A Great and Terrible Beauty Free

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Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. In this debut gothic novel mysterious visions, dark family secrets and a long-lost diary thrust Gemma and her classmates back into the horrors that followed her from A Great and Terrible Beauty. Lonely, guilt-ridden, an In this debut gothic novel mysterious visions, dark family secrets and a long-lost diary thrust Gemma and her classmates back into the horrors that followed her from India. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma's reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she's been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence's most powerful girls—and their foray into the spiritual world—lead to? Get A Copy. HardcoverA Great and Terrible Beauty. More Details Original Title. Gemma Doyle 1. Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see A Great and Terrible Beauty your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about A Great and Terrible Beautyplease sign up. Is this a good book? Karen Kimbrough I A Great and Terrible Beauty sure at first if I liked it or not. It's not as as full of the supernatural as the books I'm used to, but I kept reading. I was attracted to …more I wasn't sure at first if I liked it or not. I was attracted to the themes of coming-of-age, tragedy, and the idea of bullies amid the Victorian era. It was high-fashion to be "into" elegant paranormal, so these young girls delving into something "more" was gothic yet cute? They didn't know what they were doing. If you're looking for a scary novel, this really isn't it, but if something more intellectual, more like an old- fashioned 's movie is to your liking; you'll like it. I mean it's written so that a teen would understand it, but it's not just full of blood either. It is rather sad most of the time though. Despite that, I did like it. Has this book got A Great and Terrible Beauty romance? Becky Yes, but it is a slow delicious build. Much better than Twilight's Edward in my opinion. See all 12 questions about A Great and Terrible Beauty…. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Oct 14, honestly mem rated it did not like it Shelves: fictionspeculative- fictionyoung-adultbooks-you-should-never-read. A Great and Terrible Beauty is neither great nor beautiful, though it is indeed -- wait for it! The characters are simple and one-dimensional, their actions both petty and selfish. I find it difficult to believe any one of the four girls at the heart of the story cared for one another, much less anyone else. The story meanders, often digressing into lengthy passages that do little A Great and Terrible Beauty anything to advance the characters or the story. As the story progresses, drawing to its predictable A Great and Terrible Beauty is neither great nor beautiful, though it is indeed -- wait for it! As the story progresses, drawing to its predictable and dissatisfying conclusion, it becomes clear that Ms Bray has mistaken style for subtance and that her prose is not stylish enough to support this belief. Most offensive, however, A Great and Terrible Beauty the racial and sexual content within the book. The male lead a young man from India is sexualized and fetishized for his "exotic" appearance and culture; other Indian characters are shown as either submissive or violent. The Romani people wandering the schoolgrounds suffer from even greater stereotyping: the men are portrayed as slovenly, ignorant, and sexually aggressive towards the white schoolgirls; the women are docile and suitably mystical. Her treatment of the female characters is also questionable. Though these Victorian girls wander about with A Great and Terrible Beauty un- Victorian sensibilities and though Ms Bray makes a weak attempt to decry the injustices of a society so quick to condemn the expression of feminine sexuality, the story itself does not support this modern take on the Victorian era. The girls submit to their male counterparts or pine helplessly from a distance. Sexual and romantic relationships between men and women often contain obvious and disturbing power imbalances or violent undertones. The relationship between the four girls is emotionally shallow and deeply petty, motivated by mutual dislike and composed of backstabbing and bullying tactics. And though Ms Bray is quick to condemn the indignities and horrors of an arranged marriage, she is also quick to condemn her protagonists when they dare to act instead of react. It's a confusing mix of self-righteous pulpit pounding and misogyny, with the A Great and Terrible Beauty result being I wanted to put my fist through the admittedly lovely and eyecatching cover. My one relief is that I had the sense to borrow this from the library instead of buying it outright. I do not recommend it. View all 89 comments. Shelves: fairy-talesyoung-adult. This book is what it is: a young adult novel. That said, it's a very good one. You can read the summary on the book's page, so I won't go into that here. I loved the juxtaposition of Victorian England, colonial India, and the fairy world. The protagonist doesn't belong in any of them, and she recognizes that, which sets up the whole story: the outsider tries to find her niche. I didn't care for any of the other main characters, mostly because I felt that the protagonist, Gemma, was treading on thin This book is what it is: a young adult novel. I didn't care for any of the other main characters, mostly because I felt that the protagonist, Gemma, was treading on thin ice by being friends with them. I liked Gemma - I've read reviews that said she was selfish, angry, and petty, and she can be - but what sixteen-year-old isn't? The friendship between Gemma and the other three girls is based on a desire for freedom as well as the tenuous sharing of secrets - I don't think the girls were ever meant to appear as the best of friends, even on a good day, so the reviews that criticize the friendship being shallow puzzle me. I mean I thought the story flowed really A Great and Terrible Beauty and had enough twists and turns to keep me guessing - it's also a really quick read and I was sorry when it ended as soon as it did. The visits to the fairy realm were really a delight to A Great and Terrible Beauty - pure escapism for the characters as well as the reader. And not without a dark edge. Finally, it was a little racy, which I thought was pretty awesome for a YA novel. It's hard to write a teenage sexual awakening while so much other stuff is going on, especially without being sordid, cheesy, or flowery. Bray does this really well - and the male love interest is your typical aloof, charming, vaguely dangerous, devastatingly hot, man-of-few-words character. I can hear the swoons of teenage girls everywhere. Hell, even I sighed once or twice. I'm definitely looking forward to reading the next A Great and Terrible Beauty books in this series. View all 8 comments. May 20, Emily May rated it really liked it Shelves: young-adult, historical- fictionfantasyromance. I don't know why for so long I just assumed I wouldn't like historical fiction, it's not as if I don't love history - I picked it for one of my A levels in college. But, I guess it's just one of those genres that sounds tedious and you imagine it to be all oppressed sexuality and prim and properness. Diana Gabaldon forever changed my mind with her oversexed and aggressive depiction of history and it was only a matter of time before I looked towards other works of historical fiction. This book I don't know why for so long I just assumed I wouldn't like historical fiction, it's not as if I don't love history - I picked it for one of my A levels in college. This book is both everything I expected and also everything I didn't expect. It's set for the most part in a boarding school for educating girls in the art of being 'ladies', or A Great and Terrible Beauty other words: wives. The girls were expected to be reserved, polite and, most importantly, beautiful. This I was prepared for. A Great and Terrible Beauty - Wikipedia

It is told from the perspective of Gemma Doylea girl in the year Gemma leaves her home in India to go to a boarding school in England after her mother dies. Once there, she is plagued by clairvoyant visions as she looks into the magical secrets of the school with her three friends Felicity WorthingtonPippa Crossand Ann Bradshaw. Gemma Doyle, the series' protagonist, is forced to leave A Great and Terrible Beauty after the death of her mother to attend a private boarding school in London. On her sixteenth birthday, Gemma and her mother stroll through the Bombay market when they encounter a man and his younger brother. The man relays an unknown message to Gemma's mother about a woman named Circe, and Gemma's mother panics and demands that Gemma return home. Angry at her mother's secrecy, Gemma runs away, and has a vision of her mother committing suicide while searching for her, which she later learns is true. Gemma becomes haunted with the images of her mother's death. With her mother dead and her father's addiction to laudanum growing stronger, Gemma's family ships her off to a finishing school in London: Spence Academy for Young Ladies. At first, Gemma is an outcast at the school; however, she soon finds the most popular and influential girl in school, Felicity, in a compromising situation that would ruin Felicity's life. Gemma agrees not to tell Felicity's A Great and Terrible Beauty and the girls soon form a strong friendship, along with Gemma's roommate Ann, and Felicity's best friend, Pippa. But Gemma is still tormented with her visions and is warned by the young man she had met in the market, Kartik, a member of an ancient group of men known as the Rakshana, dating all the way back to Charlemagne, that she must close her mind to these visions or something horrible will happen. During one of her visions, Gemma is led into the caves that border the school grounds. There, she finds a A Great and Terrible Beauty written 25 years earlier by a year-old girl named Mary Dowd who also attended Spence Academy and seemed to suffer from the same visions as Gemma, along with her friend, Sarah Rees-Toome. Through this diary, Gemma learns of an ancient group of powerful women called the Order and becomes convinced that her visions are linked to it. Members of the Order could open a door between the human world and other realms, help spirits cross over into the afterlife, and also possessed the powers of prophecy, clairvoyance, and what was considered the greatest force of all, the ability to weave illusions. Gemma, Felicity, Pippa, and Ann decide to create their own Order in the caves to escape from the monotonous lives that they are expected to lead. As the girls read further and further into the diary of Mary Dowd they realize that the actual Order existed at Spence Academy and that Mary was a part of it along with her best friend Sarah and the original Headmistress Eugenia Spence, who all died in a fire at the school in the East Wing. Gemma tells her friends the truth about her powers and together they travel to the realms. There Gemma finds her mother alive and well, and the girls find that they can achieve their hearts' desires. Gemma wishes for self-knowledge, Felicity for power, Pippa for true love and Ann for beauty. The girls continue to sneak out to the caves in the middle of the night and visit the A Great and Terrible Beauty. However, Gemma's mother warns them not to take the magic back into their own world, for if the magic leaves the realms, the evil sorceress Circe will be able to find Gemma and will kill her, leaving the realms unguarded. After Gemma confronts her mother, she confesses that she was once A Great and Terrible Beauty member of the Order and A Great and Terrible Beauty the fire thinking the others had died, she also discovers that her mother was Mary Dowd and Circe was her friend Sarah Rees-Thoome. In Mary Dowd's A Great and Terrible Beauty, Mary says that she has sacrificed Mother Elena's little girl to get back the decreased power of Sarah, after reading this, Gemma thinks of her mother in a different way and hates her for what she had done. The only way for her to ever be at peace is for Gemma to forgive her. When Gemma and the other girls go back to the realms, A Great and Terrible Beauty realize that something has changed. Before they can leave, the creature that killed Gemma's mother appears. Frightened, Pippa runs off and Gemma does not have time to bring her back. Gemma takes Ann and Felicity back to Spence, leaving Pippa trapped underwater. As the three friends awaken, they see Pippa seizing on A Great and Terrible Beauty ground. They run to get help from the headmistress and Kartik. After, Gemma goes back to the realms to save Pippa, but Pippa chooses to stay in the realms because Pippa does not want to marry the A Great and Terrible Beauty her A Great and Terrible Beauty chose for her, she wanted to be with the true love she meet in the realms, A Great and Terrible Beauty prince. While attempting to save Pippa, Gemma defeats the creature and destroys the runes. In the end, when Gemma returns, Pippa is dead. Kirkus Reviews said the book was "Gothic touched by modern conceptions of adolescence, shivery with both passion and terror. In July,Icon Productionsthe film production company run by Mel Gibsonannounced that it would adapt the book into a film based on A Great and Terrible Beautyto be written and directed by Charles Sturridge. People have been rumored to be playing the characters, but author Libba Bray has confirmed that no one has been cast. Author Libba Bray discusses the current status of the film on her webpage. Bray recently announced that Icon relinquished the rights of the film, and so the film version of the book will not be made in any foreseeable circumstance. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Kirkus Reviews. November 15, Retrieved May 28, American Library Association. Children and Young Adult Literature portal. Libba Bray. List of Gemma Doyle Trilogy characters. Categories : English-language films American novels Novels by Libba Bray Gemma Doyle Trilogy American fantasy novels American young adult novels Young adult fantasy novels fantasy novels Fiction set in Novels set in schools debut novels. Hidden categories: Use mdy dates from June Pages using infobox film with unknown empty parameters. Namespaces Article Talk. Views Read Edit View history. Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file. Download as PDF Printable version. Rebel Angels. Libba Bray novel Charles Sturridge. A Great and Terrible Beauty (Gemma Doyle #1) - Libba Bray read online free - Novelscom

Uh-oh, A Great and Terrible Beauty looks like your Internet Explorer is out of date. For a better shopping experience, please upgrade now. Javascript is not enabled in your browser. Enabling JavaScript in your browser will allow you to experience all the features of our site. Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser. NOOK Book. She is originally from Texas but makes her home in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, son, and two sociopathic cats. Visit her at www. Chapter One June 21, Bombay, India "Please tell me that's not going to be part of my birthday dinner this evening. A surpris- ingly pink tongue slithers in and out of a cruel mouth while an Indian man whose eyes are the blue of blindness inclines his head toward my mother and explains in Hindi that cobras make very good eating. My mother reaches out a white-gloved finger to stroke the snake's back. Now that you're sixteen, will you be dining on cobra? It's enough to send me reeling back where I bump into a wooden stand filled with little statues of Indian deities. One of the statues, a woman who is all arms with a face bent on terror, falls to the ground. Kali, the destroyer. Lately, Mother has accused me of keeping her as my unofficial patron saint. Lately, Mother and I haven't been getting on very well. She claims it's because I've reached an impossible age. I state emphatically to anyone who will listen that it's all because she refuses to take me to London. We're moving past the cobra man and into the throng of people crowding every inch of Bombay's frenzied marketplace. Mother doesn't answer but waves away an organ-grinder and his monkey. It's unbearably hot. Beneath my cotton dress and crinolines, sweat streaks down my body. The flies-my most ardent admirers-dart about my face. I swat at one of the little winged beasts, but it escapes and I can almost swear I hear it mocking me. My misery is A Great and Terrible Beauty epidemic proportions. Overhead, the clouds are thick and dark, giving warning that this is monsoon season, when floods of rain could fall from the sky in a matter of minutes. In the dusty bazaar the turbaned men chatter and squawk and bargain, lifting brightly colored silks toward us with brown, sunbaked hands. Everywhere there are carts lined with straw baskets offering every sort of ware and edible-thin, coppery vases; wooden boxes carved into intricate flower designs; and A Great and Terrible Beauty ripening in the heat. Talbot's new house? Couldn't we please take a carriage? And I'll thank you to keep a civil tone. Sarita, our long-suffering housekeeper, offers pomegranates in her leathery hand. Perhaps we will take them to your father, yes? My mother starts to say something to me, thinks better of it, sighs-as usual. We used to go everywhere together, my mother and I-visiting ancient temples, exploring local customs, watching Hindu festivals, staying up late to see the streets bloom with candlelight. Now, she barely takes me on social calls. It's as if I'm a leper without a colony. He always does," I mumble in my defense, though no one is paying me a bit of attention except for the organ-grinder A Great and Terrible Beauty his monkey. They're following my every step, hoping to amuse me for money. The high lace collar of my dress is soaked with perspiration. I long for the cool, lush green of England, which I've only read about in A Great and Terrible Beauty grandmother's letters. Letters filled with gossip about tea dances and balls and who has scandalized whom half a world away, while I am stranded in boring, dusty India watching an organ-grinder's monkey do a juggling trick with dates, the same trick he's been performing for a year. How adorable he is! No one seems to understand that I am fully sixteen and want, no, need to be in London, where A Great and Terrible Beauty can be close to the museums and the balls and men who are older than six and younger than sixty. As if on cue, the furry urchin scrambles up and sits on my shoulder with his palm outstretched. The monkey hisses. Mother grimaces at my ill manners and drops a coin in its owner's cup. The monkey grins triumphantly and leaps across my head before running away. A vendor holds out a carved mask with snarling teeth and elephant ears. Without a word, Mother places it over her face. It's a game she's played with me since A Great and Terrible Beauty could walk-a bit of hide-and-seek meant to make me smile. A child's game. Same ears. I've hit her vanity, her weak point. An age at which most decent girls have been sent for schooling in London. Her fruit inspection is all-consuming. And now he's starting at university. I'll never have a season. I'll end up a spinster with hundreds of cats who all drink milk from china A Great and Terrible Beauty. It's unattractive, but I find I'm powerless to stop. Would you still think London was so charming when you were the subject of cruel gossip for the slightest infraction of the rules? London's A Great and Terrible Beauty as idyllic as your grandmother's letters make it out to be. I've never seen it. Mustn't let them think we British ladies are so petty as to indulge in arguments on the streets. We only discuss the weather, and when the weather is bad, we pretend not to notice. Sarita chuckles nervously. It seems only yesterday you were in A Great and Terrible Beauty nursery. Oh, look, dates! Your favorite. It's hot and I suddenly want to scream, to run away from everything and everyone I've ever known. Just like India. Penetrating and wise, people call them. I have the same large, upturned green eyes. The A Great and Terrible Beauty say they are unsettling, disturbing. Like being watched by a ghost. Sarita smiles down at her feet, keeps her hands busy adjusting her brown sari. I feel a tinge of guilt for saying such a nasty thing about her home. Our home, though I don't really feel at home anywhere these days. It is gray and cold and there is no ghee for bread. You wouldn't like it. Good bay, it means, though I can't think of anything good about it right A Great and Terrible Beauty. A dark plume of smoke from the train stretches up, touching the heavy clouds. Mother watches it rise. A gift from a villager, Mother said. Her good-luck charm. I've never seen her without it. Sarita puts a hand on Mother's arm. We'll have a lovely time at Mrs. I'm sure she'll have lovely cakes just for your birthday-" A man in a white turban and thick black traveling cloak stumbles into her from behind, bumping her hard. When he does, he reveals a young man behind him wearing the same sort of strange cloak. For a moment, the young man and I lock eyes. He isn't much older than I am, probably seventeen if a day, with brown skin, a full mouth, and the longest A Great and Terrible Beauty I have ever seen. I know I'm A Great and Terrible Beauty supposed to find Indian men attractive, but I don't see many young men and I find I'm blushing in spite of myself. He breaks our gaze and cranes his neck to see over the hordes. He whispers low to my mother in perfectly accented English. I start to say as much to my mother but the look of sheer panic on her face stops me cold. Her eyes are wild as she whips around and scans the crowded streets like she's looking for a lost child. Despite visions and a special A Great and Terrible Beauty, Gemma is not so unlike the other girls at Spence in her feelings of alienation and her yearning for acceptance.