History VisualNovel / PumpkinEater

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: [[spoiler: After the Mother has killed a random boy to replace the Boy's decaying body, the Girl hears her brother encouraging her to run away and bring their parents to justice. The game leaves ambiguous whether the Boy's spirit was communicating with her or if she has gone mad like her parents.]]

* OnlySaneMan: PlayedForDrama. The Girl is the only member of the family who never entertains the delusion that her brother is still alive, and she suffers because of it.
* OffingTheOffspring: Downplayed in that the Boy's death was an accident, but he was still killed by his own parents.
* OfCorpseHesAlive: The Mother is driven mad by grief after her son's death and forces the family to play along and pretend he's still alive.

* YourHeadAsplode: How the Boy met his end.

* AccidentalMurder: What happened to the son when the Father accidentally ran over him.

* VillainousBreakdown: Happens to the Mother towards the end of the story [[spoiler: when she murders a random boy and starts hallucinating that her dead son is telling her to murder her daughter, which she attempted to do so.]]

* VillainousBreakdown: Happens to the Mother towards the end of the story [[spoiler: when she murders a random boy and afterwards, starts hallucinating that her dead son is telling her to murder her daughter, which she attempted to do so.]]

* VillainousBreakdown: Happens to the Mother towards the end of the story [[spoiler: when she murders a random boy and afterwards, starts hallucinating that her dead son is telling her to murder her daughter, which she doesn't hesitate in trying to do so.]]

* AdultFear: Killing your child in a freak accident just because you didn't look both ways while driving.

* AdultFear: Killing your child in a freak accident just for not looking both ways while driving.

** The Father, despite feeling guilt over keeping the Boy's corpse around and hurting the Girl, he still proceeds with conspiring with the Mother out of fear of losing his reputation. [[spoiler: Even the narration states that nobody mourns his demise when he commits suicide in prison.]]

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: The Girl's friends start avoiding her at school because the corpse's stench has been rubbing on her. [[spoiler: She doesn't get treated well in the orphanage either.]]
* AngstySurvivingTwin: The Girl.

* BittersweetEnding: With so much emphasis on the "bitter" part that it's only marginally not a DownerEnding. [[spoiler: The Mother and Father were arrested for their crimes, but the latter commits suicide in prison. The Boy's body can finally be laid to rest (what's left of him anyway) and the Girl is sent to an orphanage, left traumatized by the horrors she saw.]]

* BodyHorror: We see the Boy's corpse rotting with each passing day, from his body changing color, getting open sores and his limbs falling off.

* ItIsDehumanizing: The Girl starts referring to her brother's corpse as an "it", aware that he's long gone. [[spoiler: She uses "him" again after the Boy's spirit encourages to escape from the house.]]
* ItsAllAboutMe: The Boy's death brings out the worst in the Mother, becoming selfish and manipulative. Best seen when [[spoiler: she casually disposes of the Boy's decaying corpse to replace it with the freshly murdered corpse of a random child and pretend it's the Boy.]]
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: [[spoiler: After the Mother has killed a random boy to replace the Boy's decaying body, the Girl hears her brother encouraging her to run away and bring their parents to justice. It leaves it ambiguous as to whether the Boy's spirit was communicating with her or if she has gone mad like her parents.]]
* NoNameGiven: The family doesn't have any names, except their titles. It's even worse in the Boy's case, whom we never see his face back when he was alive. However at the end it's revealed the Girl's name is [[spoiler: Gloria]].
* RedOniBlueOni: The Boy and the Girl respectively. The Boy was naïve, impulsive and reckless (which resulted in his death) while the Girl is calm, rational and thoughtful (which helps her endure the madness in her house).
* SanitySlippage: The Mother starts going off the slippery slope after the death of her son. Not only she pretends that the boy is alive and puts makeup on him when he starts to show signals of putrefaction, she gets violently with the Father and the Girl when they don't want to keep the charade. [[spoiler: It culminates with her killing a random boy to replace her son's decaying body and trying to murder the Girl because "her son told her to do it".]]
* SlaveToPR: The Father cares about his reputation more than his family. He refuses to tell anyone what happened to his son, not wanting to be judged for accidentally killing him. He also goes along with the Mother's delusions to keep up appearances.

* OnlySaneMan: PlayedForDrama, The Girl is the only member of the family that never entertains the delusion that her brother is still alive, and she suffers because of it.
* OffingTheOffspring: Downplayed that it was an accident, but still.
* OfCorpseHesAlive: The Mother is driven mad by grief after accidentally killing her son, and forces the family to play along and pretend he's still alive.
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Justified, since the story happens in the 50s.
* TheUnfavorite: Back when the Boy was alive, it was clear he was favored over the Girl. This gets worse after his death, with his mother prioritizing keeping the corpse intact than her daughter's sanity.

* NoNameGiven: The family don't have any names, except their titles. It's even worse in the Boy's case, whom we never see his face back when he was alive. However at the end it's revealed the Girl's name is [[spoiler: Gloria]].

* SanitySlippage: The Mother starts going off the slippery slope after the death of her son. Not only she pretends that the boy is alive and puts makeup on him when he starts to show signals of putrefaction, she gets violently with the Father and the Girl when they don't want to keep the charade. [[spoiler: It culminates with her killing a random boy to replace her son's decaying body and trying to murder the girl because "her son told her to do it".]]

* YourHeadAsplode: How the Boy meets his end.

A boy is innocently playing outside, where his head is crushed by a car while his parents weren't looking. Mad with grief and denial, the mother puts a jack-o-lantern on his corpse, forcing the family to play along and pretend he's still alive. [[FromBadToWorse Things go downhill from there]].

* ChildrenAreInnocent: Averted. The Girl is completely aware that her brother is death and assimilates it better than her grief-stricken mother.

Not only does he give a scathing speech towards the wrongly accused Nica en route to jail in a deleted scene, Officer Stanton also turns out to be corrupt and is duly rewarded.

* OffWithHisHead: How the Boy meets his end.

* WouldHurtAChild: As her sanity slips with each day, the Mother won't hesitate to hurt the Girl if she refuses to play with her delusions. And let's not get into the "accidentally run over your child" thing....

* NoNameGiven: The family don't have any names, except their titles. It's even worse in the Boy's case, whom we never see him face back when he was alive. However at the end it's revealed the Girl's name is [[spoiler: Gloria]].

* SanitySlippage: The Mother starts going off the slippery slope after the death of her son. Not only she pretends that the boy is alive and puts makeup when he starts to show signals of putrefaction, he gets violently with the Father and the Girl when they don't want to keep the charade. [[spoiler: It culminates with her killing a random boy to replace her son's decaying body and trying to murder the girl because "her son told her to do it".]]

* SanitySlippage: The Mother starts going off the slippery slope after the death of her son. Not only she pretends that the boy is alive and puts makeup when he starts to show signals of putrefaction, he gets violently with the Father and the Girl when they don't want to keep the charade. [[spoilers: It culminates with her killing a random boy to replace her son's decaying body and trying to murder the girl because "her son told her to do it".]]

* WouldHurtAChild: As her sanity slips with each day, the Mother won't hesitate to hurt the Girl after she refuses to play with her delusions anymore. And let's not get into the "accidentally run over your child" thing....

--->''But more importantly, he loved his image.''

A boy is innocently playing outside, where his head is crushed by a car while his parents weren't looking. Mad with grief and denial, the mot her puts a jack-o-lantern on his corpse, forcing the family to play along and pretend he's still alive. [[FromBadToWorse Things go downhill from there]].

* SlaveToPR: The Father cares about his reputation more than his family. He refuses to tell anyone what happened to his son, not wanting to be judged for accidentally killing him. He also goes along with the Mother's delusions.

* DaylightHorror: The majority of the stories take place during the day.

A boy is innocently playing outside, where his head is crushed by a car while his parents weren't looking. Mad with grief and denial, the mother puts a jack-o-lantern on his corpse, forcing the family to play along and pretend he's still alive. [[FromBadToWorse Things go downhill from there]].

* BeyondRedemption: The Girl silently endures what her mother puts her through because she hopes she'll accept the Boy's death and return back to normal. Killing a random boy to use his body as a spare for the Boy is what finally convinces the Girl that her mother can't be helped.
* BittersweetEnding: With so much emphasis on the "bitter" part that it's only marginally not a DownerEnding. The Mother and Father were arrested for their crimes, but the latter commits suicide in prison. The Boy's body can finally be laid to rest (what's left of him anyway) and the Girl is sent to an orphanage, left traumatized by the horrors she saw.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: After the Mother has killed a random boy to replace the Boy's decaying body, the Girl hears her brother encouraging her to run away and bring their parents to justice. It leaves it ambiguous as to whether the Boy's spirit was communicating with her or if she has gone mad like her parents.
* NoNameGiven: The family don't have any names, except their titles. It's even worse in the Boy's case, whom we never see him face back when he was alive. However at the end it's revealed the Girl's name is Gloria.

* BeyongRedemption: The Girl silently endures what her mother puts her through because she hopes she'll accept the Boy's death and return back to normal. Killing a random boy to use his body as a spare for the Boy is what finally convinces the Girl that her mother can't be helped.

* OffWithHisHead: How the Boy meets his end.