History YMMV / BioShockRapture

* OneSceneWonder: There is only one chapter that stars [[MadArtist Sander Cohen]], It's [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible about]] what you'd [[MuseAbuse expect]].

** Sander Cohen and his infamous act of [[spoiler:forcing a youth to screw an octopus]] at a wild party.

** The novel makes clear that Frank and Tenenbaum's relationship was, at least temporarily, sexual in nature. What little the novel shows is basically Tenenbaum asking Frank to simulate forcing her into it, because despite wanting it herself she can't stand being touched.

* TheWoobie: Bill [=McDonagh=] and his family. [[spoiler:Even moreso in how they manage to escape, but he does not.]]

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Many fans were eager to read this mainly to learn more about the backstory of Johnny Topside, since those who played the game before reading the book knew he eventually [[spoiler:becomes Subject Delta, the player character in the second game]]. Those fans were disappointed to learn that, aside from recapping how he came to be in Rapture and the main contending theories as to why he was there (there are fears he's either a government agent or an investigative journalist, both of which were already covered in the game and neither of which are confirmed or denied in the novel), he's absent from the book. In fact he never even appears on-page, he's just mentioned a couple of times in passing.

* {{Narm}}: Characters dropping what they are doing to record the Audio Diaries from the games.

* CompleteMonster: The novel-exclusive [[DirtyCop Pat Cavendish]] is a constable for Rapture who uses his position to abuse and bully anyone he wants. Cavendish routinely brutalizes and tortures prisoners of Rapture, regardless of their level of guilt, and is the most [[KillerCop trigger-happy constable]] in the city, always wearing a grin while gunning down suspects. Seeking to line his pockets with extra cash, Cavendish begins kidnapping citizens and handing them off to [[MadArtist Sander Cohen]\ to be nightmarishly murdered, and also kidnaps young girls to sell them to [[MadScientist Dr. Yi Suchong]] to be experimented on. When sent to capture Bill [=McDonagh=] for execution, Cavendish gleefully plans to take in the man's wife and daughter as well [[ForTheEvulz just because he can]], and attempts to gun down one of his fellow constables when the man tries to show mercy to Bill's family.

** Tenenbaum having rough sex with Frank. She's basically asking him to simulate raping her because she can't stand being touched any other way.

* {{Narm}}: Character dropping what they are doing to record the Audio Diaries from the games.

* CompleteMonster: Frank Fontaine demonstrates he's as much of a monster in this as he is in the original game. He murders the actual Frank Fontaine and steals his identity to get into Rapture, just as the start of what he does. It gets even worse as Fontaine obtains power and manipulates so many people into ADAM addictions so he can rake in the profits. There's also how he exploits Diane [=McClintock=], one of his most loyal followers, and cruelly stabs her to death after she accidentally walked in on him posing as Atlas. You really get a feel of the monster he's further transformed into by the events of the first game.

* TearJerker: A ''huge'' one occurs at the end when [[AscendedExtra Bill]] [[spoiler:saying goodbye to his wife and daughter, knowing that though they'll survive he'll be shot by his former friends as soon as they leave, and furthermore recognising that his young daughter probably won't remember him.]]

* Narm: Character dropping what they are doing to record the Audio Diaries from the games.