History Literature / ThemOrUs

* BetrayalTropes: Everyone is looking out for #1, so there is plenty of betrayal going on. Most notably... DoubleAgent, TheMole, TheMutiny, etcetera. And various instances of MistreatmentInducedBetrayal to help motivate Danny into deciding which team he wants to help.

* EvilVersusEvil: BarbarianTribe versus BarbarianTribe

* GoalInLife: Now that the Unchanged are gone, most Haters don't have one.
* TheHeroDies: [[spoiler:Danny's more of VillainProtagonist or AntiVillain, but the point stands.]]

* PresidentEvil: Hinchcliffe killed Lowestoft's previous leader and took his place. It's implied that Chris Ankin isn't much better.

* UnstoppableRage: Hinchcliffe, whenever he gets pissed, which doesn't take a lot.

* AbandonedArea - Everywhere.
* AfterTheEnd and many of the subtropes, but especially ScavengerWorld. The few thousand people in Lowestoft make up half the population for the whole country, and the other half spread here and there across the land. 1/3 are not expected to survive the winter. [[spoiler:And the battle between Ankin and Hinchcliffe nearly wipes out everyone in Lowestoft.]]
* AtomicHate - The bombs have stopped dropping, but the effects are still being felt by the survivors.
* AwesomeButImpractical / BlessedWithSuck - Danny's ability to "hold the Hate" - the ability to NOT kill the Unchanged -seems pretty useless in a world with no Unchanged, and he constantly fears YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness. Danny has managed to get on the good side of one of the new leaders, Hinchcliffe, who sees other qualities in Danny, and continues to send him out to spy on other Haters. As Hinchcliffe puts it, his other talent is the ability to blend in, "You're forgettable. No one notices you. No one even gives you a second glance."
* AxCrazy: Hinchcliffe, like you wouldn't believe.
* BackAlleyDoctor - What anyone with any medical credentials has been reduced to.
* BegoneBribe - Among other types of bribery.
* BetrayalTropes - Everyone is looking out for #1, so there is plenty of betrayal going on. Most notably... DoubleAgent, TheMole, TheMutiny, etcetera. And various instances of MistreatmentInducedBetrayal to help motivate Danny into deciding which team he wants to help.
* CampUnsafeIsntSafeAnymore - Lowestoft.
* CantKillYouStillNeedYou - Hinchcliffe to Danny
* ChaseScene - A car chase.

* ConspicuouslyPublicAssassination - How Hinchcliffe is introduced, by publicly killing the former leader and hanging his body up for all to see.
* DeadlyDoctor - Rona Scott, who has killed people, being a Hater and all... She also recommends suicide for a guy with cancer. "Take one bullet before bedtime. May cause headaches and drowsiness."
* DeadpanSnarker - Rona Scott. Also, Danny tries to be this.
* DeathByIrony - A certain person with IncurableCoughOfDeath refuses cigarettes, proclaiming, "Those things will kill you." He's already showing symptoms of ''Series/TheBigC''.
* DeathOfAChild- Danny imagines a far-flung future where Haters have rebuilt society proper, and there is a hospital with a delivery room for women to have their babies. The room is divided down the middle with tape, with medical supplies on one side and weapons on the other. If the newborn is a Hater, it is nurtured and allowed to survive. If the newborn is Unchanged, it is killed. However, he shouldn't worry too much as no children ever seem to be killed directly by a Hater, but rather turned into ChildSoldiers. [[spoiler:Near the end, some children are chased,]] but no kids are killed "onscreen". Though Danny has the rare ability to "hold the hate" (control his Hate to the point of not killing Unchanged) all Haters seem to have the ability to hold the hate when it comes to Unchanged children, especially since the Hater leader has demanded that none of the children be killed, so they can be brought to the Hater's lair to be experimented on by the local doctor so that Hater children won't be feral and Unchanged children won't be so cowardly. Danny finds their corpses later. They died of ParentalNeglect thanks to their new MadDoctor mommy Rona Scott, but not savagely attacked like the adults. At one point, Rona Scott throws a glass jar at a child, but purposefully misses and smashes it against the wall near the child.
* {{Denouement}} - Averted. Mysteries are not unraveled, fates are not determined and explanations are not made.
* DespotismJustifiesTheMeans - The mindset of the leaders.
* {{Determinator}} - Most of the Haters, especially the Brutes and children.
* DisposableVagrant - The "underclass".
* DrowningMySorrows - Danny after the prostitute.
* DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans - Hinchcliffe's mentality, among others, including Danny.
* EatTheDog - A delicacy in a nuclear wasteland without food.
* TheEmperor - Hinchcliffe, a GeniusBruiser / {{Jerkass}} / SmugSnake. He's fairly ruthless, which earns him the EmbarrassingNickname K.C. which is short for "King Cunt". Hinchcliffe will do anything to secure his status as leader of TheEmpire.
* TheEndOrIsIt[[spoiler: - The last of the Unchanged are sailing away to live in peace, and Danny dies. The last thing that he sees is two children fighting. Does that mean that there will be no peace? Also, he isn't described as "dying" as much as simply shutting his eyes after slipping in and out of consciousness for days as the battle wounds and cancer take their toll, but does he really die immediately, or is there another tale to be told with Danny?]]
* EvilVersusEvil - BarbarianTribe versus BarbarianTribe
* {{Exposition}} - Most of what is happening in AWorldHalfFull is explained to Danny, and experienced by the reader via Danny's first-person PointOfView.
* FetusTerrible - Danny imagines what would happen if a woman was pregnant with twins, one a Hater and one an Unchanged, and he imagines the fetuses attacking each other like fetal shark pups do.
* FoodAsBribe
* FreedomFromChoice - A philosophy that is discussed.
* GangBangers - Any given leader and the thugs.
* GetItOverWith - Spoken by characters when facing what seems like certain death, as well as Danny's motto for any given task.
* GoalInLife - Now that the Unchanged are gone, most Haters don't have one.
* [[spoiler: TheHeroDies: Danny's more of VillainProtagonist or AntiVillain, but the point stands.]]
* HeartwarmingOrphan - A few of the children melt the heart of a cranky old Hater.
* HistoryRepeats - Danny's personal history, as well as socio-political squabbles, repeats themselves. Danny, so dissatisfied with his job and people in general in the first book, must cling to groups of people for survival and take on other dissatisfying jobs to remain in more groups of people, noticing many parallels, navigating socio-political games in order to survive. As before the war, he finds himself in cliques, bullied by people who have power over him. More hierarchy battles for leadership with the elite always oppressing everyone else. The leader often wants to be leader not because it's for the greater good, but rather because it secures the greatest chance for survival. Danny is as miserable as he's ever been because this all sounds so familiar, and life as a Hater seemed to offer a chance at being a really cool, primal badass, which was untrue.

* JustFollowingOrders - An excuse used by a few people, but mostly Danny.
* JustLikeUs - In one of many tirades, some people try to point out that Haters and Unchanged are this as well as each other.
* KickTheDog - Hinchcliffe [[spoiler:kills Rufus with a wrench to the face]] mostly just to vent anger, but with a little bit of [[IWillPunishYourFriendForYourFailure punishment]] mixed in. Hinchcliffe also has many verbal KickTheDog moments.
* KickThemWhileTheyAreDown - Many times, most often by Hinchcliffe. Many people will mortally wound someone else, and then deliver a kick or kicks to a tender part of the body such as the kidneys or the face.
* LighterAndSofter (AWorldHalfFull) - Whereas ''Literature/DogBlood'' was DarkerAndEdgier compared to Literature/{{Hater}}, this one is shades lighter than either. [[spoiler: Danny's turn as [[HappyEnding savior of the Unchanged]] and [[ChildrenAreInnocent savior of innocent, doe-eyed children, giving them candy as he rescues them]] after learning the error of his ways, and leading them to the ConvenientEscapeBoat, not to mention how all of his bodycount in this book is tinted with MercyKill,]] definitely makes this LighterAndSofter.
* LostTribe - The last nest of Unchanged that Danny uncovers, which results in a [[spoiler:NearVillainVictory]]
* MacheteMayhem - Many prominent deaths are by machete.
* MeetTheNewBoss - TheBigBadShuffle shows ruthless leader after ruthless leader, each killing the last for leadership, or savaging any threat to leadership, all of whom simply want to be on top in order to increase their own individual chance of survival by being on top.
* MercyKill - Danny's justification when he kills the last starving, infected, miserable Unchanged is to A) End their suffering, telling himself and others that, "It's better this way," and, "Don't delay the inevitable." And B) Get the war over with, to stop the fighting, because once the Unchanged are all gone, the Haters can live in a Peace & Love {{Utopia}}... flawed logic since all Haters do is bicker and squabble and backstab.
* MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold - Danny.

* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: Rona Scott
* MysteriousBacker [[spoiler: - Ankin for Warner.]]
* ANaziByAnyOtherName - The Haters and their FinalSolution, especially the ones who do experiments on children.
* NotQuiteDead [[spoiler: Hinchcliffe pulls one of these.]]
* OrphansOrdeal - [[WouldHurtAChild Rona Scott]] and her OrphanageOfFear, where she acts as [[TheCorrupter child corruptor]], and [[ParentalNeglect child neglecter]] and [[InvoluntaryBattleToTheDeath forces children to fight each other to the death]].
* TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}} - The paranoia was saved for the "other team" in previous novels, but now it's every man for himself. As Jonathan Maberry puts it: “David Moody spins paranoia into a deliciously dark new direction."
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain - Almost inverted when Hinchcliffe mentions that he'll kill anyone, even if that person is a "Black Lesbian Jew." Used to show that Haters don't care about any of the things that society has used for excuses to discriminate: Race, sexual orientation, or religion, for example. The only discrimination is reserved for Haters and Unchanged. Violence against Unchanged is business, violence against Haters is personal.

* RapePillageAndBurn - Lots of pillaging, lots of burning, and some implied rape and borderline rape.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech - Delivered several times by Hinchcliffe to Danny.
* ReducedToRatburgers
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere - Danny's dozen [[NotSoGreatEscape thwarted escape attempts]].

* ShellShockedVeteran - Danny has nightmares about the nukes and what happened to his daughter.

* TheShortGuyWithGlasses - Rufus, only his glasses got broken and lost.
* SillyReasonForWar - In this case, really no reason at all, other than that people can be separated into different groups or teams that have no real differences other the title of their team, like a football game, and any real or imagined differences between different members of the team. The only real difference is the increased adrenaline that sharpens the senses and increases the physical strength and speed of the Haters, a difference that only seems to happen during battle.
* SlidingScaleOfGenderInequality - Because of the Hate, Hater women can easily overpower Unchanged men and take out a dozen people. However, Hater women are still weaker than Hater men, and therefore suffer in a society where there are no Unchanged, and Haters rule mostly by physical strength.
* SmallSecludedWorld - Lowestoft.
* StandardEvilEmpireHierarchy - People are separated into the leader, the generals, the best fighters, the switchbacks, and the underclass. The underclass are divided into beggars, scavengers, and thieves. There are also Brutes, which were guard dogs in the last novel, but are regarded as too much of a wild card in this novel to be allowed in Lowestoft.
* StickyFingers - How people survive, even though it often gets them killed.
* StormingTheCastle[[spoiler: - Ankin's volley for Hinchcliffe's land]].
* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler: Hinchliffe tries to do this using Danny's grenade.]]
* TechnicalPacifist
* {{Trilogy}} - It's the third book, following ''Literature/DogBlood'', so this series is known as the Literature/{{Hater}} trilogy.

* WarIsGlorious - Some people love it.
* WarIsHell - Or, as Danny calls it, a "purgatory."
* WhileRomeBurns - Hinchcliffe's room, where he smokes cigarettes, eats food, drinks clean water, sleeps in a cozy bed, has sex, enjoys the heat, and plays videogames on England's last working television as everyone else succumbs to the elements, gets infections, starves, gets radiation poisoning, and generally gets DrivenToSuicide.

* CoitusEnsues - A session between Danny and the woman is described in flat, dry, technical terms, and has no real effect on the plot in the long run.
** TheOldestProfession - The woman is a prostitute, who has sex for food, and she gets double rations if she gets pregnant.
** BabyFactory - The scene takes place in a whorehouse, and the reason for the whorehouse is to repopulate society.
** LieBackAndThinkOfEngland - What the prostitute is doing.
** YouNeedToGetLaid - The reason Danny goes to a prostitute is because Hinchcliffe tells him to.
** QuestionableConsent / RapeByProxy - Danny has had no sex drive up until this point. Danny is afraid to say no to Hinchcliffe, and the sex carries all of the emotional turmoil for Danny that comes along with rape.[[spoiler:.. and also motivates him to try to leave Lowestoft for the first of many times, '''almost''' averting the CoitusEnsues trope by having some purpose.]]

* FiveManBand
** BigBad: Hinchcliffe, leader of Lowestoft.
** TheDragon: Llewelyn, Hinchcliffe's second in command.
** TheBrute: Curtis, Llewelyn's fighter deputy who brags about his kills.
** TheEvilGenius: Dr Rona Scott, who's job is to program unchanged children into haters.
** TheDarkChick: Rufus, comic relief errand boy/messenger.
** SixthRangerTraitor: Danny, who wants nothing to do with Hinchcliffe or anyone else.

* "KillEmAll!" - Spoken by Johanson.

* InfantImmortality - Semi-averted. Danny imagines a far-flung future where Haters have rebuilt society proper, and there is a hospital with a delivery room for women to have their babies. The room is divided down the middle with tape, with medical supplies on one side and weapons on the other. If the newborn is a Hater, it is nurtured and allowed to survive. If the newborn is Unchanged, it is killed. However, he shouldn't worry too much as no children ever seem to be killed directly by a Hater, but rather turned into ChildSoldiers. [[spoiler:Near the end, some children are chased,]] but no kids are killed "onscreen". Though Danny has the rare ability to "hold the hate" (control his Hate to the point of not killing Unchanged) all Haters seem to have the ability to hold the hate when it comes to Unchanged children, especially since the Hater leader has demanded that none of the children be killed, so they can be brought to the Hater's lair to be experimented on by the local doctor so that Hater children won't be feral and Unchanged children won't be so cowardly. Danny finds their corpses later. They died of ParentalNeglect thanks to their new MadDoctor mommy Rona Scott, but not savagely attacked like the adults. At one point, Rona Scott throws a glass jar at a child, but purposefully misses and smashes it against the wall near the child.

* FiveBadBand

''Literature/ThemOrUs'' is a novel by [[http://www.djmoody.co.uk/ David Moody]], which follows ''DogBlood'' in the ''Literature/{{Hater}}'' series.

** The only time Unchanged children are attacked and killed by Haters, is when the Haters are also children, but not in this specific book. Adults never attack children. And it's never shown, only described as something that has happened in the past, especially in DogBlood.

* LighterAndSofter (AWorldHalfFull) - Whereas DogBlood was DarkerAndEdgier compared to Literature/{{Hater}}, this one is shades lighter than either. [[spoiler: Danny's turn as [[HappyEnding savior of the Unchanged]] and [[ChildrenAreInnocent savior of innocent, doe-eyed children, giving them candy as he rescues them]] after learning the error of his ways, and leading them to the ConvenientEscapeBoat, not to mention how all of his bodycount in this book is tinted with MercyKill,]] definitely makes this LighterAndSofter.

* {{Trilogy}} - It's the third book, following DogBlood, so this series is known as the Literature/{{Hater}} trilogy.

''ThemOrUs'' is a novel by [[http://www.djmoody.co.uk/ David Moody]], which follows ''DogBlood'' in the ''Literature/{{Hater}}'' series.

!!TROPES: