A Great and Terrible Beauty review
Apr. 5th, 2011 02:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearLibba Bray will not be on my list of authors to revisit, after reading A Great And Terrible Beauty.
First person present tense narratives are never my favourite style, and this narrator is consistently whiny, petulant and less than sympathetic. There are occasional instances of rich description and insightful observations, but they don't fit with the character of the narrator at all,and so detract from the text by being unconvincing rather than adding to it with their depth.
The plot is really cliched, too - young girl is tragically bereaved before being sent to a snooty boarding school after living her childhood in India. The school is ruled by a handful of rich, beautiful girls, who are mean to the scholarship student, causing the narrator to stand up to them on her behalf.
The mean girls switch from enemies to friends very abruptly (showing the narrator as incredibly shallow), and I'm guessing I'm supposed to find their subsequent exploits (dabbling with magic after forming a secret society that meets in the caves on the school grounds after midnight) exciting and daring - but I just found them stupid and annoying (demonstrating that I am most definitely not the target market for this book).
The only thing that kept me reading to the end was the vaguely intriguing plot thread of the magical realms and the mysterious young man trailing the narrator and apparently trying to protect her. However, the revelation at the end regarding this strand, while unexpected, wasn't very interesting, and certainly not enough for me to want to get the sequel.
A familiar story, executed with little innovation and no flair.
First person present tense narratives are never my favourite style, and this narrator is consistently whiny, petulant and less than sympathetic. There are occasional instances of rich description and insightful observations, but they don't fit with the character of the narrator at all,and so detract from the text by being unconvincing rather than adding to it with their depth.
The plot is really cliched, too - young girl is tragically bereaved before being sent to a snooty boarding school after living her childhood in India. The school is ruled by a handful of rich, beautiful girls, who are mean to the scholarship student, causing the narrator to stand up to them on her behalf.
The mean girls switch from enemies to friends very abruptly (showing the narrator as incredibly shallow), and I'm guessing I'm supposed to find their subsequent exploits (dabbling with magic after forming a secret society that meets in the caves on the school grounds after midnight) exciting and daring - but I just found them stupid and annoying (demonstrating that I am most definitely not the target market for this book).
The only thing that kept me reading to the end was the vaguely intriguing plot thread of the magical realms and the mysterious young man trailing the narrator and apparently trying to protect her. However, the revelation at the end regarding this strand, while unexpected, wasn't very interesting, and certainly not enough for me to want to get the sequel.
A familiar story, executed with little innovation and no flair.
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Date: 2011-04-05 03:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-05 03:55 pm (UTC)