A Great and Terrible Beauty

Libba Bray

Dec 2003 · The Gemma Doyle Trilogy Book 1 · Sold by Delacorte Press

About this ebook

The first book in the critically acclaimed New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestselling Gemma Doyle trilogy, the exhilarating and haunting saga from the author of The Diviners series and Going Bovine.

It’s 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. 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?

“A delicious, elegant gothic.”—PW, Starred 

“Shivery with both passion and terror.”—Kirkus Reviews 

"Compulsively readable." --VOYA 

A New York Times Bestseller
A Publishers Weekly Bestseller
A Book Sense Bestseller
BBYA (ALA/YALSA Best Book for Young Adults)
Iowa High School Book Award
Garden State Teen Book Award
Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Award

Ratings and reviews

I actually found it at my school last..I think November and love it.I had to take two months before reading the second book, because they did not have it I cried because I needed to read it and I did . I have read all three books. First book I read in 3 days. Second l read in 4 days. The last book I read in about a month cus I never wanted it to end. By the way I'm only twelve 12 years old .

Great story. But the book was MUCH longer than it needed to be. It's basically a short story but the author elongated it with a lot of fillers like overly wordy descriptions. But at least the "filler" was entertaining. The characters are well written. But there were too many times when their actions weren't believable. If the reader finds themselves thinking "that's not logical" or "that doesn't make sense, who would make a decision like that?" then the author has done a bad job of suspending the reader's disbelief. There were a lot of times in this book when I was distracted by the character's illogical choices

Absolute adventure watching bonds between these ladies bloom into life long friendships. Such a beautiful story of two lovers intercepted by fate, this trilogy will take your imagination for a ride.

About the author

Libba Bray is the New York Times bestselling author of the Gemma Doyle trilogy (A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, and The Sweet Far Thing); the Michael L. Printz Award-winning Going Bovine; Beauty Queens, an L.A. Times Book Prize finalist; and The Diviners series. 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.libbabray.com and at @libbabray on Twitter and Instagram.