A Great and Terrible Beauty

A Great and Terrible beauty
by Libba Bray
Young Adult Fiction
4*/5
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After her mother was murdered in India by a mysterious force, Gemma at age sixteen was sent to the house of Spence, a boarding school for young ladies to gain all the attractive attributes for a decent suitor. Not only did Gemma find it difficult to fit in with the privileged girls, she was being thrusted into an unknown world of the supernatural through visions she could not explain. When she catches one of the most influential girls in the school, Felicity, in the arms of a gypsy, a sworn secrecy develops between them that flourishes into a binding friendship. A group bond forms between them including two other Spence students, Pippa and Ann. I was confused for the first half of the book about Gemmas visions and the mysterious Kartik, a young man she encountered in India before her mothers death and who continued to follow her to England. Throughout the book he warns Gemma to close to her mind and not bring on her visions. However, the book starts coming together. The girls friendships were growing stronger, Gemma starts to discover her mothers secret of the "order" and her ties to the school from a long time ago. I really enjoyed reading the vivid details of the supernatural world were falling leaves turned into golden dust, flowers turned into butterflies, and anything you wanted or wanted to be would come true in the realms. But without the bad their can be no good. Each time the girls passed through the door to the realms, a dark force was becoming stronger and some of the girls were becoming obsessed with its power. In the end, Gemma has to make a choice about her destiny to close the realm and have her friends turn against her or leave the door open and risk the dark Circe to take control of the realms.