A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
reviewed by Meghan Sullivan
Libba Bray’s novel A Great and Terrible Beauty is not only a fantasy book but a female empowerment story. Set in Victorian London, this book focuses on four friends who desperately want to break away from the rules and regulations of Spence, their high class, private boarding school. Trying to find an escape, Gemma realizes that she can open a portal to the Realms, a magical dimension where anything is possible. In the Realms, they are finally free to be who they want to be with “no one around to stifle [them]” (Bray 284). In the Realms, Gemma and her friends can make their dreams come true. But after finding a mysterious diary, the girls soon begin to realize that magic and power come at a price, and people want the magic for themselves.
In A Great and Terrible Beauty, Bray creates well written, complex, female characters. Gemma, the protagonist, deals with guilt because she believes that she is responsible for her mother’s death. Gemma is sassy and witty and has lots of pride, but still loves her friends and wants to make everyone happy. Although she thinks that the rules of high class social are stupid, she still tries to impress Miss Moore, her favorite teacher. Felicity, Gemma’s best friend only cares about power. She is the leader of the school and often feels that people need to “remember [their] place” (Bray 225). She is cruel and mean and bullies Gemma when she first arrives at Spence, but her father is too busy for her and her mother left her. As the book progresses, the reader witnesses Felicity grow as a character and as a friend. She finally admits that her father does not care about her, and she becomes more concerned with the welfare of her friends than her own. Ann, Gemma’s roommate, was a nobody before Gemma arrived at Spence. She was the invisible girl in the background. Ann is not beautiful, and is at the school on a scholarship, meaning her future consists of becoming a governess. All she wants is to be beautiful. However, she has “dull, watery eyes” (Bray 48) and “her nose runs” (Bray 48). Ann becomes so depressed that she cuts herself, all because of her desire to be beautiful. Their other friend Pippa, however, sees that beauty as a curse after being forced to marry a man over fifty years old. All she wanted was to find true love, but she was sold to be married because the man offered her family a large sum of money. Pippa “could be vain and selfish” but also “brave and determined and generous” (Bray 397). All of these friends want different things, believe in different powers, but they all bond together because “they were all dreamers” and “they were all damaged” (Bray 314); but that is okay because it is our flaws that make us interesting, a motif shown throughout the book.
Though Bray uses many techniques to enhance the book, her choice to narrate in first person dramatically changed the novel. Because the reader is limited to what the character knows, they are drawn into the mystery. By telling the story in first person, Bray can leave out both major and minor detail that would explain the entire story, forcing the reader to continue to read if she wants to know everything. In addition, the reader forms a more emotional connection with Gemma because the story is being told from her point of view. The reader also learns about her feeling and opinions, leading to a more emotional attachment being formed.
This is an amazing book, and I highly recommend it to people who love mystery, magic or suspense. A Great and Terrible Beauty is also an empowering novel of women breaking away from the deep-seated oppression present during Victorian times. This book has very witty humor and is amusing at times. It is also very easy to connect with the characters because they show different emotions that many girls still experience today. I enjoyed reading about four headstrong, complicated teenage girls who took their lives into their hands and choose to do what makes them happy.
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