A Great and Terrible Beauty

Bray, Libba. A Great and Terrible Beauty. Book 1 of the Gemma Doyle series. 2003. 404p. ISBN 0-385-73028-4. Available at FIC BRA on the library shelves.

It is 1895, and Gemma Doyle longs to see London. Born in India of an English mother and father, Gemma has read extensively about London, and has always wanted to visit. Now that she's 16 years old, Gemma feels that it is time for her to experience her debut in London's fashionable society, and she's been badgering her mother to take her there. Her mother has always refused, however, much to Gemma's chagrin and incomprehension. During an outing, Gemma and her mother are separated. Lost and wandering the crowded streets, Gemma has a vision of her mother being attacked and willingly killing herself. But it was not a vision, but it really happened, and now Gemma's mother is dead.

Her mother's suicide unhinges her father, and the family returns to London, where her brother now studies. Gemma is enrolled in Spence, a boarding school for proper young ladies. Still hurt that her mother died because she was searching for her, Gemma tries to find comfort in the friendship of others. She meets mean girls Felicity and Pippa, and her roommate Ann, who is a scholarship student at Spence. At first Felicity and Pippa are mean to Gemma and Ann, but they soon come to see that Gemma possesses strange powers. Gemma's visions continue, and soon she and her friends find themselves in a cave, guided there by a teacher. She also encounters Kartik, a strange Indian teen who has followed her all the way from India to protect her. He was there when her mother died, and now he's here too.

When Gemma discover an old journal of two girls, who were members of the Order and who perished in the flames when Spence's East Wing burned down in 1871, Gemma is spurred on to explore the spiritual world, and discover what happened to her mother and to the two girls who perished in the fire. As she spends more time in the spiritual world with her friends, however, Gemma realizes that there are other forces at play, forces that could very well lead to her demise and that of her friends.

Fans of Bray's The Diviners series will enjoy this paranormal tale taking place in a Victorian era of repressed sexuality where presentation is everything. The story continues in Rebel Angels.