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A Great and Terrible Beauty is a young adult fantasy novel written by Libba Bray and published in 2003. Set in 1895, it follows Gemma Doyle, a 16-year-old girl who moves from India to a finishing school in England after her mother commits suicide under mysterious circumstances. Gemma is able to join a circle of friends, but she remains plagued by mysterious visions that she has been warned to block out. These visions lead her to discover secret realms of magic that she and her friends begin to access. Gemma learns that her mother was intimately tied to these realms, and Gemma and her circle of friends are at great risk because of the magic they have discovered. The novel also deals with the restricted roles available to women in Victorian society. A Great and Terrible Beauty is the first in a trilogy of books dealing with Gemma's life after moving to England.
