November 5, 2012

Read This!: A Great and Terrible Beauty

By Libba Bray

Book fair #3 or 4… I can’t remember.
After I had bought this book and started reading it, I discovered that it was 1. Young adult and 2. Part of a trilogy.  Sigh…  Why is every book part of a trilogy?  What happened to writing one novel and moving to the next story?  I only find this annoying because my obsessive nature results in my reading the rest of the trilogy so I feel like I am bamboozled into reading books I didn’t intend to.  The young adult thing didn’t bother me but as it was not in the young adult section of the book fair, I was surprised to discover this.

Gemma Doyla, 16, is living in India at the end of the 19th century.  Due to some tragic events, she is sent to school in England where she, along with three of her classmates, unlock a magic that leads them to “the realms”, a mystical place between two worlds.  The girls don’t understand the implications of having the power of this magic (even though they are warned) and, as a result, things get out of hand.
While I found this to be an intriguing story especially since fantasy is not really my thing, I found parts of it to be forced.  I also felt there should have been more explanation about the background of Mary and Sarah.  Did they just suddenly start seeing visions?  What triggered it? 

Spoilers!

I also thought that the whole Mary as her mother bit was side-eye.   I mean she supposedly dies or so everyone thinks so how the heck did she make her way to marry Gemma’s dad?  She probably had no money. 
Also, so with the chaos that ensued at the end, was Gemma’s mother not really her?  Was it some kind of facade that was supposed to trick her?

I will probably read the next two just because I want to know what comes next.  I have already looked at the Wikipedia info on this trilogy.  This was easy reading but not the best book I ever read.

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