A Great and Terrible Beauty

This book, A great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray, and the follow ups Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing, is one of the best series I have read in a long time.

It is set in the years 1895-1896 and is filled with poofy skirts and tight corsets. It is a perfect picture of the time, from gossip filled tea parties to grand balls in enormous halls. This particular story is about a girl named Gemma Doyle.

Gemma Doyle has always been a bit unusual. She is not the type to sit and drink tea and gossip with the other girls in her home in Bombay, India. With her flaming red hair and "unsettling" bright green eyes, she has always been a bit unconventional. So of course, though wanting it very much, being shipped of to a London all-girls boarding school after her mother's sudden murder, complicates her life even more.

You see, Gemma is prone to visions. Sometimes useful, sometimes dangerous but no matter what that good-looking, mysterious, young, Indian man that is following her says, she cant get rid of them, they are part of her. These visions, and some outside help, help her discover the existence of the shadowy Order and her mother's connection with it. This leads her to discover the realms, a world between worlds where anything can exist and along with her friends Felicity, Ann and Pippa, she sets off too explore it, but it is not all than meets the eye.

This series is extremely well written and explores a lot more than you would expect than a book set in the 19th century. It talks about love, friendship, death, adolescence, sexism and of course, racism. When reading this book you start to think about everything in a whole new light. Why shouldnt women go to university? And though you may be thinking "But they can now! That was years ago!" this book shows it from the inside, from the mind of a woman in that time. How she thought about it, and how she dealt with it. She didnt think it was all that strange! That was how it was.

I also think that Libba Bray has found a way to connect the book with the reader. The way you can find yourself in each of the main characters. For instance, i am most like Gemma, I am a bit different and very wary, i like to look after my friends. But Felicity and me share the same love of standing out, we are both attention seekers. Then there is Ann. Ann is a very very shy and quiet character. You now may be thinking "hang on, how can u be like her if u r an attention seeker?" well, my answer for that is this, she loves acting and singing, just like me!

On another note, when reaching the end of each of the books, though being a series, it does not finish abruptly. Although the plot is unfinished, and the story not rapt up until the very last book, it is still satisfying. Libba has finished each of them in such a way that they can almost stand alone. This may also be because there is so much to think about when reading them that your head is full of thoughts and questions so that to pick up the next book would be overload!

Overall, an excellent read and i suggest it for anyone aged 13-30.