A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

While I'm cranking away at these reviews, why not do A Great and Terrible Beauty?

Sixteen-year-old Gemma has had an unconventional upbringing in India, until the day she foresees her mother's death in a black, swirling vision that turns out to be true. Sent back to England, she is enrolled at Spence, a girls' academy with a mysterious burned-out East Wing. There Gemma is snubbed by powerful Felicity, beautiful Pippa, and even her own dumpy roommate Ann, until she blackmails herself and Ann into the treacherous clique. Gemma is distressed to find that she has been followed from India by Kartik, a beautiful young man who warns her to fight off the visions. Nevertheless, they continue, and one night she is led by a child-spirit to find a diary that reveals the secrets of a mystical Order. The clique soon finds a way to accompany Gemma to the other-world realms of her visions "for a bit of fun" and to taste the power they will never have as Victorian wives, but they discover that the delights of the realms are overwhelmed by a menace they cannot control. Gemma is left with the knowledge that her role as the link between worlds leaves her with a mission to seek out the "others" and rebuild the Order.

This book could have been worse.  I wasn't really a fan of anyone in the book--usually there's one character that really pulls a chord with me and I root for them--but overall it wasn't such a bad read.

This is a really good in-between-books book.  Not too much thinking involved, Ms. Bray pretty much spells everything out for the reader, but there are still some plot twists that I didn't quite see coming.

It's like in a movie when you hear the scary music and you know something is going to happen but you don't know what?  That's pretty much this book.  I would recommend reading this while listening to the JAWS soundtrack.  Much more exciting!

Gemma isn't as needy and depressed as most other female characters in the YA genre which was refreshing.  She actually did kick some butt near the end.  The biggest issue I had with this book is that there was no real problem for Gemma to solve.  There were obstacles but not so much a final destination.  She would bravely face something, win, and that was it.

It was as if Harry Potter rescued the Sorcerer's Stone and said, "Alright guys that was awesome, time to go back to school and finish finals."  Voldemort was not defeated, in fact he didn't even exist.  Harry and the gang solved some puzzles and went home for the summer.

Yes I understand this book is a part of a trilogy but shouldn't Ms. Bray have left something for Gemma to do at the end of the first book?  Some type of Victorian age quest?  The book ends with a 'maybe I'll go do this if I feel like it after finishing school'.

Another problem I had with this book is the fact that the author tried to put me in the Victorian era but failed miserably.  Gemma could have been the girl down the street from me in THIS era.  Her thoughts were so modern and only did I remember the time period when someone would comment that 'ladies don't do that' or to 'tighten a corset'.  That's not how a historical fiction novel should be written.

If the author had trouble putting herself in the past I wish she would have just used this time period; the exact same storyline could still work and I would have been more invested.

Overall, this book wasn't too bad.  If you have time and this is available at your local library give it a try. I definitely wouldn't pay the $10 at the bookstore for it though.