A Great And Terrible Beauty

Reviewer: Kelsey

Title: A Great and Terrible Beauty
Author: Libba Bray
Pages: 403
Format: Paperback
Rating: 7/10 Stars

My Summary: When tragedy hits, Gemma Doyle is sent away to Spence Academy in London. London isn’t like her home in India. Now alone and having to deal with visions of the future, of which most come true, saying that it’s hard would be an understatement. But maybe she isn’t as alone as she thinks she is. A strange young man is following her and warns her not to open herself up to these visions but that might not be up to her. She falls in with the powerful girls in Spence and also discovers a past that she never knew her mother had.

My take: It is very well done. You really want to know what will happen next to poor Gemma. I say “poor Gemma” lightly. She’s pretty tough especially after losing her family how she did not to mention the fact that now she has to try and figure out her visions with little outside help understanding them.  She is a smart girl but she does make some bad choice, who in the “in” crowd doesn’t right?

There is drama, just as there is in any school never mind in a school as proper as Spence Academy, and there is action too. It’s great without even adding in the fact that there is magic and everyone wishes they were magic right? Maybe not…

By the end of the novel you really care a lot about Kartik and Gemma. Libba Bray is very good at making you want to be closer to and really know the characters, even those characters that you love to hate.

Conclusion: I think that anyone who is interested in the magic aspect that can go for a ride with the character will love this book. It has a little bit of everything. Just make sure that you know that once you read this book you’ll want to go out and get the second and third in the series too.

Those are just my thoughts…

~Kelsey