Bray, Libby. (2003). A great and terrible beauty. New York: Delacorte Press. ISBN 0-385-73028-4.
A Great and Terrible Beauty is the story of Gemma Doyle, a sixteen-year-old girl. Gemma lives in 19th century India and leaves a normal existence. She fights with her mother and she yearns for the independence to be sent to England to study. Then one day her “normal” is shattered when she has a vision for the first time, and terrifyingly witnesses her mother’s death. She moves to England, although not under the conditions she had hoped for, where her remaining family members decide that she must attend a finishing school to prepare her for a suitable marriage. Her visions become more terrifying and more uncontrollable. Amid baffling visions, she tries to maneuver around intimidating social pressures, eerily familiar local folklore, and a foreboding stranger who warns her to avoid her visions at all costs. Gemma discovers that not only did her mother have an intimate connection to a mysterious supernatural group of women but also that it is Gemma’s fate to keep the world safe from the power lurking in the Realms. But will Gemma be able to resist the temptations of the easy road? Or will she have the courage to take the more challenging path?
Libby Bray’s fantasy novel is an example of how one book doesn’t have to fit neatly into just one genre of literature. A Great and Terrible Beauty takes place at a boarding school for girls in Victorian England; the purpose of the school is to prepare young women to make a good marriage with a rich man. Yet Gemma possesses a quality that enables her to travel into an alternate universe. The social expectations placed upon these girls play an intricate part in the plot; some characters’ life goal is to marry well, while others refuse to settle for anything less than true love. Responsibility is essential when deciding how to use the power of the Realms. 19th century England was a very real place rich with history, however the ability of Gemma and her friends to travel to another realm are not explained or even doubted. Throughout the book, the historical context of the novel is believably balanced with the aspects of fantasy that create the structure of the plot. Readers buy into both the history and the fantasy.
Critically, this book had many strengths that made it worthy of recommendations for both middle-schoolers and high-schoolers alike. Temptation is a theme that is found across genres. In Beauty, this theme is explored in terms of friendship, sexuality, and decision-making. And conveniently, by nature, temptation creates great suspense in stories. Readers constantly need to know the consequences of a particular encounter or the next steps in a maybe-maybe-not romance. Teenage girls, like Gemma, have many decisions that they need to make. As readers following the effects of these decisions, we are anxiously awaiting to see if there will be negative effects for poor decisions and if the characters will be rewarded when they finally get it right. This combination of theme and suspense creates a book that keeps readers questioning and wanting more.
As is true in many novels with historical settings, the situations have many parallels with modern society. Anybody walking into a school today sees the cliques that hunt the hallways. There is a reason why the movie “Mean Girls” created a common moniker to describe some feminine adolescents. Many teenage readers would easily connect with the 19th century mean girls that Gemma meets when she enrolls in her boarding school. These young ladies torment her, are jealous of her, and use her for what she can do for them. Readers wonder whether Gemma’s “friends” are truly the definition of friendship, just as adolescents doubt their own relationships. While the one cannot ignore the historical context, all readers can relate to Gemma’s dynamic relationships and social predicaments.
No comments:
Post a Comment