bombay, India an Indian colonial city at that time, and said MC had been behaving in an rather disrespectful manner toward the local people and her very own Indian housekeeper.
Well I actually needed to put the book aside and take some deep breath and reminded myself the story is set in thes, and it probably was common for the white people to feel superior toward the locals, but still.
. . the MC had really been quite a bitch toward her housekeeper, whom she had known for most of her life and acted as the MC's caretaker,
I'm disgusted.
Plus, it goes without saying that once the MC left India behind, not once did the MC remember the housekeeper, not once,
Edited: well, a helpful reviewer came up to say the MC, Gemma, did think of her Indian housekeeper for a few times, but I'm sorry, I really was unable to find it in the Chinese translation I read.
Somehow, a British citizen who wasn't born with a single drop of Indian blood in her, and who also wasn't a Hinduist, had adopted Goddess Kali, the goddess of destruction, as her guardian goddess.
I'm disgusted, as an nonHinduist, when I visited India some years ago, for more than once I wasn't allowed to come anywhere near some of the shrines within the temples, because those important shrines are for believers only.
But it's okay for the MC, a nonHinduist, to appoint Kali to be her guardian goddess!
That's bullshit,
And said MC was referring Goddess Kali to an 'evil goddess', I'm sorry! In the Hindus myths, Kali drinks blood and she kills a lot of demons, but at the same time she's viewed as a great mother and protector of humankind.
So she is definitely not evil! Ignorant Little White Girl, would you please not put your sticky fingers on the Hindus myth and a goddess you obviously know nothing about
There's also an Indian young man who serves as the love interest, I don't have much to say about him because he's only there to be the mysterious, handsome guy but at least this guy is a shade better than what we had gotten in this godforsaken Tiger's Curse book.
Last but not least, the MC had been a little bitch toward her mother,
I'm aware of the fact that girls from Victorian era probably weren't supposed to be worldly and knowledgeable about things outside of their families and their social circle, instead they were expected to be sheltered and naive in order to keep their 'innocence', but still.
Thankfully, the story moves from Bombay to London after Chapteror so, but I'm still faced by other problems:
There's magic, secret societies, demons and otherworldly dimensions in the story, but the world building is as weak as what we had gotten from the Prophecy of the Sisters series by Michelle Zink.
In another word: empty stupid makebelieve,
Once the MC arrived to the boarding school for young ladies, we get the complete Mean Girls treatment,
Supposedly the MC befriended three other girls in the boarding school, but I can never believe those girls had shared deep enough friendship and trust to a point they agreed to keep an
important secret together.
School girls doing witchcraft in the boarding school, facepalms I know they were onlyor so years old, but still,
The MC never learns,
The ending bad things happened to the MC and her friends, and I'm not even sorry, instead I'm aloof and don't give a damn about whether those girls live or die, Why should I care when there had already been people forewarning the MC and her friends: "Don't do this! Don't go there! It's dangerous!" but they still do it anyway
My suggestion: this book doesn't worth your hardearned money, borrow it.
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