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Misremembered.
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** Eliot, named for Creator/TSEliot, whose poem ''Literature/TheWasteLand'' features the line "This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper".
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** Eliot, named for Creator/TSEliot, whose poem ''Literature/TheWasteLand'' ''The Hollow Men'' features the line "This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper".
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%%Please note that "Woolf" is spelled "Wolf" on purpose in unspoilered sections of text. This is because the revelation that her full name is "Virginia Woolf" doesn't come until later, and could spoil a reader's enjoyment of the book. Please DO NOT correct the spelling of "Woolf" in unspoilered sections of text.
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* ThePowerOfLove: [[spoiler:Emily's love for Harry overrides the power of the bareword, allowing her to slip free of Yeats's control.]]*
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* ThePowerOfLove: [[spoiler:Emily's love for Harry overrides the power of the bareword, allowing her to slip free of Yeats's control.]]* ]]
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* AnachronicOrder: Takes a while to catch on to, but different parts of the novel happen at different times, not concurrently. [[spoiler:The Wil-focused chapters deal with the present day, while the Emily-focused chapters start with Emily being picked up off the street and follow her StartOfDarkness as she becomes the BigBad, Woolf.]]
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* AnachronicOrder: Takes a while to catch on to, but different parts of the novel happen at different times, not concurrently. [[spoiler:The Wil-focused chapters deal with the present day, while the Emily-focused chapters start with Emily being picked up off the street and follow her StartOfDarkness journey FromNobodyToNightmare as she becomes the BigBad, Woolf.]]
* FromNobodyToNightmare: [[spoiler:Emily was a homeless teenage girl, scamming people on the streets on San Francisco. She ended up becoming a the BigBad, Woolf, a powerful poet who kills people on a whim. {{Subverted}} somewhat, in that Emily [[AntiVillain isn't really all that evil]], but being compelled by Yeats.]]
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* ThePowerOfLove: [[spoiler:Emily's love for Harry overrides the power of the bareword, allowing her to slip free of Yeats's control.]]
* StartOfDarkness: [[spoiler:The novel is really the tale of Emily becoming Woolf. {{Subverted}} in that Emily [[AntiVillain isn't really evil]], but being compelled by Yeats.]]
* StartOfDarkness: [[spoiler:The novel is really the tale of Emily becoming Woolf. {{Subverted}} in that Emily [[AntiVillain isn't really evil]], but being compelled by Yeats.]]
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* ThePowerOfLove: [[spoiler:Emily's love for Harry overrides the power of the bareword, allowing her to slip free of Yeats's control.]]
]]*
*StartOfDarkness: ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: [[spoiler:The entire novel is really the tale of about Emily becoming Woolf. {{Subverted}} in that Emily [[AntiVillain isn't really evil]], but being compelled by Yeats.a villain, and her subsequent redemption.]]
*
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** Yeats, named for Creator/WBYeats, whose poem ''Literature/TheSecondComing'' features the line "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world / The blood timmed tide is loosed, and everywhere / The ceremony of innocence is drowned", which recalls [[spoiler:what he does to the town of Broken Hill.]]
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** Yeats, named for Creator/WBYeats, whose poem ''Literature/TheSecondComing'' features the line "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world / The blood timmed dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere / The ceremony of innocence is drowned", which recalls [[spoiler:what he does to the town of Broken Hill.]]
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An Australian man named Wil Parke finds himself in an airport bathroom [[EyeScream with a needle in his eye]]. Soon, he's forced to go on the run with a mysterious man who calls himself Tom, who tells him that he has a connection to a supposed disaster that [[ApocalypseHow wiped out a town of 3,000 people]] in Australia. To make things worse, a mysterious entity named "Wolf" is after them for something Wil has, and they need.
to:
An Australian man named Wil Parke finds himself in an airport bathroom [[EyeScream with a needle in his eye]]. Soon, he's forced to go on the run with a mysterious man who calls himself Tom, who tells him that he has a connection to a supposed disaster that [[ApocalypseHow wiped out a town of 3,000 people]] in Australia. To make things worse, a mysterious entity named "Wolf" is after them for something Wil has, and they need.
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* {{Foreshadowing}}: Quite a bit.
** Wil thinks to himself that he's "never done anything to anyone, except he once knew a girl". [[spoiler:This "girl" turns out to be Emily.]]
** [[spoiler:Emily's murder of Lee mirrors the way she ends up killing Yeats - an improvised weapon to the throat, preventing the use of command words.]]
** Wil thinks to himself that he's "never done anything to anyone, except he once knew a girl". [[spoiler:This "girl" turns out to be Emily.]]
** [[spoiler:Emily's murder of Lee mirrors the way she ends up killing Yeats - an improvised weapon to the throat, preventing the use of command words.]]
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* BigBad: Woolf, [[TheBigBadWolf appropriately enough]]. [[spoiler:Or so it would seem. She is in fact under the control of Yeats, the ''true'' Big Bad. Yeats wants use the "bareword" to create a new religion, so he can "make a mark" on history before he dies]].
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* BigBad: Woolf, Wolf, [[TheBigBadWolf appropriately enough]]. [[spoiler:Or so it would seem. She is in fact under the control of Yeats, the ''true'' Big Bad. Yeats wants use the "bareword" to create a new religion, so he can "make a mark" on history before he dies]].
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[[quoteright:207:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/81yixrrexel.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:207:Words are weapons.]]
[[caption-width-right:207:Words are weapons.]]
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** Yeats, named for Creator/WBYeats, whose poem ''TheSecondComing'' features the line "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world / The blood timmed tide is loosed, and everywhere / The ceremony of innocence is drowned", which recalls [[spoiler:what he does to the town of Broken Hill.]]
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** Yeats, named for Creator/WBYeats, whose poem ''TheSecondComing'' ''Literature/TheSecondComing'' features the line "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world / The blood timmed tide is loosed, and everywhere / The ceremony of innocence is drowned", which recalls [[spoiler:what he does to the town of Broken Hill.]]
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''Lexicon'' is a 2013 ScienceFiction {{Thriller}} novel by Max Barry, also known as the author of the 2003 {{Dystopia}}n novel, Literature/JenniferGovernment.
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''Lexicon'' is a 2013 ScienceFiction {{Thriller}} novel by Max Barry, also known as the author of the 2003 {{Dystopia}}n novel, Literature/JenniferGovernment.
''Literature/JenniferGovernment''.
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''Lexicon'' is a 2013 ScienceFiction {{Thriller}} novel by Max Barry, also known as the author of the 2003 {{Dystopia}}n novel, Literature/JenniferGovernment.
An Australian man named Wil Parke finds himself in an airport bathroom [[EyeScream with a needle in his eye]]. Soon, he's forced to go on the run with a mysterious man who calls himself Tom, who tells him that he has a connection to a supposed disaster that [[ApocalypseHow wiped out a town of 3,000 people]] in Australia. To make things worse, a mysterious entity named "Wolf" is after them for something Wil has, and they need.
Elsewhere, a homeless teenage hustler named Emily Ruff is picked up off the street one day by a man in a suit. Soon after, she is accepted into a prestigious academy run by a secret organization [[ThemeNaming whose members name themselves after poets]]. The academy specialises in teaching certain individuals how to use language to influence and persuade people. Her experiences at the academy lead to a series of catastrophes that irreparably alter the lives of people around her forever.
----
!!This novel contains examples of:
* AnachronicOrder: Takes a while to catch on to, but different parts of the novel happen at different times, not concurrently. [[spoiler:The Wil-focused chapters deal with the present day, while the Emily-focused chapters start with Emily being picked up off the street and follow her StartOfDarkness as she becomes the BigBad, Woolf.]]
* AntiHero: Both Wil and Emily aren't traditionally heroic. [[spoiler:Emily becomes an AntiVillain, while Wil becomes more heroic when he regains his memories of being Harry.]]
* ApocalypseHow:
** Broken Hill suffered a chemical spill that triggered a ApocalypseHow/Class0, leading to the death of the entire population and its quarantine by the Australian Government. [[spoiler:Except it wasn't a chemical spill, but Yeats using Emily to "test" the capabilities of the "bareword" on the unsuspecting townsfolk.]]
** According to Yeats, [[spoiler:every time a "bareword" is discovered, it causes a ApocalypseHow/Class0, with the potential to be a ApocalypseHow/Class1 in a world where English is ''lingua franca''.]]
* AttemptedRape: Lee's "test" for Emily is using a command word to force her to give him a blowjob. It doesn't work, and she [[GroinAttack punches him in the balls.]] [[spoiler:He later comes back and tries again, and this time, she stabs him to death.]]
* BackForTheDead: [[spoiler:Lee comes back towards the end of the novel (relatively about six months before the "present day" chapters) to attempt to rape Emily in a prison cell. Emily's response is to stab him to death with a sharpened piece of plastic. Not even ''Yeats'' seems particularly upset about it.]]
* BigBad: Woolf, [[TheBigBadWolf appropriately enough]]. [[spoiler:Or so it would seem. She is in fact under the control of Yeats, the ''true'' Big Bad. Yeats wants use the "bareword" to create a new religion, so he can "make a mark" on history before he dies]].
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Eliot dies, but Emily successfully kills Yeats, ending his megalomaniacal schemes and his breaking his power over her forever. Emily commands Harry to shoot her, but he refuses, and they try to piece their lives back together while living in rural Australia. However, the town of Broken Hill is still dead, and the organization is restructuring, implying they'll be back in some form.]]
* BrownNote: The "bareword". [[spoiler:It's never described in detail, but it's essentially a symbol that, when looked at, [[{{Geas}} compels the user to follow any command they are given]]. The disaster of Broken Hill is caused when Yeats compels Emily to write the words "KILL EVERYONE" next to the symbol, which leads the people in the hospital to go out and do just that.]]
* TheChessmaster: [[spoiler:Yeats pretty much planned everything from day one.]]
* CowardlyLion: Wil starts out as a straight-up coward who acts as dead weight for much of the story, but gradually takes more of an active role under the influence of Eliot. [[spoiler:Once he gets his memories back, he sheds this completely, becoming ''much'' [[TookALevelInBadass more capable]], to Eliot's shock.]]
* DrivingQuestion: ''What does Wolf want with Wil?''
* EyeScream: The ''very first page'' sees Wil in an airport bathroom with a needle in his eyeball.
* {{Geas}}: The command words taught at the academy have this effect on people. [[spoiler:The "bareword" is a master key, capable of causing a "Babel event" that shatters a language forever. It's implied that various myths about the creation of languages, such as the Tower of Babel and Aboriginal Australian myths, are derived from the discovery of barewords.]]
* GroinAttack: Emily punches Lee in the balls.
* MeaningfulName:
** Eliot, named for Creator/TSEliot, whose poem ''Literature/TheWasteLand'' features the line "This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper".
** Yeats, named for Creator/WBYeats, whose poem ''TheSecondComing'' features the line "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world / The blood timmed tide is loosed, and everywhere / The ceremony of innocence is drowned", which recalls [[spoiler:what he does to the town of Broken Hill.]]
* MurderBySuicide: [[spoiler:Raine does this to Eliot's ally at the start of the novel, using a {{Geas}} to compel him to [[AteHisGun shoot himself]].]]
* NoSell: [[spoiler:At the novel's climax, Emily completely no-sells Yeats's commands and slashes his throat with a broken glass, preventing him from making any further commands.]]
* ThePowerOfLove: [[spoiler:Emily's love for Harry overrides the power of the bareword, allowing her to slip free of Yeats's control.]]
* StartOfDarkness: [[spoiler:The novel is really the tale of Emily becoming Woolf. {{Subverted}} in that Emily [[AntiVillain isn't really evil]], but being compelled by Yeats.]]
* TheStoic: Yeats, inhumanly so.
* ThemeNaming: The "poets" all name themselves after poets.
* TookALevelInBadass: [[spoiler:Harry, once he sheds his Wil persona.]]
* TwoAliasesOneCharacter: This happens ''three times''. [[spoiler:Tom is revealed to be Eliot (as in Creator/TSEliot), which is the first hint that the Emily chapters take place in the past. Then [[Creator/VirginiaWoolf Woolf]] is revealed to be Emily. Finally, and most importantly, Wil Parke is revealed to be Harry Wilson, Emily's former beau.]]
An Australian man named Wil Parke finds himself in an airport bathroom [[EyeScream with a needle in his eye]]. Soon, he's forced to go on the run with a mysterious man who calls himself Tom, who tells him that he has a connection to a supposed disaster that [[ApocalypseHow wiped out a town of 3,000 people]] in Australia. To make things worse, a mysterious entity named "Wolf" is after them for something Wil has, and they need.
Elsewhere, a homeless teenage hustler named Emily Ruff is picked up off the street one day by a man in a suit. Soon after, she is accepted into a prestigious academy run by a secret organization [[ThemeNaming whose members name themselves after poets]]. The academy specialises in teaching certain individuals how to use language to influence and persuade people. Her experiences at the academy lead to a series of catastrophes that irreparably alter the lives of people around her forever.
----
!!This novel contains examples of:
* AnachronicOrder: Takes a while to catch on to, but different parts of the novel happen at different times, not concurrently. [[spoiler:The Wil-focused chapters deal with the present day, while the Emily-focused chapters start with Emily being picked up off the street and follow her StartOfDarkness as she becomes the BigBad, Woolf.]]
* AntiHero: Both Wil and Emily aren't traditionally heroic. [[spoiler:Emily becomes an AntiVillain, while Wil becomes more heroic when he regains his memories of being Harry.]]
* ApocalypseHow:
** Broken Hill suffered a chemical spill that triggered a ApocalypseHow/Class0, leading to the death of the entire population and its quarantine by the Australian Government. [[spoiler:Except it wasn't a chemical spill, but Yeats using Emily to "test" the capabilities of the "bareword" on the unsuspecting townsfolk.]]
** According to Yeats, [[spoiler:every time a "bareword" is discovered, it causes a ApocalypseHow/Class0, with the potential to be a ApocalypseHow/Class1 in a world where English is ''lingua franca''.]]
* AttemptedRape: Lee's "test" for Emily is using a command word to force her to give him a blowjob. It doesn't work, and she [[GroinAttack punches him in the balls.]] [[spoiler:He later comes back and tries again, and this time, she stabs him to death.]]
* BackForTheDead: [[spoiler:Lee comes back towards the end of the novel (relatively about six months before the "present day" chapters) to attempt to rape Emily in a prison cell. Emily's response is to stab him to death with a sharpened piece of plastic. Not even ''Yeats'' seems particularly upset about it.]]
* BigBad: Woolf, [[TheBigBadWolf appropriately enough]]. [[spoiler:Or so it would seem. She is in fact under the control of Yeats, the ''true'' Big Bad. Yeats wants use the "bareword" to create a new religion, so he can "make a mark" on history before he dies]].
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Eliot dies, but Emily successfully kills Yeats, ending his megalomaniacal schemes and his breaking his power over her forever. Emily commands Harry to shoot her, but he refuses, and they try to piece their lives back together while living in rural Australia. However, the town of Broken Hill is still dead, and the organization is restructuring, implying they'll be back in some form.]]
* BrownNote: The "bareword". [[spoiler:It's never described in detail, but it's essentially a symbol that, when looked at, [[{{Geas}} compels the user to follow any command they are given]]. The disaster of Broken Hill is caused when Yeats compels Emily to write the words "KILL EVERYONE" next to the symbol, which leads the people in the hospital to go out and do just that.]]
* TheChessmaster: [[spoiler:Yeats pretty much planned everything from day one.]]
* CowardlyLion: Wil starts out as a straight-up coward who acts as dead weight for much of the story, but gradually takes more of an active role under the influence of Eliot. [[spoiler:Once he gets his memories back, he sheds this completely, becoming ''much'' [[TookALevelInBadass more capable]], to Eliot's shock.]]
* DrivingQuestion: ''What does Wolf want with Wil?''
* EyeScream: The ''very first page'' sees Wil in an airport bathroom with a needle in his eyeball.
* {{Geas}}: The command words taught at the academy have this effect on people. [[spoiler:The "bareword" is a master key, capable of causing a "Babel event" that shatters a language forever. It's implied that various myths about the creation of languages, such as the Tower of Babel and Aboriginal Australian myths, are derived from the discovery of barewords.]]
* GroinAttack: Emily punches Lee in the balls.
* MeaningfulName:
** Eliot, named for Creator/TSEliot, whose poem ''Literature/TheWasteLand'' features the line "This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper".
** Yeats, named for Creator/WBYeats, whose poem ''TheSecondComing'' features the line "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world / The blood timmed tide is loosed, and everywhere / The ceremony of innocence is drowned", which recalls [[spoiler:what he does to the town of Broken Hill.]]
* MurderBySuicide: [[spoiler:Raine does this to Eliot's ally at the start of the novel, using a {{Geas}} to compel him to [[AteHisGun shoot himself]].]]
* NoSell: [[spoiler:At the novel's climax, Emily completely no-sells Yeats's commands and slashes his throat with a broken glass, preventing him from making any further commands.]]
* ThePowerOfLove: [[spoiler:Emily's love for Harry overrides the power of the bareword, allowing her to slip free of Yeats's control.]]
* StartOfDarkness: [[spoiler:The novel is really the tale of Emily becoming Woolf. {{Subverted}} in that Emily [[AntiVillain isn't really evil]], but being compelled by Yeats.]]
* TheStoic: Yeats, inhumanly so.
* ThemeNaming: The "poets" all name themselves after poets.
* TookALevelInBadass: [[spoiler:Harry, once he sheds his Wil persona.]]
* TwoAliasesOneCharacter: This happens ''three times''. [[spoiler:Tom is revealed to be Eliot (as in Creator/TSEliot), which is the first hint that the Emily chapters take place in the past. Then [[Creator/VirginiaWoolf Woolf]] is revealed to be Emily. Finally, and most importantly, Wil Parke is revealed to be Harry Wilson, Emily's former beau.]]
