History Literature / CronusChronicles

* WhatTheHellHero: Charlotte and Zee are understandably horrified at the Prometheans' plan to [[spoiler:sacrifice Steve to save humanity]].

* KillAndReplace: Zee is abducted for a week in ''The Siren Song'' and replaced with an...[[BalefulPolymorph inexact double]]. During that time, he remains catatonic as the result of Philonecron's BloodMagic, mutely obeying commands, [[AndIMustScream trapped inside his own body]], as Philonecron reads to him, plays him classical music, expounds in great detail about his plans for world domination, and also feeds, bathes and dresses him. When Zee finally gets home, he finds that his parents' week-long business trip has been extended to several months, and no one even knew he was gone. It's absolute NightmareFuel.

* AdultFear: Many examples. Zee's parents start off naturally concerned about his mental well-being after his grandmother dies and not long after, all his friends start getting sick. Charlotte's parents spend most of ''The Siren Song'' frustrated and alarmed that Charlotte refuses to tell them why she and Zee snuck out all night in the previous book, and Charlotte's most frequent cause for guilt and misery in ''The Immortal Fire'' is how frightened her parents are for her, and how she still can't explain what's happening.
** Zee is abducted for a week in ''The Siren Song'' and replaced with an...[[BalefulPolymorph inexact double]]. During that time, he remains catatonic as the result of Philonecron's BloodMagic, mutely obeying commands, [[AndIMustScream trapped inside his own body]], as Philonecron reads to him, plays him classical music, expounds in great detail about his plans for world domination, and also feeds, bathes and dresses him. When Zee finally gets home, he finds that his parents' week-long business trip has been extended to several months, and no one even knew he was gone. It's absolute NightmareFuel.

* LoverAndBeloved: Notable only for its [[AvertedTrope Aversion]] with Ganymede.
* ManOfWealthAndTaste: Philonecron, who buys hideously expensive imported mourning suits for his [[HenchmenRace Footmen]] and who never hesitates to insult the dress sense of everyone around him, particularly Charlotte. [[spoiler:Zee curses him to an amnesiac life as sales clerk in a used suit store. It's a pretty fitting hell]].

* TheUnfavorite: Not that being [[CreepyUncle Philonecron]]'s favorite is a good thing, but he's very mean to Charlotte, acting surprisingly petty towards her compared to his obsessive affection for Zee.

* ParentalAbandonment: Zeus, to absolutely no one's surprise. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard It nearly kills him]].

* AdultsAreUseless: Boy are they ever! In ''The Shadow Thieves'' Mr. Metos saves the cousins from the Footmen once, then gets captured by Philonecron and chained to cliff to have his liver eaten daily, until Zee rescues him. He's absent entirely from ''The Siren Song'', only sending Charlotte a letter (that arrives far too late to be helpful) warning her to stay away from the sea. In ''The Immortal Fire'', the Prometheans as a whole organization suffer from this when two displaced thirteen year olds can sneak around their secret base undetected ''and'' free a prisoner in their charge before escaping into London. (In fairness, they were rather short-staffed at the time).

** Zee is abducted for a week in ''The Siren Song'' and replaced with an...[[BalefulPolymorph inexact double]]. During that time, he remains catatonic as the result of Philonecron's BloodMagic, mutely obeying commands, [[AndIMustScream trapped inside his own body]], as Philonecron reads to him, plays him classical music, expounds in great detail about his plans for world domination, and also feeds, bathes and dresses him. When Zee finally gets home, he finds that his parents' week-long business trip has been extended to several months, and no one even knew he was gone.

* AdultFear: Many examples. Zee's parents start off naturally concerned about his mental well-being after his grandmother dies and not long after, all his friends start getting sick. Charlotte's parents spend most of ''The Siren Song frustrated and alarmed that Charlotte refuses to tell them why she and Zee snuck out all night in the previous book, and Charlotte's most frequent cause for guilt and misery in ''The Immortal Fire'' is how frightened her parents are for her, and how she still can't explain what's happening.

* AdultsAreUseless: Boy are they ever! In ''The Shadow Thieves'' Mr. Metos saves the cousins from the Footmen once, then gets captured by Philonecron and chained to cliff to have his liver eaten daily, until Zee rescues him. He's absent entirely from ''The Siren Song'', only sending Charlotte a letter (that arrives far too late to be useful) warning her to stay away from the sea. In ''The Immortal Fire'', the Prometheans as a whole organization suffer from this when two displaced thirteen year olds can sneak around their secret base undetected ''and'' free a prisoner in their charge before escaping into London. (In fairness, they were rather short-staffed at the time).

* WhatTheHellHero: Charlotte and Zee are understandably horrified at the Promethean's plan to [[spoiler:sacrifice Steve to save humanity]].

* ArtifactOfPower: Hades's helm, Posiedon's trident, and Zeus's thunderbolt.

* DeadbeatDad: Zeus, to absolutely no one's surprise. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard It nearly kills him]].

* GrownupsAreUseless: Boy are they ever! In ''The Shadow Thieves'' Mr. Metos saves the cousins from the Footmen once, then gets captured by Philonecron and chained to cliff to have his liver eaten daily, until Zee rescues him. He's absent entirely from ''The Siren Song'', only sending Charlotte a letter (that arrives far too late to be useful) warning her to stay away from the sea. In ''The Immortal Fire'', the Prometheans as a whole organization suffer from this when two displaced thirteen year olds can sneak around their secret base undetected ''and'' free a prisoner in their charge before escaping into London. (In fairness, they were rather short-staffed at the time).

* TheNotLoveInterest: Charlotte and Zee towards each other. Though they're cousins, (and not the [[KissingCousins kissing variety) their relationship progresses the way a romance might in another story, with the two starting out awkward and unsure they can trust each other, and ending the series as the most important people in each others' lives.

* TheUnfavorite: Not that being [[CreepyUncle Philonecron]]'s favorite is a good thing, but he's very mean to Charlotte, acting surprisingly petty towards her compared to his obsessive affection for Zee.

See that girl, the one with the bright red hair, overstuffed backpack, and aura of grumpiness? That's Charlotte Mielswetzski. And something extra-ordinary is about to happen to her.Oh, it's not the very cute kitten that appears out of nowhere and demands to go home with her. It's not the sudden arrival of her cousin Zee, who believes he's the cause of a mysterious sickness that has struck his friends back in England. It's not her creepy English teacher Mr. Metos, who takes his mythology lessons just a little too seriously. And it's not the white-faced, yellow-eyed men in tuxedoes, who follow Charlotte everywhere.

* CoolOldLady: Zee's grandmother

* HenchmenRace: The eponymous shadows Philonecron stole are the souls of Zee and Charlotte's friends and fellow students, which Philonecron was using to make an army to overthrow Hades.

Anne Ursu's trilogy of young adult fantasy novels--''The Shadow Thieves'', ''The Siren Song'' and ''The Immortal Fire''--focus on the Greek gods and monsters in the modern world. While the premise is similar to ''PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'', this series looks upon Myth/GreekMythology in a rather different light.

* ClassicalMythology: What the series is based on.

Anne Ursu's trilogy of young adult fantasy novels--''The Shadow Thieves'', ''The Siren Song'' and ''The Immortal Fire''--focus on the Greek gods and monsters in the modern world. While the premise is similar to ''PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'', this series looks upon GreekMythology in a rather different light.