History Literature / TheGirlWhoCircumnavigatedFairylandInAShipOfHerOwnMaking

* KickTheSonOfABitch: [[spoiler:Being put in an AndIMustScream situation via transformation into inanimate objects]] is a horrible fate, but [[spoiler:the fairies who undergo it weren't exactly nice]] and the fourth book reveals that [[spoiler:even after their punishment, they remain vain, snobbish, controlling, and continue to try to force the king to make Fairyland the way it was when they first were around.]]

** In the third book, there is a new law stating Tools Have Rights. September believes this is completely silly, though she begins to wonder if tools can have wills when her Model-A sometimes runs and sometimes doesn't. [[spoiler: As it turns out, the tools of Fairyland are the fairies that we haven't seen much of through three books, trapped as inanimate objects.]]

* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: [[spoiler: Queen Mallow rose to her throne when she defeated the cruel King Goldmouth. She ruled exceptionally well, but was kicked out of Fairyland through no fault of her own. When she returned as the Marquess, she became cruel and despotic herself.]]

* BrokenBird: The Marquess, [[spoiler: who became a beloved Queen of Fairyland with a husband and a baby on the way, before she was suddenly ripped back to being a child on her abusive father's farm.]]

* CameBackWrong: A variant. The death involved is [[ThatManIsDead more metaphorical than literal]]. [[spoiler: Mallow originally came to Fairyland an ordinary little girl who grew up to become a queen. When forced to leave, she desperately looked for another way in, despite no such way existing. It was only through turning her clock back--not at all unlike cheating death--that she could come back... as a very angry, bitter woman in a twelve-year-old girl's body.]]

* DontFearTheReaper: When September meets Death in the Worsted Wood, she finds her to be quite kind and friendly, despite her morbid vocation. [[spoiler: In book one Death appears as a small, gentle creature, who tells September she will slowly grow bigger and more menacing the closer September comes to the end of her life. Death is tormented by the regrets of the dead, and September sings her to sleep with her mother's lullaby. A much larger Death appears again in the final book, to witness September transform into the Green Wind.]]
* DistinguishingMark: The mole on September's cheek. [[spoiler: This is how people recognize her relation to Halloween and how Saturday recognizes their daughter.]]

* DudeWheresMyRespect: Fairyland residents have pretty short memories, collectively speaking. [[spoiler: When Mallow returns to Fairyland, she finds that Fairyland has moved on and forgotten her, which contributes to her FaceHeelTurn.]]
* ExactWords: In the first book, September attempts to invoke this, rationalizing to herself that, for example, popcorn bought from a dryad is "dryad food", and will not have the same effect as fairy food. [[spoiler: She's wrong. It's ''all'' fairy food, because it was grown in fairy soil.]]

* EvilAllAlong: [[spoiler: Not exactly evil, but the shadows of Ell and Saturday were always loyal to Halloween, not to September.]]

* FallenHero: [[spoiler: The Good Queen Mallow became the Marquess due to her anger at being returned to the mundane world. She still considers herself the hero.]]

* [[GenderBlenderName Gender-Blender Title]]: The Marquess. Technically a woman would be a Marchioness or a Marquise.[[note]]Possibly this is a very subtle allusion to UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfTudor - before they were married, Henry VIII created Anne Boleyn as Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Their marriage caused the much-loved Queen Catherine of Aragon to be basically locked away from her subjects... replaced by the Marquess.[[/note]]

* [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen God Save Us From the Marquess]]: The Marquess has no problem killing her subjects, stealing their possessions, forcing them to wear ColdIron chains around their wings (which, for the fey, is ''very'' painful), or [[spoiler:splitting Fairyland forever from the human world]]).

* {{Golem}}: Lye is a golem made of soap, tending magical baths and eagerly awaiting her mistress. [[spoiler: Her mistress was Queen Mallow/the Marquess.]]

* HeelFaceTurn: It takes five books and a lot of healing (and the work isn't done when the last book closes), but eventually [[spoiler: Mallow]] joins the good guys.

* IKnowYourTrueName: Knowing someone's true name gives you power over that person. September wasn't suppose to tell anyone her true name, though she never lied about her name when in Fairyland,[[spoiler: until she finds out that the true name is actually a person's full name, which in her case would be September Morning Bell. She also finds out the Marquess's true name.]]

** Everywhere in Fairyland. Different creatures correct September constantly as to what they are and what they do. Witches would like to make it clear that they are not sorceresses, enchantresses, or hags. In the course of the first book, September meets only two actual fairies in Fairyland, with other characters insisting that they're brownies, elves, pixies, or sprites. (The scarcity of fairies in Fairyland becomes a plot point in one of the sequels.)
** September argues that witch food and dragon food is not the fairy food that she should beware. [[spoiler: She's wrong.]]

** At the end of the final book, we have one between [[spoiler:Ell himself and Blunderbuss, a [[ItMakesSenseInContext giant patchwork woolen wombat]] ]].

* MythologyGag: In a dream, Ell calls September "[[Literature/{{Palimpsest}} November]]" instead. He goes through October and December as well, but November is still his first effort.

* NarniaTime: No time passes in the Human world for a Human in Fairyland, with occasionally cruel results like growing to adulthood in Fairyland and then being thrust back into an abusive family as a twelve-year-old. Adds a serious element of FridgeHorror to the more famous example of the Pevensies returning to England and becoming young again. [[spoiler: The third book ends on a cliffhanger where it seems this has not happened and September's mother finds she is missing.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: September trading her shadow for the Pooka girl did in fact save that girl's life. It also later ended up putting Fairyland in great danger.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: [[spoiler: Mallow, the name Maud Elizabeth Smythe assumes in Fairyland.]]

* PunchClockVillain: The Glashtyn. [[spoiler: The Marquess forced them to pull the ferry under the river, but once free of her they are really nice.]]

* RightfulKingReturns: This is what several denizens of Fairyland-Below believe will happen if Prince Myrrh awakes from his sleep. [[spoiler: Subverted when the prince wakes up and, as September warned, he has no idea if he wants to be a king of anything.]]

* ShadowArchetype: Quite literally when Fairyland's shadows come to life. Shadows are the darker, hidden parts of the people they come from. [[spoiler: Particularly Halloween to September.]]
** In a less literal sense, [[spoiler: The Marquess/Maud to September. Like September, Maud was a little girl who came to Fairyland for adventure and became a hero there.]] September could easily become just like her if pushed too far.

** The narration mentions an orange book of [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek mythology]] that September is fond of. This is undoubtedly ''D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths'', which Valente has mentioned as one of her inspirations. On a related note, the Ravished--those who come to Fairyland by being stolen away and bound to Fairyland by eating the food--are covered in Fairyland's laws under the ''Persephone'' clause.

** The Stumbled--human children who find their way into Fairyland through side doors--are not allowed to stay. Eventually, whether after an hour or a lifetime, they have to go back to the human world and adjust to life there. [[spoiler: Mallow did not take this well.]]
** The Ravished--human children who are stolen to Fairyland--are not allowed to leave. Not forever. They make periodic trips back. Either way, there's secrets to keep for the rest of your life.
* SomeoneHasToDoIt: The winds. It's possible for the winds to be replaced, with different requirements for each one - some involve trickery, some involve saving the wind's life, some are the standard "defeat in battle" route.

* StarCrossedLovers: Jenny Chicory and Mabry Muscat, [[spoiler: the former and current Green Wind.]]

* TakingTheBullet: In the fifth book, [[spoiler: September takes a blow meant for the Green Wind... but she soon [[CameBackStrong gets better.]] ]]
* ThatManIsDead: [[spoiler: Mallow/Marquess. Though for a change, it is not entirely her fault. Rather the fairyland rules ''literally'' made Mallow disappear, though what happened afterwards is another story.]]

** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in the second book. First, [[spoiler: Gleam]] has no interest in rejoining the adventure, because they've found a new calling in life and a place to call home. Secondly, [[spoiler: September journeys with Ell and Saturday's shadows, but they betray her in service of ''their'' true companion: Halloween, September's shadow.]]

** [[spoiler: It turns out that the Marquess wants September to lock the portal which connects the human world to Fairyland, supposedly so that no child can get lost again. To persuade September, she shows her a watch with September's name on it, which determines the time she stays in Fairyland. Then it turns out that it's the Marquess's watch, whose true name is Maud Elizabeth Smythe, and that it's she who doesn't want to return or let any other child come. Then she reveals her backstory.]]

* UndergroundCity: Tain, and the entirety of Fairyland-Below

* {{Youkai}}: Fairyland residents include {{tanuki}}, as well as tsukumogami, who have their own island.

* AndTheAdventureContinues / {{Bookends}}: The last book has an epilogue where the Green Wind ([[spoiler:now September herself]]) invites a new child to Fairyland.

** The glass sphere that the Green Wind gives September. She finds it in her pocket when she's trapped at the bottom of a well, and crushes it to call the Green Wind, who is able to save her because she's technically [[LoopholeAbuse ''beneath'' Fairyland]].

* Myth/ClassicalMythology: The Ravished--those who come to Fairyland by being stolen away and bound to Fairyland by eating the food--are covered in Fairyland's laws under the Persephone clause.

* InWhichATropeIsDescribed: with chapters like "In Which a Girl Named September is Spirited Off By Means of Leopard, Learns the Rules of Fairyland, and Solves a Puzzle."

--> "All stories must end so, with the next tale winking out of the corners of the last pages, promising more, promising moonlight and dancing and revels, if only you will come back when spring comes again."

* ShoutOut: The narration mentions an orange book of [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek mythology]] that September is fond of. This is undoubtedly ''D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths'', which Valente has mentioned as one of her inspirations.

* SoWhatDoWeDoNow: The Stumbled--human children who find their way into Fairyland through side doors--are not allowed to stay. Eventually, whether after an hour or a lifetime, they have to go back to the human world and adjust to life there. [[spoiler: Mallow did not take this well.]]