Furthermore is a Fantasy book written 2016 by Tahereh Mafi.
The book depicts the adventures of a 12-years-old girl Alice in a very strange land "Furthermore", on a quest that is not hers, but which means everything to her.
A sequel named Whichwood was published in 2018. Alice and Oliver are also prominently featured there, but not the main protagonists.
The novels make use of these tropes:
- Alice Allusion: A girl named Alice is having adventures in a very strange land, where laws of nature themselves are mutable and Time is a person you can talk to. Not to mention "Killing Time" is an actual crime there and you can be executed (by being eaten) for even flimsier reasons. And you get there through a magical hole. And sometimes you shrink in size. Three guesses what this is similar to.
- Alien Geometries: Happens a lot in Furthermore, including a 2-D village.
- The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Alice can change colors of nearly everything but not of herself. And she has very little color to begin with.
- Creepy Child: Subverted. Alice surely looks somewhat strange - barefoot, dozens of bracelets, colorless skin - but she is a normal girl with quite a big heart.
- Compelling Voice: Exaggerated with Oliver. He can make you believe everything he says or even thinks. And later he even developes the power to force feople to do what he wants, albeit only for a brief time.
- Darker and Edgier: Compared to Alice in Wonderland.
- The sequel, compared to the first book. People actually die here. And whereas Alice got her father back, Laylee's father is executed.
- Death Bringer The Adorable: The yearly ceremony that Alice looks forward to in the beginning is called Surrender, but it doesn't (usually) involve fighting or violence. Rather, those who became twelve this year show what magical talent they got, and get The Quest according to their talent. The quest always involves helping somebody.
- Disappeared Dad: Alice's father is missing since three years by the time the first book begins.
- Dude Where Is My Respect: in the sequel, Laylee is so pissed at how Whichwood's people treat her that she goes berserk. she raises the dead and those proceed to rampage through Whichwood
- Dueto The Dead: The main theme of the sequel.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: And how.
- Growing Up Sucks: Alice's father thrived in Furthermore when he was twelve, but when he returned as adult, he had big trouble adjusting and was ultimately falsely convicted of espionage.
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: The power to change colors of thing and of people is surely cool by itself, but the Alice realises that she can also restore people's magic with it.
- In the sequel, Alice is also told that to complete her Quest, she should also had "used her heart", i.e. her compassion for others.
- Heroic RRoD: any magic user who overextends his/her magic will slowly loose his/her magic power, which result in their body loosing color. If this goes to far, the person dies. Laylee comes dangerously close.
- I Am a Humanitarian: In some Furthermore villages, people will eat any outsiders with magic if given any chance. that is a pretext, however flimsy, of convicting those of crimes like "killing time".
- If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him! : This argument convinces Laylee to stop after she took command of the raised dead and ordered citizens of Whichwood humiliated. She was about to go further, but Alice convinced her otherwise
- Kangaroo Court: The court that convicted Alice's father for espionage was clearly unfair.
- in "Whichwood" the court sentences Laylee's Father, who was obviously insane to death and sentenced Laylee herself to depowering. Only an intervention of all the raised dead saves Laylee from the sentence being carried out.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Olivers constant lies bring Alice to a point where she would rather trust an origami fox than him. This results in Alice loosing her arm.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: when Alice looses her arm, she and Oliver has to make a detour to find a person who can repair the damage, who turns out to be none other than Alice's father. The trope comes into effect since while looking for Alice's father (who was convicted by Furthermore's authorities for espionage) would bring the heroes in trouble, looking for a "mere" Painter does not.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: when the ghosts attack Whichwood, Laylee, despite being on a verge of collapse, manages to stop the ghosts and save everyone - except four people that is. Had she not intervened the would be ober forty people dead. How do Whichwood's people react to it? By executing her father and subjecting Laylee to a Kangaroo Court!
- Non-Nude Bathing: Laylee usually takes a bath fully clothed, the changes into new clothing. This is because her clothes tend to be very dirty (and bloody) after washing the dead.
- Platonic Boy/Girl Heroes: Alice and Oliver.
- Plucky Girl: Alice, who keeps going even after loosing her arm.
- The Quest: Every child who got a positive mark on Surrender gets one. One has not truly passed the ceremony until the Quest is completed.
- Serial Escalation: Alice, the protagonist and POV of the first book, has good reasons to be unhappy. Laylee, the protagonist and POV of the second book, has good reasons to be utterly miserable.
- Skinny Dipping: Alice prefers to swim in the nude.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: Downplayed. Alice and Oliver go from sworn enemies to best friends, but the do not become a couple. In the sequel the become romantically involved withg other people.
- Super Power Lottery: Every person in Ferenwood has one magical gift. Doing anything else requires an extern magic source.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Alice is an avid swimmer, but she usually swims nude or at most in underwear. When she is suddenly thrown into water fully clothed, she finds herself unable to swim until wriggling out of her upper clothing.
- When Alice and Oliver attempt to reason with the Kangaroo Court judging Laylee, they have high hopes of convincing the court, but all their arguments fall on deaf ears - the verdict stood before the hearing even started. Only the intervention of the dead saves Laylee.
