Book Review: 'A Great and Terrible Beauty' by Libba Bray
Libba Bray’s ‘A Great and Terrible Beauty’ is a gothic blend of historical fiction, fantasy, and coming of age drama set in the late 1800s. Here's the summary:
“It's 1895, and after the death of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in British India to Spence Academy, a proper boarding school in England.
Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma's reception at Spence is a chilly one. To make things worse, she's being followed by a mysterious young Indian man who has been sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence's most powerful girls – and their foray into the spiritual world – lead to?”
According to my Goodreads, I first read it in 2012, but I also didn't update it when I finished it so it now looks like I spent 12 years reading it which is funny!
We read ‘A Great and Terrible Beauty’ for our podcast, The Dark Academicals, where we looked at why it gets featured on so many Dark Academia reading lists. (You can check it out here).
The novel truly excels at maintaining its atmosphere, with its overbearing and almost eerie boarding school setting and the ever-present tension between societal expectations and personal agency. Bray explores themes of repression, friendship, and the seductive allure of power. Gemma’s struggle to balance her independence with the pressures of Victorian womanhood was something I didn't pick up on 12 years ago. But a lot can change in a person's reading style in that time.
12 years ago I didn't have a BA or a MA. So that's one big difference.
It’s what ultimately led me to feel like the book’s handling of colonialism was a bit troubling. The exoticisation of India is woven into the plot, with Indian mysticism and "otherness" serving as a source of Gemma’s power. While this may reflect Victorian attitudes of the time, the book doesn’t fully explore or critically analyse these perspectives, at times romanticising the idea of colonial "mystery" rather than critiquing it. Kartik, an Indian character with connections to a secretive order, is reduced to a mysterious, stoic figure whose role often feels more symbolic than fully human.
With its lush atmosphere and thoughtful themes of power and friendship, ‘A Great and Terrible Beauty’ is definitely a product of it's time, striking out during the real boom of YA. However, its romanticization of colonial tropes and uneven pacing leave it feeling flawed despite its moments of brilliance.
I still enjoyed the read. It's easy to flip through and I'm not sure why I didn't finish the series because there's plenty to like and to keep me intrigued.
I gave it 3 solid stars.
Written by Sarah
