A Great and Terrible Beauty Libba Bray
Delacorte Books for Young Readers (March 22, 2005)
SPOILER ALERT: The following review contains plot points that you may not want to know about before reading the book.
PARENTAL ADVISORY: This book contains material inappropriate for children. This review may reference that same material and thus may also not be appropriate for children.
In short: There is little great, a lot that is terrible, and nothing that is beautiful in this “tawdry” novel of a “diabolical occult ring” and sexual exploration.
After her mother’s mysterious death in India, sixteen year old Gemma Doyle is sent to an English boarding school where she meets a powerful clique of girls and stern, hypocritical Christians.
“…Reverend Waite, leads us in prayers that all begin with “O Lord” and end with our somehow not being worthy – sinners who have always been sinners and will forever more be sinners until we die. It isn’t the most optimistic outlook I’ve ever heard. But we’re encouraged to keep trying anyway.”
“Reverend Waite calls out, half-drunk, “Is anyone there?”
Gemma stands up to the clique, all who eventually become her friends, while dealing with bizarre hallucinations and the strange presence of a young man who, apparently, has followed her from India. As friendships develop and the dreams of Gemma continue, the girls find a cave on the school grounds where they learn the powers of “the Order” and open a dark portal into the supernatural where, “…what you imagine can be yours.”
“…for cloaking ourselves from the sight of others, for bending the minds of men to the will of the Order, influencing their thoughts and dreams till their destinies shake out before them like a pattern in the night stars. It was all written upon the Oracle of the Runes. Just to touch our hands to those crystals was to be a conduit, with the universe flowing through hard and fast as a river.”
It is here, in the cave, where the four teenage girls, experiment with the occult, alcohol and their budding sexuality.
“It’s not a request. Drink or you’re out of the club…A surprising warmth floods my entire body, weighing me down in a delicious way. I like the feeling…I’m floating inside my skin…Right now, the real world with its heartbreak and disappointments is just a pulse against the protective membrane we’ve drunk ourselves into.”
“Felicity pulls my hand to her mouth and bites into the fruit cupped there. Her mouth is still sticky sweet from it as she kisses me full on the lips. I have to put my hand to them to stop the tingling, and a blush has flooded my entire body.”
“Ann, don’t tell me you don’t know what men and women do when they’re together. Shall I show you?”…Felicity holds her gaze for a moment, then licks Ann’s cheek in one long stroke…”I’m going to have many men.”
The debauchery only continues and turns more violent and graphic as the murderous secret of the boarding school is revealed. The disturbing revelation that a young child was “sacrificed” by Gemma’s teenage mother and her friend years ago is the unfortunate climax of the novel, related in sickening detail.
I feel like Ray Ortlund who says he wasted $6.25 on “The Dark Knight”.
“I learned nothing. I was not enriched in any way…I’m weary of the world’s disappointing stimulants. I want more of Christ.”
Michael Spencer, in commenting on Ray’s comments says,
“But there’s just a lot- a LOT- of garbage out there. A lot of lies. Distortion. A lot of very bad story telling. A lot of poorly executed entertainment. A lot of humor and excitement drummed up from the lowest common denominators: sex, violence, greed. A lot of wasted minutes, hours and days…But when we are supposedly deeply moved by something that, at its core, isn’t deeply moving, isn’t redemptive, isn’t part of the grand story, but is just a vast, pretentious, technologically overwhelming retelling of the worst kind of human story, I want to have the backbone to say so.”
I haven’t wasted $6.25, nor have I just wasted $9.99, the cost of the book, but my tax dollars are paying for the presentation of this garbage to unsuspecting fourteen year olds as “relevant” literature worthy of study and we all need to have the backbone to say so.
With “in the wrong era” discussions of cutting and divorce; descriptions of kissing and sex and a rebellious attitude toward God, “Makes it sound as if we’re God’s puppets.”; this book has little great, lot's terrible and absolutely nothing beautiful to recommend it.
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Philippians 4:8
After her mother’s mysterious death in India, sixteen year old Gemma Doyle is sent to an English boarding school where she meets a powerful clique of girls and stern, hypocritical Christians.
“…Reverend Waite, leads us in prayers that all begin with “O Lord” and end with our somehow not being worthy – sinners who have always been sinners and will forever more be sinners until we die. It isn’t the most optimistic outlook I’ve ever heard. But we’re encouraged to keep trying anyway.”
“Reverend Waite calls out, half-drunk, “Is anyone there?”
Gemma stands up to the clique, all who eventually become her friends, while dealing with bizarre hallucinations and the strange presence of a young man who, apparently, has followed her from India. As friendships develop and the dreams of Gemma continue, the girls find a cave on the school grounds where they learn the powers of “the Order” and open a dark portal into the supernatural where, “…what you imagine can be yours.”
“…for cloaking ourselves from the sight of others, for bending the minds of men to the will of the Order, influencing their thoughts and dreams till their destinies shake out before them like a pattern in the night stars. It was all written upon the Oracle of the Runes. Just to touch our hands to those crystals was to be a conduit, with the universe flowing through hard and fast as a river.”
It is here, in the cave, where the four teenage girls, experiment with the occult, alcohol and their budding sexuality.
“It’s not a request. Drink or you’re out of the club…A surprising warmth floods my entire body, weighing me down in a delicious way. I like the feeling…I’m floating inside my skin…Right now, the real world with its heartbreak and disappointments is just a pulse against the protective membrane we’ve drunk ourselves into.”
“Felicity pulls my hand to her mouth and bites into the fruit cupped there. Her mouth is still sticky sweet from it as she kisses me full on the lips. I have to put my hand to them to stop the tingling, and a blush has flooded my entire body.”
“Ann, don’t tell me you don’t know what men and women do when they’re together. Shall I show you?”…Felicity holds her gaze for a moment, then licks Ann’s cheek in one long stroke…”I’m going to have many men.”
The debauchery only continues and turns more violent and graphic as the murderous secret of the boarding school is revealed. The disturbing revelation that a young child was “sacrificed” by Gemma’s teenage mother and her friend years ago is the unfortunate climax of the novel, related in sickening detail.
I feel like Ray Ortlund who says he wasted $6.25 on “The Dark Knight”.
“I learned nothing. I was not enriched in any way…I’m weary of the world’s disappointing stimulants. I want more of Christ.”
Michael Spencer, in commenting on Ray’s comments says,
“But there’s just a lot- a LOT- of garbage out there. A lot of lies. Distortion. A lot of very bad story telling. A lot of poorly executed entertainment. A lot of humor and excitement drummed up from the lowest common denominators: sex, violence, greed. A lot of wasted minutes, hours and days…But when we are supposedly deeply moved by something that, at its core, isn’t deeply moving, isn’t redemptive, isn’t part of the grand story, but is just a vast, pretentious, technologically overwhelming retelling of the worst kind of human story, I want to have the backbone to say so.”
I haven’t wasted $6.25, nor have I just wasted $9.99, the cost of the book, but my tax dollars are paying for the presentation of this garbage to unsuspecting fourteen year olds as “relevant” literature worthy of study and we all need to have the backbone to say so.
With “in the wrong era” discussions of cutting and divorce; descriptions of kissing and sex and a rebellious attitude toward God, “Makes it sound as if we’re God’s puppets.”; this book has little great, lot's terrible and absolutely nothing beautiful to recommend it.
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Philippians 4:8
.jpg)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment