Awful Auntie is a book by David Walliams, who also wrote Mr. Stink. The story follows Stella, a 13-year-old girl who lost her parents in a car accident and who is left in the care of her emotionally abusive Aunt Alberta.
The following tropes are present:
- Artistic License – Biology:
- Stella is said to have broken every bone in her body due to a car accident that killed her parents, yet she can still move all her limbs and speak. In reality, if she had broken all her bones, her cervical would've been snapped, rendering her quadriplegic. In addition, her skull would've also taken a strong impact, rendering her in a vegetative state and therefore unable to respond to any stimuli, let alone speak. Justified, as Stella turns out to only be in bandages as she was being kept captive. Still, considering the damaged state of the car, it is implausible that Stella would not be quadriplegic.
- Aunt Alberta apparently taught Wagner, an owl, to urinate in a urinal, although birds do not urinate the way mammals do.
- Big Sister Bully: Aunt Alberta was this to her younger brother Chester as a child.
- Friendly Ghost: Soot, the ghost of a long-dead chimney sweep, becomes a vital and dedicated ally to Stella.
- Invisible to Adults: Children can see ghosts until they turn thirteen and become teenagers. When Stella reaches her thirteenth birthday, Soot vanishes from sight in front of her, but not before he tells her to continue believing in ghosts with her heart.
- Impoverished Patrician: Aunt Alberta's gambling has squandered the family fortune and left Saxby Hall in a state of disrepair. Stella's father has taken steps to ensure the deeds to the house stay out of her hands as consequence, hiding them in the one place she'd never look. the rulebook for Tiddlywinks.
- Interclass Friendship: Stella, the present Lady Saxby, and Soot, a chimney sweep. This poses as a stumbling block to their friendship initially due to Soot doing things like blowing his nose all over the floor and informing Stella of another chimney sweep defecating on the floor, but they soon overcome it.
- Long-Lost Relative: The long missing Herbert Saxby, Stella's uncle, turns out to have been Soot.
- Orphanage of Fear: The orphanage Soot grew up in. The orphanage Stella ends up at is slightly better, run but a kind woman but made miserable by its poor and overcrowded state. Stella suggests using Saxby Hall as a new residence, turning it into an Orphanage of Love still in use in the present day.
- Would Hurt a Child: Aunt Alberta intended to have Stella killed along with her parents. When it turns out she needs Stella alive in order to sign the house over to Alberta she has no qualms torturing her niece into it. Later it turns out she deliberately killed Soot when she realised he was her long-lost brother.
