How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
My scream implodes inside me. Mother looks back, sees the dagger lying there, grabs it. The thing howls in outrage. She's going to fight it. She's going to be alright. […] In one swift motion, she raises the dagger and plunges it into herself. (1.23)
Gemma's first vision is a nightmare, and one she can't let go of or understand after it comes true. This situation is what causes Gemma to feel such guilt and shame over her behavior and treatment of her mother for a long time afterward.
Quote #2
I'm in up to my shoulder when I feel something solid. It's stuck fast, and I have to pull hard to bring it into the light. It's a leather bound diary. (8.19)
Sometimes spirits can talk to Gemma through her visions, and the line between dreaming and awake, real and unreal, are totally crossed. Like in this scene, a vision makes Gemma actually walk through the woods, into a cave to retrieve a diary that she takes back to her room and keeps in her real life. So it doesn't just take place in her mind.
Quote #3
"Tell Mary to leave me alone. I don't want this power she's giving me."
"She's not giving you the power, miss. Just showing you the way."
"Well, I don't want to follow! Do you understand, Mary Dowd?" (8.31-33)
Often Gemma doesn't want power like this—it is scary to her and makes her feel even more foreign and stranger than she already does at Spence. She just wants to be normal.