US edition
A Kind of Spark is the debut novel of Scottish children's author Elle McNicoll published in 2020 during the COVID-19 Pandemic.A prequel novel centring on Keedie, simply titled Keedie, was released in April of 2024.
A 10-episode TV series adaptation was released on the BBC iPlayer in March 2023, late debuting on the CBBC Channel, with a parallel subplot about one of the young women accused of witchcraft in the Juniper of the 16th century. Season 2 was released in April 2024.
A Kind of Spark contains examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: The TV series adds things that weren't present in the book, such as additional background on Audrey, several new characters, and an entire subplot taking place in the 1590s, involving a supposed witch named Maggie Frasier.
- Adaptational Location Change: The novel is set in Scotland, but in the show, while the location is never explicitly stated, all the characters have English accents.
- Adaptational Nice Girl: In the book, Jenna openly refused to associate with Addie after befriending Emily, made no effort to help her when Emily was bullying her, and was generally unrepentant about everything. In the series, while at first she's still complacent in Emily's bullying, she eventually comes to learn the error of her ways, helps Addie out of trouble in the end, and the two rekindle their once strained friendship, even going so far as to call Emily out on her bullying after all is said and done.
- All of the Other Reindeer:
- Addie and Keedie are treated as unusual and frequently misunderstood by their community, ranging from condescension to outright bullying.
- Addie believes that the women who were accused of witchcraft were an example of this, singled out for differences in socializing and behaviour.
- The Atoner: In the series, Jenna realizes how cruel she's been to Addie and how her complacency in Emily's bullying has negatively affected her friendship with Addie, and with Audrey's help, she gets the courage to not only stand up to Ms. Murphy on Addie's behalf, but call out Emily for what she's done.
- Author Avatar: Two in one book: writer Elle McNicoll has said that Addie is herself as a younger child and Keedie is herself as a young adult. Like Addie, McNicoll had a childhood fascination with sharks and witches and both characters are autistic like McNicoll herself.
- Babysitter from Hell: Addie and her sisters, Nina and Keedie were left in the care of a local woman who worked as a social worker, Mrs Craig who physically abused Keedie because she refused to eat the dinner Mrs Craig made for her. Addie remembers her throwing a plate and pinning Keedie to the floor until a neighbour heard the screaming and intervened. Addie remembers that Keedie didn't come out of her room for days afterward.
- Bad Influencer: Nina shows shades of this, choosing to work on a video instead of watching Addie and having Addie appear in a video without anticipating people trolling her.
- Be Yourself: Keedie worked so hard to mask her autism at university that she ended up with massive burnout. Meanwhile, she made no real friends, and almost lost touch with who she really was. She warns Addie not to repeat her mistake.
- Big Sister Instinct: Nina and Keedie both fiercely defend Addie to her cruel teacher when she's almost suspended for beating up a bully.
- Canon Foreigner:
- The TV series adds in a subplot depicting the Juniper witch hunt in the 16th century, following Maggie Frasier, a new character created solely for the series, alongside her sister Elinor, the maid Beth, and the witch hunter Adam Quinn running parallel to Addie in the present day trying to solve the mystery of what happened to Maggie.
- Nina’s boyfriend Frank is also a series original.
- Character Tics: Addie and Keedie both flap when they're happy or overwhelmed. They go to great effort to suppress it in public.
- Commonality Connection: Addie is close to Keedie because they're both autistic.
- Cool Teacher: Mr. Allison. Although he’s the school librarian, he’s far kinder to Addie than her actual teacher, encouraging her campaign and interests and allows her to eat her lunch in the library.
- Creator Cameo: Elle McNicoll makes a cameo appearance in the last episode of the TV adaptation as one of the crowd during Addie's final speech.
- Crush the Keepsake: Emily cuts up Addie's beloved thesaurus and writes "RETARD" inside. Addie beats her up and almost gets suspended for it. In the series, this is changed to Emily destroying Maggie's journal, which Addie used to try and figure out what happened to Maggie, and writing "FREAK" on one of the pages.
- Diagnosed by the Audience: Invoked In-Universe: Many of the witches were seen as imbeciles or madwomen which makes Addie suspect they might have been autistic.
- Establishing Character Moment: Miss Murphy's very first scene shows her verbally degrading Addie and ripping up her assignment because she couldn't read it, ordering her to rewrite it instead of trying to read it or help her find another way.
- Femininity Failure: Addie's friend Jenna once made her try to paint her nails during a sleepover. She just made a mess.
- Freudian Excuse:
- Emily bullies Addie because she has dyslexia or something similar, and tries to make herself feel better by making others feel worse.
- Miss Murphy is said to be continually stressed out because of having to take care of her ill mother.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: However, the narrative makes it clear that Emily and Miss Murphy can’t use their troubles as an excuse to hurt others.
- A Friend in Need: Audrey is always quick to stand up for Addie when Emily and her goons bully her, from calling her out for her cruel treatment to being the only kid to make an attempt to stop her destruction of Addie's property, even if she's too late to do so. She even backs Addie up when she and another teacher go to confront Miss Murphy about it.
- Happy Place: Addie imagines swimming side by side with a shark, exploring shipwrecks, caves, and reefs.
- Hates Small Talk: Addie likes the librarian, Mr Allison, because he never asks boring questions about how her holidays were or how her sisters are doing - he just gets straight to talking about books.
- The Illegible: Thanks to her motor control problems, Addie has poor handwriting, which results in her teacher Miss Murphy ripping up her story, throwing it away, and screaming at her for writing "lazily."
- Internet Jerk: Keedie's twin Nina, an internet influencer, features Addie in one of her makeup videos. The comments immediately fill with people either calling her a tragedy or questioning if she can really be autistic if she can talk, including a video reply with a woman insisting Addie is cursed. Nina deletes the replies, but Keedie still tells her off for it, accusing her of trying to get pity clicks for having a disabled sister.
- Ironic Name: Miss Murphy, a teacher who bullies Addie and Keedie because they are autistic; is revealed to be named Greta in the TV adaptation.note
- Line-of-Sight Name: In the TV adaptation, Frank needs to distract a librarian while Addie looks in the restricted section of the library. After spotting a book titled Titania, and noticing that the librarian is holding a pen, he says he's looking for a book by Titania Biropen.
- Nice Girl: Audrey, the new girl who moves into town, becomes friends with Addie quickly and is always nice to her.
- No Full Name Given: In the book, Ms. Murphy is only referred to by her last name. In the series, she's given the first name Greta.
- No Sympathy: Addie is often treated with this. Also averted in a "no empathy" way, when a man states that it's nice to see an autistic person with empathy, referring to a well-known myth about autistic people lacking empathy. Of course, Addie's the first autistic person he's ever met.
- Only Friend: At Nina and Keedie's fourteenth birthday party, Nina had lots of guests, but Keedie had no one except Bonnie, another autistic girl. Nina sat by quietly while her friends made fun of the two. Keedie quietly took any insults directed at her, but let everyone have it for mocking Bonnie. Now Nina hasn't heard from any of her "friends" since they started university, while Keedie never forgot Bonnie even after she was involuntarily committed.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
- Miss Murphy tries to provoke Addie by doing this to prove her point, although they are mostly accusations that are not true ("I know you cheated on that test" for example) and outright insults.
- Keedie tears into Miss Murphy for her ableism and emotional abuse of Addie.
- Sadist Teacher: Miss Murphy, Addie's teacher is cruel to her in class and was the same to Keedie when she in primary school. When Addie attacks Emily for destroying her thesaurus, she is quick to assume Addie's violent outburst was for no reason before hearing the whole story and still refused to believe otherwise, even when presented with evidence (even attempting to silence anyone who tries to tell her Addie's side).Her very first scene depicts her ripping Addie's assignment and telling her to rewrite it because she herself couldn't make the effort to read it due to Addie's writing coming across as illegible. She also keeps trying to get Addie put into a special school because she doesn't want to deal with her, even though just about all of Addie's former teachers liked her and considered her good at working independently. After Addie’s parents learn what she put their daughters through, they file a complaint against her (with the implication that she’ll be investigated for discrimination) and Addie is put in a different class.
- Sensory Overload: To Addie, loud noises feel like a drill against a sensitive nerve. She also hates flickering or buzzing lights.
- Shout-Out: To Little Shop of Horrors. Audrey refers to the 1986 movie when she explains that she was named after the plant in the movie, which was actually named after one of the human characters.
- Stealing the Credit: Doesn't exactly happen, but Addie is given no credit for the memorial she spent most of the book trying to have made. She doesn't mind too much, because at least the memorial was made.
- The Three Faces of Eve: The Darrow sisters can be seen to each fill in for one of the archetypes of the triad, with Addie as the child or the most innocent of the sisters, Nina as the more socially outgoing and fashionable, and Keedie as the wise and responsible one.
- Title Drop: Addie says in her speech, "My Grandpa always said, people like me in the past might not have been the most sociable. Or the chattiest. But while everyone else was around the fireplace gossiping, we were out finding electricity. That's what my autism is. It's a kind of spark."
- Town with a Dark Secret: Juniper is a quaint little Scottish village... that also killed several women for witchcraft in its past and shuns autistic children and adults in the present day.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: The TV series' episodes are divided into two parts, with one taking place in the modern day and focusing on Addie and the characters from the book, and the other taking place in the 16th century, focusing on Margaret Frasier and solving the mystery of why she got accused of witchcraft and what happened to her.
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: In the adaptation when Miss Murphy becomes chairperson of Juniper council.
- Wish Fulfilment: Elle McNicoll has said that Addie having Keedie as a protective, mentoring, fellow autistic older sister represents her own wish that she had had someone like that when she was growing up.
