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A review by valentinaambrosius
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
3.0
What the freak were those sex scenes all about?
the writing was okay. I didn't really get the 19th century vibe and apart from the nagging about virginity, etiquette and corsets, nobody really came across as a nineteenth century lady/girl/being.
the girls were bitchy and stereotypical; all of them... of course the girl that is poor and has little to no self-esteem cuts.... that's not how it works people !!!! as a (former) cutter myself it starts to slowly sicking me how it 's always done by the shy people who are in every way outcasts.
show me the popular girl who smiles all day and cries the nights. the performers and loud people who dare, yes... dare to go a little deeper because every single book pretends like it's only cat scratches cutting with scissors, show me tools and other shit show me stitches, because we need to know that even though it's horrible that someone feels like it's their last option to let out the pain; it's not just surface stuff.
and the main character being *brave* enough to say that she "shouldn't ever do that again"... gag! like that's going to make a difference. Get that child help or give them support, don't just say "don't" and then think that everything is solved!
the writing was okay. I didn't really get the 19th century vibe and apart from the nagging about virginity, etiquette and corsets, nobody really came across as a nineteenth century lady/girl/being.
the girls were bitchy and stereotypical; all of them... of course the girl that is poor and has little to no self-esteem cuts.... that's not how it works people !!!! as a (former) cutter myself it starts to slowly sicking me how it 's always done by the shy people who are in every way outcasts.
show me the popular girl who smiles all day and cries the nights. the performers and loud people who dare, yes... dare to go a little deeper because every single book pretends like it's only cat scratches cutting with scissors, show me tools and other shit show me stitches, because we need to know that even though it's horrible that someone feels like it's their last option to let out the pain; it's not just surface stuff.
and the main character being *brave* enough to say that she "shouldn't ever do that again"... gag! like that's going to make a difference. Get that child help or give them support, don't just say "don't" and then think that everything is solved!
Moving on the love interest? Like I said weird... but okay if you want to portray it as what's going on in a girls mind and that a girl dreams like that too.
the relationship felt stereotypical. Of course they wouldn't trust one another anymore after a while when one of them is almighty powerful.
the main character: Gemma Doyle; she's the morally modern one, she understands doesn't degrade the poor as much as the others.
she isn't as bitchy, she's strong because of her powers and brave for standing up to them to protect them.
the romantic girl is stuck in a dream.
the mean girl probably just wants to be understood or get world domination or both.
the shy girl will either go freak and join the dark side... or not and dissolve into a gooey mess.
the villain, well, okay that was a bit of a twist, but not WOW enough to be any real good.
however, I did enjoy myself enough to give it three stars, because the passing was good enough and apart from some personal issues that might have been caused by reading a translation, it was was okay.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Self harm