A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

 Great and terrible beauty is set in a Victorian era the 1800s and follows the story of a young girl who lost her mother and father is slowing deteriorating with grief. Gemma is shipped to a finishing school for young girls, where she is taught how to be a proper lady. At this school Gemma finds it hard to make friends, she sticks with her roommate Ann who is even worse at friends and is constantly bullied by two girls at the school. However Gemma always stood up to these bullies named Felicity and Pippa. However events at the school bring the four girls together and end the hate ship between them and they soon become best friends. Gemma discovers she has this magic within her which allows her to enter into this other world known as the realms by travelling through this door which she can create in her mind. In this world she enters what is called the garden and is not allowed to venture any further. In this garden anything is possible magic flows freely there. Gemma takes her friends there and they have some of the best times there. However the more the girls explore the realms the more they discover its secrets and how people want to find a way into the realms and use the magic. Also that not all magic in the realms is good, that it will try and corrupt you. Gemma has to find a way to keep the realms safe from the people that in tend to use the magic for wrong. Gemma has the help from her friends however the magic is what brought them together will it also tear them apart? Gemma also has the help from a young boy on the outside named kartik who is a part of a group known as the Rakshana who dedicate themselves to protecting the realms and the ones who can travel there; this group however cannot enter the realms. Gemma trusts the boy at first but as secrets come to light she begins to question the motives of the Rakshana and if they are just using her so they can claim the magic or truly trying to help the realms. Gemma finds that she has to trust her own instincts if she wishes to protect the realms.

The novel is written by Libba Bray, she is quite a sophisticated writer. She is aiming for 1800 style and has succeeded; her writing style for the book is very formal along with the language she uses which gives it that older feel. The structure of her book is well thought out. It is fluent and well written. She puts many twists into her novel with little hints along the way.

The book deals with a few different themes mainly Oppression versus Liberty and Power of Choice. gender equality is a big one as it is set in the 1800’s girls are raised to be proper ladies whose goal in life is to be married off and bear children. The way that this book shows this theme is the main protagonists of the book. One of the girls in particular Felicity is very opposed to the idea of being married off and wishes to make a life of her own. You also see bit of this attitude with the main protagonist, however largely though Felicity’s character. Also power of choices, the girls in the realms are able to ply with magic and are free to do whatever they like. They are able to live any life that they like and have no one tell them if it is wrong or right. They girls bask in this free will; they have a taste of determining their own lives, which sparks this will to have their own choice in both worlds. That is how the author shows some of these themes within her novel.

What is great is her chracters, how none of them are perfect that each one has their faults and qualities you hate them for. Libba Bray created some of the most realistic characters that i have read in a book. 

This is a very well written novel with a very interesting story line. It has great suspense and mystery and great characters for you to fall in love with. It is defiantly a book that all book lovers should read!