History Literature / TheFamiliar

''Not to be confused with Literature/TheFamiliars, a children's fantasy book series by another author that's entirely unrelated.''

* TitleDrop: Many of the chapters are named after quotes actually happening in those chapters. From Volume 1:
** ''"Is Everything Okay?"'' - Anwar asks Xanther this, and it is mentioned that it is sort of a catch phrase of his, to Xanther's dismay.
** ''"Yeah man. Something died."'' - This quote is spoken over the phone by Shnorkh's witness when Shnorkh is trying to contact him.
** ''"Is little irrelevant"'' - Something Shnorkh says in the chapter.
** ''"Save him!"'' - A quote Xanther says to Anwar in his chapter.
** ''"Mom, it's a--"'' - Again, a quote Xanther says to her mother.
** ''"If Anything..."'' - A quote from Xanther's thoughts.
* UnconventionalFormatting: Among other things:
** Some text is printed
*** diagonally or vertically over the page
*** in shapes like circles etc.
*** in many different sizes of the font on the same page.
*** in font sizes so small that you can't discern individual letters, but they make out a pattern (a picture, almost)
*** words covered by a CensorBox or otherwise made unreadable
** Each of the nine narrators has a different font, different page margins and line spacing.
** Any time "Familiar" or "familiar" appears (even if it's part of a longer word), it's printed in pink.
** When computer source code appears in the text, it's printed in a fixed-width Courier-looking font, and indented and color-coded just like in real life code normally is (conventional formatting for programmers, but unconventional formatting for a novel).
** Dots like braille letters appear around text inserted by the "[=NarCons=]". [[note]]The character that precedes each of their lines, is the braille character for "''the''" and the character that follows, is "''N''". ''The N''. As they're called Narcons...[[/note]]
** The page with the books' Copyright declaration and ISBN number doesn't appear at the beginning of the book like usual, but only on page 842 - after the novel itself is finished, and before the Acknowledgements.

* {{Doorstopper}}: Each book is 880 pages, and weights a hefty 3.6 pounds / 1.65 kg (because it's also printed on remarkably thick paper). This Trope is taken UpToEleven, or even [[IncrediblyLamePun Up to Twenty-Seven]], considering that it is a series of ''twenty-seven'' of these books.

*** [=TF=]-[=NarCon=]-9: No color in the page tip; and their pages are printed on sharp white paper while the rest of the book / character's narratives' pages are on slightly yellowish paper (so subtly colored that you won't even realize most of the book isn't printed on sharp white pages, untill you reach the [=NarCon=] chapter).

''The Familiar'' is a book series written by {{New Weird}} author Creator/MarkZDanielewski, best known as the author of ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves'' and ''Literature/OnlyRevolutions''. Much like those books, the series is an exploration of post-modernist themes through the usage of the author's trademark UnconventionalFormatting and unique writing style. With elements of science fiction, horror, conspiracy thriller, crime/detective and young adult, it is quite the GenreBuster.

--> Words need worlds in order to be words. Worlds though don't need words in order to be worlds.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname:
** Her full name is Catherine, but she's always called Cas (her initials) by other characters, or her nickname The Wizard (which the fandom in Real Life always uses referring to her).
** Cas has a friend only known as The Sorcerer, who might or might not really be (called) Mefisto (from Anwar's storyline).

%% Use the following to correctly spell the names:
%% Isandorno Isandòrno
%% Lutero Lutéro
%% Ozgur Yildirum Özgür Yıldırım

--> Words need worlds in order to be worlds. Worlds though don't need words in order to be worlds.

* DaddysGirl: Of the third type, because she has a lot of issues he is concerned about. Xanther has a really strong bond with her father Anwar, to the point that the other family members often feel left out.

* ParentalIssues: Astair mentions that her parents held her back and she didn't feel appreciated by them when she was a child, and she worries she will make the same mistake with her own children now.

* ParentalIssues: Karen mentions that her parents held her back and she didn't feel appreciated by them when she was a child, and she worries she will make the same mistake with her own children now.

* TwoferTokenMinority: Remarkably averted in the cast of nine narrators: the women are the minority (three) and all white [[note]]Astair is stated to be of Irish descent, and her daughter Xanther's biological father Dev must be white as well as Xanther is repeatedly described as being extremely pale.[[/note]], while the six men are all non-white (four Americans of respectively Hispanic, Turkish, Armenian, and black Egyptian ethnicity; a Mexican man; an Asian Singaporean man).

%% To spell Isandòrno's name right: use Isandòrno
%% Use Lutéro to get Luther's Spanish-version name with the right characters.
%% Use Özgür Yıldırım to get Oz's full name with the right characters.

''The Familiar'' is a book series written by {{New Weird}} author Creator/MarkZDanielewski, best known as the author of ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves'' and ''Literature/OnlyRevolutions''. Much like those books, the series is an exploration of post-modernist themes through the usage of the author's trademark UnconventionalFormatting and unique writing style.

[[quoteright:259:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a5d3429b8ef9f2f1485acd8fc559e05e.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:259:''How many raindrops?'']]

* GenderBlenderName: Xanther has a classmate called Lindsey, and herself wonders that that's an uncommon name for a boy.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Xanther - she has trouble reading (described as that she has difficulty distinguishing letters / numbers), which resembles dyslexia but isn't named; and is focused on details [[note]]This is introduced in her very first chapter, in which it rains and she over and over ponders "How many raindrops?"(See image on the main page)[[/note]] and socially awkward in a manner that reminds of autism.

* CunningLinguist: jingjing speaks fluent Cantonese, Mandarin, Russian and Singlish / English. This trait also reflects in how his narration is written - mostly Singlish with a lot of Mandarin and sometimes Russian interjected. See also BilingualBonus - in his chapters, this is emphasized the most.

* RavenHairIvorySkin: Xanther is described as this: "...her hair so black, her skin so white...".

Danielewski has likened this, "The Familiar", 27-book project to serialized television, and has said the amount of books in this series will be 27 novels in total and that two new Volumes of the series will be released per year. Considering Volume 1 was released May 2015 and supposing the author keeps up with what he promises (two Volumes/year) this would mean the final Volume will be released end 2028. [[note]]As of 2017, the author / publisher have a contract to respectively write / publish 10 novels. Depending on the success of these, they might be extended to the 27 novels the author according to himself has planned.[[/note]]

* AmbiguousDisorder: Xanther - she also has trouble reading (described as that she has difficulty distinguishing letters / numbers), which resembles dyslexia but isn't named; and is focused on details [[note]]This is introduced in her very first chapter, in which it rains and she over and over ponders "How many raindrops?"(See image on the main page)[[/note]] and socially awkward in a manner that reminds of autism.

*** [=TF=]-[=NarCon=]-9: Colorless

''The Familiar'' is a book series written by {{New Weird}} author Creator/MarkZDanielewski, best known as the author of ''{{Literature/House of Leaves}}'' and ''{{Literature/Only Revolutions}}''. Much like those books, the series is an exploration of post-modernist themes through the usage of the author's trademark UnconventionalFormatting and unique writing style.

!!Tropes in ''The Familiar'' series are as follows

** ''The Familiar'' features many references to something called "VEM" which has been namedropped in many other MZD works dating back to ''Literature/House of Leaves''.
** ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves'' itself has been subtly referenced (e.g. how jingjing describes zhong's apartment in [=V01Ch12=], palace above the day). There has been much speculation among Danielewski readers if the ''House of Leaves'' exists in the same universe as ''The Familiar'', and if it will be more directly featured in future ''The Familiar'' Volumes.

[[caption-width-right:259:''how many raindrops?'']]

Danielewski has likened this, "The Familiar", 27-book project to serialised television, and has said the amount of books in this series will be 27 novels in total and that two new Volumes of the series will be released per year. Considering Volume 1 was released May 2015 and supposing the author keeps up with what he promises (two Volumes/year) this would mean the final Volume will be released end 2028. [[note]]As of 2017, the author / publisher have a contract to respectively write / publish 10 novels. Depending on the success of these, they might be extended to the 27 novels the author according to himself has planned.[[/note]]

* CanonWelding: ''The Familiar'' features many references to something called "VEM" which has been namedropped in many other MZD works dating back to ''House of Leaves''. There are also many other very subtle callbacks and references, and the short story ''Clip 4'' is almost like a prologue to ''TF'', while ''also'' containing numerous callbacks.

* {{Color Coded Characters}}: Each character's chapters are represented by a different color, found in the top corner of each page:
** Xanther is Pink
** Luther is Black
** Anwar is Green
** Jingjing is Blue
** Astair is Orange
** Cas is Red
** Oz is Grey
** Shnorkh is Brown
** Isandòrno is Yellow
** [=TF=]-[=NarCon=]-9 is colorless

* {{Bilingual Bonus}}: Plenty of foreign language text throughout. Most notably Spanish, Cantonese Chinese and Arabic, but also some Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Hindi, Russian, Hebrew and German. And braille signs. Plus, C++ computer source code. Sometimes it's translated, mostly not. Actually [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by the narrators of the book, who comment "What? I'm not your Google bitch." after the first instance of foreign language.

Danielewski has likened this, "The Familiar", 27-book project to serialised television, and has said the amount of books in this series will be 27 novels in total and that two new Volumes of the series will be released per year. Considering Volume 1 was released May 2015 and supposing the author keeps up with what he promises (two Volumes/year) this would mean the final Volume will be released end 2028.

* {{Doorstopper}}: Each book is 880 pages, and weights a hefty 3.6 pounds (because it's also printed on remarkably thick paper). This Trope is taken UpToEleven, or even [[IncrediblyLamePun Up to Twenty-Seven]], considering that it is a series of ''twenty-seven'' of these books.