History Literature / GeekLove

* [[spoiler: KillEmAll]]

* ShesGotLegs: "Crystal" Lil, her daughters Elly and Iphy, and her granddaughter Miranda. Besides Oly, the hunchback dwarf, it seems to run in the family.

* ILoveNuclearPower: Lil takes radioactive isotopes while pregnant with Chick, which is used to explain his psychic powers.

* HeelFaceDoorSlam: After [[spoiler: Dr. Phyllis refuses to perform lobotomies for Arturism, Arty has her amputated and lobotomized]].

* RealityEnsues: Lil abuses drugs and radiation while pregnant to breed carnival freaks for profit. Most of them die stillborn or shortly after birth.
** [[spoiler:Lil and her husband also make it clear that kids who can't sell tickets have no worth in their family. As such, their children are ''deeply'' jealous and competitive of each other, since they see ticket sales as a physical measure of their own worth as human beings. This breeds Arty's [[TheSociopath sociopathy]], ruthlessness, and tyranny.]]

* AccompliceByInaction: Ellie often accuses Oly of being this to [[spoiler:Arty and his many travesties]], but the latter doesn't see it that way.

* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler:Chick when he fails to save Mumpo, Ellie, and Iphy. He's so grief-stricken that he takes out most of the Binewski family, the Arturian cult, and himself in a fire.]]

* HeelFaceDoorSlam: After [[spoiler: Dr. Phyllis rejects to perform lobotomies for Arturism, Arty has her amputated and lobotomized]].

* MurderSuicide: [[spoiler:Iphy kills Ellie for killing Mumpo, then dies soon after, as she's a half of a pair of ConjoinedTwins. It's implied that Chick starts and/or accelerates the fire that kills Arty, the Arturan cultists, most of the Binewskis, and himself.]]

* StockholmSyndrome: Iphy is implied to go through this [[spoiler:after Arty lobotomizes Ellie, and locks Iphy up so she has no choice but to carry to term and raise the ChildByRape he forced on her. She becomes as starry-eyed and absent-minded as her mother Lil, cooing over her monstrously large baby, and is so distraught when Ellie comes to and kills Mumpho that she kills Ellie in retaliation.]]

* [[HeroicAlbino Protagonist Albino]]: Oly can't really be called heroic, per se; she mostly just tries to endure the terrible things she has to deal with, [[spoiler: and she ends up killing her daughter's would-be benefactor at the end]]. However, she is the viewpoint character. She also deals with the issues that albinos have to deal with in real life (poor vision and extreme sensitivity to light).

* MurderSuicide: [[spoiler:Iphy kills Ellie for killing Mumpo, then dies soon after, as she's a ConjoinedTwin. It's implied that Chick starts and/or accelerates the fire that kills Arty, the Arturan cultists, most of the Binewskis, and himself.]]

* CloudCuckooLander: "Chrystal" Lil, especially as her kids reach adolescence and her drug abuse slowly starts to catch up to her. It takes the form of starry-eyed absentmindedness, though.

* ShesGotLegs: "Chrystal" Lil, her daughters Elly and Iphy, and her granddaughter Miranda. Besides Oly, the hunchback dwarf, it seems to run in the family.

* AddledAddict: "Chrystal" Lil, once she becomes an old woman and years of abusing pills catch up with her.

* AllTakeAndNoGive: Arty to Oly. [[spoiler:Also his true intention for his cultists. He tricks them into thinking he's giving them purpose and contentment by having them join his cult and become like him, but really he's manipulating them into giving him their entire lifesavings, their limbs, and ultimately their lives.]]

* ChildrenAreInnocent: Inverted. Adults, as far as Oly is concerned, are the ones who're innocent and naive and view childhood through NostalgiaGoggles, while children understand very well that KidsAreCruel and keep adults in the dark by only sharing shallow hurts like skinned knees and dropped ice cream cones, until they too grow up to be [[SelectiveObliviousness oblivious, starry-eyed adults themselves]].

* LoveMartyr: Oly is a sisterly example to Arty. No matter how much he insults, belittles, dismisses, or mistreats her, [[spoiler:or kills, maims, or arranges the rape of their siblings]], she's always eager to jump at his every whim, just for the hope of any ''scrap'' of attention from him. [[spoiler:Turns out to be not-so-sisterly love after all.]]

* TheReveal: It's strongly implied throughout the book that Oly's family made her give up Miranda because she was too normal and thus unprofitable. [[spoiler:Near the end it's revealed that her family was too broken to care by that point, but Miranda's own father [[TheSociopath Arty]] [[OffingTheOffspring kept threatening to kill her]], so Oly gave her up to save her life.]]

* TheSociopath: Arty, so, so much.
* StockholmSyndrome: Iphy is implied to go through this [[spoiler:after Arty lobotomizes Ellie, and locks Iphy up so she has no choice but to carry to term and raise the ChildByRape he forced on her.]]

* IWasQuiteALooker: Lil, though she's still a knock-out when her kids are very young, though she slowly grows out of her looks as they reach adolescence. [[spoiler:Definitely played straight in the "Notes For Now" sections.]]
* GoodCannotComprehendEvil: Chick and Iphy, [[spoiler:which makes them easy prey for Arty.]]
* GreenEyedMonster: Arty to any sibling who might outshine him, especially the twins and Chick. [[spoiler:Later, Oly is this to Iphy for Arty's affections. Miss Lick, Miranda's would-be benefactor, is also this to all young women more beautiful and desirable than her.]]
* TheGrotesque: Played straight with Oly during the 'Notes for Now' chapters, otherwise averted or inverted.
* GroupieBrigade: Arty's got one.
* JerkassHasAPoint: Elly might be cold and aloof, but she's right not to like or trust [[spoiler:Arturo]]; something she calls [[BlindObedience Oly]] and [[GoodCannotComprehendEvil Iphy]] out on more than once.

* AddledAddict: "Chrystal" Lil, once she becomes an old woman and years of drug abuse catch up with her.

* BrotherSisterIncest: [[spoiler: Oly and Iphy are both romantically in love with their brother, Arty. Oly even has Chick impregnate her with Arty's sperm, and gives birth to a daughter, Miranda]].

* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler:Chick, when he fails to save Mumpo, Ellie, and Iphy. It's implied that he started and/or accelerated the fire that burned down most of the carnival and Binewski family, but even if he didn't Oly could see that he chose not to stop the fire from spreading, and let it consume him.]]

* MurderSuicide: [[spoiler:Iphy kills Ellie for killing Mumpo, likely knowing that she wouldn't last much longer as a ConjoinedTwin. It's implied that Chick starts and/or accelerates the fire that kills Arty, the Arturan cultists, most of the Binewskis, and himself.]]

** [[spoiler: Mumpo gets killed by Elly after Chick brings her back from her catatonic state.]]
** [[spoiler: Arty threatened to do this to Miranda as a baby, which turns out to be the ''real'' reason Oly gave her up.]]

* AdultsAreUseless: Al and Lil either don't know anything about their children's SiblingRivalry, or do nothing to stop them. Once Arty takes over, neither will stand up to him.

* BabyFactory: Lil becomes pregnant no less than nine times (the first three were stillborn and two more didn't survive infancy) and abuses drugs and radiation each time for the express purpose of breeding new show attractions.

* LoveMartyr: Oly is a sisterly example to Arty. No matter how much he insults, belittles, dismisses, or mistreats her, [[spoiler:or kills, maims, or arranges the rape of their siblings]], she's always eager to jump at his every whim, just for the hope of any scrap of attention from him. [[spoiler:Turns out to be not-so-sisterly love after all.]]

* [[spoiler: OffingTheOffspring: Mumpo gets killed by Elly after Chick brings her back from her catatonic state.]]

* ParentalMarriageVeto: [[spoiler:The twins fail to convince their father to give one regarding their "marriage" to the Bag Man.]]

* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Lil is a platinum blonde, Elly and Iphy are brunettes, and all female carnival staff are redheads (through dye, wigs, or otherwise). Enforced by Al and Lil; the former because he sees it as a sort of "uniform" (it's easy to tell who works there by the red hair) and Lil because it makes it easy to spot her daughters in a crowd. (Oly is bald.)

* ChildrenAreInnocent: Inverted. Adults, as far as Oly is concerned, are the ones who're naive and view childhood through NostalgiaGoggles, while children understand very well that KidsAreCruel and keep adults in the dark by only sharing shallow hurts like skinned knees and dropped ice cream cones, until they too grow up to be [[SelectiveObliviousness oblivious, starry-eyed adults themselves]].

* InspirationallyDisadvantaged: Averted to hell and back with the Benewski siblings; exploited by [[spoiler:Arty]] for his cult.

* MeaningfulName: Chick's real name is Fortunato, "The Lucky One". It actually turns out to be an ironic name.

* ShesGotLegs: "Chrystal" Lil, Elly and Iphy, and Miranda. [[spoiler:Besides Oly, it seems to run in the female side of the Benewski family.]]

* LoveMartyr:

* AbusiveParents: Oly loves her parents, but their treatment of her is up for debate. They make her feel inadequete for not being "special" enough, because her particular deformities aren't so marketable as those of her siblings. Then there's the whole issue of the parents deliberately taking drugs in order to create freakish, deformed children whom they could exploit.
* BodyHorror

* BrotherSisterIncest: [[spoiler: Oly has Chick impregnate her with Arty's sperm, and gives birth to a daughter, Miranda]].
* BungledSuicide: The Bag Man

* FatSlob: Exagerrated with Mumpo.

* IJustWantToBeNormal: Subverted, as Oly and her siblings take pride in what they are and refer to other people derisively as "norms". Oly wishes she were [[IJustWantToBeSpecial more special]], even.

* PeopleJars: How the Binewskis keep their "failed projects".

* SiblingRivalry: The Binewski children often compete for higher ticket sales. Exagerrated with Arty, who [[spoiler: killed several of his infant siblings when he felt that they might overshadow him in the future (and tried the same with Chick)]]. And once he [[spoiler: rises to power with his cult, it's Iphy and Elly, his former biggest rivals, who get ''by far'' the worst of it.]]

''Geek Love'', written by Katherine Dunn, is a somewhat obscure book probably due to its polarizing effect with critics, who have called it either brilliant or repulsive and disgusting. TimBurton has expressed a desire to adapt it for the screen, but whether or not that will ever happen is still up in the air.

* [[EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunettes]]: The twins.

* EvilCripple: Arty, even if he, his family and [[spoiler: his followers]] don't consider him to be handicapped.

* TheGrotesque
* HandicappedBadass: Arty, who was born with flippers instead of limbs and is confined to a wheelchair when he's not in his tank. Yet he is very athletic and capable of taking care of himself. [[spoiler: He even manages to smother several of his siblings without anyone noticing.]]

* ItsAllAboutMe: Arty

* ManipulativeBastard: Arty.

* TheMessiah: Chick, who [[FriendToAllLivingThings loves everything]] and just wants to be loved.

* PsychicPowers: Chick.

* {{Lobotomy}}: [[spoiler: Iphy and Elly's brother Arty has Elly lobotomized.]]

* SiblingRivalry: Some children feel it more than others.

* HandicappedBadass: Arty, who was born with flippers instead of limbs and is confined to a wheelchair when he's not in his tank. Yet he is very athletic and capable of taking care of himself. [[spoiler: He even manage to smother several of his siblings without anyone noticing.]]

** In the epilogue, Oly says in a letter to her daughter that she is "one of us", a reference to the film ''{{Freaks}}''.

* HeelFaceDoorSlam: After [[spoiler: Dr.Phyllis rejects to perform lobotomies for Arturism, Arty has her amputated and lobotomized]].