From the Bookshelf of Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge…

Anyway. In some ways, you can tell that these were Bray’s first books. She’s still finding her narrative voice; Gemma isn’t nearly as snarky as Evie, or Cameron, or any of the girls in Beauty Queens. The subject matter is also a good deal darker (even more so than Diviners), given that, within the first 10 pages, the protagonist has a vision of her mother’s death, then actually watches the vision come true. You can’t really fault Gemma for being a little down in the first few chapters. Even though she’s always dreamed of going to England, instead of being stuck in India, it doesn’t take Gemma long to figure out that her parents were keeping the family out of London for a reason. However, after her mother’s death, Gemma has little choice but to travel back to London (where the rest of the family lives). Her grandmother soon enrolls her in finishing school, where she fits in about as well as one might expect. There are the typical cliques of mean girls, and also a mysterious locked wing (that Gemma is immediately dying to explore), which sets the stage for a delightful historical mystery. And though Spence Academy is quite different from the last finishing school I read about (there’s a sad lack of mechanical sausage dogs with delightful names), I’m a sucker for historical fiction set at boarding school. It’s one of those settings that feels like it should always be Victorian, no matter when it ostensibly takes place.

Gemma soon learns that she’s not the only recent transplant from India -- Kartik, the man she saw the day her mother died, has followed her to school. He gives her a cryptic warning: she must find a way to stop her visions, or the gypsies will have to take action. Much like Harry Potter and his connection to Voldemort, Gemma at first struggles with controlling the visions, but eventually realizes that she doesn’t particularly want to stop them, as they’re helpful, and she feels like they’re trying to tell her something. One night, a spirit leads her out onto the grounds, where she finds an old diary belonging to Mary Dowd, a former student who styled herself a member of a group called The Order. It doesn’t take long for a few of the girls to band together to form their own “Order,” and what starts out as a joke quickly becomes real, when Gemma realizes she has the power to travel to another world...and to take people with her.

It doesn’t take long for the girls to become addicted to the power they have in the “other” world. Given that this is Victorian England, the best any of these girls can hope for is to marry a rich man and live a comfortable life. The message is clear, but Bray isn’t really beating you over the head with it, which I appreciate (Beauty Queens got just the slightest bit preachy towards the end). After a few trips, Gemma realizes that (view spoiler)[ her mother is in the other realm as well, and it’s some sort of spirit world/afterlife/limbo. Though she delights at being able to see her mother again (and apologize for her atrocious behavior before her mother’s death), it doesn’t take long for the two to fall back on old habits, namely, arguing. It also turns out that Gemma’s mother was keeping a huge secret from her -- she is the Mary who wrote the diary. She and her best friend became obsessed with the other realm, and with gaining more power, culminating in an actual human sacrifice (they kidnapped a gypsy child). Everyone assumed both girls died in the fire in the East Wing, but they both managed to disappear. Like her mother, Gemma has access to this power, which can corrupt her (as it does some of her companions) if she allows it. This is where we end the first book. (hide spoiler)] I like that there isn’t a huge, overarching cliffhanger at the end. There’s room for the story to continue, but it doesn’t feel like the last chapters are nothing but set-up for a sequel (which was my biggest quibble with Diviners).

I loved Gemma as a narrator -- she sounds like a typical Bray heroine (which is a plus, for me), but not quite as snarky. She’s starting to find that sense of humor towards the end of the book (view spoiler)[although Pippa’s death might put a damper on any levity for the moment (hide spoiler)]. I also liked the dynamics between the girls as they struggled for power within their social circle. The “romance” was blessedly minimal -- Gemma clearly has a crush on Kartik (and she has some *ahem* interesting dreams about him), but she knows it can’t really go anywhere, given that he keeps threatening her. We also see Gemma’s friend Pippa deal with an arranged marriage to a fellow named Mr. Bumble, which is an excellent contrast to both Gemma’s dreams, and Pippa’s own romantic notions. Bumble is decades older than Pippa, meaning the two obviously have precious little in common, but as a Victorian teenager, Pippa has no say in her own future, so it’s no wonder (view spoiler)[ she chooses to stay in the other realm, even knowing that it means death in the “real” world (hide spoiler)]. Overall, this book did not disappoint, and it was really the perfect follow-up to Etiquette & Espionage.