A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
I'm ever so glad that I read Going Bovine and Beauty Queens before I picked up A Great and Terrible Beauty. Bovine and Queens have made me a champion of Libba Bray. I've recommended them more than once and will continue to do so. Terrible Beauty just didn't do it for me. It's 350 pages of set up and 50 pages of payoff. And the payoff isn't that satisfying. I found myself wanting to abandon the book, and now that I'm done with it, I think that may have been the smart move. Bray's take on the Gothic novel left me shaking my head and wondering aloud if she was purposely ignoring aspects of Victorian England. Her characters seem more like time travelers that were plopped in the middle of an English finishing school rather than girls who grew up in the era. The woman of that time didn't wish for more than marriage because the options outside of being a Mrs. Soandso were terrifying. Her modern feminist take on a girl who would have been raised to be a brood mare made me want to scream. I realize Bray was taking creative license, but at times it felt like she was shoehorning characters into their respective archetype.
As much as I am ripping apart A Great and Terrible Beauty, it does have it's moments. Bray's ability to give characters flaws that are both loved and hated is fantastic. Gemma may be a young selfish girl, but then again so is everyone else. Bray's characters seem very real. They aren't cut from the sackcloth of the Twilight novels, wherein Bella is so under-described that she could be any girl, they stand up on their own. I appreciate the strong female, and Bray's ability to make her beautiful, endearing, and flawed all the same time is a testament to her talent.
Next up is The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Before I start I'm wondering if we have a feminist take on Something Wicked This Way Comes. Bradbury made the basis of the creepy circus book, I hope Morgenstern expands on it.
I'm ever so glad that I read Going Bovine and Beauty Queens before I picked up A Great and Terrible Beauty. Bovine and Queens have made me a champion of Libba Bray. I've recommended them more than once and will continue to do so. Terrible Beauty just didn't do it for me. It's 350 pages of set up and 50 pages of payoff. And the payoff isn't that satisfying. I found myself wanting to abandon the book, and now that I'm done with it, I think that may have been the smart move. Bray's take on the Gothic novel left me shaking my head and wondering aloud if she was purposely ignoring aspects of Victorian England. Her characters seem more like time travelers that were plopped in the middle of an English finishing school rather than girls who grew up in the era. The woman of that time didn't wish for more than marriage because the options outside of being a Mrs. Soandso were terrifying. Her modern feminist take on a girl who would have been raised to be a brood mare made me want to scream. I realize Bray was taking creative license, but at times it felt like she was shoehorning characters into their respective archetype.
As much as I am ripping apart A Great and Terrible Beauty, it does have it's moments. Bray's ability to give characters flaws that are both loved and hated is fantastic. Gemma may be a young selfish girl, but then again so is everyone else. Bray's characters seem very real. They aren't cut from the sackcloth of the Twilight novels, wherein Bella is so under-described that she could be any girl, they stand up on their own. I appreciate the strong female, and Bray's ability to make her beautiful, endearing, and flawed all the same time is a testament to her talent.
Next up is The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Before I start I'm wondering if we have a feminist take on Something Wicked This Way Comes. Bradbury made the basis of the creepy circus book, I hope Morgenstern expands on it.
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