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chhmanda's review against another edition
5.0
Read this in high school. Absolutely phenomenal series.
queenofsages's review against another edition
4.0
A Great and Terrible Beauty is a fast paced and interesting novel, starring Gemma Doyle and her three supposed friends. I could describe it as exciting, but I think that might be giving the characters a little too much credit. Whatever interesting adventures the group had, was always tainted with the reader's question of, "Well this is great and all, but when is Gemma going to get rid of these leeches?" Which is exactly what her "friends" are -- leeches. They demand a share in the power Gemma has, and often suffer bouts of jealously because of it.
When one of them is influenced by the villain's assassin, who told her that Gemma was hoarding all the magic, she believes the assassin and convinces the other girls to sacrifice a deer in the most disturbing way possible. After it doesn't work, the girls are merely dismayed, and return to Gemma so they can continue using her for her power.
This relationship, which happens to be a central part of the book, isn't healthy, and brings the whole series (reading the 2nd one) down. I hope the Gemma will finally stand up to her manipulative and selfish friends, and be the strong women Bray is building her up to be.
When one of them is influenced by the villain's assassin, who told her that Gemma was hoarding all the magic, she believes the assassin and convinces the other girls to sacrifice a deer in the most disturbing way possible. After it doesn't work, the girls are merely dismayed, and return to Gemma so they can continue using her for her power.
This relationship, which happens to be a central part of the book, isn't healthy, and brings the whole series (reading the 2nd one) down. I hope the Gemma will finally stand up to her manipulative and selfish friends, and be the strong women Bray is building her up to be.
kaygo2490's review against another edition
2.0
This book is not for me. I tried tried and tried some more to like it. But the writing style annoyed me. It was a lot of tell and no showing. The plot picked up towards the middle/end. But really, the characters are one dimensional and petty. And not petty in an interesting way.
silenthrts's review against another edition
3.0
3,5*
Es hat ja jetzt wirklich Ewigkeiten gedauert bis ich dieses Buch endlich fertig hatte.
Letztendlich kann ich sagen, dass es mir eigentlich ganz gut gefallen hat. Nur zwischendurch zog es sich wirklich so in die Länge, das es mir keine wirkliche Hilfe war um meine Leseflaute zu überwinden.
Jetzt brauche ich erstmal eine Pause von Gemma Doyle, aber ich freue mich bald mit Teil 2 weiterzumachen.
Es hat ja jetzt wirklich Ewigkeiten gedauert bis ich dieses Buch endlich fertig hatte.
Letztendlich kann ich sagen, dass es mir eigentlich ganz gut gefallen hat. Nur zwischendurch zog es sich wirklich so in die Länge, das es mir keine wirkliche Hilfe war um meine Leseflaute zu überwinden.
Jetzt brauche ich erstmal eine Pause von Gemma Doyle, aber ich freue mich bald mit Teil 2 weiterzumachen.
champers4days's review against another edition
2.0
We could go over the plot of this book, which was fine, or the writing style, which was acceptable, but the real point of note is that something crucial, something I could not put my finger on, was missing from A Great and Terrible Beauty (nice title though!). Whatever this unidentifiable something was, the end result was an inability to feel drawn into this book or the lives of its characters, so let's save ourselves the time and move on to another, more fun book, shall we?!!
e_cunha's review against another edition
2.0
This is probably not a good read I would recommend. It had a few good parts that made it slightly redeemable and it made you want to see what happened at the end. The end was pretty lame with not much being resolved and just sort of leaving you hanging with vague hints of what is to come in the future of the world in the book. A lot of loose ends.
The first 75 pages or so I would say, were very boring; it was a struggle to get through them. There were many times in the book when the author would contradict herself for something she had said previously. The writing was also extremely predictable. Many of the events I saw coming, and all the "big reveal" secrets were not that secretive.
To be honest, none of the characters were really likable either. In many instances they are quite horrible and evil. In the beginning two of the main characters are portrayed as villains(Felicity and Pippa) and are hated by two other main characters(Gemma-the actual protagonist- and Ann), but within a few pages they are all best buddies. And when you've gotten to know them all, towards the end of the book, they do something completely evil and beast-like towards Gemma and it is never referenced to or mentioned at all in the rest of the book. I guess that was one part that surprised me, at that point I honestly thought the 3 others would turn into demonic consorts( or something like that) of the "Big Bad" character Circe. Throughout the whole book the author write, what I feel, are foreshadowings of Felicity falling into Circe's shadow/path and Gemma following her mothers, being the better person, more powerful, wanting to do good blah blah blah. And then it's like "Oh, let's perform a sacrifice to gain more power!" Same thing "Big Bad" did in the past. Suspicion, violence, animal murder, almost human murder, anarchy on Gemma ensues.
A few pages later "She's my friend and I love her." Blah blah blah.
One of the themes of the book is "everyone has damages" but to me, the characters were all just pretty horrible girls, with a few redeeming parts of Gemma and maybe Pippa.
All in all, not a book for me. I think maybe younger girls would like it. It just didn't sit with me as a well written book with developed characters. More like one of those tawdry YA romance supernatural novels, like those house of night books. Couldn't even make it through the first book of that series even in high school lol
The first 75 pages or so I would say, were very boring; it was a struggle to get through them. There were many times in the book when the author would contradict herself for something she had said previously. The writing was also extremely predictable. Many of the events I saw coming, and all the "big reveal" secrets were not that secretive.
To be honest, none of the characters were really likable either. In many instances they are quite horrible and evil. In the beginning two of the main characters are portrayed as villains(Felicity and Pippa) and are hated by two other main characters(Gemma-the actual protagonist- and Ann), but within a few pages they are all best buddies. And when you've gotten to know them all, towards the end of the book, they do something completely evil and beast-like towards Gemma and it is never referenced to or mentioned at all in the rest of the book. I guess that was one part that surprised me, at that point I honestly thought the 3 others would turn into demonic consorts( or something like that) of the "Big Bad" character Circe. Throughout the whole book the author write, what I feel, are foreshadowings of Felicity falling into Circe's shadow/path and Gemma following her mothers, being the better person, more powerful, wanting to do good blah blah blah. And then it's like "Oh, let's perform a sacrifice to gain more power!" Same thing "Big Bad" did in the past. Suspicion, violence, animal murder, almost human murder, anarchy on Gemma ensues.
A few pages later "She's my friend and I love her." Blah blah blah.
One of the themes of the book is "everyone has damages" but to me, the characters were all just pretty horrible girls, with a few redeeming parts of Gemma and maybe Pippa.
All in all, not a book for me. I think maybe younger girls would like it. It just didn't sit with me as a well written book with developed characters. More like one of those tawdry YA romance supernatural novels, like those house of night books. Couldn't even make it through the first book of that series even in high school lol
starbreather's review against another edition
4.0
This book is the quintessential young adult: friendship, (first) love, and coming of age!
mastersal's review against another edition
DNF at 60% - chapter 22
I am sorry I couldn’t take to anymore. I was throughly annoyed by all the characters in this book and the pace. Nothing was happening and the vibe was mostly me being grumpy.
I didn’t find this creepy or chilling (or well written). Something about this activated my inner raging grandma and all I could think of - “those meddling kids”. Or some variant thereof ….
Now, for transparency, I read this while travelling for work, where I was basically in conference from 8 to 11 pm every day. And then I manage to fall sick with COVID - so the majority of the time wasn’t really spent “reading”. However, this experience is colouring the book so I better put it down.
I am not rating it as I have no clue of the problem is the book or the fact that I feel like chucking it across the room because I have such a headache.
I’ll try to come back to this when I am better because this was a buddy read. Sorry ladies - I feel I failed you.
I am sorry I couldn’t take to anymore. I was throughly annoyed by all the characters in this book and the pace. Nothing was happening and the vibe was mostly me being grumpy.
I didn’t find this creepy or chilling (or well written). Something about this activated my inner raging grandma and all I could think of - “those meddling kids”. Or some variant thereof ….
Now, for transparency, I read this while travelling for work, where I was basically in conference from 8 to 11 pm every day. And then I manage to fall sick with COVID - so the majority of the time wasn’t really spent “reading”. However, this experience is colouring the book so I better put it down.
I am not rating it as I have no clue of the problem is the book or the fact that I feel like chucking it across the room because I have such a headache.
I’ll try to come back to this when I am better because this was a buddy read. Sorry ladies - I feel I failed you.