YMMV / Sisterhood Series

• Designated Hero:
  • The Sisterhood or the Vigilantes have fallen into this territory at least once. The first seven books were all about the Vigilantes getting Revenge on the people who wronged them, and breaking the law in doing so. That's not supposed to be heroic. Despite this, once it got out what they were doing, they were considered heroes and household items. Reviewers at Amazon.com were quite happy to point out how the Vigilantes' behaviour went into this in the book Under the Radar. In that book, the heroes go to a cult of pedophile polygamists. The heroes acted rather abusively toward the adult women in the cult. In fact, the book spelled out quite clearly that the adult women didn't care about the treatment their own children suffered in the cult and deserved absolutely no sympathy. Reviewers, however, pointed out that the adult women were raised in this cult and brainwashed into believing in the cult all their lives, and that they are actually victims who you should feel sympathy for. With that said, the heroes have the adult women lined up and shave off the hair on their heads. They did this, because the cult leader likes long hair, and they wanted him to look at bald women to spite him. Reviewers pointed out what the Vigilantes did seems to be uncomfortably close to what the Nazis did in those concentration camps!
  • The book Sweet Revenge has this little gem from the thoughts a stand-up male character named Bobby Harcourt: "He stopped at the receptionist's desk for his messages, hating how sleazy the young woman looked. He'd spoken to Rosemary about the receptionist's appearance and all she'd done was cluck her tongue and ask him if he wanted a lawsuit on his hands. It wasn't just the way the young woman looked, it was her stupid name as well. Sasha. No one named their kid Sasha except maybe a Russian mother. This Sasha was from Mud Creek, Mississippi. White trash, all ninety pounds of her. He rather suspected that Rosemary kept her on because Sasha made her look beautiful, which she was, but she was also a cold, relentless, heartless bitch of a woman. He'd found that out as soon as the honeymoon was over, much to his regret." For such a supposedly stand-up guy, Bobby sounds like he hates people who aren't Americans like him, he sounds mean-spirited towards people from the Appalachians, and he apparently judges people based on their appearance and their given name before things like morals or personality.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In Fast Track, Jack Emery brags to reporters Ted Robinson and Joe Espinosa that the Post is going to be sold to a new owner. Joe turns green upon hearing this, because that means he and Ted could lose their jobs. At that point, it seemed like a brilliant and cool way to upset the apple carts of those reporters, who had been thorns in the Vigilantes' sides. Then, in a later book, Under the Radar, Ted explains to the Vigilantes why they can trust Joe. Joe is the only son out of eight kids. His father died early on, leaving his mother to take care of all of them. He's the youngest in his family. The family managed to get enough money to send Joe to college. He's the only one in the family to have a college education. Joe is a citizen of the United States, and he sends every cent of money he can back to his people in Tijuana. Joe cannot afford anything to live in except a one-room dump, and his immediate family has 37 members in it! Also, his family supports the Vigilantes quite strongly, and his salary combined with some other jobs he moonlights as help his family, but it's not nearly enough. His family is not lazy, but the economy in that area sucks. Boy, that not only explains why Joe turned green at the possibility of losing his job, but it makes Jack's bragging come off as a Kick the Dog moment!
• Melodrama: Used quite a lot. For the most part, it's done right. On occasion, it does fall into Narm.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • A number of villainous characters are considered to have crossed this by the Vigilantes. Senator Webster from the book Payback is an interesting example. Maybe you don't consider his actions of unknowingly giving his wife Julia Webster AIDS to be crossing this. Maybe you don't consider his actions of cheating on her with multiple women to be crossing this. However, the minute he, in a drunken rage over the fact that his affairs are being broadcast live, goes wife-beater on Julia is the minute you know he has finally and truly crossed this!
  • A number of readers are convinced that the Vigilantes themselves crossed this in Vendetta. John Chai, son of the Chinese ambassador to the USA, had drunkenly hit-and-run Barbara Rutledge and her unborn child, killing them both. He then pulled a Karma Houdini with Diplomatic Impunity. The Vigilantes decide that the best punishment for the guy is to skin him alive! Certainly, he was a creep, and was being used by the author to personify Yellow Peril, but his deeds simply did not warrant that level of Disproportionate Retribution! Not only that, but the Vigilantes just shrug off what they've done afterwards.
• Narm: This popped up a few times.
  • Some of the conversations between Jack and Harry fall victim to this because Jack called Harry "you big silly!" A number of reviewers reported having laughed at lines like that, because they know for a fact that men do not talk to each other like that in Real Life.
  • In addition, the series is heavy on Melodrama, which has led to Narm a few times. For example, Kathryn's rant about how the law works for the criminal in Fast Track is hard to take seriously, because they are in the U.S.A., and the law is certainly not supposed to work for the criminal there!
  • In Under the Radar, the men receive some National Guard outfits. Ted Robinson, a 30-something year-old man and reporter, calls it a "speckled" outfit. At least one reviewer found that part rather difficult to swallow!
• Seasonal Rot: This trope most certainly occurred after the book Free Fall. The author herself said that she was only planning on writing 7 books for the series...at first. Then she decided to write more books. This resulted in 13 more books, and the storyline eventually just dragged on. That, and a number of flaws that had been present in the first 7 books became glaringly obvious, and the final book Home Free did have an ending that likely left readers feeling that the series ended not with a bang, but a whimper!
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: A number of villains in the series end up as this for the following reasons: 1. The supposed heroines are witches or/and jerkasses. 2. The villain may not seem that villainous if you think about it, which the author didn't. 3. The villain gets their Laser-Guided Karma...and comparing what the villain actually did or was even trying to do with what happens to the villain, the "karma" feels more like Disproportionate Retribution.
• Values Dissonance: There certainly is this! In the first book Weekend Warriors, Kathryn Lucas insults Yoko Akia about being wishy-washy just because she's Asian and she's different. Indeed, the series portrays Asians as being different from other people to the point of being virtually alien. That, and books in the series like Vendetta cheerfully play the Yellow Peril trope as straight as an arrow!
• Vanilla Protagonist: As the series goes on, the main characters remain the same as the series goes on, while everyone else gets affected by their actions and react to them in different ways. In other words, the protagonists are the measuring stick.
• Why Would Anyone Take Him Back?: Played with in The Jury. Karl Woodley and Paula Woodley do not love each other, in fact, they loathe each other. Karl abused Paula, and broke every bone in her body! The Vigilantes, upon finding this out, go to Karl's house and break every bone in his body! Despite the fact that Paula apparently had had it with his abuse, and despite the fact that the book even had an Author Filibuster on Domestic Abuse, Paula went back to Karl! You can be sure at least one reviewer thought the title of this trope. However, Collateral Damage either reveals or retcons this by saying that Paula did not actually take Karl back so much as the US government pretty much dumping him into her hands! Karl happens to be best pals with the President of the United States, as well as his National Security Advisor. It is not clear if the government knew what Karl was doing, or if they turned a blind eye to it, but it certainly makes the government come off as stupid and thoughtless. Karl did have to resign thanks to becoming wheelchair-bound. Paula ends up taking great pleasure tormenting him for all the years he tormented her! Not once does divorce or seeing a psychologist come up in any of this, not once!

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