Monday, May 16, 2005
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
A Great and Terrible Beauty is a novel about blossoming power. The power is more than nominal and includes sexual, mystical, and social powers.
Gemma has been raised in India and longs to go to England and engage in the social Season. She does not understand why her mother forbids her this experience. When Gemma's mother is killed during a strange interaction in the market, Gemma gets her wish but also a warning from her mother and a strange (but alluring) young Indian man. In England Gemma is annoyed with her brother because of his ennui and worried about her father because he is sinking into opium addiction. Gemma's grandmother ships her off to finishing school where Gemma finds opportunities to use her feminine wiles and comes up hard against the limits placed on her as a woman in British society. Along with other girls at school, Gemma discovers her mystical powers and uses them to shore up her social position as well as to punish her enemies. The alluring young man reappears to warn her against using her power to enter another world (insert some nudity and tittilating situations) but in the other world Gemma finds her mother and strains to make sense of the power and the warnings.
In the end Gemma tries to right a terrible wrong and one of her friends chooses to die in order to escape an unwanted marriage to an older man. There are downsides to all the choices and sometimes the absoluteness of the outcome is in doubt right up until the choice is made.
Not great nor terrible.
Gemma has been raised in India and longs to go to England and engage in the social Season. She does not understand why her mother forbids her this experience. When Gemma's mother is killed during a strange interaction in the market, Gemma gets her wish but also a warning from her mother and a strange (but alluring) young Indian man. In England Gemma is annoyed with her brother because of his ennui and worried about her father because he is sinking into opium addiction. Gemma's grandmother ships her off to finishing school where Gemma finds opportunities to use her feminine wiles and comes up hard against the limits placed on her as a woman in British society. Along with other girls at school, Gemma discovers her mystical powers and uses them to shore up her social position as well as to punish her enemies. The alluring young man reappears to warn her against using her power to enter another world (insert some nudity and tittilating situations) but in the other world Gemma finds her mother and strains to make sense of the power and the warnings.
In the end Gemma tries to right a terrible wrong and one of her friends chooses to die in order to escape an unwanted marriage to an older man. There are downsides to all the choices and sometimes the absoluteness of the outcome is in doubt right up until the choice is made.
Not great nor terrible.
# posted by JJ @ 10:17 AM 
