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1[[quoteright:330:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_chrysalids2.jpg]]
2
3->"And any creature that shall seem to be human, but is not formed thus is not human. It is neither man nor woman. It is blasphemy against the true Image of God, and hateful in the sight of God."
4
5'''Warning: Spoilers Ahead!'''
6
7''The Chrysalids'' is a ScienceFiction novel written by Creator/JohnWyndham, first published in 1955 and considered by many to be his masterpiece.
8
9Many centuries after a global nuclear apocalypse, northern Labrador and "Newf" are among the few places hospitable to human habitation, albeit very pre-industrial. Our story centers around the small farming community of Waknuk, ruled with an iron fist by fanatical SinisterMinister Joseph Strorm.
10
11The only document that has survived from the time of the "Old People" is the Bible, from which the current generation infer that "Tribulation" must have been a final, devastating judgement on human arrogance, ''a la'' the fall of Jerusalem. Taking this together with a later book called ''Repentances'', this new society develops what they believe to be the immutable Definition of Man, and aims to rebuild the world accordingly in the True Image of God.
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13In this theology born of ignorance and fear, any radiation-bred mutant (or "Deviation") -- no matter how slightly abnormal -- is interpreted as either an Offence (plants, lower animals) or, more horribly still, a Blasphemy: a human-shaped but soulless mockery of God's perfection sent by Satan to lure Man off the faint and narrow path to righteousness. They all must be ruthlessly rooted out and destroyed lest they contaminate the purity of Godly society. In the case of Blasphemies, there is just enough mercy that they are merely sterilized and banished (usually at birth) to the wild country known as the Fringes, to survive or not as they can.
14
15Against this backdrop our narrator, Joseph's son David, discovers along with several other children that they have a mutation that is not visible to the naked eye: they are able to communicate with each other by means of {{telepathy}}, or "thought-shapes". The story centers first on their efforts to conceal this ability, then their struggle to define it against what they and others understand as the Norm...
16
17...and then, finally, on their efforts merely to defend themselves at all costs. Because as much as their society loathes the deviants they can see and thus control, the notion of ones they ''can't'' terrifies them into all-out racial war -- a war which may only ultimately be winnable by a civilization still more ruthlessly determined to survive.
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19The story was adapted for radio by the BBC in 1982, and for the stage in 1999.
20----
21!!''The Chrysalids'' provides examples of:
22* ActionGirl: Sophie kills one of her fellow exiles to free Rosalind and Petra, and joins the fight against the attacking norms.
23* AbusiveParents: Joseph frequently beats David, and after he discovers his son was concealing Sophie from him, to the point that he has to spend the whole of the next day in bed to recover. And that's after the inspector refused to let his ''whip'' be used for this purpose.
24* AffablyEvil:
25** The inspector. He's shown as an amiable, basically humane bureaucrat who strongly objects to Joseph Strorm's harsh inflexibility, and his treatment of David particularly. He lets David off with a warning for failing to report Sophie because Joseph has already punished his son with a severe whipping. However he's also an unimaginative man who ''never'' questions his mission; it's indicated that this is why he takes part in the relentless interrogation of the captured telepaths, leading to their possible deaths.
26** Gordon Strorm also comes across as this, right up until he deliberately announces his intent to rape his nephew's fiancée (and, it's strongly hinted, is at least interested in his pre-adolescent niece).
27* AfterTheEnd: Several centuries at least; long enough for the extremities of the inhabited earth to be reclaimed from nuclear catastrophe.
28* AndManGrewProud: Thought to be the reason behind Tribulation. Ironically -- as David's uncle and SecretKeeper Axel points out -- even if this is basically correct, the new society has drawn exactly the wrong lessons from it.
29* AnyoneCanDie: Well, anyone in the supporting cast at least. There are ten telepaths at the story's outset and only [[spoiler:the five with major roles -- David, Rosalind, Petra, Rachel and Michael --]] survive to the end. Likewise several others close to David are killed or otherwise disappear.
30* ArchnemesisDad: Joseph Strorm is a terrible father who physically and psychologically abuses David on a regular basis, and ultimately seeks to hunt him to the death upon discovering that he is a telepath. David works hard to protect his loved ones (Sophie and her parents, Rosalind, Petra and the other telepaths) from Joseph with varying degrees of success.
31* ArtisticLicencePhysics: The Sealanders' helicopter is stated to consume fuel, which is why [[spoiler:they can't afford to rescue the other telepaths]]. However, it's not possible to build a chemical-fuelled helicopter that could travel from New Zealand to Labrador and back on one tank.[[note]]This plot hole eventually inspired [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12743255/1/Destination-Zealand a fanfiction]] exploring how it could have worked using a zeppelin.[[/note]]
32* AssholeVictim: Alan Erwin is specifically called out as this. Nobody's much upset when Joseph Strorm dies either, not even his children.
33* AsTheGoodBookSays: Not only the Bible, but also the ''Repentances'', which together have given rise to "The Definition of Man", the immutable truth on which the new society rests.
34* AuthorTract: Several pages are given over to philosophic discourses on the nature of man and God as they relate to evolutionary change and growth.
35* BewareTheNiceOnes: David, although since he's usually up against much tougher opponents, not very effectually.
36* BerserkButton: The mere mention of deviation is enough to inspire real fear and horror, as per the scene in which David innocently suggests he could've used a third hand to accomplish a task and is beaten for it. The inspector enjoys pressing Joseph's buttons specifically.
37* BigBad: Joseph Strorm is the story's main villain, though he is a representation of the superstitious hatred and prejudice that is rife in Waknuk and would remain even in his absence.
38* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:David, Rosalind and Petra are rescued by the Sealanders and taken to their shining city, where they will enjoy a safer, happier life in a ''much'' more advanced society. However, the as-yet-undiscovered Michael chooses to stay behind in Labrador to save his LoveInterest Rachel, we discover that Sophia suffered a wretched life in the Fringes before she is shot in the final battle, Sally and Katherine are caught and [[ColdBloodedTorture tortured]], Mark, another telepath, disappears, with his fate unknown and the [[LackOfEmpathy casual indifference]] and clear sense of superiority the Sealanders display towards the non-telepaths suggest that, in some ways, they aren't that much better than the people of Labrador.]]
39* BizarreBabyBoom: Something of the sort from the viewpoint of the children as their telepathic powers emerge.
40* BlackSheep: Aunt Harriet, after her ill-fated attempt to enlist the Strorms' help to save her mutant baby by switching her temporarily with perfect-seeming Petra. Although given the evil nature of David’s parents (especially Joseph), she might actually be closer to a WhiteSheep.
41-->'''David''': ''[narrating]'' It was as though she had been erased from everyone's memories save mine.
42* BlessedWithSuck: What all the telepaths struggle with for years after they become aware of their deviance. Articulated outright at one point thusly:
43-->'''David''': We had a gift, a sense which, Michael complained bitterly, should have been a blessing, but was little better than a curse. The stupidest norm was happier; he could feel that he belonged.
44* BookEnds: The novel begins with David dreaming about a futuristic city and ends with [[spoiler:he, Rosalind and Petra]] actually arriving there.
45* BrokenBird: Sophie. Forced sterilization, followed by "degradation to a savage", will do that to anyone.
46* CallingTheOldManOut: Joseph gets this from the inspector on a number of occasions. Notably, the use of 'great-horses', which have been approved by the Government as the result of controlled breeding, but which Joseph insists are Deviations due to their unusual height:
47-->'''Joseph''': It is your moral duty to issue an order against these so-called horses.\
48'''Inspector''': It's part of my ''official'' duty to protect them from harm by fools and bigots.
49* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: Sophie has, for obvious reasons, been told never to let anyone apart from her parents see her feet. But, shortly after meeting David, she ''takes her shoe off''. Admittedly, she was justified in doing so on that occasion as her foot had become stuck in a crack and there was no other way she could get free. However, she later removes her shoes to go paddling in a stream, leaves an incriminating footprint and is reported as a Blasphemy. Following an unsuccessful attempt to escape with her parents, she is forcibly sterilised and cast out into the Fringes.
50* CharacterDevelopment: David and the other telepaths are forced to this over the course of the novel. Rosalind goes so far as to deliberately construct a tough, cynical exterior to hide her fears.
51* CheerfulChild: Petra, whom even Joseph cannot resist spoiling, 'with an endearing lack of success'. Also Sophie, the six-toed little girl David befriends, before she and her family are captured and exiled -- making the hard, bitter woman we meet in the Fringes later that much more heartbreaking.
52* ChekhovsGunman:
53** Both David and Petra serve as this. David, because his strange childhood dreams allow him to confirm Petra's second-hand description of 'Sealand' (actually, as per its description, New Zealand); Petra, because her strong "thought-shapes" allow the Sealand woman to home in on her and thus know where to find the protagonists later.
54** The minor character Jerome Skinner, certainly. He's only seen in person for one brief scene, but he's the one who outs the protagonists to the authorities.
55* TheChosenOne: Petra is basically this to the Sealand community, with such an extraordinarily strong telepathic power that they're willing to cross the world to retrieve her.
56* ChurchgoingVillain: Joseph Strorm is a religious fundamentalist and the BigBad of the story. His father Elias Strorm also qualifies, with psycholigically abusing his wife into her grave being enough to peg him as a villain.
57* ChurchMilitant: Many of the preachers described in the story, but Joseph Strorm and his father (in flashback) are the prime examples.
58* ColdBloodedTorture: Of Sally and Katherine, in order to learn more about the telepaths. Just in case the reader has missed the wider implications to that point, we now learn that this is a society with no qualms about applying red-hot irons to an adolescent girl's feet.
59* CoversAlwaysLie: Over the decades, this book has attracted way more than its share of this trope:
60** Some older Penguin editions feature a bizarre-looking mutant on the cover with green skin, no mouth and lobster claws for hands. None of the mutants in the book look anything close to this.
61** Another features the faces of three of the children superimposed over a futuristic city that looks like it is straight out of ''Film/BladeRunner''. While there ''is'' the futuristic city Sealand, it only appears at the very end and the story ends before they even get there; going off of this cover it's actually easy to get a ways into the book before you realize it takes place AfterTheEnd in a small farming community with no technology whatsoever.
62** One paperback edition depicts the main characters fleeing into the Fringes fairly accurately... but tosses in a few small bird-dinosaur hybrids.
63** Another went with showing the Sealander rescue-ship flying over the deadlands... except it's a flying saucer instead of a fish-shaped helicopter.
64** One gorily displays [[spoiler:Petra's pony being killed by a wildcat]], which actually happens, but is about as far from the main thrust of the novel as you can get.
65** More than one edition features six-fingered hands, when only one pair of ''feet'' with extra digits appears in the book.
66* CrapsackWorld: If you're a 'deviant', this is the kindest possible description of the new Labrador.
67* CreepilyLongArms: The character David refers to as the "spider-man" (whose real name is Gordon) has arms and legs which are eighteen inches longer than they should be in proportion to his body. David is somewhat creeped out by him when they first meet and tries to stay out of range of his long arms; at their next encounter (which takes place several years later) Gordon appears no less freakish. And the fact that he has a somewhat {{squick}}y interest in teenaged girls like Sophie and Rosalind just adds to his overall creepiness.
68* CulturalPosturing: The Sealanders are especially prone to disparaging any non-telepathic societies as "savage".
69* CursedWithAwesome: Petra's telepathic ability is much stronger than that of the other main characters, especially for her age, and she's able to communicate with other telepaths over a distance of several thousand miles. Unfortunately, it first manifests when she's panicked and urgently compels the others to rush to her aid, and leads to the group's discovery the second time it happens. Even once she's trained and aware enough to control herself better, when she gets excited any nearby telepaths are stunned and "blinded" (the last scene is of her thus stunning ''the entire Sealand city'').
70* DaysOfFuturePast: Future Labrador is essentially a post-apocalyptic twist on the rural villages Wyndham and his initial readers would've grown up remembering, complete with EternalEnglish, distinctively British given names and Caucasian MonochromeCasting.
71%%* DeadpanSnarker: The inspector, and Michael.
72* DeathByIrony: [[spoiler:Joseph Strorm]] is killed by his own mutated brother [[spoiler:Gordon]].
73* DefrostingIceQueen: Rosalind. She has developed a tough persona to survive and endure, but David sometimes senses the more sensitive "under-Rosalind" peeking through.
74* DeniedFoodAsPunishment: Implied. In Chapter Three, David incurs Joseph's wrath by innocently remarking that he could have bandaged his own hand if he'd had more than two. Joseph interprets this as a blasphemous wish to be a mutant and has the entire household, who were about to sit down to their evening meal, pray for forgiveness. Afterwards, he sends David straight to his room to pray and to await a beating; there is no mention of anyone bringing food to David.
75* DeusExMachina: The arrival of the Sealand rescue party could be interpreted as literally this, given the descent of their shiny helicopter-esque transport at the height of the pre-industrial peoples' climactic battle. It's been foreshadowed throughout the latter part of the book, but they still actually show up at an awfully convenient moment.
76* DoubleStandard: As per the generally primitive attitude to biology, any woman who gives birth to three deformed or mutated children in a row may be 'sent away' by her husband... but apparently the husbands don't suffer any repercussions at all, instead being allowed to seek new wives. This would have been a problem for Emily had Joseph not become an AssholeVictim — she would have been sent away by Joseph, but given that Joseph’s own brother is a mutant, it’s very possible that Joseph himself is the source of his children’s mutations through genetics.
77* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Aunt Harriet -- her body is found in a river after Emily refuses to let her "borrow" the newborn Petra so her mutant baby, her third child, can be issued a normalcy certificate. And Anne, after David’s Uncle Axel murdered Alan to prevent him from exposing the other telepaths, including David]].
78* EarnYourHappyEnding: And how... at least for David, Petra and Rosalind. The other telepaths, not so much, unfortunately.
79* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: The futility of the current society trying so fiercely to regain what was ultimately destroyed is discussed at several points.
80* EternalEnglish: Despite having only the vaguest idea of the Old Ones' civilization, and no documents from it save the Bible (and that probably, from the internal evidence, the ''King James Version''), human society of many centuries hence still sounds remarkably like 1950s Britain, with perhaps a bit of similarly-vintage American dime novel thrown in. The Sealanders have a noticeably odd pronunciation -- presumably the descendant of the original New Zealand accent -- but can otherwise make themselves understood to David and co. with no trouble.
81* EvilVsEvil: Brothers Joseph and Gordon Strorm [[CainAndAbel are mortal enemies]] and both are evil: one of them is an abusive and sadistic religious tyrant, and the other is a would-be rapist.
82* EvilutionaryBiologist: An ironic step-sibling of this trope forms the basis of the novel. The primitive, theocratic society seeks to exterminate all mutants, whether plant, animal or human. While not [[TheSocialDarwinist Social Darwinists]] or scientists, the members of this culture are nevertheless striving to "restore" the purity of life on Earth, in an effort to get back into God's good graces.
83* ExtraDigits: Sophie has six toes on both her feet, which in the theology of the SinisterMinister Joseph Strorm, marks her as an inhuman Blasphemy created by Satan.
84* FantasticRacism: Taken up to eleven and going both ways for the Norms and the Blasphemies.
85* FateWorseThanDeath: In-story, being banished to the Fringes is considered this, as not only are Blasphemies officially not human (being considered instead the soulless spawn of Satan), they're forcibly sterilized and tossed into wild, savage country to survive or die as chance wills.
86* FeudingFamilies: On top of everything else they have to deal with, David and Rosalind's. Their fathers make a point of spying on each other's farms in order to publicly point out deviations in the crops or livestock. Still, the feud is the least of David and Rosalind’s problems.
87* {{Foreshadowing}}: David has a mysterious dream in the very first chapter, about -- as he describes them -- "carts driving without horses to pull them", fish-shaped machines flying, and shining cities with lots of lights; and he wonders if any such place really exists. When he asks his older sister, she suggests that it may be a description of what the world used to look like before Tribulation, then warns him not to tell anyone else about it. Of course, it later turns out it's not a dream...
88* FriendlyEnemy: The inspector sees himself as this to David. At least he’s more friendly than David’s own father.
89* FreudianExcuse: We learn early in the novel that Joseph Strorm is very much like his father Elias, who was even more harsh and unyielding. Joseph may also have been influenced by the banishment of his older brother Gordon, who was originally thought to be normal but developed unusually long limbs as he grew up. Of course, Joseph’s FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse.
90* TheFundamentalist: Strorm family retainer Old Jacob, deliberately introduced to represent this POV within the story. He considers one year's high rate of Deviations a judgement on the more progressive elements of his society for, among other things, no longer simply burning human mutants to death.
91* GunshipRescue: The Sealanders swoop into the battle between the Waknuk and Fringes people in their helicopter to recover the telepaths, killing all of the combatants with what is essentially a [[ProjectileWebbing giant web-shooter]].
92* HairMemento: The book is set in a post-apocalyptic society where any congenital anomaly is seen as the devil's mark and the affected person is cast out. When Sophie, a young girl with an extra toe on each foot, is forced to flee with her parents after her secret is discovered, she gives a lock of her hair to her friend David (the story's narrator) for him to remember her by. However, this becomes a TragicKeepsake, as David's father forces him to betray her, and she and her parents are subsequently captured, though David is assured that this happened by chance.
93* HeKnowsTooMuch: A heroic version. Uncle Axel deduces that Anne has told Alan about the group of telepaths, so he kills Alan in order to save the group from a very nasty situation that could result in all their deaths.
94* HeroicBSOD: Rosalind has one after being forced to shoot a man who was tracking her, David and Petra following the trio's flight from Waknuk.
95* HeWhoFightsMonsters: The Sealanders may be more advanced and enlightened than Labrador society in many ways, but -- as more than one critic has pointed out -- the two peoples share a very similar willingness to ruthlessly destroy any threat to their established 'norm'. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d to some extent by the Sealand woman, who views the Waknuk posse riding after the telepaths as fighting against their own inevitable extinction in the face of a superior human variant, and muses that they, the 'think-together people', will have to do the same one day.
96%%* HotBlooded: Rosalind, Michael and Sophie.
97* HumansArePsychicInTheFuture: One of the classic examples; Sealand, strongly suggested to be mankind's only viable remaining civilization by story's end, is entirely composed of telepaths.
98* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Both Uncle Axel and Rosalind kill to protect the group's secret, and both defend themselves this way.
99* IJustWantToBeNormal: Anne, after falling in love with a Norm. David also specifically prays this at one point, out of fear for himself arising from what he's witnessed happening to mutated crops and animals.
100* {{Irony}}: A recurring theme in the book. That Joseph Strorm, the most extreme of the mutant-hating population of Waknuk, has fathered ''four'' children that are mutants is just the tip of the iceberg.
101* {{Jerkass}}: Alan. So much so, in fact, that following his death, it's discovered that [[AssholeVictim he's made a number of enemies.]] Joseph Strorm is this trope taken to horrifying levels.
102* KickTheDog: When David's little friend Sophie and her parents are captured, Joseph announces it triumphantly to the inspector with David still in the room -- and then openly ''sneers'' when his ten-year-old son begins to cry.
103* KillItWithFire: If crops are discovered to be Offences, the whole field will be ritually burned on a clear day. [[TheFundamentalist Old Jacob]] fondly remembers the days when aberrant ''humans'' were dealt with this way as well.
104%%* [[KillAllHumans Kill All Mutants]]: A recurring theme. The tables are turned near the end of the novel.
105* KissingCousins: David and Rosalind. Well, they're [[NotBloodSiblings half-cousins]], anyway.
106* KnightTemplar: Joseph. As noted, he harshly punishes David when the latter makes an innocent remark about needing a third arm to tie a difficult knot, because he interprets it as David wishing to be a mutant.
107* LaserGuidedKarma: Joseph Strorm has been instrumental in getting numerous mutants banished to the Fringes. During the climactic final battle his mutant brother Gordon, likewise banished as a child, singles out Joseph in the crowd and shoots him dead. One could also argue that the fact that Joseph has ''four'' mutant children could be a form of karma since he’s such an extreme mutant-hater.
108* LoveMakesYouCrazy: Uncle Axel cites this as the reason why Anne's relationship with a 'normal' man poses an overwhelming threat to the safety of the group as a whole; whether out of guilt or self-abasement or some other passion, eventually she ''will'' feel the need to confess all. This proves to be even more accurate when you consider that the man Anne plans to marry, Alan, reported Sophie’s mutation when he was a child and will undoubtedly betray Anne as well, which is why Axel eventually murders Alan. Unfortunately, this causes Anne to become really crazy and she [[DrivenToSuicide hangs herself.]]
109* {{Masquerade}}: David and the other telepaths, being physically unremarkable, are able to hide these powers from the 'normal' populace for a very long time.
110* MatureWorkChildProtagonists: The main characters are all young children at the start of the story, and still only teenagers by the end - however, the novel involves a lot of [[AuthorTract extended philosophical ruminations]] regarding the [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman true nature of humanity]].
111* MercyKill: Given that they've just "overheard" the brutal torture of their fellow female telepaths, this is what Michael and David agree will happen to Petra and Rosalind at David's hand, if the trio are about to be caught by the same authorities.
112* MisBlamed: An InUniverse example. After Anne’s husband, Alan, is found murdered Anne thinks that one of the other telepaths killed him since they were all opposed to her relationship with Alan, who was “normal” (and the one who exposed Sophie as a mutant). This is probably why she tries to expose the other telepaths when she [[DrivenToSuicide kills herself.]] [[spoiler: It was actually David’s uncle Axel who killed Alan but not even David knew the truth until long after Anne killed herself.]]
113* TheMole: Michael, the best-educated of the telepaths and one of the few whose ability remains undiscovered, joins one of the groups hunting David and company in order to give them play-by-play information.
114* MonochromeCasting: Rather oddly given the location, there's no indication of Inuit or other ethnic diversity in Waknuk. Black skin is called out as a particularly strange deviation found only among more southerly (probably remnants of the Caribbean) peoples... which raises [[FridgeHorror some uncomfortable possibilities]] re: what might've happened to any previous minorities of color in the Labrador area, at the hands of the majority Caucasian population.
115* MoralLuck: At the end of the book, our heroes are trapped in a cave when TheCavalry show up, killing everyone else in the area. The bad news is, one of them is the protagonist's childhood friend Sophie, who is currently protecting him and his fellow fugitives. The good news is, the Sealanders' weapon ''doesn't'' kill her -- David explicitly sees her shot in battle just moments before they arrive. One wonders how the Sealand woman's speech about how 'necessary' their actions were would've gone over with David and co. had it involved Sophie's death in particular.[[note]]Although it's possible that she could have been rescued from the threads, just as the telepaths were.[[/note]]
116* {{Mutants}}: These are a common occurrence on post-apocalyptic Earth, and are called "deviants". However, seeing as it's a CrapsackWorld, they're immediately exiled or killed on discovery.
117* MutualKill: Essentially what happens with [[spoiler: Joseph and Gordon Storm.]]
118* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: David gets this on two occasions, when he tries to defend Sophie from Alan and Rosalind from his uncle Gordon.
119* NotSoStoic: Emily eventually shows herself to be this after Aunt Harriet's visit. And Rosalind's cool exterior is revealed to be a deliberate 'armour' for her real sensitive, vulnerable self.
120* OffingTheOffspring: Joseph Strorm joins one of the hunter bands seeking out David and Petra basically in order to do this.
121* OnlySaneMan: Initially at least, the Inspector, who clearly isn't as fanatical as the community he's posted to. Unfortunately, he is not imaginative enough to question his orders, which leads him to apparently take part in ColdBloodedTorture of poor Katherine and Sally. David’s Uncle Axel might be a straighter version of this, since he’s more experienced with the outside world and thus has a much less bigoted attitude than even the Inspector, as well as being willing to question the mores of Waknuk and helping David hide his abilities for a long time.
122* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Joseph Strorm once slew a neighbor's tailless cat as a Deviation, without waiting for the outcome of an appeal to the authorities. ''Then'' comes confirmation that there is in fact a recognized species of tailless cat[[note]]The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manx_cat Manx]][[/note]] with a well-documented history. The inspector is fond of citing this embarrassing blot on Mr. Strorm's KnightTemplar reputation.
123* OneWordTitle: The usual title is ''The Chrysalids'', but it has also been called "Re-Birth" or "Rebirth" in other editions.
124* OurAncestorsAreSuperheroes: Played with, given that current Labrador society has only the vaguest idea of technology (they do keep a basic steam engine around just as a sort of museum curiosity, being apparently totally uninterested in how it could be used). It's suggested the 'Old People' had superhuman intelligence, the power to move mountains at a whim, and could even fly. A companion rumor, first mentioned by Uncle Axel, holds that they could also communicate with each other over long distances -- just like David & company.
125* PetTheDog: The Inspector reassuring David that his forced confession did not contribute to Sophie and her parents being caught.
126* ProjectileWebbing: The Sealanders' helicopter is equipped with a device that entraps enemies in web-like, sticky strands. However, unlike most examples of this trope, the webbing chokes those trapped in it to death -- ''[[SinisterSuffocation slowly]]''.
127* ProperlyParanoid: Sophie and her parents at the start of the novel. As they grow more aware of their difference from the norm, the telepathic group as well.
128* PsychicChildren: David and company in the early part of the book, and Petra later on.
129* PunchClockVillain: {{Downplayed}} with the Inspector. He's AffablyEvil and clearly much more devoted to keeping his job than appeasing the fanatical [[KnightTemplar Joseph Strorm]], but it's implied he participated in the [[WouldHurtAChild torture of Sally and Katherine]] later in the story.
130* RadiationInducedSuperpowers: Nuclear fallout can apparently give you PsychicPowers. To be fair, most of the other mutations that show up in the book are pretty realistic and many, like Sophie's extra toes are things that can occur naturally. In fact, it's entirely possible that so much time has passed since modern times that many "deviations" are a result of evolution simply taking its natural course.
131* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Rosalind's reaction when she's threatened with it is handled like this, with the normally entirely self-contained girl breaking down in hysterics at the thought of being violated by what she sees as a literal monster.
132* TheResenter: All the telepaths toward their powers, at some point.
133** Anne goes so far as to try to 'stop' herself in order to marry a norm.
134** Sophie becomes this toward Rosalind when the two meet later in the novel; not so much because she sees her as a rival for David and/or Gordon, but that Rosalind's untouched beauty -- and presumed fertility -- throw Sophie's sense of her own futile existence into sharp relief.
135** Gordon is this toward his younger brother Joseph Strorm as well. He was banished to the Fringes as a child for having spider-like limbs, losing his rightful inheritance as the oldest son to Joseph.
136* RunForTheBorder: David, Rosalind and Petra are forced to do this after being officially branded as outlaws from 'normal' human society.
137* SecretKeeper: Sophie's parents and David's Uncle Axel hide knowledge about people with mutations, to the point Axel murders Alan to preserve it. To an extent, Aunt Harriet and Rosalind's mother (whose sad but unsurprised reaction showed that she knew why Rosalind was leaving even if she and Rosalind never discussed Rosalind's telepathy openly) leading David to wonder just how many other mothers might be out there willing to take chances for their slightly-abnormal offspring...
138%%* SinisterMinister: Joseph.
139* SitcomArchNemesis: The inspector's early exchanges with Joseph have some humorous but deep set antagonism.
140* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: David starts the novel on the idealistic side, but eventually winds up toward the cynical. Rosalind is deliberately on the cynical side for the majority of the novel, but the very end of the story, she's allowing her idealistic side to show. Michael is unabashedly on the cynical side from the outset, as is the woman from Sealand. Near the end, pretty much everyone is flat-out cynical about their situation, little Petra being the only exception.
141* SpellMyNameWithAnS: The main characters debate about whether Sealand's name should in fact start with an "S" or a "Z." The get confirmation that it's 'Z', but refer to 'Sealand' anyway as it makes more sense to them.
142* TheStoic: David's mother Emily, based on her interactions with him. Rosalind is largely this way as well, even toward David her LoveInterest at times.
143* SympatheticMurderer: Uncle Axel murders Alan in order to save David, Rosalind, and the other telepaths from discovery and almost certain death.
144* TapOnTheHead: David gets knocked unconscious a couple of times and recovers without ill effects.
145* {{Telepathy}}: What sets David & company apart from the surrounding Norms of Waknuk, and by contrast is the driving force behind the Sealand society; it's called "thought-shapes" or 'thinking-together' by those who have it. They can communicate only with each other, and only receive what's sent (although Petra is beginning to evince an uncomfortable ability to detect 'behind-thinks'). They share this with the Sealand woman and the majority of the members of her society, with "normal" humans being the exception for them. It's hinted that Sophie's mother may have limited telepathic ability as well, but it's not something she's aware of. David actually tests her but cannot make contact.
146* TrainingFromHell: Inverted when the TrueCompanions seek to teach Petra how to control her abilities, after said abilities first emerge. Petra's willing and eager to learn under David's tutelage, but it turns out to be torturous for the ''trainers'' because Petra is CursedWithAwesome.
147* TrueCompanions: The eponymous group, out of necessity. Made explicit when David tries to explain to Uncle Axel why killing one member would be unthinkable for the others, even if it meant the their own lives.
148%%* {{Tsundere}}: Rosalind is a definite Type A.
149* VigilanteMilitia: There are unofficial militias in the protagonists' hometown who remain ready to defend their land and people by fighting off invaders from the Fringes, who kidnap people and steal crops ready to defend their land and people. Of course, the residents of the Fringes were cruelly exiled to the limits of the known habitable world by the community as a whole, and often by their own families) just for having birth defects, so the people who make up the militias don’t exactly have the moral high ground.
150* WellDoneSonGuy: Very much averted with David, who makes only the most token efforts at appeasing his father's beliefs and mostly stays out of sight whenever he can to avoid being assigned chores. He comments towards the end of the novel that he never really expected to inherit the family farm, even before being forced to flee into the Fringes (and given the fact that his father’s an absolute monster, David might not want to inherit the farm either.)
151* WorldHalfFull: Despite living a world nearly irrevocably destroyed, David and his friends still end their journey on a note of hope for their future, and that of civilized humanity.
152* WouldHurtAChild: Most Blasphemies are discovered and hence banished to the Fringes as ''newborn babies'' by the people of Labrador, and any discovered as older children suffer the same fate. The Waknuk authorities searching for the telepaths also have no problem torturing Sally and Katherine in an attempt to find their location.
153* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: We never do find out just what happened to Sophie's parents after they left Waknuk and were captured (although we can guess, concealing a mutant being a serious crime). We also don't find out what happened to Uncle Axel, or for that matter the rest of David and Rosalind's family. The fate of Sally and Mark, the telepaths who abruptly stop transmitting, is also left vague; the others assume they're dead, and we know Sally is at least deeply traumatized, but the concrete details are never given the reader.
154* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: One of the most famous extended meditations on the theme.
155* YouCantGoHomeAgain: The main characters will never be able to return to Labrador after their rescue by the Sealanders -- not that they'd want to, though.

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