History Literature / AnUnkindnessOfGhosts

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Giselle refers to shoes as "blister machines."

* BittersweetEnding: Bordering on a DownerEnding. [[spoiler:Aster makes it alive to Earth, where plant and animal life have fully returned. But the only people she brings with her are two dead bodies, so she has no chance of rebuilding humanity. Back on ''Matilda'', a SlaveRevolt kills hundreds, and we never find out if life actually improved for the Tarlanders or not.]]
* BlanketFort: Aster and Giselle hide inside one while they [[spoiler:work on decrypting Lune Grey's notes]].
* BungledSuicide: [[spoiler:Giselle attempts suicide by burning down Aster's arboretum with herself in it. She is rescued by Theo, who thought she was Aster. If he'd known who she was, he would have let her die quickly, knowing she's scheduled for a PublicExecution.]]

* DevilComplex: Giselle publicly declares herself the Devil at [[spoiler:her [[MakeAnExampleOfThem execution]]]]. Given her mental state, it's unclear how literally she means it, but she's immediately taken up as an IconOfRebellion against the Sovereign's despotic regime.

* DueToTheDead: After [[spoiler:Giselle's]] death, bystanders gather around and cover her with jackets. They carry her away on a stretcher [[spoiler:to the Shuttle Bay, from which Aster takes her to Earth and gives her a proper burial]].
* DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Lieutenant is an EgocentricallyReligious ruler whose increasingly brutal and arbitrary persecution of the lowdeckers is finally revealed to be motivated by [[FantasticRacism racial hatred]] against them.

* EyeScream: [[spoiler:Theo shoots the tranquilizer dart right into Lieutenant's eye, killing him.]]

* ForcedToWatch: Lowdeckers are gathered from all around to watch [[spoiler:Giselle's public hanging]] in the Maple Wood, their place of worship, in order to MakeAnExampleOfThem.

* TimeDilation: While 325 years passed on ''Matilda'', more than a thousand have passed on Earth, which Aster hopes is now able to support human life again.

* BungledSuicide: [[spoiler:Giselle attempts suicide by burning down Aster's arboretum with herself in it. She is rescued by Theo, who thought she was Aster. If he'd known who she was, he would have let her die quickly, knowing she's scheduled for a PublicExecuution.]]

* AmbiguousDisorder: In-universe, Aster is seen as "not all there" due to a condition confirmed by WordOfGod to be autism. Early in the book, an old woman diagnoses her as ''insiwa'', meaning inside one: "It means you live inside your head and to step out of it hurts worse than a caning."

* {{Transgender}}: Theo's gender identity is {{ambiguous|GenderIdentity}} even to him, since his rigid, dogmatic society doesn't acknowledge transgender identities. However, he deliberately avoids some elements of masculine gender expression, secretly takes testosterone blockers, and outright tells Aster that he's not a man.

* BungledSuicide: [[spoiler:Aster attempts suicide by burning down Aster's arboretum with herself in it. She is rescued by Theo, who thought she was Aster. If he'd known who she was, he would have let her die quickly, knowing she's scheduled for a PublicExecuution.]]

* AbandonedArea: Aster has turned a mess hall on Deck X, which was abandoned after a massive flood, into her own botanarium.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Aster makes it alive to Earth, where plant and animal life have fully returned. But the only people she brings with her are two dead bodies, so she has no chance of rebuilding humanity. Back on ''Matilda'', a SlaveRevolt kills hundreds, and we never find out if life actually improved for the Tarlanders or not.]]

Aster Grey is a doctor from Deck Q. Her expertise and skill, as well as her friendship with the ship's Surgeon General Theophilus Smith, give her far more freedom and social status than most of her fellow Tarlanders.

* PosthumousCharacter: Aster's mother Lune Grey, who [[DrivenToSuicide killed herself]] the day Aster was born twenty-five years ago, is a near-legendary figure, and Aster spends much time poring over the notes she left.