The last of the three Young Adult book I had planned to read, A Great and Terrible Beauty also took me the longest to get into. I took my BA in British Literature and spent four years studying and reading novels and other works all written in the 19th and 18th century so I was excited to read a supernatural novel set in 1895. That said, it was the first modern novel I've ever read to take...
more The last of the three Young Adult book I had planned to read, A Great and Terrible Beauty also took me the longest to get into. I took my BA in British Literature and spent four years studying and reading novels and other works all written in the 19th and 18th century so I was excited to read a supernatural novel set in 1895. That said, it was the first modern novel I've ever read to take place in one of those eras. It's not the first time I've read about the English in India, either, but it took me a few chapters to reconcile the language and tone with the setting. It's most jarring in India, where Gemma interacts with the outside world, but once she's established at Spence, the insular community there makes it feel like this story could be set in any time.
I couldn't connect with Gemma's friends - and hesitate to even call them so - in spite of the fact that Gemma herself comes to embrace them. I couldn't shake the first impressions they gave and I liked Gemma enough to hold that against them. Even so, I suppose it's accurate portrait of a lot of girls at that age. I had never experienced the extreme love/hate that can go hand-in-hand with high school friendship, but I have witnessed it among my younger sister's group.
I appreciated that this novel was giving me a break from the romance in the previous ones. Granted that neither of those books placed a huge emphasis on their romances, but it was nice to explore Gemma's relationships with her mother and the girls of Spence for a change. Gemma starts to have feelings for the opposite sex during the novel, but it's very much in the background of the plot. The pressure of the marriage market is also explored during Beauty and while I can't really agree with the outcome of it (as relating to a certain character, anyway), I'm very glad that it was addressed at all.
A Great and Terrible Beauty is one of those novels that I thought was just okay when I was reading it, but the more I think about it now, the more I enjoy it. There was just the right amount of focus on daily conflicts and supernatural conflicts and there's a heroine that's both relatable despite the century gap and also feels very real.
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