Review "A Great and Terrible Beauty" by Libba Bray

[Mrseaddy16]

A young girl witnesses a tragic event that will forever change her life. Did she really see what she thinks she saw? Will she ever be able to tell anyone about it? Before she can even process what happened, she is sent by her family, to an all girl boarding school in England.

Gemma Doyle, a young girl living in India, witnesses her mothers death and is sent to Spence Academy in England, where she will meet a group of girls who unexpectedly become her friends. Gemma has visions of the future which have a way of coming true, and she is being followed by a young indian boy, who keeps giving her ominous warnings. She finds out Spence holds its own secrets, and while uncovering them, she will discover who she really is and what she is really capable of.

I give this book 3 stars:

The story line of this book is quite unique and excellent, however it’s far from a page turner in my opinion. I really enjoyed the twists in the plot, and honestly didn’t see most of them coming.

The action, however, could have been more wide spread in the story. There were far to many places that I found myself wanting to skip ahead to the next chapter. It was kind of like going to a movie and finding yourself thinking, “this is a good time for more popcorn” and then coming back knowing you didn’t miss anything important.

I will say that it’s worth a read however. You wont see the plot twists coming your way at all, and the characters are wonderfully written. My honest, and only negative thought about this novel, is the lulls in the story.

A Great and Terrible Beauty is the first book in the Gemma Doyle trilogy, and I do plan on reading book two. I am hoping for more action in the next one since the character introductions and plot intro are all caught up to speed in this first book.

[Books_are_Life]

You are so right that Libba Bray has a great story hear but she does take her time in the build up. Once it gets to the action though its a whole new ball game. enjoy I loved every page

[rida]

Read from September 06 to 10, 2014

How can I define this book? Its a story that takes you to fantasy, makes you believe the unbelievable but at the same time drags you back to reality. It makes you laugh and cry at same time. To enjoy and hate a situation.

Its one of the books in which the ending of one chapter doesn't mean ending at all. When reading the last line of a chapter you feel like standing at the end of a corner but you don't want to stop there. You want to take the turn. Want to read one more line. To read one more paragraph, another chapter. Each chapter raises such a curiosity in you to keep reading the book and know more.

Above all the things this book contains, I liked the fact that so many books use the word that there is no good or bad, no light or dark but never truly does justice to it but this book did. Every character is beautiful is flawed at the same time. Every beauty is great and terrible at one. Every evil is pitiable and hateful. Even the finest and best people have some dark side. But how can you dislike it? How can you think that its unfair to make your leading characters selfish and bad at some point? How can you when you know that this is what life is, this is the basic characteristic of human life. You hate and love human race simultaneously and its fine, its natural because that's what you should do.

We humans are flawed and complete. We are hateful and loveable. We are selfish and sincere. We are a great and terrible beauty

[Lovely_Loreley]

Above all the things this book contains, I liked the fact that so many books use the word that there is no good or bad, no light or dark but never truly does justice to it but this book did. Every character is beautiful is flawed at the same time. Every beauty is great and terrible at one. Every evil is pitiable and hateful. Even the finest and best people have some dark side. But how can you dislike it? How can you think that its unfair to make your leading characters selfish and bad at some point? How can you when you know that this is what life is, this is the basic characteristic of human life. You hate and love human race simultaneously and its fine, its natural because that's what you should do.

It has been so long since I read these books, I really need to reread them. I do remember having to drop this first one and then come back to it later because it was rather slow. But I agree that the characters were what really kept me hooked on the series. I think a lot of authors have trouble balancing "good and bad" in their protagonists, even though most agree that everyone is some mix of both extremes. Libba Bray never seemed to have that problem; she wasn't worried about making the protagonist too bad - I think other authors feel the need for good to heavily outweigh bad in their main characters in order to justify telling that character's story. This series just felt so much more raw and honest compared to those others.

[Shaggy-Reads]

This is one of the best trilogies I have read. The characters are well developed as is the plot. To me I didn’t feel the lull the others spoke of. I couldn’t wait to learn more about each characters and why they are who and how they are as we meet and see them grow and change. To see Gemma unlock secrets about her mother while on the journey is enlightening and eye opening. It shows how most kids forget that their parent was young once too. The way Libby balances each character, scene, the real and fantasy worlds, and makes a parallel between the two and how we are all terrible and beautiful at the same time is fantastic. She doesn’t shy away from humanizing her characters and making it more good than bad. She walks the line of reality extremely well in this series. We can all be givers but we can also be takers and selfish/self serving. All three books are so good that I have waited for my youngest daughter to become a teen so she can read them too. As of today she is half way through the first book and I can’t get her to put it down to do her chores lol. So I’m off to do them as she enjoys the story. Don’t bypass this author and I feel these first books of hers are amazing and I can’t wait to see where she goes from here.

[Vscholz]

I really enjoyed this series. Oftentimes, the first book (or episode) in a series has a lot of dull parts that build up to the more exciting scenes, so that part doesn't bother me. It was much better than I expected.

I don't read much historical fiction but I devoured this trilogy because it was engrossing and easy to read.