Bibliographic Information: Bray. L. (2002). A great and terrible beauty. New York, NY: Delacorte Press. ISBN: 0-38590161-5
Awards & Honors: ALA Best Book for Young Adults; YALSA Best Books for YA; Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award
Plot Summary: It is 1895 and Gemma Doyle is determined to leave India for London and its social scene. On her sixteenth birthday, when Gemma and her mother are walking through Bombay, they encounter two mysterious men, one young and one older. The older man relays an unknown message to Gemma’s mother and Gemma’s mother worriedly sends Gemma home. On the way, Gemma has a vision of the deaths of her mother and of man who had spoken to her. She later learns her vision foretold the event.
With her mother dead and her father developing an addiction to laudanum, Gemma is sent to the Spence Academy for Young Ladies, just east of London. This is a bitter triumph for Gemma, as her dreams of returning to London are now tainted by the destruction of her family life. She has a hard time fitting in at first and is treated cruelly by the girls. However, she soon devises a plan that succeeds in altering her social status at the school and she becomes friends with a group of girls. The group is made up of Felicity, a witty and lovely girl from a wealthy family, Ann, Gemma’s roommate, who is an orphaned scholarship student destined to become a governess, and Pippa, a truly beautiful, but insecure girl.
Also at the school, living with a band of gypsies in the surrounding woods, is Kartik, the young man from Bombay and a member of an ancient group of men known as the Rakshana, who exist to protect the Order. Gemma learns that the Order was a group of powerful women with magical powers and she and her friends decide to state their own Order in fun, not realizing that they are about to discover tremendous power that they can all use but is channeled through Gemma. With this power, the girls cross into the spirit realm and see amazing sights, not least of which is Gemma’s dead mother, who spends time advising Gemma about her powers over the course of several visits. On one visit to this spirit realm the girls are attacked by the creature that killed Gemma’s mother and they flee, leaving Pippa behind. When they return to save her, she has eaten berries from the realm, which prevent her from returning. Pippa chose to do this rather than marry the man her parents wished her to. In the physical realm, Pippa is now dead, but the girls continued to visit her frequently in the spirit realm.
Critical Evaluation: A Great and Terrible Beauty is an enthralling gothic supernatural adventure. One can see the influences of C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess and even touches of the Brontës. The book stays true to its Victorian setting, but uses language that, while appropriate, is modern enough to not be an obstacle for unsophisticated readers. Bray’s characters are clever, witty, and hilariously observant at times and the plot is exciting, keeping a reader engaged page by page.
Annotation: In 1895, after the murder of her mother, sixteen-year-old Gemma leaves India to attend a finishing school in England and discovers she has the ability to enter the realms of the spirits.
About the Author: Libba Bray is a Texas native who moved to New York City when she was 26 with $600 in her shoe and a punch bowl under her arm. Bray wrote her first story in the sixth grade and has been at it ever since. Bray eloped with her fiancée and was married in Florence, Italy. She and her husband live in New York City with their son (Bray, n.d.).
Bray has authored many books for young adults including Going Bovine for which she was given the Michael Printz Award and the Gemma Doyle trilogy: A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, and The Sweet Far Thing.
Bray, L. (n.d.). Biography: The straight-from-the-author-herself version. Retrieved from http://libbabray.com
Genre: Paranormal, Historical Fiction, Adventure, Romance, Coming of Age
Curriculum Ties: English
Booktalking Ideas: Describe the strength and weaknesses of Gemma and her friends a Spence Academy. How do they complement each other? How do the strengths of one offset the weaknesses of another?
Interest Age: 13 to 18 years old
Challenge Issues: Magic, supernaturalism, and death. Magic and the supernatural traditionally have much appeal for young readers and may serve to entice them to the worthwhile pursuit of reading. The deaths in the book are key to the plot as are the reactions to them. It is likely that young adults will have the experience of deaths in their own lives and the characters’ dealings with their own emotions in this may be helpful in that case.
Challengers should be referred to the library’s challenge and selection policies and can be reminded that it is the responsibility of parents, not librarians, to decide which materials are ultimately suitable for their children.
They should also be referred to the American Library Association’s Free Access to Libraries for Minors: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights, which states, “Librarians and library governing bodies cannot assume the role of parents or the functions of parental authority in the private relationship between parent and child. Librarians and governing bodies should maintain that only parents and guardians have the right and the responsibility to determine their children’s—and only their children’s—access to library resources.” (ALA 2008, pp.1-2)
Challengers can also be provided with information about the awards, honors, and critical acclaim the title in question has received.
American Library Association. (Adopted June 30, 1972; amended July 1, 1981; July 3, 1991; June 30, 2004; July 2, 2008). Free access to libraries for minors: an interpretation of the library bill of rights. 1-2.
Reason for Inclusion: A Great and Terrible Beauty is a very engaging book in its own right and may also serve as a bridge to other great Victorian era authors such as George Elliot, William Thackeray, Wilkie Collins, and the Brontë sisters.
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