A Great and Terrible Beauty, post 1

The book I'm reading for my outside reading assignment is A Great and Terrible Beauty, by Libba Bray. The main character is a sixteen year old girl named Gemma Doyle. Gemma has lived in India with her mother all her life, and she aches to go to London. Why she does is not fully explained, but her mother refuses to let her go, and Gemma is unhappily stuck in India. One day Gemma has a vision of something trying to attack her mother, and her mother committing suicide. The vision comes true soon after. Two years later, Gemma, who has mostly gotten over her mother's death, though still haunted by her one vision, goes off to London to attend finishing school. As soon as she arrives she hates it, thinking "I had wanted to come to London, and now that I'm here, I couldn't be more miserable" (Bray 22). Gemma is a free spirited girl, who can not stand the strict code of the school, or some of the students. Two students in particular, Felicity and Pippa, seem particularly malicious. One time they framed Gemma's room mate, Ann, trying to tell the teacher that Ann had stolen Felicity's ring. Gemma stood up for Ann, which proves that she is a kind girl who believes in sticking up for yourself.

However, she soon has troubles much greater than the drama at finishing school. Gemma sees yet another vision of a frightening monster attacking her in a dark alley. She is completely bewildered, with no idea what to make of it. She is even frightened, thinking "I'm going mad... Help me" (Bray 34). However, she does not want anyone to worry about her, and she keeps this frightening knowledge to herself. This shows that Gemma thinks she can take care of herself and does not want the pity of others. Whether she actually can or can't has not yet been determined. Later on, a strange boy named Kartik comes to Gemma and tells her to stop her visions.