A Great and Terrible Beauty (Gemma Doyle, #1) in Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library

Sep 06, 2007 Mir rated it it was ok

Shelves: ya, fantasy, school

The world-building was pretty cool, but I so disliked most of the girls.

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Oct 27, 2007 Kimberly rated it really liked it

This book is wonderful escapist reading, about an unconventional Victorian girl sent to a girls' boarding school. While there, she discovers a mystical Order, and she and three of her friends learn how to travel to an appealing magical realm. The book has a lot to say about the limited roles for women in Victorian society, is wonderfully atmospheric and romantic in parts. It's not something I'd recommend for people who are sticklers about historical accuracy (as I can be), because there are a fe ...more

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Mar 08, 2012 Lorena rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantasy

I found the characterizations a bit thin, the magic a bit too vague, and the language a bit too pop-psych for my tastes.

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Sep 12, 2009 Andrea rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, youngadult, boarding-school

Gemma is a Victorian English girl in India battling it out with her mother for independence. Suddenly on her 16th birthday, things begin to happen that she cannot explain followed quickly by tragedy. At the behest of her grandmother, she goes to an English finishing school and begins the process of trying to fit in. As she makes friends she ends up drawing them into a strange world of magic attached to her new visions and dangers she doesn't expect.

I read through this in an afternoon and enjoyed ...more

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Dec 21, 2008 Clickety rated it did not like it

Shelves: mystery, ya, fantasy, fiction

Okay, I read this one, and THEN I put it back. I actually BOUGHT the darn thing from a used bookstore because it sounded so interesting. And as I read it, I kept hoping it would get better, but I was pretty much bored the whole way through.

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Aug 24, 2009 Tani rated it liked it

Shelves: female-author, fantasy, youngadult, 2014

Too much hype for this one? I was disappointed a little, by how much I didn't really care about the girls, except Gemma. I did like the way the girls had quirks that made them feel truly real, but I just never connected with them. Also, I had a sense of impending doom for most of the second half of the book that made it a little hard to read. ...more

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Aug 25, 2009 Cindywho rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, fantasy-sf, ya

This one was enjoyable - Teenage girls at a boarding school in the Victorian era. Magic and heartache and all that good stuff. Her friends are kind of awful, but it worked. It was a bit over the top, but I like that. The next on will be on hold for me soon, I hope.

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