A Great and Terrible Beauty
Book Review: This is a hard review for me to write. Libba Bray’s “A Great and Terrible Beauty” (first book in the three-part “ Gemma Doyle” series) gets decent reviews and was picked by the American Library Association as one of the best young adult books of 2004. Students I have talked to about it seem to like it too, so why am I so underwhelmed by this modern Gothic novel? The story begins in India where teen protagonist Gemma Doyle witnesses strange paranormal terrors culminating in the murder of her mother. She is subsequently sent to a girl’s boarding school in London for a fresh start. Here she discovers friendship, belonging, and mysterious connections to her mother’s past which lead to otherworldly experiences of her own. Enough teenage angst, sexual yearning, and petty rivalry here to fill the river Thames. The opening sequence of the book in India was pleasurably tense, featuring a heart pounding chase scene, some shadowy violence with supernatural undertones, a sp...