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A Great and Terrible Beauty
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Plot Summary of A Great and Terrible Beauty
"Gemma, a sixteen-year-old girl, lived with her mother and father in India. After her mother is murdered by some mysterious evil being, Gemma is sent to a finishing school in London. While there, she meets several other girls, all of whom have problems of their own. Most of the girls deal with their own internal pain by not showing it to anyone, and by emotionally tormenting those girls who are weaker than themselves. In spite of this charged atmosphere, a diary that Gemma finds forges bonds between her and some of the other girls. The diary tells of two girls who used to go to that same finishing school. Both girls practiced magic, a fact which interests Gemma because she experiences visions that she's unable to control, even though a mysterious boy named Kartik tells her that her visions are dangerous. Soon, Gemma and the other girls learn magic."
Melissa Cookson, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of A Great and Terrible Beauty
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book? - depressed
Time/era of story - 19th century
Kids growing up/acting up? Yes
Internal struggle/realization? Yes
Struggle over - magical issues
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Age group of kid(s) in story: - high school
Something wrong upstairs/downstairs? - searching for identity/meaning
Parents/lack of parents problem? - boarding school! (wack wack!)

Main Character
Gender - Female
Profession/status: - student
Age: - a teen
Has magical powers? Yes
Magical/mental powers of main character: - clairvoyant - can cast many different spells
Ethnicity/Nationality - British
How sensitive is this character? - middling sensitive to others' feelings
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters

Main Adversary
Identity: - natural phenomena
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a little/some

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 4 ()
Europe Yes
European country: - England/UK
Asia/Pacific Yes
Asian country: - India
Misc setting - fancy mansion

Style
Person - mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - descript of kissing
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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Libba Bray Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
Melissa Cookson  

SCHOLARS:


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