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Sign up todayA Great and Terrible Beauty
Narrator
Josephine Bailey
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Length
11 hours 18 minutes
Language
English
The first book in the critically acclaimed New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestselling Gemma Doyle trilogy, the exhilarating and haunting saga from the author of The Diviners series and Going Bovine.
It’s 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma’s reception there is a chilly one.
To make things worse, she’s been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence’s most powerful girls—and their foray into the spiritual world—lead to?
“A delicious, elegant gothic.”—PW, Starred
“Shivery with both passion and terror.”—Kirkus Reviews
"Compulsively readable." --VOYA
A New York Times Bestseller
A Publishers Weekly Bestseller
A Book Sense Bestseller
BBYA (ALA/YALSA Best Book for Young Adults)
Iowa High School Book Award
Garden State Teen Book Award
Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Award
Libba Bray's two novels, A Great and Terrible Beauty and Rebel Angels, both became New York Times bestsellers. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and their son, cat, and two goldfish.
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Reviews
A Reader's Digest Best Book for Teens of All Time!“A delicious, elegant gothic.”—PW, Starred
“A Gothic novel touched by modern conceptions of adolescence, shivery with both passion and terror.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A true boarding-school drama, full of cattiness, Victorian repression, and steamy schoolgirl dreams of being ravished by virile gypsies.”—The Bulletin, Recommended
"This classic boarding school drama with gothic tones deals with real issues . . . a compulsively readable story." --VOYA
"[An] engrossing, imaginative Victorian-era novel . . . An unconventional book that entertains to the end and stays with you long after." --BN.com
“A Victorian boarding school story, a Gothic mansion mystery, a gossipy romp about a clique of girlfriends, and a dark other-worldly fantasy . . . an impressive first book in what should prove to be a fascinating trilogy.”
—Amazon.com
“An interesting combination of fantasy, light horror, and historical fiction, with a dash of romance thrown in for good measure…Recommend this to fantasy fans who also like Sherlock Holmes or Mary Russell.”
—School Library Journal
“There’s no doubt the mystical elements, along with a touch of forbidden romance, will draw a large, enthusiastic audience.” —Booklist
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A New York Times Bestseller
A Publishers Weekly Bestseller
A Book Sense Bestseller
BBYA (ALA/YALSA Best Book for Young Adults)
Iowa High School Book Award
Garden State Teen Book Award
Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Award Expand reviews
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