History Literature / WhenWeWereAnimals

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Blackhat Roy Ruggle. Very rarely will he ever be referred to as anything other than BlackhatRoy, and if he's being called "Roy", it's PlayedForDrama.

** Also, the [[BelligerentSexualTension dysfunctional relationship]] between Blackhat Roy and Lumen has some [[TheMasochismTango decidedly]] [[RomanticAbuse dark undertones]], ending in a [[RapeAsDrama violent interlude]] that ultimately plays a part in someone's death.

* DyingDeclarationOfHate: Played with rather poignantly. Before leaping to his death at the quarry, [[spoiler: Blackhat Roy]] admits to Lumen that he hated her for what he had done to her and how he had made her feel, making it an [[AnguishedDeclarationOfLove anguished]] DyingDeclarationOfLove.

* HouseFire: The Fowler house burns down on prom night. [[spoiler: Marcus Fowler is trapped in the coal hole and killed in the blaze while searching for Lumen, whom he thought had come home.]] It's not explicitly admitted, but Blackhat Roy more or less tells Lumen he started the fire by accident.
* InnocenceLost: Lumen starting her period for the first time [[spoiler: after having violent sex with Blackhat Roy]] serves as a metaphor for this.
* InterplayOfSexAndViolence: The sex that the teens of Pale Miranda engage in during breach nights is said to be this, essentially. [[spoiler: Also, when Lumen confronts Blackhat Roy at his home, demanding he hurt her, before the two have incredibly violent sex resulting in Blackhat Roy seriously injuring Lumen.]]

* BrokenBird: Lumen.

* {{Delinquents}}: All the teens have shades of this when they go breach, but Blackhat Roy is the town delinquent.

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Blackhat Roy Ruggle, after cutting open Lumen's face while having sex with her, struggling with his feelings for Lumen, and accidentally burning her house down (and unwittingly killing her father in the fire), jumps to his death. He begs Lumen to help him, and she closes her eyes and lets him jump after saying she didn't know how.]]

* ChekhovsGun: Lumen's absence of a period, the "coal hole"--a small storage area in the house behind a hidden panel, where Lumen liked to hide as a child.

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Blackhat Roy Ruggle.]]

* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted. Lumen gets a deep gash in her face at one point, resulting in stitches.

** Lumen as well. She has no concept of boundaries, seems to be disconnected from reality as well as herself, and tends to exhibit behaviors of Depersonalization disorder. Jack seems to be aware that his wife isn't quite normal, and tells her that she has to get better once she is arrested for breaking and entering.

* EvilIsPetty: Rosebush. Early in the novel, prior to the breaches, she forces a child with Down syndrome to go into a dangerous abandoned mine shaft for her own amusement resulting in him becoming injured. Also, once she sleeps with Peter Meecham during a breach, she makes it a point to brag to Lumen, his girlfriend.

* ItsNotYouItsMe: Essentially how Lumen dumps Peter Meecham.

* PsychoticLoveTriangle: Peter Meecham, Lumen, and Blackhat Roy.
** Also Peter Meecham, Lumen, and Rosebush Lincoln.

* SatelliteLoveInterest: Pete Meecham.

* YourCheatingHeart: Peter Meecham sleeps with Rosebush Lincoln during a breach while in a relationship with Lumen. The breach is used to justify his actions, as those who are breaching are implied to not have much control over their behavior. While it doesn't lead to their breakup, it initiates the rift between them.

* HouseFire: The Fowler house burns down on prom night. [[spoiler: Marcus Fowler is trapped in the coal hole and killed in the blaze while searching for Lumen, whom he thought had come home.]]

--> ''“At the beginning...I wanted to break you. I really did. But I couldn’t. Then, later, I didn’t want to break you anymore. I wanted…the opposite. But something about me—my hands don’t work that way. And I broke you instead. It was an accident...I hated you for such a long time. At least that I was good at. Hate’s simple. It makes sense. You know it, too.”

* AllLoveIsForbidden: Blackhat Roy to Lumen. It's hinted that he doesn't quite understand his feelings for Lumen and struggles with them, in addition to his own insecurities and inadequacies. [[spoiler: This, in part, leads to his suicide.]]

* ForbiddenLove: Blackhat Roy to Lumen.

* YourCheatingHeart: Peter Meecham sleeps with Rosebush Lincoln during a breach while in a relationship with Lumen. The breach is used to justify his actions, as those who are breaching are implied to not have much control over their behavior. While it doesn't lead to their breakup, but it initiates the rift between them.

* YourCheatingHeart: Peter Meecham sleeps with Rosebush Lincoln during a breach while in a relationship with Lumen. It doesn't lead to their breakup, but it initiates the rift between them.

* EvilIsPetty: Rosebush. Early in the novel, prior to the breaches, she forces a child with Down syndrome to go into a dangerous abandoned mine shaft for her own amusement resulting in him becoming injured. Also, once she sleeps with [[spoiler: Peter Meecham]] during a breach, she makes it a point to brag to Lumen, his girlfriend.

* {{Yandere}}: Blackhat Roy has shades of this.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent Primal beasts ravaging a town during each full moon.]]

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent Primal beasts ravaging a town on during the full moon.]]