1. Despite visions and a special destiny, Gemma is not so unlike
the other girls at Spence in her feelings of alienation and her
yearning for acceptance. Gemma's need to fit into her new school
leads to her being locked in the chapel in the middle of the night.
Would you have made the same choice? Have you ever done something
you didn't want to do, to get someone to like you? Have you ever
taken advantage of someone who wanted you to like him or her?
2. The Realms are a place where anything seems possible. Each of
the four girls wants one thing above all else: Felicity desires
power, Pippa seeks love, Ann wants beauty, and Gemma craves
self-knowledge. Does any of the characters achieve her goal by the
end of the story? Why or why not? What would you want?
3. Gemma says of Felicity, "I don't yet know what power feels
like. But this is surely what it looks like, and I think I'm
beginning to understand why those ancient women had to hide in
caves. Why our parents and teachers and suitors want us to behave
properly and predictably. It's not that they want to protect us;
it's that they fear us" (p. 207). What kind of power is Gemma
talking about? What is it that she thinks the parents and teachers
and suitors fear?
4. Women. Power. These two words conjure many images and
emotions, and they appear throughout A Great and Terrible
Beauty. What connections does Libba Bray draw between the two
words? How does she characterize the Victorians' view of powerful
women? How do you think powerful women are viewed today?
5. Bray paints the Victorian age as a time when appearances must
be kept up at all times. Appearances matter more than reality, and
anything interesting is kept a secret. For example, Gemma's family
hides the nature of Virginia Doyle's death to avoid scandal.
Likewise, in the Realms, appearances are deceiving. Gemma, Ann,
Pippa, and Felicity believe their dreams are coming true-but is
that really the case? What do you think the author meant by drawing
a parallel between reality and paradise? Is it ever really possible
to escape or change reality?
6. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly said, "Bray
brilliantly depicts a caste system, in which girls are taught to
abandon individuality in favor of a man's wishes, as a deeper and
darker horror than most things that go bump in the night." Do you
think Gemma has achieved a certain freedom by the end of the novel?
Are her supernatural powers responsible for bringing about this
freedom? Do you think she would have been such a rebel if it hadn't
been for her magic?
7. In Diary of an Author on AGreatandTerribleBeauty.com, Libba
Bray says, "Why do we do this to our girls? Why do we spend a
lifetime whittling them down into bite-sized nuggets, something
easily digested that will upset no stomach? Why can't we allow them
to ask for what they want?" Does the novel answer that question? If
so, how? Do you believe that conditions for women have improved
over the past hundred years?
8. The girls of Spence have a great deal of adult supervision,
but there is a glaring absence of parental love. What role does
this absence play in Gemma's and her friends' lives and the choices
they make? Do you think Pippa would have made a different choice
had her parents behaved differently? How would Gemma's and
Felicity's lives be changed if their fathers were available-in
Gemma's case mentally, and in Felicity's case physically? What
about Ann?
9. It's a dream, only a dream," Gemma thinks of her sexually
charged encounter with Kartik (p. 219). Why do you think Gemma
stops the fantasy when she does? Why do you think the author chose
to make this scene a dream rather than a reality? Do you believe
this makes Gemma's experience any less "real" to her?
10. The Realms' answer to Gemma's desire for self-knowledge is
Virginia Doyle. Why do you think Gemma must understand her mother
in order to understand herself? Gemma concludes, "I'm going to have
to let her go to accept the mother I'm only just discovering" (p.
394). How are the two mothers Gemma refers to different? Why does
Gemma have to forgive her mother first if she is to understand
her?