A part of the extensive mythos of the Metropolis Chronicals, by James Doyle, Shell tells the story of Jasmine Lockhart, a girl burdened with the ability to see ghosts. Along with her spirit guide, Griseous, she has protected her town since she was a child. As she enters the seventh grade she meets a boy named Julian Mc'Cloud who seems mysterious and taciturn. Along with her Big Brother Mentor Jason, she fights the ghosts and demons of her town, until the arrival of an unsettling spirit named Shell who wants to drive Jasmine insane and take over her body.
Tropes Include:
- Abusive Parents: Julian's are shown to be emotionally distant, but not necessarily abusive. Jasmine's mom is too much of a Cloud Cuckoo Lander to notice that Jasmine's stepdad is this until it's too late.
- Adults Are Useless: Averted with Jason, who is nineteen and in college. Played straight with Jasmine's parents who don't suspect a thing about her supernatural activities.
- All There in the Manual: Well, all there in the author's hard drive. Understanding the backstory of the characters' souls isn't important to enjoy the book on its own, but it reveals a lot about Shell's motives.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: The Slender Man definitely qualifies.
- Break the Cutie: Shell's mental abuse ends up driving Jasmine to suicide.
- Chekhov's Skill: Julian teaches Jasmine how to tie a hangman's knot while practicing for Boy Scouts. It ends up being used pretty well for what it was intended.
- The Chosen One: Jasmine is implied to be this. She isn't.
- Dark Is Evil: Played straight with the Slender Man, the Shadow Children, and nearly every ghost, not to mention the Metropolis Chronicals' Dragon, Necropolis Dark. Subverted with Griseous, who's a demon working for Aeon.
- Driven to Suicide: The climax of the book. Combined with Bittersweet Ending since Jasmine is shown through her letter to Julian (written after she dies) to be at peace.
- Our Angels Are Different: Julian and Jasmine are both angels in their true nature.
- Our Souls Are Different: Very, very different.
- Shout-Out: Numerous ones, but the ones to The Slender Man Mythos, with Slendy being the main villain for about half of the book, are the biggest.
