I actually finished this novel almost a week ago, but have been putting off writing about it because I was trying to find something positive to talk about. I had seen this in bookstores for a few years, but never got around to purchasing it. The back cover description usually made me want to read it, but I nearly always found this novel at the end of my bookstore trip, after I already have an armful of books, and can't bring myself to add one more to the pile. I'm wondering now if it was my subconscious warning me that this book wouldn't be what I hoped it would be. There were definitely parts that made it worth reading, but I'm still not certain it was worth purchasing. What makes me more uncertain is that there are two more novels in this series, and I can't decide whether I should read them after my disappointment with A Great and Terrible Beauty.
To sum up the novel, Gemma Doyle is a 16-year-old girl from Britain who lives in India with her parents. After the murder of her mother, she is sent to a finishing school in England because her family is now incapable of taking care of her as she should be. While at this school, Gemma discovers that she has a secret power: she has visions of the future, and can traverse different realms of magic. The problem is that there are multiple parties that want her to either close her mind to these realms, or open them to the evil that has been trapped there, depending on which party you ask. During the novel, she has to deal with cruel classmates and mysterious Gypsies, being academically behind almost every other student, a headmistress who cares only for the reputation of the school, the emotional void left by the loss of her mother, and the fact that she has basically been abandoned by her family.
What makes it utterly silly is the bizarre friendship that forms between Gemma, Ann, Pippa, and Felicity. It is not very plausible that Felicity and Pippa (two very wealthy girls whose family expectations are very high) would easily form a bond with Gemma (a girl who has no idea what London Society is really like) and Ann (a girl who is destined to be a governess or some other form of hired help). It's a nice gesture on Gemma's part to force Ann's inclusion in their club, but I can't reconcile the idea of an arrogant, cruel girl like Felicity being nice to a poor orphan like Ann. I can believe that they all want a chance to rebel and just be young girls for a while, but given the strictness of the school, I wonder why it is so easy for them to sneak out in the middle of the night.
There are some amusing parts, so I did have some enjoyable moments. When Ann and Gemma show up in French class with hangovers, I couldn't stop laughing. Their teacher questioned Gemma about the smell of alcohol on her breath, and Gemma convinced her that she had just had too much marmalade. Gemma's dreams about Kartik are a bit funny, too. Bray seems to understand that girls' sexuality was very suppressed at that time in history, so Gemma's feelings for Kartik are almost completely beyond her scope of understanding. I was also amused at Gemma pushing Felicity into the lake to save her reputation (because Felicity has been secretly meeting with a Gypsy boy named Ithal, and their relations have been far from proper).
I'm not going to explain why, but I felt the most sympathy for Pippa. Her part in the story is both tragic and somewhat typical for a girl her age. Her part in the end of the novel is bittersweet, but I can imagine that it made her happy.
The other ridiculous part of this novel is the Order, the magic ability of certain women to change things in the world. Gemma's powers make her part of this order, but the entire thing seems to be not fleshed out enough. Basically, when Gemma (and later her friends, when she takes them) finds the "garden", they spend their time doing whatever they feel like, simply because it's the only place where they can make their own decisions. They can make it rain rose petals if they want, just by wanting it to happen. Felicity creates a huntress to teach her how to shoot a bow; Pippa creates a knight who swears his life to her; Ann makes herself pretty with a beautiful singing voice; and Gemma creates nothing because her mother is already there. When they take the magic back into the school (which they weren't supposed to do), they do very silly things with it. They change a Cupid statue into a scantily clad can-can dancer figurine, change their breakfasts, make it so that they speak perfect French, etc. They use it to amuse themselves, instead of doing something useful with it. They never find other members of the Order, which the novel led me to expect that they would, and the whole subject is treated as a lovely myth come true.
Gemma's issues with her mother are another matter entirely. Like all mother-daughter relationships, theirs was complicated. Gemma and her mother got along well, until Gemma decided it was time for her to finally go to London for a Season, but her mother and father both refused, without a reason. After that, Gemma's relationship with her mother was strained, and it was only after her mother's death that she realized how much her mother meant to her - a typical and not very interesting circumstance. Gemma spends a good deal of the rest of the novel trying to forgive herself because she thinks her mother's death was her fault, and her mother, in the "garden", tries to get Gemma to forgive her for keeping secrets. It's very much a "if I had only known, it would have been different" scenario, and I wasn't very happy with it.
So, I am moving on to my next book, and leaving A Great and Terrible Beauty where it belongs -- on the shelf with the other disappointments. I have to say that it's possible I didn't like it because I'm getting to old for that type of novel, but part of me thinks that it just wasn't appealing, like there wasn't enough character development or plot depth. Maybe it was just too shallow. I'll leave it for other readers to decide, since I already have my own opinion.
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