A Great and Terrible Beauty
Libba Bray's Hugely Successful First Novel
Jumping headfirst into the newest magical realism genre of teen fiction, Libba Bray made great success with A Great and Terrible Beauty. Such a great success, in fact, that the book spawned two books to continue the series, Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing. Bray’s novel, about Gemma Doyle, a young British girl living in India who is sent to a London boarding school after the death of her mother, follows Gemma and her friends through visions and adventure.
Plot
Gemma Doyle hates her life in India, but her mother insists that a London boarding school is not the answer. However, after her mother’s sudden and mysterious death, Gemma’s only choice is to go to London where her grandmother lives and attend the prestigious Spence Academy. Through a series of strange events, Gemma befriends roommate Ann Bradshaw, popular girl Felicity Worthington, and school beauty Pippa Cross.
Gemma begins having visions soon after she receives her mother’s strange pendant necklace – and she can’t seem to make sense of any of them. Soon, however, the pieces begin to fall into place as, one by one, Gemma’s friends are also allowed into her world of visions.
The plot takes another turn when the girls find the diary of two young girls who used to attend Spence, Mary and Sarah, and soon learn that what they thought was fun leisure reading, may actually be a horror story too close to home for comfort.
Follow Gemma and the girls as they must decide between life in the real world, or in the world of visions. For some of the girls, life in the real world means marriage to undesirable partners and a lifetime of servitude, while for others, life in the world of vision could lead to extreme happiness, or painful death.
Movie
In 2006, Mel Gibson’s production company, Icon Productions, announced their plans to produce a movie version of A Great and Terrible Beauty. Though no casting decisions or release dates have been made public yet, many Libba Bray fans await the news anxiously.
About Libba Bray
Libba Bray was born in Alabama, but spent most of her early life in Texas as a preacher’s daughter. She graduated from University of Texas at Austin with a degree in theatre. When she was twenty-six years old, Bray moved to New York City where she now live with her husband and son. Her first novel was A Great and Terrible Beauty, followed by the two sequels. She is currently working on another novel set to be released soon.
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