A Great and Terrible Beauty, by Libba Bray

2006, Simon and Schuster
403 pages
Library copy
Paranormal historical fantasy (YA, maybe)

Cushions: 3/5
Paperclips: 2/5 (suggestive language)
Tissues: 2/5
Overall rating: 4/5

Apologies to whoever recommended this to me, I've forgotten your name. A big thank you, because I enjoyed this a lot.

This is a cover, which, if I hadn't had a recommendation, would have had me putting this back on the shelf. To me it suggests a romantic theme, which although present to some extent, isn't the focus of the book. The book follows Gemma as she picks up her life after her mother's death in India. Escorted to England, she begins life in what on the outside looks like a very proper English school in the late 1800's. Let's just say the innocent ladies aren't so innocent. They know all about the world outside their school, and wish to find a way to influence the decisions made by their parents. Little do they know that Gemma, the newcomer, will provide that path.

It's a path that shouldn't be trodden. Kartik, whose identity remains a mystery for a while, follows Gemma around, leaving notes and verbal threats to leave alone the supernatural power that Gemma can tap into. As with most people, this is like waving a red flag to a bull. Gemma doesn't care that her own mother, from beyond the grave gives a similar warning. She goes ahead with it anyway, forever changing her own life, and the girls who spend the most time with her. I wouldn't call them true friends, not yet anyway.

I shook my head at the cruelties inflicted by the girls to their classmates. I feel this reflects how cruel girls can sometimes be as they grow up, not realising how much they hurt others. I liked the twists regarding Gemma's mother, and how we never truly know what our parents are like, even if they are still alive. Their hopes, their lives before us, will always have a shroud of mystery around them.

Pick this book if you don't mind your spine tingling in fear at the paranormal goings on at Spence boarding school, if you wish to learn what happens when Gemma plays with fire and gets burned. Will the burns leave scars? What happens when four girls can literally manipulate the world they live in?

Libba Bray has her own website here