The Friend Scheme is a 2020 YA romance/crime drama by Cale Dietrich.
The story follows Matt Miller, the youngest son of the Miller family, a powerful crime family in Florida and a disappointment to everyone due to his reluctance to actually participate in any criminal activity. Isolated, he meets Jason, a dreamy boy and the first person he ever really befriended, thinking this might be growing into more than just friendship, but the boy might be hiding something. However, the rival family, The Donovans are also on the move to fight Matt's family with an elaborate scheme.
Tropes
- Anxiety Dreams: Matt has a dream where he is tortured by Vince after his friendship with Jason is found.
- Cool Big Bro: Matt's older brother, Luke. Luke is the favorite of the family, as he fits into everything they need in a future mob boss, but privately, Luke is also a very loving and supportive brother to Matt, and he is possibly the only person in the family to show him any kind of support.
- Honeypot: The titular Friend Scheme involved multiple people befriending the members of the Miller family in order to infiltrate the ranks and destroy them from the inside.
- The Namesake: The Friend Scheme is the plan of the Donovan Family to befriend multiple members of the Miller family to extract information from them.
- Paranoia Gambit: Cassidy explains to Matt she suspects that this is the real endgame of the Friend Scheme: to drive the Millers so paranoid with who might be working for the enemy, they push away their very own allies and are thrown into a paranoid frenzy against one another.
- The Unfavorite: Matt is passed over by everyone, including his father, for his older brother Luke. While Luke himself is a nice friend to Matt, Matt himself is always considered to be on the weaker side and is scoffed by the family for being an untrustworthy weakling with rumors that he is gay.
