A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

OOOOO

"Don't judge a book by it's cover." I'm sure very many are familiar with this saying. And if there is a book that it applies to, it's A Great and Terrible Beauty. I picked this book up expecting a typical historical romance and instead got an impossible-to-put-down story full of magic and adventure.

Gemma Doyle has spent the 16 years of her life living in late 1800s India. Her life is normal as can be until the day of her 16th birthday. While out shopping with her mother, a mysterious man approaches and slips a message to her mother. Suddenly panicked, Mrs. Doyle orders Gemma to go home. Gemma is furious and runs away. But before she can get far, she is struck with a terrible vision of her mother committing suicide. Soon thereafter, her mother is found... dead.

Gemma is sent to England to attend Spence Academy, a boarding school for young ladies. There, she meets Ann, an unpopular scholarship student who befriends her immediately. She also meets Felicity, a headstrong and somewhat snobby daughter of an admiral, as well as Pippa, Felicity's best friend who is beautiful but who seems quite cruel. This unlikely group of girls discover the Realms, a secret place that contains a magic guarded for centuries by 2 ancient groups of sorcerers who will do anything to protect it. They slowly begin to unravel the mystery of the Realms and the death of Gemma's mother. At the same time they discover the great but terrible beauty of the magic within the Realms.

Although I was very surprised by this story, I cannot say I was disappointed. On her website, Libba Bray claims she writes very visually and I can definitely see this in this novel. Descriptions are vivid, if not sometimes graphic, and I have a picture in my head at the end of the book. While sometimes characters can seem a little undeveloped, I found they are often completed in the book's sequels, Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing. The plot is full of unexpected turns and twists, and while I wouldn't necessarily call it historical fiction, I enjoyed the period setting. This book is not always lighthearted. Characters deal with difficult subjects such as self harm and drug abuse, and some scenes are a bit mature. But overall this is a wonderful work of fiction and I enjoyed it tremendously.

Libba Bray, who has won an ALA Books for Young Adults Award twice, has done a marvelous job combining adventure, fantasy, and a hint of romance in this book. A Great and Terrible Beauty was a New York Times Bestseller and was on the Tayshas High School Reading List, which is a reading list by the Texas Library Association. I would definitely reccommend this book to high school or mature middle school students.

For more information about A Great and Terrible Beauty, Libba Bray, and her other works, please visit libbabray.com.