Line #51 Literature/HeartsBlood


1	[[quoteright:237:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/HeartsBlood_3900.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:237:Medieval Ireland meets "Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast"]]
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4	Written by Creator/JulietMarillier.
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6	A young woman runs away from her abusive relatives and finds herself in Whistling Tor, a shadowy place filled with secrets and spirits. Caitrin is offered a position as a scribe in the court of the chieftain, Anluan. She quickly discovers that a curse blankets the entire household and that it has brought despair to their leader. Caitrin takes it upon herself to bring hope back into the hearts of the people, and maybe discover a way to break the Tor's ancient curse. In response, she is challenged by Anluan to face her own fears while helping him with his own.
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8	Even with light finally returning to the household, a voice continues to sow hopelessness among human and spectral alike. To free all who are chained, Caitrin must face her destiny and unravel the curse of Whistling Tor before it claims Anluan, or herself.
9	----
10	!!This book contains examples of:
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12	* AFatherToHisMen: Magnus, mostly for Anluan, although the others look up to him a great deal as well.
13	* BeastAndBeauty: Anluan's not exactly hideous-looking, but his deformity doesn't help his self-esteem. Caitrin frequently comments on his good looks. The only time she really talks about his deformity is to say that his face is uneven (and the rest of him seems lopsided). She never says that he's ugly.
14	* BecauseYouCanCope: Irial dies shortly after his wife does, leading Anluan to feel like he was abandoned and Magnus to feel like [[FailureToSaveMurder he could have prevented it]].
15	* BigBadFriend: [[spoiler:Muirne's]] presence doesn't do much to lift Anluan's spirits. She later reveals that there's a reason for that.
16	* BreakHisHeartToSaveHim: Anluan sends Caitrin away after she discovers that he cares deeply for her. [[spoiler:She later realizes that he's trying to protect her from the upcoming battle against the Normans.]]
17	* CameBackWrong: Nechtan's army didn't quite materialize the way he wanted it to.
18	* CharacterFilibuster: Caitrin's speeches about hope.
19	* CunningLinguist: Caitrin is initially hired because she can read and write. Then she becomes the translator for Anluan and the Normans because Latin is their common language. Later, she uses this same Latin knowledge to [[spoiler:translate the counter-spell needed to free Anluan's army.]]
20	* DarkAndTroubledPast:
21	** Anluan’s family history, from his dead parents all the way back to his great-grandfather Nechtan who summoned the spirit army.
22	** Caitrin's isn't exactly bright and cheery either. Her father's dead, her sister married and left her, and a distant relative took over the house and allowed her son to beat Caitrin when he felt like it.
23	** The members of the host are all souls from Purgatory. Some of them seem to have particularly violent pasts.
24	* DomesticAbuse: Cillian likes his women covered in bruises.
25	* DoomedDefeatist: Anluan. His response to every threat is to throw his hands in the air and admit defeat.
26	* EvilOrphan: Bad things seem to happen every time the ghost girl is left alone.
27	* EvilSorcerer: Nechtan, Anluan's great-grandfather, was responsible for summoning the spirit army.
28	* FindTheCure: After [[spoiler:Anluan]] is poisoned, Caitrin must find the antidote and brew it without knowing what kind of poison it is or where the antidote is written, all in less than an hour.
29	* FromNobodyToNightmare: [[spoiler:Muirne/Aislinn went from aide to apprentice to antagonist in a very short span of time.]] Her greatest achievement was pulling the latter off ''without anyone knowing it''.
30	* GoodFlawsBadFlaws: Anluan's temper scares Caitrin at first. As she gets to know him, she sees his temper as proof that he's not only qualified to lead people, but that he also genuinely cares about them and is afraid of failing in their eyes.
31	* GreatBigBookOfEverything: Not really one book, but [[spoiler: Aislinn's]] book and Irial's botanical collection together include all the information relevant to the plot.
32	* HairTriggerTemper: It doesn't take much to set Anluan off.
33	* ImpossibleTask: Anluan must get rid of the host, conjured by a spell he can't find, with a counter-spell that was seemingly never discovered.
34	* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Muirne. She's rude and cold to everyone in the house. When she does choose to help out, it's either because her bond to Anluan mandates it or [[spoiler:she has a devious agenda.]]
35	%%* LastOfHisKind: Olcan.
36	* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: [[spoiler:Pretty much every major death in Whistling Tor is made to look like an accident by Muirne. She would have gotten away with it if she hadn't tried to fire trick twice.]]
37	* MagicMirror: Whistling Tor is filled with them. Some of them talk, some show the history of events on the Tor, and one even shows the viewer what the past might have looked like. Caitrin discovers one that, if she holds a document in one hand, shows the contents of the parchment with images.
38	* NonHumanSidekick: The majority of Caitrin's helpers are from the host.
39	* OddFriendship: Rioghan and Eichri, councilor and priest, are constantly insulting each other and betting against each other. They fail at concealing their ghostly HeterosexualLifePartner status.
40	%%* OppositesAttract:
41	%%** Caitrin and Anluan, on the surface anyway.
42	%%** Magnus and Maraid could also fall into this trope.
43	* ParentalAbandonment: Anluan's father, Irial, committed suicide when his son was just a child to escape the pain of losing his wife. [[spoiler:Caitrin later discovers that Irial was actually poisoned by Muirne when he decided to stop mourning and start raising Anluan.]]
44	* ProdigalFamily: Caitrin runs away from Market Cross to escape her abusive family.
45	* RebelliousRebel: Muirne makes quite a few arguments against defending her home.
46	* SummoningRitual: The cause of all the hoopla on Whistling Tor in the first place.
47	* TalkingToTheDead: Since quite a few of Whistling Tor's inhabitants are spectral, it's kind of hard to avoid this.
48	* TheNothingAfterDeath: How the host describes the afterlife. Eichri even says that he fears boredom on this plane more than the fires of Hell.
49	* TroubledButCute: Angry orphaned Anluan, to Caitrin, anyway.
50	* WithholdingTheCure:
51	** [[spoiler:Muirne/Aislinn]] hides both the counter-spell and the cure for Anluan's poison [[spoiler:in the workroom]] just to spite the household.
52	** [[spoiler:Aislinn]] did curse everyone after [[spoiler:Nechtan used her.]] It was probably more of a precaution to make sure the curse was carried out.
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Context Literature / HeartsBlood