Product Description

It's 1895, and after the death 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 being 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?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13860 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Customer Reviews

Gothic Excellence for older kids.
I do admit that the first thing that attracted me to this book was the wonderful cover. As a bookseller I should know NOT to judge by the cover, but I cant help it. However, this was one time when it wasnt such a bad idea. The story of a very independent, mature and troubled girl of 16 is fetching and you take a whirlewind trip with her towards finding her self. Troubled by guilt over her mothers death, her fathers illness and her mystical powers that scare her, she arrives at Spence school for girl in England. Branded as an outcast, she fights her way to the top, and befriends the most powerful girl at school. Bringing together four unlikely friends in a great, but terrible beauty. Access to the other realms of our world. But is everything as shiny and nice as it seems, or is darkness and shadows hunting her down behind her back. Terrifying, powerful and moving story! Well worth reading!

Girl Power
Finishing this novel is like having been reminded of the question like Who am I?, Have I found myself yet?

The story itself is about a sixteen-year old girl Gemma Doyle, who had her biggest biggest surprise for her birthday that turned her world upside down.
Being sucked into the magic realms, being left with a horrible vision of the death her mother and hunted down by terrifying shadows are only part of the surprise. Plus the adjustment she has to make among new people and custom in a girl dorm school, where she found her circle of friends.

Set in the end of nineteenth century, Gemma was a girl with some very revolutionaire independence thoughts and some of them clicked something in me and reminded me of the power of female gender (so awesome). There are also a companion character, Miss Moore, her teacher, who gave more sights on choices in life and the balance between light and dark in lessons she had, accompanied with a famous poem by Lord Tennyson, The Lady of Shalott.

And there was also a romantic part in it (which I'm very grateful of) between Gemma and an mysterious young Indian man, who followed and watched her whereever she goes. I think this can be developed into an intense relationship.

I do hope there will be sequel to this because the journey of Gemma and her friends has just begun and there is no turning back, as once you make a choice, whether it would turn out to be a good or a bad one, you just have to accept the consequences and live with it.

Page turner!
A great book that I couldn't put down from start to finish. I was even caught reading it in one of my classes it was so good. I picked it up at first thinking it was a historical fiction, the type of book I normally read, because it is set in the 1800's. And while it did have the essence of the past with girls wearing petticoats and being engaged to 40 year old men at 16 (yuck!) it was mainly about the struggles of Gemma and controling her new found power while trying to uncover a mystery. So if you like historical fiction, fantasy, drama or a good mystery book with a touch of romance, that also captures the reader from page 1, this book is for you. I highly recommend it.