A review by ladybrik
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

3.0

I feel like this book had the potential to be great - and maybe the following two books redeem this one - but I had a hard time connecting to any of the characters. I wanted to like them; I wanted to feel the bond they supposedly had - a bond strong enough to travel to an entirely different realm - but their friendship felt forced and rushed and insincere. Also: the overwhelming likeness to the movie The Craft was really, really hard to escape. I mean, that's basically what this was; all that's missing is black nail polish & lipstick.

All that aside, I couldn't put it down and I liked it enough to want to eventually read the other two books. So all is not lost. I just wish it was amazing. I wanted it to be amazing. That it fell short is really disappointing for me.