History Literature / Once

* BatterUp: When the succubus attacks, Rigwit, with a broom handle, gives it a few whacks.

* BeautyEqualsGoodness:
** DownPlayed and [[JustifiedTrope justified]], a faery's spiritual demeanour and intentions affect human senses' interpretation of them. Rigwit has "an eccentric charm...bewitchingly intriguing," Jennet looks like a "fantastically beautiful" nubile young woman.

** Averted with [[EvilisSexy Nell]].

** Sudden protrusion from the forest soil of grimy, scaly hands reminds an astonished Thom of late-night horror movies - he may be thinking of ''Film/ThePlagueOfTheZombies'' and the poster for ''Film/TheEvilDead''.

A 2001 novel by Creator/JamesHerbert. Following a stroke, twenty-seven-year old carpenter Thom Kindred continues his recovery with a return to his childhood home of Little Bracken, cottage guesthouse to Castle Bracken, a sixteenth century mansion in the Shropshire countryside. His childhood friend Hugo Bleeth, heir to Castle Bracken, has arranged Thom's attendance by Nell Quick, self-professed [[HealingHands healer]] and nurse to Sir Russell Bleeth, the dying lord of the manor. Her oddly sly, lascivious demeanour somehow makes Thom uneasy. A plate then apparently throws itself to the floor, scaring her off.

After encounters in the forest with tiny glowing winged figures and a sensuous young woman who seems not quite of this world, Thom fears his stroke may have somehow induced hallucination. When some kind of hideous fiend attacks him in his bed, a [[TheFairFolk tiny]], strangely wizened, [[SizeShifter size]]-[[AnotherDimension shifting]] man comes to the rescue, and introduces himself as Rigwit, a brownie. Jennet, the [[AlchemicElementals undine]] girl from the woods, then introduces Thom to the world of the ''[[OurFairiesAreDifferent faerefolkis]]''...

* DeadpanSnarker: Rigwit, in his ancient wisdom, can be quite dry.

** ''Faerefolkis'' affinity with the ecosphere earns mastery of curative properties. They yearn for a day when abandonment of materialism will bring humanity back to their acquaintance, and to the "grand consciousness."

* TheSwarm: [[spoiler: A magically infinite horde of spiders.]]

** Having drugged her with [[LovePotion aphrodisiac orchid roots]], Nell addresses Katy as "[[IHaveYouNowMyPretty my pretty]]" - and, at "[[Film/TheWizardOfOz witchhag utterance]]", almost laughs.

** Having drugged her with [[LovePotion aphrodisiac orchid roots]], Nell addresses Katy as "[[IHaveYouNowMyPretty my pretty]] - and, at "[[Film/TheWizardOfOz witchhag utterance]]", almost laughs.

* TheVamp: Nell keeps [[spoiler: Hugo]] in desirous thrall. [[DefiedTrope Defied]] by Thom, who, while initially attracted to her, finds her advances overbearingly unnerving.

* AgentMulder: Thom, perplexed by a multicoloured swarm of tiny lights, limply theorises them to be some undiscovered breed of butterfly.

* SuperSenses: On accompanying Jennet into the woods, Thom, having sensorily attuned to the dimension inhabited by the ''faerefolkis'', sees, hears and smells, with overwhelming lucidity, the life around him.