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Zusatztext “A huge work of massive ambition.” -- Publishers Weekly ! Starred Review "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." -- People A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year A #1 Book Sense Bestseller A New York Times Bestseller A Publishers Weekly Bestseller A USA Today Bestseller A 2008 New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age CCBC Choice (Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison) Informationen zum Autor Libba Bray is the New York Times bestselling author of The Gemma Doyle trilogy ( A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, The Sweet Far Thing ); the Michael L. Printz Award-winning Going Bovine ; Beauty Queens , an L.A. Times Book Prize finalist; The Diviners series; and Under the Same Stars . She is originally from Texas but makes her home in New York City. Klappentext The gripping conclusion to the critically acclaimed New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestselling Gemma Doyle trilogy, an exhilarating and haunting saga from the author of The Diviners series and Going Bovine.It has been a year of change since Gemma Doyle arrived at the foreboding Spence Academy. Her mother murdered, her father alaudanum addict, Gemma has relied on an unsuspected strength and has discovered an ability to travel to an enchanted world called the realms, where dark magic runs wild. Despite certain peril, Gemma has bound the magic to herself and forged unlikely new alliances. Now, as Gemma approaches her London debut, the time has come to test these bonds.The Order-the mysterious group her mother was once part of-is grappling for control of the realms, as is the Rakshana. Spence's burned East Wing is being rebuilt, but why now? Gemma and her friends see Pippa, but she is not the same. And their friendship faces its gravest trial as Gemma must decide once and for all what role she is meant for."A rare treat . . . beautifully crafted" --People"A huge work of massive ambition." -Publishers Weekly, Starred ReviewA Publishers Weekly Best Book of the YearA #1 Book Sense BestsellerA New York Times BestsellerA Publishers Weekly BestsellerA USA Today BestsellerA 2008 New York Public Library Book for the Teen AgeCCBC Choice (Cooperative Children's Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison) CHAPTER ONE March 1896 SPENCE ACADEMY FOR YOUNG LADIES There is a particular circle of hell not mentioned in Dante's famous book. It is called comportment, and it exists in schools for young ladies across the empire. I do not know how it feels to be thrown into a lake of fire. I am sure it isn't pleasant. But I can say with all certainty that walking the length of a ballroom with a book upon one's head and a backboard strapped to one's back while imprisoned in a tight corset, layers of petticoats, and shoes that pinch is a form of torture even Mr. Alighieri would find too hideous to document in his Inferno. "Let us keep our eyes trained toward heaven, girls," our headmistress, Mrs. Nightwing, pleads as we attempt our slow march across the floor, heads held high, arms out like ballerinas. The loops of the backboard chafe the sides of my arms. The block of wood is unyielding, and I am forced to stand as stiff as the guards at Buckingham Palace. My neck aches with the effort. Come May, I shall make my debut a full year early, for it has been decided by all parties involved that at nearly seventeen I am ready and that it would do me good to have my season now. I shall wear beautiful gowns, attend lavish parties, and dance with handsome gentlemen--if I survive my training. At present, that outcome is very much in doubt. Mrs. Nightwing paces the length of the ballroom. Her stiff skirts whisk-whisk across the floor as if to rebuke it fo...
