Follow TV Tropes

Following

Literature / The Girl In The Tower

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screen_shot_2020_04_08_at_85841_pm.png
the cover

The Girl in the Tower by ML Lanzillotta is a dark retelling of "Rapunzel".

On her 13th birthday, Rose's adoptive mother (a kindly witch) locks her in a tower deep in Grimmland's darkest, dreariest forest. After three peaceful years a man finds the tower. He rapes and impregnates Rose.

When the witch finds out, she refuses to believe that the man forced her. Furious, she sends the pregnant Rose away... forcing her to wander Grimmland, relying on the charity of others to survive and meeting a variety of odd people.


Tropes Found In This Book Include:

  • Abusive Parents: Numerous examples. Judy's mother (a witch) doses her own daughter with magical potions to keep her young and adorable, so she'll be able to keep performing in music halls and earning her mother money. The Witch, on the other hand, locks Rose in a tower in a misguided (and ultimately pointless) attempt to keep her safe.
  • Adopted into Royalty: Rose's twins Eddy and Eliza are taken in by their biological father, King Henry.
  • Birthday Beginning: The book begins with Rose's 13th Birthday Gift-Hunt (every year her mother hides presents around the house and gives Rose clues to help her find them). Her final gift this year is, of course, the tower that serves as her home and prison for three long years.
  • Law of Inverse Fertility: Queen Dulcibella wants children more than anything, yet she's infertile. Rose, on the other hand, gives birth to twins after being raped. To add insult to injury, Dulcibella's husband King Henry is the father of Rose's children..
  • Low Fantasy: Magic and witches exist in Grimmland, though King Henry has been trying to stamp them out.
  • Lemony Narrator: The narrator of the frame story (a wealthy Grimmland poet from the city, who decides to write a book about a mysterious, chain-smoking woman - Rose - who frequents a local pub).
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Witch locks Rose in a tower to keep herself. Of course, if Rose had remained at home with her mother instead of being sent away to live in the tower, she never would've been raped.
  • Rape as Drama: Prince Henry raping Rose kicks off the plot. The incident traumatizes her into extreme apathy. She's barely able to connect with anyone ever again.
  • Trauma Conga Line: Rose is locked in a tower, raped by a strange man, abandoned by her mother, forced to leave at just sixteen home while pregnant, nearly killed in a fire, and widowed horrifically.

Top