Zoe Rosenthal Is Not Lawful Good is a 2021 Young Adult novel about fandom.
When it comes to college plans and bullet journals, Zoe Rosenthal is on top of the world. In terms of her love for the show Bleeders and hiding it from her boyfriend Simon, however, she becomes a quivering fangirl in secret. Zoe finds her people at DragonCon and decides she needs to hide her travels as she works to renew the show for season 3. How hard can it be to make people fall in love with a science-fiction show about a deadly plague that leaves you bleeding forever?
Tropes for this book include:
- Bittersweet Ending: In the end, Simon breaks up with Zoe and she learns that he was probably planning it if he had gotten into Harvard, which he did. Todd has humiliated her with his music video, though Zoe promises revenge on him. She also loses her marketing job and is in debt. On the other hand, Bleeders is renewed for season 3 and she's going to college with Liv.
- The Dog Bites Back: Sebastian, on Zoe's behalf, shakes Simon's hand while he's covered in fake blood. Zoe is actually mortified but on the other hand, Simon is aptly humiliated on learning that the local Senator is a fan of the show when her kids point out the handshake.
- Emasculated Cuckold: Implied and gender-inverted. Zoe finds out that Simon may have been cheating on her with a girl at the local senator's office. Though Maggie says it doesn't matter since they figured out Simon was already a bastard, Zoe spends the rest of the day crying.
- Hypocrite: Simon is judgmental and controlling who breaks up with Zoe because she lied about taking his sister to a series of conventions. Zoe later finds out that he lied about applying to Harvard after they spent months working on a joint list and may have cheated on her, showing that he isn't morally superior at all.
- I Warned You: Everyone in Zoe's fandom group warns her that Simon is going to hate her lying about doing fandom. Cam tries very hard to emphasize it but backs off when he sees Zoe hurting, especially when she doesn't text anyone in the group chat for a few weeks if not months.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Implied. While Zoe suffers a lot for lying about the convention, Simon gets a lucrative job, a Harvard acceptance, and a new girlfriend. It's infuriating for Zoe and the reader. On the other hand, it's implied Josie laid into him about these things so as an effort to be "nice" he takes her to the convention with AMT, where he stands awkwardly waiting for the speech to finish. Sebastian proceeds to shake his hand with fake blood and the Senator is revealed to be there when she praises the cosplay and says she's a fan of Bleeders. She casually says she wishes Simon were interested in it so they could talk about it at the office. Plus, the new girlfriend Shelley may realize he's an Opportunistic Bastard given the way she looks at Zoe curiously about her kindness.
- Love Forgives All but Lust: Zigzagged; there are two things that make Zoe realize that Simon was a tool. First was that he applied to Harvard without talking with her about it, after she spent all year touring colleges on their joint-list. While she applied to Smith, she wasn't planning to go and only wanted to make her parents happy. The other thing is that he may have cheated on her with a college girl in the senator's office who also goes to Harvard. That makes Zoe cry.
- Muse Abuse: Discussed. Meldel emphasizes that she would ask for consent when putting real people in stories. Todd doesn't honor that with Zoe, so as punishment Meldel is going to put their relationship in her next novella.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: After Todd creates a video that shows Zoe's life falling apart, everyone at the climactic convention sings the "Fangirl" song to her. Even the cameraman at the AMT signing does. Todd doesn't even have the decency to apologize when Zoe finally confronts him about it, though he accepts that she'll enact revenge on him later.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Even though Zoe is technically grounded, her family is so worried about her Heroic BSoD and refusal to do any socializing whatsoever that they boot her out to the last convention when Maggie buys tickets and forces Zoe to go following them all realizing Simon was looking for an excuse to break up with Zoe so that he wouldn't have to explain why he applied to Harvard after she put in all the work exploring other colleges on her list. Zoe lampshades that she must have been a bummer.
- Opportunistic Bastard: Simon. While Zoe lied because she was worried about what her boyfriend would think, Simon doesn't offer the same consideration. It's implied that he didn't campaign for a Democractic senator out of the good of his heart but rather to boose his career. Later Zoe wonders if he cheated on her with a Harvard girl who was in the Senator's office and was going to dump Zoe if the Ivy accepted him. It is hinted at the end, however that karma is going to get to him.
- Snowball Lie: Zoe doesn't tell her parents or Simon that she's off at a convention, specifically DragonCon. Josie uses this to blackmail her into taking her along to NYCC. Hilarity Ensues from there.
- Turn the Other Cheek: Despite the fact that Simon breaking up with her was hypocritical and opportunistic, as Zoe realizes in hindsight she stays civil with him at the end because even if he deserves a tongue-lashing, she doesn't want to be petty.
