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* SpoofAesop: According to Tom, the moral of the story is: "if you are in a band, even a crappy one, semi-hot girls will give you blow jobs as long as you promise them that no one will ever have to find out about it." He admits that it isn't much of one.
to:
* SpoofAesop: According to Tom, the moral of the story is: [[GirlsLikeMusicians "if you are in a band, even a crappy one, semi-hot girls will give you blow jobs as long as you promise them that no one will ever have to find out about it." "]] He admits that it isn't much of one.a moral, but it's the only one he can think of.
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misuse
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* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: Tom loves to mispronounce words for comic effect; the book even has a glossary of his mispronunciations, complete with altered meanings. There's also Deanna Schumacher, pronounced "Skoo-macker."
** In fact, mispronunciation proves to be a vital game-changer in [[spoiler: determining whether or not Sam Hellerman had actually spoken to Deanna Schumacher and had been told how to pronounce her last name correctly and thus knew she was hooking up with Tom (he hadn't; she didn't; he was)]] and revealing to Tom that was [[spoiler: Fiona]] was [[spoiler: actually Celeste Fletcher.]]
** In fact, mispronunciation proves to be a vital game-changer in [[spoiler: determining whether or not Sam Hellerman had actually spoken to Deanna Schumacher and had been told how to pronounce her last name correctly and thus knew she was hooking up with Tom (he hadn't; she didn't; he was)]] and revealing to Tom that was [[spoiler: Fiona]] was [[spoiler: actually Celeste Fletcher.]]
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* IntercourseWithYou: The song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPVKAYQSId0 Thinking of Suicide]]" which mainly consists of the words "I wanna [[UnusualEuphemism ramone]] you".
to:
* IntercourseWithYou: The song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPVKAYQSId0 Thinking of Suicide]]" I Wanna Ramone You]]" which mainly consists of the words "I wanna [[UnusualEuphemism ramone]] you".
* LyricalDissonance: [[http://www.frankportman.com/songs/kd/ThinkingofSuicide.mp3 "Thinking Of Suicide"]] from the audiobook.
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* NonAppearingTitle: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPVKAYQSId0 "Thinking Of Suicide"]] never mentions the title in its lyrics, and [[IntercourseWithYou isn't actually about suicide at all]].
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* LyricalDissonance: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPVKAYQSId0 "Thinking Of Suicide"]] from the audiobook (which never actually mentions the title in its lyrics).
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* NonAppearingTitle: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPVKAYQSId0 "Thinking Of Suicide"]] never mentions the title in its lyrics, and [[IntercourseWithYou isn't actually about suicide at all]].
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* IntercourseWithYou: The song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPVKAYQSId0 Thinking of Suicide]]" which mainly consists of the words "I wanna [[UnusualEuphemism ramone]] you".
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* LyricalDissonance: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQqwwXjh-7E "Thinking Of Suicide"]] from the audiobook.
to:
* LyricalDissonance: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQqwwXjh-7E com/watch?v=jPVKAYQSId0 "Thinking Of Suicide"]] from the audiobook.audiobook (which never actually mentions the title in its lyrics).
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* UnusualEuphemism: Tom and Sam use the term "ramoning" for having sex with someone.
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* JokeAndReceive: Tom and Sam name their band the "Chi-Mos" ([[RefugeInAudacity child molesters]]) and some of their songs mention their assistant principal Mr. Teone having sexual misconduct towards students (though they just wrote that because he's a jerk and kind of creepy). [[spoiler:It turns out Mr. Teone actually ''was'' running an underage pornography ring, and flees the school when the police investigate at the end of the book.]]
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* HippieName: Pierre Butterfly Cameroon is mentioned as an unfortunate victim of his HippieParents' naming, as his name makes him a social outcast.
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Tom (aka Chi-Mo, aka King Dork) is a nerdy, disaffected high school sophomore. Bored with the drudgery of high school, the abuse of "normal people," and his embarrassing hippie parents, he spends his free time coming up with band names with fellow terrible musician Sam Hellerman.
to:
Tom Henderson (aka Chi-Mo, aka King Dork) is a nerdy, disaffected high school sophomore. Bored with the drudgery of high school, the abuse of "normal people," and his embarrassing hippie parents, he spends his free time coming up with band names with fellow terrible musician Sam Hellerman.
Changed line(s) 10,11 (click to see context) from:
The book was written by Frank Portman (a.k.a. Dr. Frank), the lead singer and chief songwriter of [[UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco Bay Area]] punk band The Mr. T Experience.
to:
The book was written by Frank Portman (a.k.a. Dr. Frank), the lead singer and chief songwriter of [[UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco Bay Area]] punk band The Mr. T Experience.
Experience. A sequel titled ''King Dork Approximately'' was published in 2014. Portman has also written another Young Adult novel in the same universe (an adult Sam Hellerman makes a cameo in it), ''Literature/AndromedaKlein'', published in 2009.
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* AppropriatedAppellation: At their first concert, Tom dubs his band "The Chi-Mos."
to:
* AppropriatedAppellation: At their first concert, Tom dubs his band "The Chi-Mos." "[[note]]Short for "child molester''[[/note]]
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* FullNameBasis: Sam Hellerman especially; Tom refers to nearly all of his peers by their full names
* GambitRoulette: Tom is unsatisfied with Sam's explanation of the clues they collected because it has shades of this.
* GiveGeeksAChance: Tom mocks this trope as something that never happens in real life. [[spoiler: But at the end, he ends up with ''two'' hot babes giving him sexual favors]].
* AGoodNameForARockBand: Tom and Sam Hellerman's favorite pastime is coming up with band names and album covers.
* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: Tom loves to mispronounce words for comic effect; the book even has a glossary of his mispronunciations, complete with altered meanings. There's also Deanna Shumacher, pronounced "Skoo-macker."
* GambitRoulette: Tom is unsatisfied with Sam's explanation of the clues they collected because it has shades of this.
* GiveGeeksAChance: Tom mocks this trope as something that never happens in real life. [[spoiler: But at the end, he ends up with ''two'' hot babes giving him sexual favors]].
* AGoodNameForARockBand: Tom and Sam Hellerman's favorite pastime is coming up with band names and album covers.
* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: Tom loves to mispronounce words for comic effect; the book even has a glossary of his mispronunciations, complete with altered meanings. There's also Deanna Shumacher, pronounced "Skoo-macker."
to:
* FullNameBasis: Sam Hellerman especially; Tom refers to nearly all of his peers by their full names
names.
* GambitRoulette: Tom is unsatisfied with Sam's explanation of the clues they collected because it has shades ofthis.
this.
* GiveGeeksAChance: Tom mocks this trope as something that never happens in real life. [[spoiler: But at the end, he ends up with ''two'' hot babes giving him sexualfavors]].
favors]].
* AGoodNameForARockBand: Tom and Sam Hellerman's favorite pastime is coming up with band names and album covers. \n They change the name of their band about twenty times in the book, all of which are listed at the end.
* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: Tom loves to mispronounce words for comic effect; the book even has a glossary of his mispronunciations, complete with altered meanings. There's also DeannaShumacher, Schumacher, pronounced "Skoo-macker."
* GambitRoulette: Tom is unsatisfied with Sam's explanation of the clues they collected because it has shades of
* GiveGeeksAChance: Tom mocks this trope as something that never happens in real life. [[spoiler: But at the end, he ends up with ''two'' hot babes giving him sexual
* AGoodNameForARockBand: Tom and Sam Hellerman's favorite pastime is coming up with band names and album covers.
* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: Tom loves to mispronounce words for comic effect; the book even has a glossary of his mispronunciations, complete with altered meanings. There's also Deanna
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Dewicking per TRS decision.
Deleted line(s) 18 (click to see context) :
* BiTheWay: Sort of. Maybe. The UnreliableNarrator interprets it this way. At the very end, [[spoiler: when Celeste and Tom arrange a secret blowjob-related relationship at the end of the book, she tells him that he's not allowed to tell her boyfriend. Or Sam Hellerman. Or [[HoYay Yasmynne.]] She ''might'' have been referring to Yasmynne having a crush on Tom, which seems likely from the text, but Tom assumes it's a Bi The Way.]]
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* ConcertClimax: The climax of the book begins when Tom and Sam's band (then called the Chi-Mos) play a set at the school talent show.
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Added image.
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/king_dork.png]]
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----
!!'''Tropes Used:'''
!!'''Tropes Used:'''
to:
!!'''Tropes Used:'''
!!Tropes used in this work:
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* CatchPhrase: Little Big Tom likes to say "rock'n'roll!", either sincerely to indicate that something cool is happening (usually while nothing remotely cool is happening), or sarcastically when he feels like he's committed an EpicFail.
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* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: Although the book was released in 2006, the story itself is set in 1997.
to:
* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: Although the book was released in 2006, the story itself is set in 1997.around 1999.
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'''Tropes Used:'''
to:
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* GiveGeeksAChance: At the end, [[spoiler: Tom ends up with ''two'' hot babes giving him sexual favors]].
to:
* GiveGeeksAChance: At the end, Tom mocks this trope as something that never happens in real life. [[spoiler: Tom But at the end, he ends up with ''two'' hot babes giving him sexual favors]].
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There\'s a trope for that.
Changed line(s) 33 (click to see context) from:
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Averted. Although the book was released in 2006, the story itself is set in 1997.
to:
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Averted. TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: Although the book was released in 2006, the story itself is set in 1997.
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The book was written by Frank Portman (a.k.a. Dr. Frank), the lead singer and chief songwriter of [[SanFrancisco Bay Area]] punk band The Mr. T Experience.
to:
The book was written by Frank Portman (a.k.a. Dr. Frank), the lead singer and chief songwriter of [[SanFrancisco [[UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco Bay Area]] punk band The Mr. T Experience.
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YMMV
Deleted line(s) 29 (click to see context) :
* NeverLiveItDown: Tom's "Chi-Mo" nickname - a career aptitude test gave him the result "Clergy," and the "normal people" in the room turned that into an excuse to call him "Child Molester," which was eventually shortened. At this point very few people even remember the origin of the shortened name.
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YMMV
Deleted line(s) 22 (click to see context) :
* FunnyAneurysmMoment: Tom and Sam Hellerman base their entire concert around mocking Mr. Teone, including a song called "I Saw Mr. Teone Checking Out Kyrsten Blakeny's Ass." [[spoiler: This is a lot less funny when it's revealed that Kyrsten was one of the "stars" in Mr. Teone's underage porn ring.]]
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* SpoofAesop: According to Tom, the moral of the story is: "if you are in a band, even a crappy one, semi-hot girls will give you blow jobs as long as you promise them that no one will ever have to find out about it." He admits that it isn't much of one.
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Tom (aka Chi-Mo, aka King Dork) is a nerdy, disaffected high school sophomore. Bored with the drudgery of high school, the abuse of "normal people," and his embarrassing hippie parents, he spends his free time coming up with band names with fellow terrible musician Sam Hellerman.
After Tom's boring English class gets off to a dreary start, Tom finds his deceased father's old copy of ''Literature/TheCatcherInTheRye'', along with several other books, all of which contain underlinings and notes that help Tom decode several ambiguous, coded notes his father left in the books. All Tom knows is that his father's buddy in coding went by the nickname "Tit."
While Tom is figuring out the mystery of his dad's coded messages, he has his first sexual encounter with a spacey stoner chick named Fiona. Unfortunately, he cannot find any evidence of Fiona's existence, leaving Tom with another mystery to piece together.
Notable in that the cover, featuring the title and author of ''Literature/TheCatcherInTheRye'' crossed out, explicitly advertises the book as a modern counterpart to ''Catcher.''
The book was written by Frank Portman (a.k.a. Dr. Frank), the lead singer and chief songwriter of [[SanFrancisco Bay Area]] punk band The Mr. T Experience.
----
'''Tropes Used:'''
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: The more popular kids at school (read: nearly everybody in school because Tom is very close to the bottom of the hierarchy), whom Tom bitingly calls "psychotic normal people."
* AllThereInTheManual: The book contains a glossary loosely detailing and defining esoteric vocabulary words, cultural icons and a number of rock and roll bands used and mentioned within the narrative itself. Loosely, because some of the definitions would leave a reader who didn't already understand the references stumped.
* AllWomenAreLustful: Or at least, they will all cheat on their boyfriends.
* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Tom's stepfather, Little Big Tom, is this trope personified. Tom's stoner mother isn't much better.
* AppropriatedAppellation: At their first concert, Tom dubs his band "The Chi-Mos."
* BiTheWay: Sort of. Maybe. The UnreliableNarrator interprets it this way. At the very end, [[spoiler: when Celeste and Tom arrange a secret blowjob-related relationship at the end of the book, she tells him that he's not allowed to tell her boyfriend. Or Sam Hellerman. Or [[HoYay Yasmynne.]] She ''might'' have been referring to Yasmynne having a crush on Tom, which seems likely from the text, but Tom assumes it's a Bi The Way.]]
* CloudCuckooLander: Mr. Teone, the weird, giggly assistant principal who constantly greets Tom with nonsensical comments.
* EmbarrassingMiddleName: Mr. Teone's full name is [[spoiler: Tony Isadore Teone, "Tit" for short.]]
* FullNameBasis: Sam Hellerman especially; Tom refers to nearly all of his peers by their full names
* FunnyAneurysmMoment: Tom and Sam Hellerman base their entire concert around mocking Mr. Teone, including a song called "I Saw Mr. Teone Checking Out Kyrsten Blakeny's Ass." [[spoiler: This is a lot less funny when it's revealed that Kyrsten was one of the "stars" in Mr. Teone's underage porn ring.]]
* GambitRoulette: Tom is unsatisfied with Sam's explanation of the clues they collected because it has shades of this.
* GiveGeeksAChance: At the end, [[spoiler: Tom ends up with ''two'' hot babes giving him sexual favors]].
* AGoodNameForARockBand: Tom and Sam Hellerman's favorite pastime is coming up with band names and album covers.
* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: Tom loves to mispronounce words for comic effect; the book even has a glossary of his mispronunciations, complete with altered meanings. There's also Deanna Shumacher, pronounced "Skoo-macker."
** In fact, mispronunciation proves to be a vital game-changer in [[spoiler: determining whether or not Sam Hellerman had actually spoken to Deanna Schumacher and had been told how to pronounce her last name correctly and thus knew she was hooking up with Tom (he hadn't; she didn't; he was)]] and revealing to Tom that was [[spoiler: Fiona]] was [[spoiler: actually Celeste Fletcher.]]
* LyricalDissonance: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQqwwXjh-7E "Thinking Of Suicide"]] from the audiobook.
* MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold: Subversion: When Tom finds out that [[spoiler: Mr. Teone was his father's best friend, Tit]], he briefly wonders if maybe the man has HiddenDepths. [[spoiler: Turns out that those depths were an underage porn trade.]]
* NeverLiveItDown: Tom's "Chi-Mo" nickname - a career aptitude test gave him the result "Clergy," and the "normal people" in the room turned that into an excuse to call him "Child Molester," which was eventually shortened. At this point very few people even remember the origin of the shortened name.
* ThePlan: When Tom finds out the truth behind "Dud/Dude List", a social experiment conducted and game played by girls within the high school, the recent rapid changes in his sex life, and Sam Hellerman's association with girls out of both their leagues, Tom suspects that Sam Hellerman had been behind everything and that he could never have failed with the proper information. To wit: [[spoiler: Dud/Dude List involved girls attempting to score points by engaging in romantic and sexual acts with different boys in the school, with point values determined by how serious the actions were, how public it was and where the boy in question was on the social totem pole. Sam Hellerman had convinced the popular Celeste Fletcher to target both himself and Tom with a win/win deal - Celeste would receive a massive amount of points because of how incredibly unpopular Tom and Sam Hellerman were, and Tom and Sam Hellerman would, of course, get to feel up a hot girl. Sam Hellerman, however, wanted Celeste all to himself, so he had her disguised as "Fiona" when she and Tom hooked up, and then sent Tom on a seemingly wild goose chase after "Fiona" so that Sam Hellerman could have Celeste all to himself (It's important to mention that the girl suspected of being Fiona, Deanna Schumacher, was chosen only for her looks and non-proximity, but she ended up granting Tom sexual favors anyway, and was somewhat involved in his father's death). The end result? Both he and Tom were regularly hooking up with Celeste (but to Sam Hellerman's knowledge she was only hooking up with him) and Tom was hooking up with Deanna. Sam Hellerman's plan to get the two of them laid had succeeded, and even when he thought he had failed things still worked out.]]
* SadistTeacher: Gym teacher Mr. Donnelly. Mr. Teone is a borderline example, being more of a repulsive CloudCuckooLander than a sadist. [[spoiler: Until it turns out that he was running an underage porn operation at the high school.]]
* TotallyRadical: Not the speech, but the reference to Recovered Memory Therapy - the book takes place a few years after the practice had lost its trendiness, and was published long after it had stopped being relevant.
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Averted. Although the book was released in 2006, the story itself is set in 1997.
* UnfortunateNames: Pierre Butterfly Cameroon, victim of hippie parents.
* UnreliableNarrator: Tom is pretty thoroughly biased against anybody and everybody, and very prone to misinterpreting things.
----
After Tom's boring English class gets off to a dreary start, Tom finds his deceased father's old copy of ''Literature/TheCatcherInTheRye'', along with several other books, all of which contain underlinings and notes that help Tom decode several ambiguous, coded notes his father left in the books. All Tom knows is that his father's buddy in coding went by the nickname "Tit."
While Tom is figuring out the mystery of his dad's coded messages, he has his first sexual encounter with a spacey stoner chick named Fiona. Unfortunately, he cannot find any evidence of Fiona's existence, leaving Tom with another mystery to piece together.
Notable in that the cover, featuring the title and author of ''Literature/TheCatcherInTheRye'' crossed out, explicitly advertises the book as a modern counterpart to ''Catcher.''
The book was written by Frank Portman (a.k.a. Dr. Frank), the lead singer and chief songwriter of [[SanFrancisco Bay Area]] punk band The Mr. T Experience.
----
'''Tropes Used:'''
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: The more popular kids at school (read: nearly everybody in school because Tom is very close to the bottom of the hierarchy), whom Tom bitingly calls "psychotic normal people."
* AllThereInTheManual: The book contains a glossary loosely detailing and defining esoteric vocabulary words, cultural icons and a number of rock and roll bands used and mentioned within the narrative itself. Loosely, because some of the definitions would leave a reader who didn't already understand the references stumped.
* AllWomenAreLustful: Or at least, they will all cheat on their boyfriends.
* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Tom's stepfather, Little Big Tom, is this trope personified. Tom's stoner mother isn't much better.
* AppropriatedAppellation: At their first concert, Tom dubs his band "The Chi-Mos."
* BiTheWay: Sort of. Maybe. The UnreliableNarrator interprets it this way. At the very end, [[spoiler: when Celeste and Tom arrange a secret blowjob-related relationship at the end of the book, she tells him that he's not allowed to tell her boyfriend. Or Sam Hellerman. Or [[HoYay Yasmynne.]] She ''might'' have been referring to Yasmynne having a crush on Tom, which seems likely from the text, but Tom assumes it's a Bi The Way.]]
* CloudCuckooLander: Mr. Teone, the weird, giggly assistant principal who constantly greets Tom with nonsensical comments.
* EmbarrassingMiddleName: Mr. Teone's full name is [[spoiler: Tony Isadore Teone, "Tit" for short.]]
* FullNameBasis: Sam Hellerman especially; Tom refers to nearly all of his peers by their full names
* FunnyAneurysmMoment: Tom and Sam Hellerman base their entire concert around mocking Mr. Teone, including a song called "I Saw Mr. Teone Checking Out Kyrsten Blakeny's Ass." [[spoiler: This is a lot less funny when it's revealed that Kyrsten was one of the "stars" in Mr. Teone's underage porn ring.]]
* GambitRoulette: Tom is unsatisfied with Sam's explanation of the clues they collected because it has shades of this.
* GiveGeeksAChance: At the end, [[spoiler: Tom ends up with ''two'' hot babes giving him sexual favors]].
* AGoodNameForARockBand: Tom and Sam Hellerman's favorite pastime is coming up with band names and album covers.
* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: Tom loves to mispronounce words for comic effect; the book even has a glossary of his mispronunciations, complete with altered meanings. There's also Deanna Shumacher, pronounced "Skoo-macker."
** In fact, mispronunciation proves to be a vital game-changer in [[spoiler: determining whether or not Sam Hellerman had actually spoken to Deanna Schumacher and had been told how to pronounce her last name correctly and thus knew she was hooking up with Tom (he hadn't; she didn't; he was)]] and revealing to Tom that was [[spoiler: Fiona]] was [[spoiler: actually Celeste Fletcher.]]
* LyricalDissonance: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQqwwXjh-7E "Thinking Of Suicide"]] from the audiobook.
* MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold: Subversion: When Tom finds out that [[spoiler: Mr. Teone was his father's best friend, Tit]], he briefly wonders if maybe the man has HiddenDepths. [[spoiler: Turns out that those depths were an underage porn trade.]]
* NeverLiveItDown: Tom's "Chi-Mo" nickname - a career aptitude test gave him the result "Clergy," and the "normal people" in the room turned that into an excuse to call him "Child Molester," which was eventually shortened. At this point very few people even remember the origin of the shortened name.
* ThePlan: When Tom finds out the truth behind "Dud/Dude List", a social experiment conducted and game played by girls within the high school, the recent rapid changes in his sex life, and Sam Hellerman's association with girls out of both their leagues, Tom suspects that Sam Hellerman had been behind everything and that he could never have failed with the proper information. To wit: [[spoiler: Dud/Dude List involved girls attempting to score points by engaging in romantic and sexual acts with different boys in the school, with point values determined by how serious the actions were, how public it was and where the boy in question was on the social totem pole. Sam Hellerman had convinced the popular Celeste Fletcher to target both himself and Tom with a win/win deal - Celeste would receive a massive amount of points because of how incredibly unpopular Tom and Sam Hellerman were, and Tom and Sam Hellerman would, of course, get to feel up a hot girl. Sam Hellerman, however, wanted Celeste all to himself, so he had her disguised as "Fiona" when she and Tom hooked up, and then sent Tom on a seemingly wild goose chase after "Fiona" so that Sam Hellerman could have Celeste all to himself (It's important to mention that the girl suspected of being Fiona, Deanna Schumacher, was chosen only for her looks and non-proximity, but she ended up granting Tom sexual favors anyway, and was somewhat involved in his father's death). The end result? Both he and Tom were regularly hooking up with Celeste (but to Sam Hellerman's knowledge she was only hooking up with him) and Tom was hooking up with Deanna. Sam Hellerman's plan to get the two of them laid had succeeded, and even when he thought he had failed things still worked out.]]
* SadistTeacher: Gym teacher Mr. Donnelly. Mr. Teone is a borderline example, being more of a repulsive CloudCuckooLander than a sadist. [[spoiler: Until it turns out that he was running an underage porn operation at the high school.]]
* TotallyRadical: Not the speech, but the reference to Recovered Memory Therapy - the book takes place a few years after the practice had lost its trendiness, and was published long after it had stopped being relevant.
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Averted. Although the book was released in 2006, the story itself is set in 1997.
* UnfortunateNames: Pierre Butterfly Cameroon, victim of hippie parents.
* UnreliableNarrator: Tom is pretty thoroughly biased against anybody and everybody, and very prone to misinterpreting things.
----
