A Great And Terrible Beauty (Libba Bray)

* Gemma Doyle isn't like other girls. Girls with impeccable manners, who speak when spoken to, who remember their station, and who will lie back and think of England when it's required of them.

No, sixteen-year-old Gemma is an island unto herself, sent to the Spence Academy in London after tragedy strikes her family in India. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma finds a chilly reception. But she's not completely alone... she's been followed by a mysterious young man, who warns her to close her mind against the visions.

For it's at Spence that Gemma's power to attract the supernatural unfolds; there she becomes entangled with the school's most powerful girls and discovers her mother's connection to a shadowy group called the Order. It's there that her destiny waits... if only she can believe it.

A Great and Terrible Beauty is a curl-up-under-the-covers kind of book... a vast canvas of rustling skirts and dancing shadows and things that go bump in the night. It's a vividly drawn portrait of the Victorian age, when girls were groomed for lives as rich men's wives... and the story of a girl who saw another way.


Early this year, I had a chat through YM with one of my friends from Twilight Coven Philippines (TCP), Rome. We were just talking about random things when she mentioned about a series she has been reading. She just discovered it a few days before the night of our chat. The series that she was talking about is the Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray. She saw the book on display while waiting in line to pay in Fully Booked, Gateway. She read the synopsis, liked what she read, then bought the book. Ever since she opened it, she couldn't stop reading. And so she recommended it to me and to the other members of TCP. (Some TCP members actually read books other than Twilight. Way, way better books than Twilight. :P)

It took a while for me before I bought the book. I was busy with work and reading other books. During one of my trips in Fully Booked, The Block, I saw copies of this book on the shelf. There were less than five on display. But I didn't buy it yet because I wasn't sure if the AGATB is the first book in the series since copies of Rebel Angels (the second book) were also there. I also have a limited budget that time. So I left the bookstore wishing that I would still see them on my next visit.

A few days passed. I was in TriNoma to apply for the Ayala Malls A Card. Before going home, I passed by Fully Booked out of habit. I saw lots of copies of AGATB. Since I have enough money with me, I bought the book. I was really excited because I could now read the series. It was worth it.

Just like Rome, I couldn't put it down once I started reading it. The setting is during the Victorian era. I love reading books set during that time. Gemma's arrival at the Spence Academy reminded me of A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (one of my favorite books back in high school). Just like Sara Crewe, Gemma grew up in India. They are both sent to a boarding school in London. But their similarities end there. Sara arrived in London when she was 7 years old while Gemma arrived when she was already 16 years old. Sara left India to study in London while Gemma left because a tragedy happened. Sara is popular and looked up to by other children while Gemma is a target by the "mean girls." There are no supernatural elements in Sara's world while Gemma's world is surrounded by it.

Since supernatural elements exist in the book, there were times when I felt chills running up and down my spine. These happened every time Gemma and her friends are in the cave. My imagination was getting ahead of myself. It made me want to read more.

This book is not only about the supernatural. It also showed how women lived during the Victorian era. Reading about the other students in Spence and the events happening there was entertaining. Even though I am fascinated by that era, I don't want to live during that time because I don't want to be groomed to be just somebody's wife. I am an ambitious person so I want to be the "somebody" and be able to do my own thing.

This book is very promising. I couldn't wait to read the next one. I just really hope that Gemma's characterization will not go downhill like *ehem* the girl who fell madly in love with a sparkling vampire.

Rating: 4/5