History Literature / KindOfCruel

* GrumpyBear: Amber, though if you never slept, were raising two kids after your best friend was murdered and had to deal with [[MoodSwinger Jo]] frequently, you'd be grumpy as well.

* BirdsOfAFeather: Unlike some of the previous leading ladies of the Spilling Series, Amber finds Simon's blunt demeanour and GrumpyBear attitude rather refreshing, and he in turn treats Amber as an equal rather than a possible suspect.

Kind of Cruel is a novel written by Creator/SophieHannah in 2012, the Seventh installment in her ''Spilling Series''. When Amber Hewerdine consults a hypnotherapist as a desperate last resort, she doesn't expect that anything much will change. She doesn't expect it to help with her chronic insomnia . . .She doesn't expect to hear herself, under hypnosis, saying words that mean nothing to her: 'Kind, cruel, kind of cruel' - words she has seen somewhere before, if only she could remember where . . .She doesn't expect to be arrested two hours later, as a result of having spoken those words out loud, in connection with the brutal murder of Katharine Allen, a woman she's never heard of...

* HeKnowsTooMuch: Why Kat Allan was murdered - [[spoiler: she witnessed Jo renting the fireman's costume she used to kill Sharon, and revealed to Jo that she was moving nearby.]]

* AmbiguousDisorder: It's never really explained what Kristy's handicap is - Amber tried to ask Jo in the most tactful way she could, but Jo acted fairly predictably by lashing out at her and Amber never brings it up again. Ginny speculates Kristy has the mental age of no more than a two-year-old.
* AmbiguousInnocence: Discussed in regards to Kristy, as Ginny notes that Amber secretly suspects that she possibly knows something about what happened at Little Orchard, but can't say because of her disability. Dinah and Nonie comment that there's no way of knowing if Kristy is a good person or a bad person because she can't speak or think for herself.

* BerserkButton: Amber telling Jo she would have refused to take in their mutual father-in-law Quentin after he was widowed. [[spoiler: Because this means Jo's plan to kill Shannon so Amber would be too busy with Dinah and Nonie to look after Quentin was AllForNothing.]]

* TheDutifulDaughter: Jo is the only one of Pamela's children who grew up into a capable adult, with Kristy taking up all of Pamela's time and energy because she's mentally disabled and Richie is TheSlacker who lives off his sister's money.
* EvilMatriarch: Marian and [[spoiler: Pamela.]]

* HeKnowsTooMuch: Why Kat Allan was murdered - [[spoiler: she witnessed Jo renting the fireman's costume she used to kill Sharon.]]
* HiddenDisdainReveal: Averted - [[spoiler: try as she might, Ginny tells Neil in the finale of the book that despite Jo admitting she killed Sharon and Kat in order to avoid the responsibility of caring for Kristy, Ginny couldn't persuade Jo to admit she hated her sister, such is the extent of the "family first" brainwashing from Pamela.]]

* TheLoad: Quentin, Neil and Luke's father, is an incredibly annoying OldWindbag who cannot cope with living by himself, as his wife took care of him for their entire marriage. This actually becomes a plot point during TheReveal.
** Richie and Kristy too, Richie being TheSlacker who refuses to get a job and Kristy is severely mentally disabled.

* VillainousBreakdown: A truly disturbing example with [[spoiler: Jo]], who begins behaving exactly like her mentally handicapped sister as Simon's interrogation of her drives home what a horrible person she's become and it's left ambiguous as to whether or not she can and will recover.

** [[spoiler: Hilary turns out to be one to Jo (and perhaps Richie, to a lesser extent) by telling Jo that she expected her to take care of Kirsty when she died, especially since Hilary's obsessive behaviour towards Kirsty - essentially abandoing Jo in the process - gave Jo her rampaging Narcisstic disorder.]]

* BerserkButton: Amber telling Jo she would refuse to take on Quentin if Hillary died. [[spoiler: Because this means Jo's plan to kill Shannon so Amber would be too busy with Dinah and Nonie to look after Quentin was AllForNothing.]]

** [[spoiler: Pamela turns out to be one to Jo (and perhaps Richie, to a lesser extent) by telling Jo that she expected her to take care of Kristy when she died.]]

* AmbiguousDisorder: It's never really explained what Kristy's physical handicap is - Amber tried to ask Jo in the most tactful way she could, but Jo acted fairly predictably by lashing out at her and Amber never brings it up again. Ginny speculates Kristy has the mental age of no more than a two-year-old.

* BerserkButton: Amber telling Jo she would refuse to take on Quentin. [[spoiler: Because this means Jo's plan to kill Shannon so Amber would be too busy with Dinah and Nonie to look after Quentin was AllForNothing.]]

* Gaslighting: Done quite a lot by Jo, who will be nice one moment, verbally tear into Amber another, then revert back to being nice as if nothing happened. Amber herself mentions she often isn't sure if Jo truly said the things she did or if she imagined them. Simon also notes that there's something incredibly unsettling about Jo's unpredictable moodswings.

* HeKnowsTooMuch: Why Kat Allan was murdered - [[spoiler: she witnessed Jo renting the fireman's costume she used to kill Shannon.]]

* Tragic Monster: How the novel paints [[spoiler: Jo]], who became a narcissist thanks to the unwitting abuse of her own mother.

* Wouldn'tHurtAChild: Sharon's killer is unusual in this example because they were perfectly willing to burn down a house with an innocent woman inside, but went out of their way to get Dinah and Nonie out and warned them to run away.

Kind of Cruel is a novel written by Creator/Sophie Hannah in 2012, the Seventh installment in her ''Spilling Series''. When Amber Hewerdine consults a hypnotherapist as a desperate last resort, she doesn't expect that anything much will change. She doesn't expect it to help with her chronic insomnia . . .She doesn't expect to hear herself, under hypnosis, saying words that mean nothing to her: 'Kind, cruel, kind of cruel' - words she has seen somewhere before, if only she could remember where . . .She doesn't expect to be arrested two hours later, as a result of having spoken those words out loud, in connection with the brutal murder of Katharine Allen, a woman she's never heard of...