{"id":99,"date":"2018-02-03T08:16:07","date_gmt":"2018-02-03T08:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.superversivesf.com\/fantasticschools\/?p=99"},"modified":"2018-01-22T00:33:15","modified_gmt":"2018-01-22T00:33:15","slug":"review-a-great-and-terrible-beauty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.superversivesf.com\/fantasticschools\/2018\/02\/03\/review-a-great-and-terrible-beauty\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: A Great and Terrible Beauty"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an earlier post, author Katie Cross mentioned the book A Great and Terrible Beauty <\/em>by Libba Bray. This story has both a girls’ school and magic, but unlike most of the stories we feature, the magic is being learned secretly, away from the eyes of the teachers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A Great and Terrible Beauty<\/a> is the first book in a trilogy.\u00a0The Amazon blurb reads in part:<\/p>\n

The first book in the critically acclaimed\u00a0New York Times, USA Today, and\u00a0Publishers Weekly\u00a0bestselling Gemma Doyle trilogy, the exhilarating and haunting saga\u00a0from the author of The Diviners series and\u00a0Going Bovine.<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s 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\u2019s reception there is a chilly one.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

To make things worse, she\u2019s 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\u2019s most powerful girls\u2014and their foray into the spiritual world\u2014lead to?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Librarian Virginia Johnson wrote this review of the book for her local library:<\/p>\n

Gemma Doyle is furious with her mother. They may have the same untamed red hair and deep green eyes, but in Libba Bray\u2019s historical novel\u00a0A Great and Terrible Beauty<\/a>\u00a0they are completely at odds with each other. It\u2019s Gemma\u2019s 16th<\/sup>\u00a0birthday, and try as she may, she is making no headway whatsoever with getting what she really wants for a present\u2014a ticket back to Merrie Olde England where she can make her debut in society and meet some nice, eligible young men.\u00a0 But her mother won\u2019t budge. Gemma\u2019s to stay with her parents in India. And then something terrible happens. She gets her wish\u2026 at a horrifying cost.<\/p>\n

Sent across the sea and plunked down at young ladies\u2019 finishing school to get that final polish before the London social season, Gemma finds her roommate Ann dull and somewhat pathetic but she discovers the mean girls\u2019 clique is no more enchanting. At least, not at first.<\/p>\n

Pippa, an astounding beauty, is impossible to ignore, but it\u2019s Felicity, the wild daughter of an admiral, who is the ring-leader. They insist they want Gemma to join their group. Of course, first she\u2019ll have to pass an initiation. However, the cruel mischief the girls have in mind for the new girl is nothing compared to what will come. Each of them has a secret and a secret wish, but only Gemma\u2019s will open the door to a magical world of delight and danger.<\/p>\n

Read the rest…<\/a><\/p>\n

Some quotes and awards:<\/p>\n

\u201cA delicious, elegant gothic.\u201d\u2014PW<\/i>, Starred<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cShivery with both passion and terror.\u201d\u2014Kirkus Reviews\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

“Compulsively readable.” –VOYA<\/p>\n

A New York Times Bestseller
\nA Publishers Weekly Bestseller
\nA Book Sense Bestseller
\nBBYA (ALA\/YALSA Best Book for Young Adults)
\nIowa High School Book Award
\nGarden State Teen Book Award
\nPennsylvania Young Reader\u2019s Choice Award<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an earlier post, author Katie Cross mentioned the book A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. This story has both a girls’ school and magic, but unlike most of the stories we feature, the magic is being learned secretly, away from the eyes of the teachers. A Great and Terrible Beauty is the first book in a trilogy.\u00a0The Amazon blurb reads in part: The first book in the critically acclaimed\u00a0New York Times, USA Today, and\u00a0Publishers Weekly\u00a0bestselling Gemma Doyle trilogy, the exhilarating and haunting saga\u00a0from the author of The Diviners series and\u00a0Going Bovine. It\u2019s 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\u2019s reception there is a chilly one.\u00a0 To make things worse, she\u2019s 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\u2019s most powerful girls\u2014and their foray into the spiritual world\u2014lead to?\u00a0   Librarian Virginia Johnson wrote this review of the book […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":88,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9],"tags":[19,21,20],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","category-signal-boost","tag-a-great-and-terrible-beauty","tag-fantastic-schools","tag-libba-bray"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.superversivesf.com\/fantasticschools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.superversivesf.com\/fantasticschools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.superversivesf.com\/fantasticschools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.superversivesf.com\/fantasticschools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.superversivesf.com\/fantasticschools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.superversivesf.com\/fantasticschools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":166,"href":"https:\/\/www.superversivesf.com\/fantasticschools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions\/166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.superversivesf.com\/fantasticschools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.superversivesf.com\/fantasticschools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.superversivesf.com\/fantasticschools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.superversivesf.com\/fantasticschools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}