A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray - After hanging out at Sue's Java House a few weeks ago and talking with several of her avid readers, I decided I really needed to read this book! Plus, Sue was reading it, too, and I never want to miss a chance to actually get to talk about a book with someone else who's also read it :) Anyway, it certainly was deserving of it's position on the NYT Bestseller list. Not only was it well-written with a well-developed plot, but the book kept me in suspense...which almost never happens with a YA title. There were a few things I figured out before the end, but the ones I didn't were the ones that sent me reeling! I seldom read a a sequel or a companion book, but I've already started Rebel Angels, this book's companion title. I may even read the third book as I just found out it's going to be a trilogy!
Now, about the book....
Gemma Doyle lives with her mother and father in India. On her sixteenth birthday she sees her mother's murder in a vision. Shortly after her mother's mysterious death, Gemma is sent to a finishing school in London. While there, she meets several other girls, all of whom fit the popular/unpopular stereotypes of most schools. However, after a while, Gemma finds out that all of them have problems of their own. As was the custom of the Victorian era, most of the girls deal with their own internal pain by not showing it to anyone. Each girl's torment surfaces in it s own way, from Ann's inclination to cut herself to Felicity's cruelty to the weaker girls...especially Ann. The visions revisit Gemma and lead her to a diary that creates a bond between her, Felicity, Pippa, and Ann. The diary tells the story of Sarah Rees-Toome and Mary Dowd, two girls who went to Spence and perished in the mysterious fire of 1871. Both girls practiced magic, a fact which interests Gemma because she experiences visions that she's unable to control, even though a mysterious boy named Kartik tells her that her visions are dangerous and she must stop them. Soon, Gemma and the others learn all about the magic that Sarah and Mary possessed and try to harness it for themselves, despite grave warnings from Gemma's deceased mother. What happens when the girls take the magic from the realms and bring it back to Spence is more than they could have ever imagined.
