Adaptation Displacement: Most people think of The Secret as a self-help book, not realizing that it was based on a film that Byrne had released eight months earlier (she was, after all, a TV producer before she became a self-help guru). A fairly mild case, though, as the reason the book was released in the first place was because the film was such a runaway success.
The book claims "You cannot 'catch' anything unless you think you can". So how can animals and plants, which have no knowledge of disease, get sick? Similarly, it claims food can't make you gain weight unless you believe it can. If that's the case, how can animals, who don't understand the concept of weight gain, get fat?
If The Secret is "Wishing for something strong enough will make it happen", what if two or more people wish for something that only one person can get, such as getting a promotion at their job when they all work at the same place and there's only one space available? Does whichever person wants it strongest get it? Does whoever has a more "positive" outlook get it? Something else altogether? Some people have outright asked Byrne about this, but she's never explained it.
Glurge: Positive thinking is great, but this implies that working hard towards your dreams is optional.
Heartwarming Moments: The book's YouTube channel has a video showing the beauty of nature with beautiful music playing in the background. The video is highly uplifting.
Older Than They Think: The Secret is basically a more secular version of prayer. The more secular version itself is also Older Than They Think since it's plagiarised directly from Wallace D. Wattles's distinctly non-scientific The Science of Getting Rich and basically amounts to the power of positive thinking.
The fanfiction
Angst? What Angst?: At the beginning of the fic, it's been less than a year (almost eight months to be exact) since Esgaroth got torched by Smaug, forcing them to evacuate to the ruins of Dale where they then got set upon by hordes of Orcs during the Battle of the Five Armies. Presumably, Emma and the rest of her family were right in the middle of all that...but none of them ever so much as mention it.
Anti-Climax Boss: Frederick dies offpage rather unceremoniously midway through the fic; he falls from his horse trying to evade capture in Mirkwood and breaks his neck. On the other hand, Frederick was such an arrogant and entitled asshole in life it seems rather fitting his death is so abrupt and pathetic.
Cry for the Devil: Leena, of all people, gets a bit of this towards the end of the story. She is genuinely distraught and disappointed that Thorin doesn't want her and all her scheming has come to nothing. She is hurt and offended that Thorin accuses her unborn child of not being his, she having actually made an effort to remain faithful to him. She ends up dying rather horrifically, with no one who really cares about her, and moments before her death she had learnt her baby was dead. Although she's an utterly callous and murderous bitch and brings most of her misfortune upon herself, it's hard not to feel at least a little sorry for her.
Harsher in Hindsight: In the first chapter, Emma jokingly thinks that she needs to improve her cooking or she'll end up an old maid. By the third chapter, she's forced into marrying Frederick Devlin, who treats her horribly.
Iron Woobie: Dís. She keeps soldiering on and even retains a sense of humour in spite of all the crap she goes through, including losing her home to Smaug, her grandfather being killed, her father going mad and disappearing, both her children dying, her brother's marital woes and the death of her infant niece.
Leena is viewed as irredeemable after she tries to kill Billy, a young child, purely out of jealousy of his older sister. Given later revelations that she had had killed several people to further her ambitions, she'd been a dreadful person for years, though in this case, she's acting almost completely out of spite.
Frederick is cemented as an awful person early on when he forces Emma to marry him to prevent her family from becoming homeless. Then, when she's understandably less than enthusiastic, he violently rapes and beats her until she loses consciousness.
William crossed it after the revelation he murdered his own wife, while their son was in the next room, no less.
No Yay: Every interaction between Emma and Frederick makes your skin crawl. And this is even before he beats and rapes her.
The Woobie: Kate Caldwell. She's stuck married to an abusive jerk who does nothing but drink and gamble away their money; he even gambled away her father's old winery, which was all she had left from him. She ends up prostituting herself to earn more money for her family. It's revealed she fell in love with an innkeeper named Neil who treated her with kindness and respect and didn't judge her for her line of work. However, she refused to leave William for him because she felt it would be unfair to her children. Then her husband basically sells off her eldest daughter to a repulsive man and brutally murders her for trying to stand up to him.
