December 15, 2013

Book Review: A Great and Terrible Beauty (Gemma Doyle, #1)

by Libba Bray
published in 2003
a forgiving 2.5-3 stars
Goodreads Amazon Author's Website

"Because you don't notice the light without a bit of shadow. Everything has both dark and light. You have to play with it till you get it exactly right."

A Great and Terrible Beauty, is like what the title suggests, both great and terrible. But for me, it tilted towards terrible.

It's the Victorian Era, and the only place where Gemma Doyle wants to be is in England. Instead, Gemma's stuck under the sweltering heat of India, her dreams of going abroad quickly evaporating under the torrid sun. But one eery vision of the future later, tragedy strikes her family and Gemma is sent packing to the Spence Academy in London, under the worst possible circumstances. At Spence, Gemma's visions seem to occur more often, and Spence's gothic styled building intensifies the supernatural feel. Now, Gemma must question all she's every known. Or what she thought she had known.

I thought the book started off great. The characters had vivid, colorful personalities, and the setting felt very three-dimensional. Gemma had quite a distinct character, one that made her feel alive, vibrant. She always had a strong opinion, and her solid narration made me, the reader, feel involved in the story. 

Unfortunately, the story started to unravel as Gemma started to discover her supernatural talents. Suddenly, several new, important plot lines appeared, yet they held a weak presence throughout the book. The story started to feel drab, as the characters' emotions were never amplified; they just feel flat. And scenes containing very dramatic elements felt like smooth poetry, I mean for a supernatural book, everything just felt a little too natural

One of the only factors that kept me from abandoning this book was the writing. Libba Bray's prose is lavishly fluent, and her choice for words is really quite brilliant. There is something in her writing that takes her story to another dimension. So although a lot of components in this book disappointed me, the words sure did not. 

A Great and Terrible Beauty would be a great book for someone who enjoys a luxurious prose and a unique story. Unfortunately, those two elements were not sufficient for me in liking this book. There were just too many little bits and pieces of the story that were left hanging, with nowhere to go. This book was a whole story that felt empty inside.

5 comments:

  1. OMGOSH GRACE YOU ARE BAAACK!!!! *GLOMPS!* *TACKLE TO THE GROUND AND TICKLE YOU UNTIL YOU LAUGH AND YOUR STOMACH HURTS* LIKE I AM SO SORRY I DIDN'T COMMENT BACK SOONER!!! I HAD FINALS LAST WEEK AND I WAS ALSO SICK SO I JUST DIDN'T DO ANYTHING EXCEPT SLEEP…A LOT. AND NOW I CAN AND YOU NEED TO POST MORE BECAUSE YOU SHOULD HAVE WINTER BREAK AND YEAH.
    GOSH, I MISSED YOU SOOO MUCH, GRACE!!!!<3

    ONTO YOUR GORGEOUS REVIEW AS EVER GRACE...

    I've heard such great things of this book and picked it up more than once at the library but the first lines and the synopsis never took hold and interested me and it seems pretty loosely to me of this book. I've heard amazing things over Bray's writing and I remember you ADORED The Diviners, so I guess i'll give The Diviners more of a go.

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    1. ER MA GERD DELANEY YOUR EXCITEMENT IS MAKING ME EXCITED AND PLUS I JUST HAD SOME ICED COFFEE SO I'M DOUBLE EXCITED NOW AND THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR AWESOME COMMENT!

      And yes, I definitely preferred the Diviners over A G&T Beauty. I mean it was good but it wasn't great! But please do give Diviners a shot, it is absolutely brilliant!

      And like you said, I should post more since I have winter break now and I will post more! I've got about 2 posts in mind (plus maybe some book reviews) so I hope that this time I will be able to keep a streak! Plus I can't wait to read more of your posts!

      Again, thanks so much for everything Delaney, reading your comment literally propels me to write more posts!

      -Grace :)

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    2. Oh and I hope you're feeling better now and that your exams went really, really well :D

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  2. A Great and Terrible Beauty is definitely not a great book when one compares it to The Diviners, but I do quite like it. I love the characters and Libba's beautiful prose, though I do agree that the story can feel a little natural for a supernatural book, haha.

    Are you going to be continuing the series? If so, I would love to hear your thoughts! I myself need to get to the last book... And am I the only one who is bothered by the fact that the second book's title is so simple-sounding when the first and third books' titles are so pretty? Gah, I'm bothered by random things.

    Great review, Grace! It's nice to know that you are back!

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    1. Thank you so much Lesley, and yeah, it's definitely great to be back!

      I don't know if I'll be continuing this series… Although despite the plain sounding title, I've seen that Rebel Angels holds a really high rating on Goodreads! Who knows, I just might pick it up from the library one day! And do tell me your thoughts on the series once you do get ahold of the last book!

      Again, thanks for your lovely comment and for reading my book review, Lesley!

      -Grace :)

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Hi! If you are here, I'm assuming that you've just read my post. If yes, don't hesitate on leaving a quick comment, I truly do appreciate each and every single one of them!

-Grace :)

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