A Great and Terrible Beauty (The Gemma Doyle Trilogy) by Libba Bray

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray is a gothic novel where English boarding school meets the supernatural.

My Book Review Rating: 4 stars – take teenage angst and boarding school and throw in a bit of supernatural terror and suspense and you’ve got yourself an enjoyable read!

This book was a Christmas gift from my brother… which means it was on my Amazon wish list… which means that at some time I must have read a great review of it at another book lover’s blog! [If it was you then add a link to your review in the comments box ]

I really wasn’t sure what to expect from the novel when I first started reading; we are introduced to Gemma Doyle, the main character, and her mother as they shop at an Indian market. Before long things take a turn for the weird as Gemma sees her mother kill herself in a vision, well I say kill, it’s more of a sacrifice.

After her mother’s death Gemma is whisked off to London to a boarding school for young ladies (this is 1896 by the way); a place she begged to go just before her mother’s untimely death but now isn’t quite so sure. Once at school Gemma begins to experience more visions and meets a young man who threatens bad things if she succumbs to them.

As the tale unfolds Gemma begins to learn about a shadowy group called The Order, where young girls before her have experienced similar visions and stepped into The Realms, a place where magic lives. Gemma and her friends; Pippa, Felicity and Ann find themselves caught up in a world where their wildest dreams can come true – which of course makes them all a little power hungry and puts The Realms at risk of being taken over by Bad Magic.

Libba Bray pens an intriguing and suspenseful tale in A Great and Terrible Beauty and even throws in a hint of passion (not too much – this is a Young Adult novel after all!). I thoroughly enjoyed it and will be on the look out for the other two novels in the Gemma Doyle Trilogy.

Read on to order your copy of the book – or to see reviews from other readers.

A Great and Terrible Beauty (The Gemma Doyle Trilogy)

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