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Changed line(s) 74,77 (click to see context) from:
* NotBloodSiblings: Justified in ''Valley of the Girls''. The main characters are all rich teenagers whose parents have hired them Faces, essentially [[BodyDouble Body Doubles]] who act as their perfectly-behaved public relations stand-ins so that they don't have any embarrassing scandals (the kids themselves have implants which prevent them showing up on video or photographs). In the eyes of the world, a person's Face ''is'' that person, to the point that the narrator refuses to say his own name because he feels it belongs to his Face more than it does him. As a result:
** The unnamed narrator's Face [[spoiler: and his sister's Face fall in love, which is taboo from a PR standpoint even though they are explicitly two hired professionals (essentially, PR stunt doubles) who are not related at all.]]
** The unnamed narrator himself [[spoiler: is in love with his sister's Face, Tara, and he is driven to desperation not just over his unrequited love, but also over seeing Tara fall in love instead with his own likable, media-perfect Face instead of the actual him.]]
** The unnamed narrator's Face [[spoiler: and his sister's Face fall in love, which is taboo from a PR standpoint even though they are explicitly two hired professionals (essentially, PR stunt doubles) who are not related at all.]]
** The unnamed narrator himself [[spoiler: is in love with his sister's Face, Tara, and he is driven to desperation not just over his unrequited love, but also over seeing Tara fall in love instead with his own likable, media-perfect Face instead of the actual him.]]
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* NotBloodSiblings: Justified in ''Valley of the Girls''. The main characters are all rich teenagers whose parents have hired them Faces, essentially [[BodyDouble Body Doubles]] who act as their perfectly-behaved public relations stand-ins so that they don't have any embarrassing scandals (the kids themselves have implants which prevent them showing up on video or photographs). In the eyes of the world, a person's Face ''is'' that person, to the point that the narrator refuses to say his own name because he feels it belongs to his Face more than it does him.person. As a result:
** The unnamed narrator's Face [[spoiler: and his sister's Face fall in love, which is taboo from a PR standpoint even though they are explicitly two hired professionals (essentially, PR stunt doubles) who are not related at all. They don't even really look like the people who they stand in for. Even so, the real Hero reacts to the video of Tara and Philip sleeping together as if it really were an incestuous sex tape, flat out saying that it ''is'' a video of her and her brother having sex--to the point she plots an airtight murder-suicide to prevent the narrator releasing it.]]
** The unnamed narrator himself [[spoiler: is in love with hissister's sister Hero's Face, Tara, and he is driven to desperation not just over his unrequited love, but also over seeing Tara fall in love instead with his own likable, media-perfect Face Philip instead of the actual him.]]
** The unnamed narrator's Face [[spoiler: and his sister's Face fall in love, which is taboo from a PR standpoint even though they are explicitly two hired professionals (essentially, PR stunt doubles) who are not related at all. They don't even really look like the people who they stand in for. Even so, the real Hero reacts to the video of Tara and Philip sleeping together as if it really were an incestuous sex tape, flat out saying that it ''is'' a video of her and her brother having sex--to the point she plots an airtight murder-suicide to prevent the narrator releasing it.]]
** The unnamed narrator himself [[spoiler: is in love with his
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Changed line(s) 74 (click to see context) from:
* NotBloodSiblings: Justified in ''Valley of the Girls''. The main characters are all rich teenagers whose parents have hired them Faces, essentially [[BodyDouble Body Doubles]] who act as their perfectly-behaved public relations stand-ins so that they don't have any embarrassing scandals (the kids themselves have implants which prevent them showing up on video or photographs). As a result:
to:
* NotBloodSiblings: Justified in ''Valley of the Girls''. The main characters are all rich teenagers whose parents have hired them Faces, essentially [[BodyDouble Body Doubles]] who act as their perfectly-behaved public relations stand-ins so that they don't have any embarrassing scandals (the kids themselves have implants which prevent them showing up on video or photographs). In the eyes of the world, a person's Face ''is'' that person, to the point that the narrator refuses to say his own name because he feels it belongs to his Face more than it does him. As a result:
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* DeathOfPersonality: This happens to [[spoiler: Anat]] several times over in ''The Game of Smash and Release''. Said character is operating under a false persona without knowing for most of the story, which is subsumed by the real person at the end. [[spoiler: Additionally, Anat was forced into the body of one of her passengers, a little girl, which destroyed the girl's mind. Anat manages to preserve the girl's brain functions and give her a happy life, but the new person is neither Anat nor the girl's original self.]]
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* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: Averted in ''The White Road''. The narrator ends up killing another character [[spoiler: when the fake funeral goes sideways and the only way to save everyone is to get a genuine dead person]]. One of the other actors suggests the victim fell out of a nearby tree, clearly as a way to cover for the narrator, since it's quite obvious what really happened (the murder weapon's right there, for one thing). The narrator appreciates the kindness but declines, and it later turns out the story is actually his confession via letter to his victim's relatives. (Or at least to the acting troupe he asks to deliver it, as he admits his own troupe read all the correspondence they carried.)
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* ApocalypseHow: A Class 2 (planetary, societal collapse) in ''The White Road''. Some unspecified event caused the titular magical road to manifest; it brings with it the spirits of...something...that take the form of the observer's dead loved ones and violently attack any human being who uses electronics or is too far from a dead body after dark. Society still functions, but has had to dump most advanced technology, and travel is extremely risky for all but the most prepared, so humanity is organized into a loosely connected network of hamlets. Communication and trade is handled mostly by traveling acting troupes, as the creatures ''can'' be fooled by a sufficiently convincing performance, so it's marginally safer for professional actors to be out at night. (Unfortunately, if your improv funeral doesn't work, the only solution is to make a real corpse as fast as you can.)
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Changed line(s) 66,68 (click to see context) from:
* NoNameGiven: The narrator of "Valley of the Girls" never says what his name is, because he feels it belongs more to his BodyDouble than to him.
* NotBloodSiblings: Justified in "Valley of the Girls". The main characters are all rich teenagers whose parents have hired them Faces, essentially [[BodyDouble Body Doubles]] who act as their perfectly-behaved public relations stand-ins so that they don't have any embarrassing scandals (the kids themselves have implants which prevent them showing up on video or photographs). As a result:
* NotBloodSiblings: Justified in "Valley of the Girls". The main characters are all rich teenagers whose parents have hired them Faces, essentially [[BodyDouble Body Doubles]] who act as their perfectly-behaved public relations stand-ins so that they don't have any embarrassing scandals (the kids themselves have implants which prevent them showing up on video or photographs). As a result:
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* NoNameGiven: The narrator of "Valley ''Valley of the Girls" Girls'' never says what his name is, because he feels it belongs more to his BodyDouble than to him.
* NotBloodSiblings: Justified in"Valley ''Valley of the Girls".Girls''. The main characters are all rich teenagers whose parents have hired them Faces, essentially [[BodyDouble Body Doubles]] who act as their perfectly-behaved public relations stand-ins so that they don't have any embarrassing scandals (the kids themselves have implants which prevent them showing up on video or photographs). As a result:
* NotBloodSiblings: Justified in
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** ''The Girl Who Did Not Know Fear'' can read like a slice-of-life autofiction story in the style of Rachel Cusk, about the author being stuck in an airport due to endless bureaucratic plane delays... until you realize that the narrator is a werewolf, and she is trying to charter a flight home so that she's safe in her house before she fully transforms.
Changed line(s) 98,99 (click to see context) from:
* ScrewYourself: In "Valley of the Girls", Stevie is in love with her "Face", aka her BodyDouble.
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* ScrewYourself: In "Valley ''Valley of the Girls", Girls'' Stevie is in love with her "Face", Face, aka her BodyDouble.
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Extremely inaccurate use of trope. Jake was not "too dumb to live". He was actively *hoping he would die*. A near-suicidal disregard for one's own life out of desperate angry grief over your mom dying from cancer is NOT "too dumb to live". Suicide attempt are not "too dumb to live".
Deleted line(s) 102,103 (click to see context) :
* TooDumbToLive: [[spoiler:Jake. His AP project involves handcuffing himself like Houdini and being tossed into the pool, in a weighted bag. As the adults point out later, this could have drowned him even if the backup plan was for his friends to rescue him. The alternative -- him being expelled and unaccepted from Ivy-League colleges-- is pretty bad enough]].
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Changed line(s) 69 (click to see context) from:
** The unnamed narrator's Face [[spoiler: and his sister Face fall in love, which is taboo from a PR standpoint even though they are explicitly two hired professionals (essentially, PR stunt doubles) who are not related at all.]]
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** The unnamed narrator's Face [[spoiler: and his sister sister's Face fall in love, which is taboo from a PR standpoint even though they are explicitly two hired professionals (essentially, PR stunt doubles) who are not related at all.]]
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Changed line(s) 69 (click to see context) from:
** The unnamed narrator's Face [[spoiler: and his sister Face fall in love, which is taboo from a PR standpoint even though they are explicitly two hired professionals (essentially, PR stunt doubles) who are not related at all.
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** The unnamed narrator's Face [[spoiler: and his sister Face fall in love, which is taboo from a PR standpoint even though they are explicitly two hired professionals (essentially, PR stunt doubles) who are not related at all. ]]
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Adjusted and reformatted for clarity and accuracy.
Changed line(s) 68,69 (click to see context) from:
* NotBloodSiblings: Zig-zagged in "Valley of the Girls". The main characters are all rich teenagers whose parents have hired them Faces, essentially [[BodyDouble Body Doubles]] who act as their perfectly-behaved public relations stand-ins so that they don't have any embarrassing scandals (the kids themselves have implants which prevent them showing up on video or photographs). The unnamed narrator's Face [[spoiler: is in love with his sister Hero's Face, and the narrator records them having sex. However, the two Faces are hired professionals and not actually related, despite playing that role publicly. To add a wrinkle: the unnamed narrator himself is also in love with his sister's Face, and hates that she is visibly uninterested in him, but in love with his own Face.]]
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* NotBloodSiblings: Zig-zagged Justified in "Valley of the Girls". The main characters are all rich teenagers whose parents have hired them Faces, essentially [[BodyDouble Body Doubles]] who act as their perfectly-behaved public relations stand-ins so that they don't have any embarrassing scandals (the kids themselves have implants which prevent them showing up on video or photographs). As a result:
** The unnamed narrator's Face [[spoiler:is in love with and his sister Hero's Face, and the narrator records them having sex. However, the Face fall in love, which is taboo from a PR standpoint even though they are explicitly two Faces are hired professionals and (essentially, PR stunt doubles) who are not actually related, despite playing that role publicly. To add a wrinkle: the related at all.
** The unnamed narrator himself [[spoiler: isalso in love with his sister's Face, Tara, and hates that she he is visibly uninterested in him, driven to desperation not just over his unrequited love, but also over seeing Tara fall in love instead with his own Face.likable, media-perfect Face instead of the actual him.]]
** The unnamed narrator's Face [[spoiler:
** The unnamed narrator himself [[spoiler: is
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Edited for accuracy. Saying that the narrator is in love with his own Face is YMMV, as the story does not actually state or imply this at all. The narrator is overtly in love with his sister's face, and overtly resentful of his own Face who he feels has usurped his own life and the love/attention of anyone he genuinely cared for (such as Tara, or his parents). He mentions the cold irony that he selected his Face himself, because (at the time) even he thought that his Face seemed like the nicest person out of the options, and like a fun person to hang out with. The implication is that even as he resents his Face in the present time, he blames himself for selecting him in the first place, and hates that he can understand why people would prefer him over himself.
Changed line(s) 96,97 (click to see context) from:
* ScrewYourself: The narrator of "Valley of the Girls" is strongly implied to be in love with his own BodyDouble (though he himself hypocritically disdains a different BodyDouble who's in love with the rich teen they're filling in for).
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* ScrewYourself: The narrator of In "Valley of the Girls" Girls", Stevie is strongly implied to be in love with his own BodyDouble (though he himself hypocritically disdains a different BodyDouble who's in love with the rich teen they're filling in for).
her "Face", aka her BodyDouble.
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Trimmed for clarity, and also removed "Which is why Hero decides to kill the narrator" as this is inaccurate, Hero explicitly does not care about that. Hero decides to kill the narrator because he *almost unleashes a bioweapon to kill everybody* and she traps him and herself in the pyramid with the bioweapon to ensure that his attempt at self-hating mass-murder does not succeed.
Changed line(s) 68,69 (click to see context) from:
* NotBloodSiblings: Zig-zagged in "Valley of the Girls". The main characters are all rich teenagers whose parents have hired them Faces, essentially [[BodyDouble Body Doubles]] who act as their perfectly-behaved public relations stand-ins so that they don't have any embarrassing scandals (the kids themselves have implants which prevent them showing up on video or photographs). The unnamed narrator's Face is in love with his sister Hero's Face, and [[spoiler: the narrator recorded them having sex]]. The two only pretend that they're related for public events (although it's been their full-time job for at least eight years, which means they've spent nearly half their lives faking siblinghood). But still, in all ways except legally, a Face is the person they stand in for—the narrator bitterly notes that his Face makes a better him than he does—so if anyone ever found out, it would be treated as real incest. [[spoiler: Which is why Hero decides to kill the narrator]].
to:
* NotBloodSiblings: Zig-zagged in "Valley of the Girls". The main characters are all rich teenagers whose parents have hired them Faces, essentially [[BodyDouble Body Doubles]] who act as their perfectly-behaved public relations stand-ins so that they don't have any embarrassing scandals (the kids themselves have implants which prevent them showing up on video or photographs). The unnamed narrator's Face [[spoiler: is in love with his sister Hero's Face, and [[spoiler: the narrator recorded records them having sex]]. The sex. However, the two only pretend Faces are hired professionals and not actually related, despite playing that they're related for public events (although it's been their full-time job for at least eight years, which means they've spent nearly half their lives faking siblinghood). But still, in all ways except legally, role publicly. To add a Face is wrinkle: the person they stand in for—the unnamed narrator bitterly notes himself is also in love with his sister's Face, and hates that she is visibly uninterested in him, but in love with his Face makes a better him than he does—so if anyone ever found out, it would be treated as real incest. [[spoiler: Which is why Hero decides to kill the narrator]].
own Face.]]
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Not applicable use of trope. Nobody ever says this or asks this (or any of the related) questions, of either Jake or Genevieve. And specifically, this trope is about a madcap plan or reckless unthinking behavior, *not* about someone acting self-destructively out of grief and anger over his mother dying of cancer.
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* WhatWereYouThinking: The adults ask Genevieve this about Jake's AP History project. She tries to point out there was a backup plan, but it wasn't a good one.
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Inaccurate use of trope as Jake is *not the hero*, he is a side character in the story. This trope does not apply to side characters making strange decisions, and it especially does not apply to side characters acting out from grief and consequent implied self-destructive tendencies.
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* WhatTheHellHero: Let's just say Genevieve is not happy about [[spoiler:Jake using a date with her and her grandmother as an excuse to enter the faery handbag, leaving his life behind, including her. Part of the reason she wants to find him is to tell him off for his foolishness]].
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Inaccurate use of the trope. Zofia's priorities are not skewed; it is Genevieve's perception of them which are skewed, but the reader is meant to see through that and understand what Zofia is actually doing. Zofia understands the handbag much better than Genevieve, and understands that, in some ways, it's a form of the afterlife. Zofia knows that if Genevieve goes into the handbag like she's planning to, then she might never come out again. So Zofia stalls *intentionally* out of a desire to avoid risking her granddaughter's life.
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* SkewedPriorities: PlayedForDrama. Genevieve begs for Zofia to [[spoiler:enter the handbag and find Jake immediately, before a hundred years pass and he's shacked up with another girl. Zofia insists on going to the library first, to "borrow" another book and then rescue Jake, much to her granddaughter's horror]]. This ends badly, as Genevieve predicted.
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Inaccurate application of the trope, as Genevieve is NOT the "sane man" of the story. If anyone, it's her mother. But in fact, this trope simply doesn't apply to this story at all, and fundamentally misunderstands what the story is saying about grief and loss..
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* OnlySaneMan: Genevieve is this in her story. She gets mad at Grandmother Zofia for "borrowing" library books and videos and earning the wrath of librarians, and is sadly vindicated [[spoiler:when a librarian opens the handbag and kills Zofia]]. Genevieve also rages at Jake for [[spoiler:entering the bag and leaving her behind]].
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Inaccurate application of the trope, as Zofia does in fact consistently take responsibility and credit, and has a more accurate understanding of what the handbag needs than Genevieve.
Deleted line(s) 57,58 (click to see context) :
* NeverMyFault: In the climax of "The Faery Handbag," Zofia drops yet another book into the bag in the public library. Genevieve tells her to stop being stupid because she could have been seen. She's right; a librarian saw what happened and tries to open the bag to get the book back, accidentally unleashing the dimension with hell-dogs. Zofia mutters that it was the stupid woman's fault when she could have had Genevieve check out the book since she was a PersonaNonGrata and avoid the trouble.
