Friends Gemma, Ann, and Felicity head off to London for Christmas break to begin this satisfying sequel to A Great and Terrible Beauty (2003). Their alliance remains a bit uneasy, especially when a quick trip into the otherworldly Realms reveals that frightening creatures are gaining strength and only Gemma can bind the magic and restore order. British narrator Bailey (who also narrated A Great and Terrible Beauty ) once again brings life to Bray's writing. She retains the girls' voices and adds some odd Welsh inflections to portray a new and sinister teacher. She also vivifies the Gorgon and patients at a hospital for the insane. Bailey is particularly adept in conveying the menaces facing the girls and keeping the suspense and action moving briskly along.

In this sequel to A Great and Terrible Beauty, the well-drawn characters make choices true to their distinct personalities. While the events in the magical realms sometimes border on being too dreamy and vague, the plot of the framing story (Gemma is spending Christmas away from her Victorian London boarding school) is solid and fast-paced.

What beastly luck. When Victorian schoolgirl Gemma Doyle smashed the magical realms' runes two months ago ( A Great and Terrible Beauty , 2003), she thought she was destroying evil. Instead, she unbound the magic and made it available to any malevolent force. In London for the Christmas holidays, Gemma must bind the power before disaster falls—but bind for whom? The all-female Order, which allowed corruption to enter the realms in the first place? The male secret society of the Rakshana, which wants Gemma dead? Betrayal is in the air, and the backstabbing distrust of London, where any girl or woman might be the evil Circe in disguise, is a far cry from the budding homoeroticism of Gemma's earlier adventure. To make matters worse, Gemma's father has become an opium eater, her erstwhile lover Kartik might be planning her death and her only clues to Circe's identity come from a Bedlamite. While the characters and setting lack the lush richness and depth that made the first volume appealing, Gemma's shivery adventures, lacking easy answers, make for an exciting mystical quest. (Fantasy. YA)

Although Bray's follow-up to <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">A Great and Terrible Beauty feels a bit like a bridge between the launch and the next installment in her series, fans of the author's first novel will nonetheless remain enthralled by Gemma Doyle's latest adventure. In the first chapter, narrated by Kartik, the handsome Rakshana novitiate with whom Gemma flirted in the last book, members of his brotherhood give him a charge: to find the Temple within the realms, secure its power for the Rakshana and then kill Gemma. Gemma then narrates the balance of the novel, as classmates Felicity and Ann set forth to locate the Temple in order to bind up the realms' powers (unleashed when Gemma destroyed the runes at the close of the last book). However, they discover that the runes' destruction has set the magic in chaos; classmate Pippa (trapped in the realms in the last book) looks more beautiful than ever—why did she not have "to cross"? Can she be trusted? Such questions of trust plague Gemma. What is Kartik's motive in signing on as her father's driver? Plus, a mysterious new teacher arrives who may or may not be Circe (whom Gemma blames for her mother's death), and Gemma's brother, who works at a mental hospital, leads the teen to a patient who may know how to locate the Temple. Gemma's and Ann's love interests, meanwhile, further mine the theme of Victorian class and society. Bray provides a satisfying ending, yet she implies a further struggle for power. Fans will want to stay tuned. Ages 12-up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Aug.)

Gr 8 Up-The sequel (Delacorte, 2005) to Libba Brays A Great and Terrible Beauty (Delacorte, 2003; Listening Library, 2004) takes up 17-year-old Gemma Doyles adventures above ground, in Victorian London, and below in the magical Realms, just days after the first book ended. Narrator Josephine Bailey remains consistent and inspired in the range of accents and tones she provides for Gemma, her posh friend Felicity, their whiney classmate Ann, the mysterious and sensual Indian youth Kartik, and the newly introduced characters that include a suspicious new teacher and a patient at Londons famous Bethlehem Hospital (Bedlam). Those unfamiliar with the prequel to the current adventures may find themselves a bit lost at the outset, but the flurry of immediate events will soon catch them up as Gemma works feverishly to understand how she can bind the magic running loose in the Realms, whether Kartik is her ally or her deadly opponent, and if her fathers moodiness is an expression of the continuing grief at her mothers death or an opiate habit. Added to these Gothic matters is the fact that Gemma must come to terms with her feelings for the young man who pays her court during the Christmas holidays shes spending away from finishing school and in her grandmothers house. Bray realizes the time period not only in her skillfully embedded descriptions of sounds, textures, and smells, but also by evoking the social framework within which Gemma must move, at least while above ground. The Realms, on the other hand, include both other worldly beauty and ghastliness, befitting of hallucinations. Gemma proves her strength and her charity in both arenas. Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA

Gemma Doyle, heroine of A Great and Terrible Beauty (Delacorte, 2004/VOYA April 2004), is not looking forward to Christmas. Other girls spend their holidays with family, sharing tender moments exchanging gifts, but Gemma must worry about keeping her father away from his laudanum bottle and enduring the company of her self-centered brother, Tom. Other girls dream of dancing sugar plums, but Gemma has nightmares of her dead friend, Pippa, holding a severed goat head and visions of a sinister girl trio who might-or might not-have accurate information about her nemesis, Circe. Coupled with these holiday woes, the Rakshana demands that she find an arcane temple in the otherworldly realms and bind the magic that she set loose when she smashed the runes at the conclusion of the earlier book. The only one who may know the temple's location is a Bethlem Hospital inmate who speaks in riddles. This extraordinary novel moves along at breathtaking speed from beginning to end. Part history lesson, part gothic fantasy, part feminist manifesto, Bray's second book is astounding in scope. Although it is certainly imperative to read the first before plunging into its superior sequel, have no fear-those fuzzy on the events of the first novel need only read chapter four to catch up. Beloved characters Ann, Felicity, and Kartik return with both new and old personality quirks. Conspiracy theorists will be delighted with secret society intrigue propelled by the Rakshana, enigmatic Miss McCleethy, and ill-fated Nell Hawkins. Librarians should have little difficulty booktalking this excellent addition to their collection.-Angelica Delgado.