Literature / Half World

Half World by Hiromi Goto is a Down the Rabbit Hole Coming of Age Story, released in 2009.

There are three realms: the Realm of Flesh (the living world), the Realm of Spirit (afterlife), and Half World (a sort of purgatory where dead souls work out their traumas until they are ready to pass to the Realm of the Spirit). The realms were originally together, cycling in harmony, but got separated somehow. Now each realm is isolated, locked in perpetual suffering. When Melanie is born impossibly into Half World her mother flees to the Realm of Flesh to raise her. After fourteen years, her mother gets kidnapped by the sinister Mr. Glueskin, and Melanie goes on a quest to Half World to save her and the world.

In 2012 a sequel called Darkest Light was released, continuing sixteen years after the first book. The protagonist themselves is a huge spoiler for Half World, so be prepared for unmarked spoilers.

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Tropes shared in both books

• Alien Blood: The Half Worlders have black blood because colour doesn't exist in Half World.
• Anachronism Stew: Half World is a mash of various different time periods, with gas lamps beside neon lights, horse drawn wagons driving alongside cars, military tanks; all kinds of different architecture mashed together.
• An Arm and a Leg:
  • A pinky must be bitten off to pay for passage between Half World and the Realm of Flesh.
  • Many Half World Denizens are noted for missing limbs or other body parts.
  • Ilanna's arms and tongue were bitten off and eaten by sea creatures.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • In Half World, Melanie loses her parents and her home, but she still has her whole life ahead of her and a new home with Ms. Wei. Plus, part of her mother's Spirit manages to return with her, as Red Jade, and the Realms are reunited.
  • In Darkest Light, Gee has to return to his cycle so that he and his mother can attain Spirit. The others mourn his loss, but know he'll find peace eventually and that they can live on in his memory.
• Bloodless Carnage: Deliberately invoked with Mr. Glueskin, who has no blood and is entirely made of glue. Of course, the same applies to Gee as well.

• Dark and Troubled Past: Dang near everyone. It fits with the Central Theme about dealing with pain and trauma.
• Death of a Child: There are children running around Half World, reliving their worst moments. Most prominent is the five girls from Darkest Light and the fact that Mr. Glueskin died when his father killed his mother while she was giving birth to him.
• Deliberately Monochrome: Half World is totally black and white because colours are used to indicate Spirits and the living.
• Driven to Suicide:
  • Many Half Worlders are locked in perpetual suicide, like the woman in Half World jumping into the canal over and over again, or the man tipping off the fire escape in Darkest Light.
  • Subverted with Ms. Wei. After Nora Stein was killed, she contemplated killing herself, but ultimately decided not to.
  • Cracker's sister, Klara, killed herself by hanging herself in her closet. This is her Half World cycle, and we get to see it happen later.
• Four Is Death: Door Four in the Cassier Connector leads to Half World, Mr. Glueskin's room is the fourth door on the penthouse level, and floor four of Mirages Hotel is how you get back to the portal to the Realm of Flesh. Ms. Wei explains this trope in Half World.

• Mix-and-Match Critters: The Half World denizens. This include humans with animal part, animals with human parts and Planimal.
• Ravens and Crows:
  • They form a living bridge that connects the portal to Half World. Better run fast, or the birds will fly away and there's a long fall down...
  • In Half World, crows follow Melanie around everywhere. Subverted in that the crows are her allies and help her multiple times.

Tropes in Half World

• Arc Words: How much can one person bear?
• Alcoholic Parent: Fumiko starts to drink heavily when work becomes too much for her. Shinobu also drinks a lot and is drunk when Melanie meets him in Half World. She could smell the alcohol coming off him.
• And Now You Must Marry Me: Mr. Glueskin kidnaps Melanie's mom and announces they're going to get married, just to screw Melanie over.

• Big "NO!": Melanie on two occasions: the first when the wind almost sucks her through Door Four, and the second when Jade Rat is crushed.
• Bury Your Gays: Ms. Wei's lover, Nora Stein, was killed before the start of the story.
• Chekhov's Gun: The Magic 8 Ball does nothing but answer in vague questions, and never really helps in any situation. It's what gives Melanie the key card to Mr. Glueskin's room in the end.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The Half Worlders who become Spirit get certain colours: Fumiko gets scarlet, Shinobu gets lavender, Gao Zhen Xi gets a deep green, and the starfish child gets seashell pink.
• Dem Bones: There are skeleton people at Mr. Glueskin's party.
• Disappeared Dad: Melanie's dad is not present for most of her life because he's being held hostage in Half World to ensure that her mom will return after 14 years.
• Face Palm: Jade Rat does this a few times when it and Melanie meet for the first time.
• Funetik Aksent: The wallaby man speaks with one.

• I'm a Humanitarian: Mr. Glueskin. He gulps his victims down whole.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Melanie does this a lot, and can you really blame her.
• Janitor Impersonation Infiltration: Melanie pretends to be a cleaning lady to get to Mr. Glueskin's hotel room.
• Kids Are Cruel: The story proper opens up with Melanie running from a group of bullies. Not only that, but she says that the school's sports team will be waiting for her if she returns to school.
• Like Father, Like Son: Gao Zhen Xi and Ms. Wei are both archivists, and both rummage through their books in the same manner. Melanie gets deja vu watching Gao Zhen Xi, and sees facial traits shared by her and Ms. Wei.
• Psychopathic Man Child: Mr. Glueskin prances, sings childish chants and treats things like a game while threatening to flay someone and make them eat their own skin.
• No Name Given: The starfish child, despite being an important minor character, is never given a name.

• Phone Call from the Dead: Melanie gets a phone call from Mr. Glueskin early in the story.
• Rubber Man: Mr. Glueskin, with the added ability of being able to detach pieces of himself.

Tropes in Darkest Light

• Amnesiac Dissonance: Gee used to be Mr. Glueskin, but he doesn't remember and grew up to be a much better person. Justified in that Mr. Glueskin was reverted to a baby, who grew up into Gee, so naturally he wouldn't know.
• Ascended Extra: The eel-armed lady and bird-headed man from the first book, who were unnamed and extremely minor, are now named and the antagonists.
  • The pile of rags that was offhandedly mentioned in Half World is now explained and serves as Foreshadowing.
• Big Bad: Ilanna and Karu. Subverted with Karu when he Heel Face Turns.
• Big "NO!": Boy, does Illana start doing this a lot.
• Bilingual Bonus: Gee calls Ms. Wei Popo, which is Chinese for 'grandma'.
• Brick Joke: White Cat mentions the only thing Lilla is good for is boiled, drizzled with teriyaki sauce and served on rice. At the end of the book, he orders a take-out meal of boiled eel on rice.
• Call-Back:
  Maybe, maybe not, yes, no, maybe so, yes no maybe so
• Cats Are Mean: White Cat is a grumpy, ill-tempered cat who mocks the protagonists on more than one occasion. Granted, he has good intentions, he's just so disdainful.
• Darker and Edgier: The first book was by no means light, oh no. But this book makes things even darker by expanding on how Half World works, detailing character backgrounds, and the protagonists have less help and encouragement than Melanie had.
• Deadpan Snarker: 90% of White Cat's dialogue is snark. Gee has his moments too.
• Determinator:
  • Cracker trudges on besides Gee even though she's literally dying by the second, just to get what she came for. Even before getting to Half World Cracker accepts the possibility of becoming trapped before her time, just to have the chance to save her sister.
  • Illana continues to pursue Cracker and Gee despite all that happens. Even losing Lilla and Rilla doesn't slow her down.
• Eaten Alive: Illana's Half Life consists of her constantly drowning while all sorts of sea creatures tear apart and eat her until she dies and respawns to start her cycle anew.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Gee, naturally since he comes from Half World. Illana too.
• Enemy Within: Mr. Glueskin's personality still thrives, and Gee struggles to keep it from overwhelming him.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Karu refuses to eat children. When Ilanna eats a boy, he's disgusted. Though this may have less to do with morals and more on that fact that Karu is starting to remember his past and emphasizes with the boy.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • Karu regains his humanity when Cracker's struggle reminds him of his brother.
  • Lilla the eel defects to the protagonist's team after Ilanna uses it to pay for passage.
• Horror Hunger: Gee starts to suffer this when they get to Half World.
• I'm a Humanitarian:
  • It's revealed that eating living things (read: things that move) is how you extend your Half Life and delay when you're thrown back to your breaking point.
  • The girls in the archives capture the main cast with the intent to eat them.
  • Karu's brother forced him to eat so that he'd snap out of his trauma. But this caused Karu to go crazy and eat his own brother.
• Location Theme Naming: Lilla is Ilanna's left arm; Rilla is Ilanna's right arm.
• Locked into Strangeness: When Gee becomes Mr. Glueskin again, his hair changes to white.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Gee thinks this almost word for word when he realizes he just tried to strangle Cracker.
• My Greatest Failure: Cracker blames herself for not being able to stop Klara's suicide.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Cracker sees Half World as a second chance to save her sister, this time from the moment of Klara's greatest trauma. It doesn't work, but as Karu can attest to, this is a good thing.

• One-Letter Name: Gee was originally just referred to as the letter G by Melanie and Ms. Wei, but his name got spelled out as Gee when they were registering him for school.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: At least, we hope that Cracker is only a nickname.

• Talking Animal: The eel that replaces Ilanna's tongue talks for her.
• Title Drop: Early in the story, Gee refers to his "disquiet" (Mr. Glueskin's personality) as sometimes flaring up "like the darkest light".
• Tsundere: Cracker has shades of this, complimenting Gee and even kissing him on the cheek but almost always follows up with something along the lines of "don't get the wrong idea, I'm not into boys."
• Villainous Crush: Ilanna loved Mr. Glueskin, so she tries advances on Gee.