A Great and Terrible Beauty



this was my selection for this month's read, anyone else thinking of picking this one up?

I've got this on hold at the library. Unless it gets turned in early, the earliest I can hope for is next week. It sure seems to be popular; it's rare I find a book that has every single copy checked out (except for the volume being repaired).

yes, ill be reading this too, michelle.

I'm in. It was just bumped up to the top of the list.

Pamela, i'm in the same boat with the library, though their website assures me i'm #1 in the queue for it.

I read it last year, the trilogy, in fact, so I'll join in the discussion at month's end. It's a terrific read, BTW.

Any thoughts on the book so far?

just picked it up from the library yesterday evening...should be an interesting shift from my other book club read this month, 'the poisonwood bible'!

i finished it a couple of days ago - ready for anyone elses' opinions. this one felt to me like the orchestra tuning up before the symphony. lots of interesting ideas, few of which are fully fleshed out. i'm absolutely intrigued enough to check out the next entry in the series to see where she goes with this!

is it just me, or does "historical" fiction always come across as a surprise? i mean that modern sensibilities (i.e., the art teacher that takes them to the caves) at first are jarring until i realize that yes, people "back in the day" weren't all simply products of their times, but were every bit as much independent thinkers as some of us today are. my initial kneejerk reaction is always to feel the author has placed her modern values on her characters, but that's a right simplistic view, to assume that everyone did actually buy into victorian repression...

I finally received notice from the library that my IIL is in. I'll be picking the book up sometime this weekend. Maybe I'll even get to start reading before the month is out. :/

I haven't finished yet. However, I'm borderline with the book so far. It is interesting in various parts and oddly boring in others. Michelle you are right about the ideas not being fully fleshed out. Obviously leading us to read the other two books. We will see.

I read the trilogy last year and enjoyed all, though it did feel in places that the author was stretching things out a bit in order to fill three volumes. I did appreciate the setting, the challenges to women of that era, whose lives were so constricted. And I thought the characters were well-formed and their interactions and conflicts kept me interested. So many fantasy novels, especially those written by men--though there are shining exceptions--tend to make women one-dimensional. I liked it that these young women were human, full of contradictions and unpredictable. Hope others liked this one.

Ramona, you hit on what i did love best about this book - the historical setting. it never fails to surprise me (surprise as in it's unexpected, not as in it doesn't fit) when an "enlightened" or otherwise "modern" viewpoint crops up in a historical novel. i mean, my rational mind knows that feminism didn't spring fully formed out of the mid-60s, but my kneejerk reactions sure assume it did.

I was finally able to pick up my copy and get started on this. So far, I'm enjoying it, although I'm surprised by the number of times Gemma refers to her legs, since I thought the Victorians generally considered such specificity was scandalous. Is this intended to be an artifact of Gemma's more casual Indian background? Overall, though, I like the story and feel it flows well.

For a little background on feminism, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-wave_...
I know very little about that era but perhaps I'll try to dig out some more info.

I wanted to like this book; it had many elements I enjoy. Unfortunately, I found it a bit too thin--not in the number of pages, but in the story told. The story dragged for me, with too many quiet scenes in which I was waiting for the foreshadowed darkness to appear, only to be disappointed with how quickly and easily (this despite the tragedy) the darkness passed, when it finally did show up.

I found the girls too modern in their thinking and was amazed at how easily they got around the (often nonexistent) restrictions of the boarding school. A glass of sherry doesn't go far enough to explain the ease with which the girls were able to wander the grounds at night. Gemma was also a problem for me, as I never quite warmed to her; she was too shallow, too quick to do what she wanted and, despite moments of feeling sorry about her misbehavior, unable or unwilling to learn from her mistakes.

I too also wanted to like this book. I read up until page 90 then read two other books. I picked it up and finished it in 2 days. However, it was just not that good or not that bad. I couldn't hate it or like. Apparently I'm going to have to read the next book to know if the first book is left off in a good spot. I really do wonder how they moved around so freely. I want to go to a boarding school like that. And why would she become best friends with the girl who clearly was challenging her. It was an odd group for sure. But I was shocked to find out that Mary D. was Gemma's mother, didn't see that coming.

Pamela wrote: "I wanted to like this book; it had many elements I enjoy. Unfortunately, I found it a bit too thin--not in the number of pages, but in the story told. The story dragged for me, with too many quiet ..."

Pam I missed your boarding school comment. Glad to see someone thinks the same way.

Elyssa wrote: Pam I missed your boarding school comment. Glad to see someone thinks the same way."

I was amazed. The constant references to the Headmistress' single glass of sherry (how would the girls even know, if done in the privacy of her chambers at bedtime?) as the reason the girls could go anywhere at night just didn't strike me as sufficient. I also felt the girls didn't pay a high enough price in exhaustion for all their midnight rambles.

Even so, I don't want to suggest that I disliked the book. There were many fun aspects to the story. I also suspect it works better for someone in the target audience than it did for me.

There were many little tidbit errors like that. It is hard to concentrate on the story when you stop to wonder about the parts there were left out. These young girls, even the previous ones, I would not want to have a bunch of school girls handling that kind of magic. A bit scary, like giving Potter a wand. The mere mention of their weariness was not enough, however, there time span in the realm was seconds. She made it seem like they were out for hours. Except right in the beginning when they were really out for hours. Wow, I guess there were many issues about this book.

Elyssa wrote: "These young girls, even the previous ones, I would not want to have a bunch of school girls handling that kind of magic. A bit scary, like giving Potter a wand."

Lol. Yes, I worry for the fate of the world. ;D

Good talking points! My sense is that the series holds together though there are some spots where the plot drags. As for the two young women who are supposedly best friends but perpetually in conflict, this is a key device in the novel. It makes perfect sense to me that they relish the way they challenge each other, "worthy opponents" you might say. Elyssa speaks of school girls handling such potent magic. These were young women close to marriagable age, thus sexually potent. All that newly acquired sexual power and then they're handed the gift of magic beyond their imaginings. They're grabbing it and running with it, and yes, it's scary, but that's what makes it an exciting story. (Footnote: Tribal societies recognized this newly acquired sexual power of adolescents and carefully managed it with rites of passage, or initiations, in which the youth learned how to use their power as adults in the community. Sadly, we don't do that any more and young people are forced to devise their own initiations.)

Tribal-Which are you speaking of? There are 1000's out there, nationally and internationally. I happen to be Native American, Oneida specifically. Rites of passage are still done, elders still teach us the old ways, and many are still medicine warriors. It wasn't so much sexual power as a coming of proper age to be able to start learning about the power they can hold, to learn how to harness it. I recommend reading Black Elk Speaks Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux.