A Great and Terrible Beauty

I've had this book for years and only finally was able to read it. And I have mixed feelings about it.

in 1895,Gemma witnesses the murder of her mother, the murderer was some kind of shadow. How can she explain that to anyone? Months pass and she is sent to live in an all girls school and learn how to be a lady and curb her boisterous tendencies. Making friends is hard and making enemies is far too easy. To top it all off, shadows and ghost stories haunt her. She finds a diary of a girl who used to go to the same school and saw the same things she did; this girl had the same odd powers Gemma seems to be acquiring. What is is going on and who is the strange boy who followed her from India all the way to England?

I really liked the historical representation that was depicted her. A life of a lady was not an easy one and many felt silenced and purchased for potential wedding contracts. The idea of "lay back and think of England" instead of making love to a spouse is one of the many ways that this is shown here--nothing graphic though I guess there is some nudity which is probably unneeded. The idea of being a quiet, proper "lady" is very prominent and has many of the girls feeling stifled. So before all of their independence is snatched away they will occasionally do things that would get them in serious trouble if they are caught: necking is a gypsy boy, stealing the priest's wine/whiskey reserves, getting up at all hours of the night, going into the woods for meetings/gypsy fortune telling/whatever else. Then Gemma introduces her strange power to some of the girls and more craziness happens. But the idea of being stifled, silenced, and putting on a fake smile with even worse conversations only about "the weather and the queens health" was something that they had to deal with back then and now too in some instances though not as dramatically. It's sad and Libba Bray portrays that very well.

I think the characters were well developed and each was different and developed enough that I understood. I enjoyed learning about them and at times I felt very sorry for them. The characters were a very strong reason I finished the book.

That being said, I almost didn't finish. I am not an occult fan. This had a feel of the Salem Witch Trials to me, tarot cards, talking to the dead through medians, sacrifices to give black shadow/spirits power, and other witchy things was turning me off for a lot of it. I don't read it, because "bad ju ju feelings" are a thing and I don't need it around me. I did finish it though because the plot was very good. It was a very engaging read that had me turning pages quickly. I finished it in less than a week.

It is a good book and written very well. The reason I gave it a four instead of five stars would be because of the occult theme and the fact that it got a bit darker than I wanted. I can see this series being a good one that has many people very engaged, but as this moment I'm not going to be picked up the next one, sadly.