Line #9 YMMV/JacquelineWilson


1	* {{Anvilicious}}: Wilson really seems to dislike the creep of American English into Britain and frequently disparages it through her characters. Protagonists and those around them will comment on how people are "supposed" to speak and react derisively when others use American expressions, and it is even used as a turning point for Rhiannon in ''Candyfloss'', as she starts speaking in an American accent just as she starts to think about ditching Floss (this is probably, though, because it is what Margot is doing, which shows Rhiannon is breaking away from Margot). Although, in ''Dustbin Baby'', April herself writes about "jocks", which definitely is normally associated with American English.
2	* DesignatedVillain: Rose from ''Double Act''. Ruby and Garnet, who are the POV characters, hate her with a passion because she starts dating their father and eventually becomes their step-mother, viewing her as a ReplacementScrappy to their mother, Opal. They describe her as awful and interfering but it's obvious, particularly to older readers, that she's just a normal woman who wants to be part of their family. They warm up to her in the end, though Garnet does so quicker than Ruby.
3	** Sam from "Lizzie Zipmouth" and Mark from "The Lottie Project", for exactly the same reason as Rose, though Lizzie's reasoning for disliking Sam is because she doesn't trust him after her mother's previous abusive partner, so her dislike of him is understandable, if eventually proved false. Also, their respective children, Rory and Jake (Sam's kids, Jake more justifiably so as Rory makes an effort to be friendly), and Robin (Mark, although he's not ever really a villain, as Charlie does consider him cute, though wimpy).In Mark's case, Charlie still seems to be pretty down on him, by the end of the book, but puts up with him because she gets on with Robin.
4	* FridgeHorror: When you re-read the books when you're older you realise just how bad the situations a lot of the characters are in are. Honourable mentions of some of the most serious themes portrayed in the books include death (accidental and suicide), domestic abuse, terminal and mental illness, homophobia, homelessness, ephebophilia, drug abuse, sexual assault, and bullying.
5	* HilariousInHindsight: The protagonist of ''The Bed and Breakfast Star'' is named Elsa, after a famous lion. She notes how unique her name is - but as of 2013, [[WesternAnimation/Frozen2013 this isn't necessarily true.]]
6	** It's still (as of 2015) hard to find girls her age with that name, though.
7	** Ruby, Garnet and Opal...[[WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse who knew they'd become actual living space gemstones]]?
8	* JerkassWoobie: Holly in "The Worry Website," whose mother left her and her father and baby sister Hannah (and later dated a jerkass who was mean to Holly and Hannah), forcing her to take care of Hannah more often than not. When her father starts dating Hannah's teacher Miss Morgan, she is incredibly rude and immature towards her (even when Miss Morgan tries to reach out to her, although this does eventually work out for both of them), and is also very insensitive towards her classmate Samantha- who also went through a similar situation of divorce.
9	* LesYay: Happens a lot in her books, especially in ''Best Friends'' with Gemma heartbroken over Alice moving to Scotland and reacting with extreme jealousy when Alice makes another friend, Flora.
10	** Violet's descriptions of Jasmine in ''Midnight'' come off as quite romanticised - Marnie and Terry even point out Violet sounds like she has a crush on her and Violet doesn't exactly deny it.
11	** Karen's HeroWorship of Louise can come off a bit like a onesided PrecociousCrush.
12	** Sylvie in "Kiss" is utterly bowled over by Miranda and even imagines what it would be like to kiss her at one point.
13	* NightmareFuel: The graphic [[spoiler:suicide]] scene in ''Literature/DustbinBaby''. Kudos also goes to the scene in which Dolphin finds Marigold in ''The Illustrated Mum'' after Star has left them. Having painted herself completely in toxic paint to hide her tattoos, Marigold then goes on to ramble about using a razor to remove them, but doing so would be too bloody.
14	* PeripheryDemographic: A lot of adults read her books, some of whom read them as children and still read them even now. It's not unheard of for parents or teachers to develop an interest in her books after seeing plenty of young girls read them, either.
15	** In Lucy Pearson's book on Wilson's works, she mentions that a course she teaches involves reading ''The Illustrated Mum''. Many students get excited because they remember reading it when they were children, and then they reread it and remark on how upsetting it is from an adult perspective. Wilson thinks it's because an optimistic child is more likely to think that Marigold is going to get better and will be able to look after her daughters again, while adults realize how precarious the situation is. Wilson herself admitted that she isn't sure about what will happen, but she knows Marigold will do her best to get better for her girls.
16	* SanitySlippage: Two notable characters are Jade from ''Vicky Angel'' and Marigold from ''The Illustrated Mum''. Vicky's death hits Jade so hard that it renders her practically numb throughout most of the book suffering from extremely realistic hallucinations of Vicky, involving talking with her, hearing her, and being controlled by her, with Vicky at one point convincing Jade to commit suicide. It's likely a result of her grief, but people who suffer from schizophrenia experience very similar, realistic delusions. Marigold collapses from a mental breakdown and ends up hospitalised after her eldest daughter abandons her and her sister to be with her father. It's so visceral that you can almost feel it building up throughout the story, little things Marigold does and her gradually-becoming-more-unstable behaviour tells the listener that it's all going to go wrong soon.
17	* TearJerker: Plenty, but special mention should go to [[spoiler: Tina's attempted suicide in ''Falling Apart''. It's heartbreaking. Jodie's death in ''My Sister Jodie'' is also hard to read without tearing up. Just try and keep those last few pages in focus. Vicky's farewell to Jade after growing wings and finally being able to move on after her death in ''Vicky Angel''. Not death-related, but instances such as Marigold's mental breakdown in ''The Illustrated Mum'' and Jayni's mum getting breast cancer are particularly difficult to read through, especially if you've experienced witnessing a loved one go through the same situations.]]
18	** In ''Vicky Angel'', as many people who suffer from grief do, Jade discusses with the reader how she's thought of suicide to be with Vicky, including her graphic thoughts on the correct method to do it. It also seems like Jade's dad misses ''Vicky'' more than he cares about how her death has affected Jade, [[{{Squick}} even kissing a picture of Vicky.]]
19	** Dolphin tearfully shouting that she isn't ''anybody's'' favourite after Star leaves to be with Micky and Marigold is distraught without her. Even though Dolphin tries hard to keep Marigold happy, she knows Star is Marigold's favourite child, and her biological father has his own family.
20	* ToyShip: Most of Wilson's books have this in some form. With the exception of ''Kiss'', ''Dustbin Baby'', ''Love Lessons'', ''Opal Plumstead'' and the ''Girls'' series, all of her protagonists from Tracy Beaker onwards are under 13 years old.
21	* ValuesDissonance: A reader who discovers Wilson's older, out-of-print books will notice many aspects of UK culture that have changed since the 1980s. They also use some language which would not be considered acceptable in the 2020s.
22	** ''The Other Side'' ends with Allison being reunited with her mother, who is recovering from a mental breakdown and will be released from hospital soon. Wilson states in an afterword that Allison will probably be fine in the end, since she's used to taking care of her mother and Chrissie. Today, it would be considered much less acceptable to put the responsibility of care for a young child and mentally ill adult onto a 14-year-old. Wilson seems to acknowledge this in later works; ''The Illustrated Mum'' makes it clear how much Star is struggling with being the "parent" figure for both Marigold and Dolphin.
23	** Danny in ''Deep Blue'' has Down's syndrome and is subjected to some ableist comments from other characters. Later books such as ''Dustbin Baby'' and ''Love Lessons'' also feature characters with Down's, but they are treated far more sympathetically.
24	** In ''Amber'', the eponymous protagonist's mother is a free spirit and former commune-dwelling hippie. "Amber" is a fairly normal name in the UK these days but would have been considered very unusual in 1986, when the book was first published.
25	** In the ''Girls'' series, Nadine and Magda (aged 13-14) are dismissive of "schoolboys" and want a boyfriend who is at least 18 - even after Nadine's experience with Liam, who preyed on young teenage girls. Modern readers would be more likely to see ''any'' grown man wanting to date a girl of Nadine and Magda's age as suspicious.
26	** Mandy in ''Bad Girls'' is self-conscious because her parents are "old"; they had her in their mid-late forties, and are now nearing their sixties. It's now much more socially accepted for children to have older parents, and there would likely be others in Mandy's class.
27	** In ''This Girl'', Deb describes how she had a teenage pregnancy and her boyfriend abandoned her, but she kept the baby because she believes abortion is murder. At the time of publication in the 1980s, this would have been a far more common and moderate viewpoint than it is today.
28	** Wilson herself has stated that she would not write ''Love Lessons'' now, because attitudes to teacher-student romance have changed so much.
29	** It's a plot point in ''Midnight'' that [[spoiler:Will]] was adopted, but [[spoiler:he and Violet]] were never told about it. Today, it's expected that children who are adopted as babies will be told from an early age, and will be encouraged to keep in touch with their biological parents wherever possible. Wilson gives a very different take on the subject in ''Baby Love'', in which it is taken for granted that none of the young women in the mother and baby home Laura goes to want to give up their children, and all will look for them in the future.
30	* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: ''Take a Good Look'' is about a partially sighted girl who decides to go out shopping alone even though she's not allowed, and is caught up in an armed robbery. It faced criticism when it came out for being aimed at 6 to 9-year-olds despite the disturbing descriptions of the heroine being threatened and violently attacked by people she can't see. This is probably the reason it isn't in print any more.
31	** Most of Jacqueline Wilson's works fall under this trope. Even though the stories are told from the perspective of children aged 13 or under, they are often themed around real family problems as well as other forms of fears, all of which become even more terrifying when read by an actual adult. The endings are not completely happy, either.

Context YMMV / JacquelineWilson