A Great And Terrible Beauty Review

Release Date: December 9, 2003
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Age Group: 14+
Pages: 416 (Hardcover)

It’s 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma’s reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she’s been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence’s most powerful girls—and their foray into the spiritual world—lead to?
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I really enjoyed this book. I think I'm going to have a hard time reviewing this, just to let you know in advance. I'm not sure why, though.

The plot is extremely original, and I really enjoyed the historical fiction aspect of it, even though I was worried I wouldn't. The plot was pretty confusing at time, though, and I'd have to go back and reread something.

Gemma Doyle is 16 in 1895, but she manages to, somehow, have a modern personality. There are times where you loves her friends, and times where you hate them. They all did stuff that really annoyed me, though. There are, however, awesome supporting characters like the coolest school teacher in the world, Miss Moore.

Libba Bray's writing was outstanding! Very crisp and vivid descriptions that make you feel like you're really seeing it all. I would've liked for her to use more of this writing to describe the characters, but sadly she didn't.

All in all, this was a very enjoyable, but not perfect read. I'll definitely be reading Rebel Angels, the next in the series.


(I've changed my review system, if you look at the sidebar.)

Teaser Tuesdays (July 14th, '09)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should
Be Reading.

Anyone can play along, do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here's mine:
"If you want to spend your time here embroidering God Bless Our Home samplers and learning how to play lawn tennis in a corset and skirt, go back to bed. But if you want to have a bit of real fun, well..." And with that she trips lightly down the stairs and around the corner to the next set of stairs, where I could no longer see her.

Page 72 0f A Great And Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

Judging A Book By It's Cover:

This time, I'm judging a the book A Great And Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray, which I have from the library. I think I'm the last teen in the world to read it, and all I've heard is how amazing it is, so I'm really looking forward to it. Anyways, here's the cover:






It's a very beautiful cover. The corset, the pose, the back-round colors. I only have one complaint: the font of the authors name. It just doesn't fit with the rest of the cover, but the color of Libba Bray's name does. It's not something that would draw a paranormal/fantasy fan like me to the book, unless I read the back of the book. What do you think?