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A Great and Terrible Beauty Libba Bray 9780689875342 Books

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A Great and Terrible Beauty Libba Bray 9780689875342 Books

First of all, the book isn’t nearly as girly as the cover implies. I thought for sure my manhood would diminish when my wife told me this was the next book I was going to read. But, it turns out it wasn’t all that bad. In fact, it was pretty good.

A Great and Terrible Beauty is one part Harry Potter, one part The CW, and one part Pride and Prejudice. Only darker. Much darker. It starts to border on the edge of material that makes certain mothers reading their daughter’s books stop and freak out. It’s not filled with “nice” magic like Harry Potter or Game of Thrones (ha!), but that “I summon, thee!” kinda magic that made the Puritans get all crazy.

At first, I didn’t love the book because I found the girls to be too bitchy, too backstabbing, too 2003. Not to say that Mean Girls didn’t exist back then, but really, we’re gonna go to a cave and drink whisky from a bottle like a group of drunken sorority girls?

The plot and the characters finally got going, though, when they all moved beyond hating each other (as much as that’s possible for these girls) and actually started doing something.

Man, it sure seems like I shouldn’t have liked this book, but I did. The plot moved along well and wasn’t as predictable as some seemed to think. What can I say? I enjoyed it. I might even keep the next two books in the series around just to pull out to show my wife I’m reading them when she starts to get crabby at me. It might work.


Tags : A Great and Terrible Beauty [Libba Bray] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. It's 1895, and after the death of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence,Libba Bray,A Great and Terrible Beauty,Simon & Schuster Children's,0689875347,Children's Teenage fiction: Historical fiction,Historical fiction (Children's Teenage),Juvenile Fiction Fantasy & Magic,Young Adult Fiction,Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9)

A Great and Terrible Beauty Libba Bray 9780689875342 Books Reviews

An intriguing story. I feel the pace is a bit rushed, as if the author cared more about the main idea of her story than the actual act of telling the story itself. This also comes across to me in the lack of details, lots of opportunity for descriptions of places and characters is left out as the story skips forward to the next point it wants to make. Things seem to happen one after another just to allow the story to move where the author wants it to. The characters are not very believable either, seemingly bi polar from one moment to the next, or acting very out of character. Although not much character building is present so perhaps they are acting according to their character, the reader just isn't given enough to know the characters that well
I adore this book.

"I’m running because I can, because I must. Because I want to see how far I can go before I have to stop."

So anyway, this book was one of my favorites in middle school- it had everything I liked historical fiction with a dash of the paranormal. However, Libba Bray's A Great and Terrible Beauty is so much more than that. It's a staunchly feminist YA novel that should have more recognition among young girls everywhere. And here's why

Gemma Gemma is, without a doubt, a beautifully written main character. Though she may be a "chosen one", the girl is definitely NO Mary Sue! She can be annoying, pushy, and quite mean at times- as well as very judgmental and ignorant,, but she is a sixteen year old girl. And sixteen year olds, especially ones that have been privileged their whole lives, are know-it-alls. And Libba Bray writes her very well. I grew to love Gemma! She get's her ass handed to her- and I enjoyed watching her grow into a better friend/person.

Friendships This is a book that celebrates female friendship vs. young girls clamoring for the love of some aloof boy. There is this trend in YA where the main character is hounded by other girls and is left to only only associate with some handsome male (throneofglasscougchcough) and it is so great to read a story about friendship and sisterhood.

Also, this book is no love story! However, Gemma still finds herself "in like" with a character named Kartik. I found this pollen to be written very well- there is no "insta-love", because in real life,especially at Gemma's age, "insta-love" is more "insta-i wanna kiss you" and it was interesting to see Gemma wrestle with her feelings and be confused. It was realistic! And I liked how he didn't crumble for her! Libya Bray let's them be their own characters.

Themes There are so many wonderful themes in this book! Feminism? Racism? Classism? Xenophobia? All of that is discussed and weaved in brilliantly. I would go into details, but there would be spoilers.

This book impacted me so much that I bought a tons of copies and campaigned to have it integrated into my high-school's English curriculum. Of course, it helped that my high-school was an all girls school, ex-finishing school much like Spence.

Thank you Libba Bray! Thank you!

There are many criticisms about the novel. 1. That the writing is verbose. Well, I will admit that Bray's style is quite heavy, but ti works here- it is seems that a lack of brevity fits into the victorian setting. 2. That the POC are made fun and are regarded inappropriately. I understand that- but Gemma isn't going to automatically not be prejudiced or ignorant. Gemma is kind of a bitch. But she grows throughout the novel and the book- and begins to view those different from her differently. I appreciated the fact that Bray didn't go easy on Gemma.
First of all, the book isn’t nearly as girly as the cover implies. I thought for sure my manhood would diminish when my wife told me this was the next book I was going to read. But, it turns out it wasn’t all that bad. In fact, it was pretty good.

A Great and Terrible Beauty is one part Harry Potter, one part The CW, and one part Pride and Prejudice. Only darker. Much darker. It starts to border on the edge of material that makes certain mothers reading their daughter’s books stop and freak out. It’s not filled with “nice” magic like Harry Potter or Game of Thrones (ha!), but that “I summon, thee!” kinda magic that made the Puritans get all crazy.

At first, I didn’t love the book because I found the girls to be too bitchy, too backstabbing, too 2003. Not to say that Mean Girls didn’t exist back then, but really, we’re gonna go to a cave and drink whisky from a bottle like a group of drunken sorority girls?

The plot and the characters finally got going, though, when they all moved beyond hating each other (as much as that’s possible for these girls) and actually started doing something.

Man, it sure seems like I shouldn’t have liked this book, but I did. The plot moved along well and wasn’t as predictable as some seemed to think. What can I say? I enjoyed it. I might even keep the next two books in the series around just to pull out to show my wife I’m reading them when she starts to get crabby at me. It might work.