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A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray is about a young woman, Gemma Doyle, who is sent off to boarding school in India after her mother is murdered in India. Gemma witnessed the murder of her mother and she cannot rid herself of the responsibility she feels for her mother’s death. While in boarding school, Gemma learns that there is more about her mother than met the eye and the strange occurrences that she’s been experiencing may be more real than she thinks. Gemma must face the truth about her mother and contend with new friendships in A Great and Terrible Beauty.
Although many of the circumstances surrounding the novel are supernatural, Bray accurately portrays the roles that women played in Victorian society. Women did not have many rights and were often seen as little more than objects for marriage. Young girls, especially, were disempowered and led to believe that their only hopes were for a successful marriage. The futility of these girls lives is an ongoing theme throughout the novel. The girls in the novel (Gemma, Felecity, Pippa and Ann) long for independence and to fufill their own dreams; but the dictates of their family and society often overrule any hopes for a future.
Bray, also, portrays the cattiness of young girl with vivid clarity. Although the girls have little to no freedom in their lives, they try to gain freedom through positioning in their social circles. Felicity, the alpha female, always reigns supreme and the others follow in hopes of riding on her coattails. Ann is marked as the outcast for the other girls use to retain their position of top dog. The book, in many ways, plays up to a Victoria retelling of Mean Girls with a twist, because these girls have more depth to them than the stereotypes they portray.
At the heart of the novel, Gemma is a young girl who may be able to bring a little excitement into all of the girls’ lives. She just discovers an unimaginable power and she must learn how to control and be responsible with it. For all of these girls, this power brings about the possibility of freedom. A freedom they could not have imagined and all of a sudden they crave and need it more than they know. Will this new power destroy these girls or bring them together?
The novel is well-written and tells the all to0 familiar story of the confinement of being female. Although the story is set in Victorian England, there is much that can be related to for modern girls. Clicks, cattiness, mean pranks, etc are all in today’s society. The images that women portray to the world are not always true and there is depth to every person if delved into.
List of books in The Gemma Doyle Trilogy:
- Book 1: A Great and Terrible Beauty ($9.99 from Amazon)
- Book 2: The Sweet Far Thing ($12.23 from Amazon)
- Book 3: Rebel Angels ($9.99 from Amazon)
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