Reddit Reddit reviews A Great and Terrible Beauty (The Gemma Doyle Trilogy)

We found 8 Reddit comments about A Great and Terrible Beauty (The Gemma Doyle Trilogy). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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A Great and Terrible Beauty (The Gemma Doyle Trilogy)
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8 Reddit comments about A Great and Terrible Beauty (The Gemma Doyle Trilogy):

u/minutestapler · 4 pointsr/Fantasy

I don't read much historical fantasy, but I have read some and some more alternate history if you are in to that. I haven't read the one you spoke of in your post, so not sure exactly what balance of history and fantasy (or time period) you are looking for. However, I will list here for you many that I have read:

The Shadow of Albion - Andre Norton and Rosemary Edghill Alternate England

Black Ships - Jo Graham This one is about Troy. some romance

His Majesty's Dragon - Naomi Novik Napoleonic War with dragons.

Daughter of the Forest - Juliet Marillier The author says it isn't historical, but it is based somewhat on history/legend. Ireland as it is being exposed to Christianity. Based on The Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale "The Wild Swans" Definitely a good bit of romance in this one.

The Wild Swans - Peg Kerr Another based on the Anderson Fairy Tale. 2 stories in one. One set in the 1800 about a curse, and the other set in the 1980s about AIDS. Not my favorite, but an interesting parallel.

Bright Sword of Ireland - Juliene Osborne-McKnight This one is more mythic and definitely has "romance". It's about Mebd's daughter. Not my personal favorite, but the ending definitely stuck with me. Also deals with interactions with Christianity

Newton's Cannon - Gregory Keyes Okay, haven't read this one yet, but I've been meaning to get around to it.

Young Adult

Sorcery and Cecilia OR The Enchanted Chocolate Pot - Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer

A Matter of Magic - Patricia C. Wrede

A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray

These above are set in London/England in 1700-1900?. They are all relatively light reading.

The Fetch - Laura Whitcomb This one is set during the Russian Revolution. Teen love.

A Certain Slant of Light - Laura Whitcomb This one is set in the present day, but one of the main characters is a ghost from the late 1800s.

There're also quite a few novels in historical fantasy romance. But most of them are definitely more on the romance side.

*edited for formatting

u/ReisaD · 3 pointsr/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon

A great and terrible beauty by Libba Bray


Kassidy Voinche keeps telling me I should read this. It sounds amazing!! I need a good historical fantasy in my life!!


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A Victorian boarding school story, a Gothic mansion mystery, a gossipy romp about a clique of girlfriends, and a dark other-worldly fantasy--jumble them all together and you have this complicated and unusual first novel.
Sixteen-year-old Gemma has had an unconventional upbringing in India, until the day she foresees her mother's death in a black, swirling vision that turns out to be true.

Sent back to England, she is enrolled at Spence, a girls' academy with a mysterious burned-out East Wing. There Gemma is snubbed by powerful Felicity, beautiful Pippa, and even her own dumpy roommate Ann, until she blackmails herself and Ann into the treacherous clique. Gemma is distressed to find that she has been followed from India by Kartik, a beautiful young man who warns her to fight off the visions. Nevertheless, they continue, and one night she is led by a child-spirit to find a diary that reveals the secrets of a mystical Order.

The clique soon finds a way to accompany Gemma to the other-world realms of her visions "for a bit of fun" and to taste the power they will never have as Victorian wives, but they discover that the delights of the realms are overwhelmed by a menace they cannot control. Gemma is left with the knowledge that her role as the link between worlds leaves her with a mission to seek out the "others" and rebuild the Order.


A Great and Terrible Beauty is an impressive first book in what should prove to be a fascinating trilogy.

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Buying a book is not about obtaining a possession, but about securing a portal.


I love that quote. Thank you for the contest, I live used book contests. :)

u/Justlisten7 · 3 pointsr/Fantasy

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. Creepy, but amazing. It was one of the first fantasy series I read as a child.
http://www.amazon.com/Great-Terrible-Beauty-Gemma-Trilogy/dp/0385732317/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341252482&sr=8-1&keywords=a+great+and+terrible+beauty

u/SmallFruitbat · 2 pointsr/YAwriters
u/_knockaround · 2 pointsr/AskWomen

I've read and loved almost all of the recommendations already here (TAMORA PIERCE). But to add some that haven't been mentioned (and trying really hard to not overload you with 20 books at once), I read and reread Robin McKinley's The Hero and the Crown and its prequel so. many. TIMES. Maybe even more than I reread Tamora Pierce. Patricia McKillip, Maria Snyder, Patricia C. Wrede (Dealing with Dragons quartet), Althea Kontis, Francesca Lia Block, Libba Bray and Susan Fletcher (Dragon Chronicles) are similar authors to check out for awesome female-driven fantasy, with varying degrees of lightheartedness. Wrede, Fletcher, Snyder and Kontis all wrote books that lean a little less epic/serious, Block writes a lot in prose that's also a very quick (but more intense) read, McKillip tends to be more wordy but beautifully so, and Bray can kind of go either way depending on the series.

For more contemporary fiction, RACHEL COHN (of "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist"). Her Gingerbread series has content a good deal more mature than Angus, Thongs, etc., but her style is similarly irreverent and witty and really fun. Seriously, check her out. Sharon Creech's Walk Two Moons is like a much younger version of Cohn, still zingy and sweet. For a quieter modern-day read, Garret Freymann-Weyr writes realistic (more mature) young adult relationships, and introduced me to the idea of bisexuality in a sort of roundabout way.

Julia Alvarez relates stories about the Latina-American experience incredibly well, although I think the first book I read by her takes place solely in the Dominican Republic. According to my reading list, I guess young me got sick of reading about other white people, so I'll add Marjane Satrapi's hilarious graphic novel Persepolis and the more sedate Shabanu series by Suzanne Fisher Staples.

I'd also strongly second comments for Gail Carson Levine, E.L. Konigsberg, and did I mention Tamora Pierce?

(I tried to link a lot of authors to my faves from their work, but I won't be mad if you never look at any of them. Is your reading list long enough now? Also, I know you didn't ask for a ton of fantasy/historical fiction recs, but I think a lot of us defined our teenagerhood by and identified more strongly with one of those series or another.)

tl;dr my top three recs that haven't been mentioned yet are Rachel Cohn, Julia Alvarez, and that one duo by Robin McKinley.

u/bethanne00 · 1 pointr/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon

This is the first book of one of my most favorite trilogies.

Note to self: don't read sad books while you're on an airplane.

u/SlothMold · 1 pointr/suggestmeabook

A Great and Terrible Beauty is about a Victorian girl's boarding school and a creepy secret world. It's part of a trilogy, but the book easily stands on its own.

If you don't mind manga, The Dreaming might fit. It's about modern twins at a Victorian school full of secrets in the Australian outback.