It's 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma's reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she's been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence's most powerful girls — and their foray into the spiritual world — lead to?
For a girl living in the late 1800s, Gemme Doyle is pretty cool. She's headstrong, sarcastic, has a good sense of justice AND she has a supernatural power, yet she is so very flawed. Strangely, it is the last attribute that made her real to me. Take for instance her relationship with Felicity, leader of the it clique in Spence. She goes from hating to tolerating to becoming really good friends with Felicity in, like seconds. And then a moment later, they're at each other's throats again. And while Gemma has enough redeeming qualities for me to forgive, even understand her failings, the other girls in the club, the Order, that Gemma finally finds herself a part of, aren't quite as appealing. Felicity is the selfish one, she pretty much lives for instant gratification. Ann, the low-class scholarship girl is whiny, and never stands up for either herself or for her friends. And Pippa is the cliched very beautiful very vacant girl. But unappealing as they might be, these characters were very very real. Throughout the book, I was annoyed at Gemma for trusting Felicity, Pippa and Ann. But I could also relate to her need for companionship. And at sixteen, nobody is that good a judge of people.
Now here's a bit more of the storyline itself. The blurb was a bit too short, methinks. Gemma, led by one of her visions, finds the diary of a young girl, Mary Dowd, who'd attended Spence before her time. She shares this book with Felicity, Pippa and Ann. As they together read the diary, Gemma realizes her visions are more then they seem. They are in fact a doorway to the Realms, a sort of spirit world. Soon she's regularly crossing over to the Realms, taking the rest of the Order with her. But the Realms aren't the paradise they seem to be. Because there's evil lurking there too, and it wants to claim Gemma's power for itself.
Though a bit vague at times, Bray's writing literally pulled me into the story. Bray's take on 19th century London in insightful. She took 19th century culture, teen issues and ideas of sexuality and brought them to a level where not only did I understand them, but could relate to them. And as I've mentioned before, the characterization is amazing. And the supernatural element made this book absolutely unputdownable. I read the whole book in one go! And I can't wait to get my hands on the two sequels -- Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing.
And, oh, I think the cover is GORGEOUS!
And here's the book trailer.
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