History Literature / Palimpsest

* ArtificialHuman: [[spoiler: The Lyudmila in Palimpsest. Also there is a copy of Lucia who forgives and accepts all of Ludo's faults.]] Ludovico calls them "Pescia", named after the copies of manuscripts monks would copy.

* TheVoiceless: Those who underwent the surgery to obtain animal parts were condemned to a vow of silence in honor of their sacrifice. [[spoiler:Ludovico becomes this too after he asks Ululiro to cut off his tongue to become the key to let him into Palimpsest.]]

* EqualGenderEnsemble: There are two women and two men who are the focus.

* MythologicalMotifs: Ludovico always likes to make an analogy of Lucia being a chimera.

''Palimpsest'' is a fantasy novel by Creator/CatherynneMValente.

Deep in the [[DreamLand recesses of dreams]], or so it seems, there lies the city of Palimpsest. It is a city of great terror and wonder, impossible beauty and unimaginable cruelty, known simply as home to its inhabitants. But for the immigrants, the people who come to the city only at night, it is a place so strange that they, outcasts in the real world, find that they finally belong.

But they cannot stay more than a night at a time. They come to the city in fours, in Quartos, folded together in spirit by an old fortune-teller so that they each feel what the other three feel when they are in the city. There are rumors that immigrants can come to the city permanently, except none of them know how, and none of the locals wish to tell them.

The novel follows one Quarto: Amaya Sei, a blue-haired, train-obsessed woman from Tokyo; November Aguilar, a Californian beekeeper who orders the world into myriad lists; Oleg Sadakov, a locksmith from New York City who hears the secret yearnings of locks and keys; and Ludovico Conti, a book binder from Rome who hears his books come to life. This is their journey to immigrate to Palimpsest.

Though whether that is a wise choice or not is left up to the reader.

!! ''Palimpsest'' provides examples of:

* WhatTheHellHero: Lucia chews Ludovico out for being a terrible husband [[spoiler:before she leaves him forever.]]

* YourWorstNightmare: Hester is terrified of Palimpsest and takes a number of pills to keep from seeing it. Justified in her case; when she got her tattoo it landed her ''in its cemetery'', which has lovely depictions of corpses being left to grow on large bamboo stalks.

* EquivalentExchange: How payments in Palimpsest work: a finger nail can give you a train primer, a random list can give you a fancy dress, [[spoiler:Ludovico gives up his tongue so Ululiro can be given ''some'' semblance of victory.]]
* EveryoneIsBi: The characters we follow have little to no compunction about taking men and women for lovers. This trope is dear to Valente's heart, reflecting her own bisexuality.

* {{Headdesk}}: Oleg does this on a boat when he realizes that the Lyudmila with him is just a construct.

* MaybeEverAfter: It's implied that [[spoiler:despite finding a pescia of Lucia, Ludovico might pursue a relationship with November.]]

* SingleTargetSexuality: Oleg is Lyudmila-sexual and will only have sex with others if it'll make him see her again.

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Palimpsest in general seems to have an alien code of morals. [[spoiler:Casimira horribly mutilates November, who she claims to be in love with. She claims it is because gaining Palimpsest must be worth a little suffering, and November needs a concrete demonstration that Palimpsest isn't in her imagination.]]

* AFormYouAreMoreComfortableWith: The Third Rail speaks in the form of a woman [[spoiler:who, when she takes their mask off, is made to look like Sei's deceased mother, Usagi.]]

* MaybeEverAfter: It's implied that [[spoiler:despite finding a pescia of Lyudmila, Ludovico might pursue a relationship with November.]]

* ArtificialHuman: [[spoiler:The Lyudmila in Palimpsest. Also there is a copy of Lucia who forgives and accepts all of Ludo's faults.]] Ludovico calls them "Pescia", named after the copies of manuscripts monks would copy.

%%* DreamLand: Palimpsest. Casimira disagrees.

* CreepyChild: Casimira's house uses the stillborn child who was buried in its foundations, artificially grown to about twelve-ish, as a way to speak to people. He's cute and charming, but just a ''little'' bit off in pretty much every way. He has kept a room for you.

* [[ShowWithinAShow Book Within a Book]]: November is a fan of ''[[Literature/TheGirlWhoCircumnavigatedFairylandInAShipOfHerOwnMaking The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making]]''... or rather only the first book of said series.
* BrokenBird: Nerezza, after the death of Radoslav and it's only worse when Ludovico was able to find his Quarto and has a 100% chance of immigrating for good. By the end, she's downright begging November if she herself is worthy of entering Palimpsest despite everything she sacrificed.

* AFormYouAreMoreComfortableWith: The Third Rail speaks in the form of a woman [[spoiler:who, when she takes their mask off, is made to look like Sei's deceased mother.]]

* MaybeEverAfter: It's implied that [[spoiler:despite finding a pescie of Lyudmila, Ludovico might pursue a relationship with November.]]

* NoAntagonist: Ultimately if the characters are struggling with anything, it's their own psychology. The creatures they encounter in Palimpsest actually ''want'' them to come. The closest to a BigBad is [[spoiler:Nerezza, hoping to kill Ludovico because she can't stand the idea of him meeting up with his Quarto to immigrate for good while she will never be able to (because her final Quarto member was killed) and Ululiro, a veteran of the war who despises immigrants and teamed up with Nerezza to prevent Ludovico and his Quarto from never entering at all.]]

* ParentalAbandonment: Casimira was raised by her house.

* YourWorstNightmare: Hester is terrified of Palimpsest and takes a number of pills to keep from seeing it.

* TrappedInAnotherWorld: Once you have entered Palimpsest once, you will go there whenever you have sex, whether you want to or not.

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Palimpsest in general seems to have an alien code of morals. [[spoiler:Casimira horribly mutilates November, who she claims to be in love with. She claims it is because gaining Palimpsest must be worth a little suffering.]]

** Xiaohui and her brother also apparently had at least one encounter as she passed the mark to him.

%%* CreepyChild: Casimira's house. It has kept a room for you.

* DaddysGirl: November was closer to her father than her mother, as the reason she obsesses reading the same children's book over and over again is because he specifically chose it for her.

* RailEnthusiast: Sei loves the trains of Japan -- not just where they can take her, but the mystery and beauty of the trains themselves. Her normal job is working a ticket kiosk.

** [[spoiler:Ludovico has his tongue cut off near the end of the book.]]

%%* BrokenBird: Nerezza, after the death of Radoslav.

* CityOfCanals: Zarzaparilla Street is a milky river covered in coats that must be navigated by gondola.

* DeconstructionArchetype: Casimira is essentially a twisted version of a usual Disney Princess. Instead of a FriendToAllLivingThings, she runs a factory that creates vermin. She wishes to change the status quo and thus goes to war against citizens of Palimpsest who'd rather ''not'' open themselves up to immigrants and weaponizes the vermin she creates. She feels like she has the right to do whatever she wants because she's got Palimpsest backing her up.

* MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold: [[spoiler:Casimira.]]

* NoAntagonist: Ultimately if the characters are struggling with anything, it's their own psychology. The creatures they encounter in Palimpsest actually ''want'' them to come. The closest to a BigBad is [[spoiler:Nerezza, hoping to kill Ludovico because she can't stand the idea of him meeting up with his Quarto to immigrate for good while she will never be able to (because her final Quarto member was killed) and Ululiro, a veteran of the war who despises immigrants and teamed up with Nerezza.]]

* ArtificialHuman: [[spoiler:The Lyudmila in Palimpsest. Also there is a copy of Lucia who forgives and accepts all of Ludo's faults.]]

* EquivalentExchange: How payments in Palimpsest work: a finger nail can give you a train primer, a list can give you a fancy dress, [[spoiler:Ludovico gives up his tongue so Ululiro can be given ''some'' semblance of victory.]]

* NoAntagonist: Ultimately if the characters are struggling with anything, it's their own psychology. The creatures they encounter in Palimpsest actually ''want'' them to come. The closest to a BigBad is [[spoiler:Nerezza, hoping to kill Ludovico because she can't stand the idea of him meeting up with his Quarto to immigrate for good while she will never be able to and Ululiro, a veteran of the war who despises immigrants and teamed up with Nerezza.]]

* RailEnthusiast: Sei loves the trains of Japan -- not just where they can take her, but the mystery and beauty of the trains themselves.

* SingleTargetSexuality: Oleg is Lyudmila-sexual.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Casimira has green hair. Honorable mention for Sei, who actually does have blue hair, but this is a dye job.

* NoAntagonist: Ultimately if the characters are struggling with anything, it's their own psychology. The creatures they encounter in Palimpsest actually ''want'' them to come. The closest to a BigBad is [[spoiler:Nerezza, hoping to kill Ludovico because she can't stand the idea of him meeting up with his Quarto to immigrate for good while she will never be able to.]]

* LittleBitBeastly: Many of Palimpsest's inhabitants appear to be humans with some animal parts--a frog's head, a giraffe's neck, etc.

* NoAntagonist: Ultimately if the characters are struggling with anything, it's their own psychology. The creatures they encounter in Palimpsest actually ''want'' them to come.

* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Lyudmila. [[spoiler:Actually a vivid hallucination.]]

* RailEnthusiast: Sei loves the trains of Japan-- not just where they can take her, but the mystery and beauty of the trains themselves.

* LongingForFictionland: What drives the story.

%%* RailEnthusiast: Sei.

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Palimpsest about Casimira and her immigration policy.
** Not ''quite''. She does have the approval of at least one person, who is perhaps the ultimate force in her pushing her immigration policy through - [[spoiler:the land of Palimpsest itself.]]

* YourCheatingHeart: Ludovico has an uncomfortable moment where he realizes that there are four people in the room including himself... and they've all slept with his wife.

* [[ShowWithinAShow Book Within a Book]]: November is a fan of ''[[Literature/TheGirlWhoCircumnavigatedFairylandInAShipOfHerOwnMaking The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making]]''...or rather only the first book of said series.

* [[ShowWithinAShow Book Within a Book]]: November is a fan of ''[[Literature/TheGirlWhoCircumnavigatedFairylandInAShipOfHerOwnMaking The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making]]''.

* BrotherSisterIncest: There's something very strange going on between Oleg and Lyudmila. [[spoiler:It's worse when you realize this is completely in Oleg's head.]]

* DeusSexMachina: Visitors can only arrive at the city by having sex with the right people.

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Hester tried to kill herself when she couldn't be rid of Palimpsest. [[BungledSuicide it didn't work]].]]

* {{Polyamory}}: Nerezza and her two lovers.