Book One of the Gemma Doyle Trilogy. Gemma Doyle is living a fairly ordinary life in 19th century India, until one day at the market, she has a strange vision in which her mother is killed by an incredible monster. She wakes up from the vision to find that her mother is, in fact, mysteriously dead. Still reeling from her mother's death, Gemma is shipped off to boarding school in England, where her strange new visions continue to intensify.
Together with her new friends, Felicity and Ann, Gemma realizes that her visions are actually a key to another world called the Realms. The power of the Realms is immense, but even as she learns to learns to harness it, Gemma needs to defend herself. There is more than one force interested in her power, and all of them would like to take it from her... no matter the cost.
I think it's funny how there's so many books out there where the heroine is completely normal, never does or sees anything out of the ordinary, and then WHAM! Something happens and she realizes that absolutely nothing is what she thought it was. I think it appeals to that desire that many if not all of us feel sometimes where we really wish that the world wasn't as it seems. It's making me laugh right now because I feel like I've typed something similar a lot in the last little while: "nothing is as it seems...."
Anyway, back to the review- I liked this book a lot. Gemma is a very sympathetic protagonist (though she lets Felicity push her around too much), and her narration gives the story a certain ironic humor that I really enjoyed. I also loved the concept of the story. I think some of the most imaginative fiction out there happens when someone shapes our existing world in an unexpected way. I love feeling like there might be something going on out there that don't know about. The only thing holding me back from a 5 star rating is the fact that I felt the writing was a tiny bit hard to follow from time to time, and the characters could have been developed more fully. That, and I would like to replace about one quarter of Gemma's dialogue with the words, "Shut up, Felicity."
My final word: 4 out of 5. An excellent paranormal novel that will definitely keep the pages turning.
Website for Libba Bray.
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4 comments:
I see this book all over the place, but I thought it was something historical! Apparently it is not what it seems! ;D I'll have to check it out.
Love the observation about everything being normal and finding out all is not as it seems, there really are quite a few books like that at the moment, City of Bones, another example. I also enjoyed a Great and Terrible Beauty, so did my daughter, it is a great read.
I loved this book. I need to sit and read the second one, but this book was one of the ones that I recommended to my grandma!
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Thanks for the review, it looks like a great book to read. I'll have to keep my eye out for it.
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