About the Author

Libba Bray is the author of the "New York Times" bestselling novels "A Great and Terrible Beauty" and "Rebel Angels," both available on audio from Listening Library. She has never lived in the Victorian era, is not British, and has no superpowers, though if she did, they would involve being able to eat her weight in Swedish fish without feeling the urgent need to brush her tongue afterward. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, their son, and a cat of questionable intelligence. Visit her website at www.libbabray.com.

Reviews

Starred Review, Publishers Weekly, October 29, 200"7""
""A huge work of massive ambition."
Review, People, December 24, 2007:
"This is a rare treat that offers a bit of everything--romance, magic, history, Gothic intrigue--and delivers on all of it in 819 beautifully crafted pages." "From the Hardcover edition."

Starred Review, Publishers Weekly (circ: 34,456), October 29, 200"7"":
""A huge work of massive ambition." "From the Hardcover edition."

Gr 9 Up-This hefty tome is the final installment in this popular historical fantasy trilogy starring plucky Victorian schoolgirl Gemma Doyle. Having unloosed the magic of the realms beyond her world in A Great and Terrible Beauty (2003) and bound it to herself as priestess in Rebel Angels (2005, both Delacorte), Gemma is now faced with deciding whether to fight or ally with the many creatures of the realms who want access to the magic. She also must decide whether the mysterious members of the Order and of the Rakshana who dog her steps are to be trusted, or whether they simply seek to compound their power by taking the magic for themselves. The realms themselves seem to be changing, growing darker and more dangerous by the day-a change echoed by Gemma's friend Pippa, who seems to be turning into something not wholly human as she grows more entrenched in the realms. With the addition of a fairly chaste romance with lust object and erstwhile enemy Kartik and all the real-world drama that accompanies Gemma's troubled family life and upcoming social debut, the novel is somewhat overstuffed and overlong, crammed full of perhaps too many characters, plotlines, and breathless intrigue. As in previous installments, some of the protofeminist musings placed in the mouths of Gemma and her friends ring a bit false. However, the novel's fast-paced and exciting ending and Bray's lyrical descriptions of the decaying realms are sure to enchant readers who loved Gemma's previous exploits.-Meredith Robbins, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis High School, New York City Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

Starred Review, Publishers Weekly, October 29, 200"7""
""A huge work of massive ambition."
Review, People, December 24, 2007:
"This is a rare treat that offers a bit of everything--romance, magic, history, Gothic intrigue--and delivers on all of it in 819 beautifully crafted pages."

"From the Hardcover edition."

"From the Hardcover edition."