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Disambiguated.
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* DaylightHorror: [[spoiler: Lucy's body being found at dawn.]]
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* DeathBySex: Implied.
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* RantInducingSlight: Basically everything the narrator gets upset about.
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Originally a book by Rachel Klein and published in 2002. A film adaptation was released in 2011 directed by [[Literature/AmericanPsycho Mary Harron]].
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Originally a book by Rachel Klein and published in 2002. A film adaptation was released in 2011 directed by [[Literature/AmericanPsycho Mary Harron]].Creator/MaryHarron.
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TRS has decided that Schoolgirl Lesbians is no longer a valid trope. Removing all links to the page and changing them to more appropriate pages if one can be found
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* SchoolgirlLesbians: The narrator and Lucy, and Lucy and Ernessa.
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* AntagonistInMourning: Averted - ''if'' the narrator is to be believed. Ernessa does not seem to mourn Lucy's death and is not even present at her wake.
* AnxietyDreams: All of them.
* ApocalypticLog: Or possibly not.
* {{Asexuality}}: The narrator assumes this about Ernessa.
* BadassBookworm: Dora, shown in her verbal spar with Ernessa on Dionysian mythology.
* AnxietyDreams: All of them.
* ApocalypticLog: Or possibly not.
* {{Asexuality}}: The narrator assumes this about Ernessa.
* BadassBookworm: Dora, shown in her verbal spar with Ernessa on Dionysian mythology.
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*
*
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* NiceGirl: Sofia is the nicest of the boarders and the only one who still expresses concern after Lucy's death. The narrator never has anything bad to say about her.
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* HatesBeingTouched: Ernessa, though her aloofness makes it so that nobody except Lucy really gets close to her anyway. The one time the narrator grabs her arm, Ernessa pushes her away so hard she hits a wall.
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* UnreliableNarrator: A few times it's unclear if things really happened [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness the way the narrator says they did.]] Other times her impressions of other people are coloured by her dislike of them; for example, her resentment towards Miss Bobbie, who she believes has a prejudice against Jewish girls, and her jealousy of Ernessa and Lucy's growing intimacy.
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* UnreliableNarrator: A few times it's unclear if things really happened [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness the way the narrator says they did.]] Other times her impressions of other people are coloured by her dislike opinions of them; for example, them, such as her resentment towards Miss Bobbie, who she believes has a prejudice against Jewish girls, some of the teachers and her jealousy of Ernessa and Lucy's growing intimacy.
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* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: A few times the narrator witnesses something impossible to explain but it's never clear if things really happened the way she says they did.
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* UnreliableNarrator: A few times it's unclear if things really happened [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness the way the narrator says they did.]] Other times her impressions of other people are coloured by her opinion of them; for example, her dislike of the games teacher who she believes has a prejudice against Jewish girls, and her open jealousy of Ernessa and Lucy's growing intimacy.
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* UnreliableNarrator: A few times it's unclear if things really happened [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness the way the narrator says they did.]] Other times her impressions of other people are coloured by her opinion dislike of them; for example, her dislike of the games teacher resentment towards Miss Bobbie, who she believes has a prejudice against Jewish girls, and her open jealousy of Ernessa and Lucy's growing intimacy.
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* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: A few times the narrator witnesses something impossible to explain but it's never clear if things really happened the way she says they did.
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* UnreliableNarrator: A few times it's unclear if things really happened [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness the way the narrator says they did.]] Other times her impressions of other people are coloured by her opinion of them; for example, her dislike of the games teacher who she believes has a prejudice against Jewish girls, and her open jealousy of Ernessa and Lucy's growing intimacy.
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* HiddenDisdainReveal: While she genuinely likes Lucy, the narrator is at times critical of her lesser intellect and her ordinary teenage-girl interests and that of the other girls. Most of this is kept to an internal monologue. [[spoiler: Lucy, after distancing herself from the narrator, eventually openly says that she doesn't want her company anymore.]]
--> [[spoiler: “Leave me alone, please,” said Lucy. “I can’t stand having you around me all the time, wanting me only for yourself. You are a fucking drag. You pull me down. All that pain.”]]
--> [[spoiler: “Leave me alone, please,” said Lucy. “I can’t stand having you around me all the time, wanting me only for yourself. You are a fucking drag. You pull me down. All that pain.”]]
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* GoMadFromTheIsolation: The narrator's diary entries are noticeably more distressed and insane in periods of isolation from her fellow pupils. [[spoiler: Dora's death, after Charley's expulsion, causes her to become even more fixated on the idea of Ernessa being a vampire but more inclined to keep her suspicions to herself, as none of the other pupils find Ernessa strange like she does.]]
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* GoMadFromTheIsolation: The narrator's diary entries are noticeably more distressed and insane in periods of isolation from her fellow pupils. [[spoiler: Dora's death, after Charley's expulsion, The expulsion of Charley and the death of Dora, the only two other students who also thought Ernessa strange, causes her the narrator to become even more fixated on the idea of Ernessa her being a vampire but more inclined to keep her suspicions to herself, as none of while shutting out the other pupils find Ernessa strange like she does.students.]]
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* GoMadFromTheIsolation: The narrator's diary entries are noticeably more distressed and insane in periods of isolation from her fellow pupils.
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* GoMadFromTheIsolation: The narrator's diary entries are noticeably more distressed and insane in periods of isolation from her fellow pupils. [[spoiler: Dora's death, after Charley's expulsion, causes her to become even more fixated on the idea of Ernessa being a vampire but more inclined to keep her suspicions to herself, as none of the other pupils find Ernessa strange like she does.]]
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* ShoutOut: The narrator reads a passage from J. Sheridan Le Fanu's ''Carmilla'', the ur-vampire story written even before Dracula. In it, the orphaned narrator finds herself living together with a lovely, dark-haired girl by the name of Carmilla. She is drawn to Carmilla's beauty, wit and personality but unbeknownst to her, Carmilla is a vampire who slowly drains her to death. The character of Ernessa is clearly inspired by Carmilla.
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* ShoutOut: The narrator reads a passage from J. Sheridan Le Fanu's ''Carmilla'', Creator/JosephSheridanLeFanu's ''Literature/{{Carmilla}}'', the ur-vampire story written even before Dracula.''Literature/{{Dracula}}''. In it, the orphaned narrator finds herself living together with a lovely, dark-haired girl by the name of Carmilla. She is drawn to Carmilla's beauty, wit and personality but unbeknownst to her, Carmilla is a vampire who slowly drains her to death. The character of Ernessa is clearly inspired by Carmilla.
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This is a JFF page, and not a trope.
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* TimeLord: [[spoiler: Ernessa]] seems to be able to do something like regenerating.
** Alternatively, Mrs. Norris is one.
** Alternatively, Mrs. Norris is one.
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[[quoteright:2180:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_moth_diaries.jpg]]
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* CannotCrossRunningWater: Ernessa is absolutely terrible at swimming, and the narrator describes her as struggling a great deal to keep her head above water. Her swimming session with Miss Bobbie is described as something akin to torture, even through the unsympathetic eyes of the narrator. If we believe that Ernessa is a vampire, it makes sense. It would also explain why [[spoiler: she could have a reason to kill Miss Bobbie.]]
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* HopeSpot: Lucy seems to get better at one point in the story, and the narrator is deeply relieved. She credits this to certain things she did which she believes caused Ernessa to stay away. Unfortunately, it doesn't last.
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* ShoutOut: The narrator reads a passage from Literature/Carmilla, the ur-vampire story written even before Literature/Dracula. In it, the orphaned narrator finds herself living together with a lovely, dark-haired girl by the name of Carmilla. She is drawn to Carmilla's beauty, wit and personality but unbeknownst to her, Carmilla is a vampire who slowly drains her to death.
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* ShoutOut: The narrator reads a passage from Literature/Carmilla, J. Sheridan Le Fanu's ''Carmilla'', the ur-vampire story written even before Literature/Dracula.Dracula. In it, the orphaned narrator finds herself living together with a lovely, dark-haired girl by the name of Carmilla. She is drawn to Carmilla's beauty, wit and personality but unbeknownst to her, Carmilla is a vampire who slowly drains her to death. The character of Ernessa is clearly inspired by Carmilla.
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* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds
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* WoobieDestroyerOfWorldsWoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Ernessa is seen by the narrator as a lonely vampire looking for a companion... who will kill anyone who annoys or disturbs her.
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* ShoutOut: The narrator reads a passage from Literature/Carmilla, the ur-vampire story written even before Literature/Dracula. In it, the orphaned narrator finds herself living together with a lovely, dark-haired girl by the name of Carmilla. She is drawn to Carmilla's beauty, wit and personality but unbeknownst to her, Carmilla is a vampire who slowly drains her to death.
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Tropes must have detailed examples.
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* AloofDarkHairedGirl: Ernessa.
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* AloofDarkHairedGirl: Ernessa. She spends most of her time with Lucy and does not form any other bonds with the girls or the staff.
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* AngerBornOfWorry
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* AngerBornOfWorryAngerBornOfWorry: The narrator is worried about Lucy's constantly worsening state, even more so as nobody else seems to care very much about it. At one point, she angrily drags Lucy in front of a mirror to make her look at herself - instead, Lucy points out that the narrator looks disturbed.
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* BeautyIsBad
* BirdsOfAFeather
* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler:Lucy]].
* BreakTheHaughty
* BirdsOfAFeather
* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler:Lucy]].
* BreakTheHaughty
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* BeautyIsBad
BeautyIsBad: The narrator assumes that Lucy's angelic beauty is what attracted Ernessa to her and led to her death.
*BirdsOfAFeather
* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler:Lucy]].
* BreakTheHaughtyBirdsOfAFeather: In the beginning of the story, the narrator considers herself and Lucy to be this. By the end of it, Lucy seems to have outgrown the narrator and their once close friendship cools off considerably.
*
* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler:Lucy]].
* BreakTheHaughty
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* CantStandThemCantLiveWithoutThem
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* ClingyJealousGirl: The narrator.
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* ClingyJealousGirl: The narrator. She is very possessive of Lucy and deeply resents Ernessa for taking Lucy away from her.
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* DarkMagicalGirl
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* DefrostingIceQueen: Ernessa.
* DevilInPlainSight
* DevilInPlainSight
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* DefrostingIceQueen: Ernessa.
* DevilInPlainSightDevilInPlainSight: The author believes Ernessa to be a life-sucking vampire who poses as a student in a girls' boarding school in order to find and remain close to her prey.
* DevilInPlainSight
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* TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed
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* TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamedTheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed: We never find out what exactly killed Lucy, which helps her death remain ambiguous - was it a real illness or was she killed by a vampire?
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* EmotionlessGirl: Ernessa, who never once displays any emotions, even when alone, and barely has vocal inflection.
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* EmotionlessGirl: Ernessa, who almost never once displays any emotions, even when alone, and barely has vocal inflection.inflection. Oddly enough, she only gets angry when she's in Lucy's room with several other girls and she hears a girl pee with the door open.
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* EmptyShell: Portrayed realistically as a result of grief and depression!
* EroticDream
* EvilEyebrows
* ExtremeDoormat
* EroticDream
* EvilEyebrows
* ExtremeDoormat
to:
* EmptyShell: Portrayed realistically as a result of grief and depression!
depression.
*EroticDream
EroticDream: The narrator has one while waiting for a friend to come back from her first sexual encounter. Depending on whether you see that as a dream or not, she has another one in which she sees Ernessa and Lucy in bed together.
*EvilEyebrows
EvilEyebrows: Ernessa has a unibrow, and is the closest thing to a villain in the book.
*ExtremeDoormatExtremeDoormat: Lucy is implied to be one.
*
*
*
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* HatesEveryoneEqually
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* HauntedHeroine
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* HauntedHeroineHauntedHeroine: This is what the narrator sees herself as.
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* KarmaHoudini: Ernessa. Although it is implied that she leaves the school after having her trunk burned by the narrator, she does not get any retribution for all the murders she is supposedly responsible for.
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* KarmaHoudini: Ernessa. Although it is implied that she leaves the school after having her trunk burned by the narrator, she does not get any retribution for all the murders she is supposedly responsible for. And the narrator seems to believe that Ernessa got to keep Lucy as her companion.
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* LipstickLesbian
* LonersAreFreaks
* LonersAreFreaks
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* LipstickLesbian
LipstickLesbian: Possibly Lucy and Ernessa.
*LonersAreFreaksLonersAreFreaks: The narrator fought hard to get rid of this label once she got to the Residence. Ernessa doesn't seem to care about the label at all, but if the narrator is to be trusted, she is (at best) very peculiar.
*
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* MacabreMothMotif
* MindManipulation
* MindManipulation
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* MacabreMothMotif
MacabreMothMotif: Moths represent Ernessa. They float around in her room.
*MindManipulationMindManipulation: What the narrator believes Ernessa is capable of, at least in regards to Lucy. It's ambiguous if that is true or not, since it's very possible that Lucy outgrew the narrator and was drawn to the quiet, interesting and intelligent Ernessa more.
*
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--> "In ninth grade, when I had to change with older girls for swimming, I couldn't help staring at them. My eyes were always drawn to that dark curly patch of hair between their legs, above the soft flesh of the thighs. On a little girl's body, the smooth fold of skin is no different from an eyelid. It's the hair that transforms it. [[FreudWasRight The coarse hair hides the entrance to a secret place.]] My breasts were pathetic little mounds, and some of these girls had big round breasts with huge nipples that were pink and purple and brown. They had the bodies of women. They would catch me looking and accuse me of staring at them. Then everyone would look in my direction and see my puny body."
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--> "In ninth grade, when I had to change with older girls for swimming, I couldn't help staring at them. My eyes were always drawn to that dark curly patch of hair between their legs, above the soft flesh of the thighs. On a little girl's body, the smooth fold of skin is no different from an eyelid. It's the hair that transforms it. [[FreudWasRight The coarse hair hides the entrance to a secret place.]] place. My breasts were pathetic little mounds, and some of these girls had big round breasts with huge nipples that were pink and purple and brown. They had the bodies of women. They would catch me looking and accuse me of staring at them. Then everyone would look in my direction and see my puny body."
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[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_moth_diaries.jpg]]
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* AbusiveParents: [[spoiler:Lucy's father. Maybe.]]
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* AntagonistInMourning: Averted.
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* AntagonistInMourning: Averted.Averted - ''if'' the narrator is to be believed. Ernessa does not seem to mourn Lucy's death and is not even present at her wake.
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* TheDrifter
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* TheDrifterTheDrifter: Ernessa is implied to be this. Her travel trunk is full of stickers, some new and some faded, from all the places she visited. The narrator sees her as someone who drifts from place to place in search of someone who can alleviate her loneliness.
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* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette
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* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunetteEeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: Ernessa.
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* KarmaHoudini
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* KarmaHoudiniKarmaHoudini: Ernessa. Although it is implied that she leaves the school after having her trunk burned by the narrator, she does not get any retribution for all the murders she is supposedly responsible for.
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* Omniglot: Ernessa read Proust in French and the narrator overheard her using a language that she did not recognize.
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* Omniglot: {{Omniglot}}: Ernessa read Proust in French and the narrator overheard her using a language that she did not recognize.
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* PsychologicalHorror: THE WHOLE BOOK
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* PsychologicalHorror: THE WHOLE BOOKBOOK.
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A [[DangerousSixteenthBirthday 16-year-old girl]] in an isolated BoardingSchoolOfHorrors full of tension, fear and emotional issues begins to write in a diary, confiding her growing suspicions of the dark-eyed new girl, Ernessa, and unrealised crush on her roommate and longtime friend, Lucy. The series of ominous disasters that occur throughout the academic year cause paranoia to spread through the school, until reality and dreams mingle together into a corrupted blend of the anxieties, lusts and neuroses of adolescence. At the center of the story, written in diary form, is a question that gives the book its undercurrent of gothic menace - is Ernessa really a [[LesbianVampire vampire]], or is it all part of the [[UnreliableNarrator narrator's]] imagination?
Originally a book by Rachel Klein and published in 2002. A film adaptation was released in 2011 directed by [[Literature/AmericanPsycho Mary Harron]].
----
!!This work provides examples of:
* AbstractApotheosis: Ernessa, representing sublimation, sex and the future.
* AfraidOfBlood: Beth, the "little mouse" who feebly attempts to kill herself for attention and interrupts the narrator's sleep.
* AloofAlly: Dora.
* AloofDarkHairedGirl: Ernessa.
* AmbiguouslyGay: Lucy and Ernessa's homosexual longings are more subtly implied (although there are a couple very suggestive scenes) in the film in contrast to their more blatant exploration in the book.
* AngerBornOfWorry
* AnimalMotifs: [[MacabreMothMotif Moths]], who cluster in Ernessa's room trying to get to the moon. The narrator also reminisces about one evening with her father:
-->"One night, in a tangle of wild honeysuckle that grew over the fence and buried us in its scent, we saw a pale green moth with two long tails that fluttered like ribbons in a little girl's hair. The luna moth was as large as a bird. The yellow eyes on its wings gleamed in the light . . . Finally, we went to bed, but I couldn't sleep. I listened to the whirring wings and insect bodies banging against the screen. Every sound outside was the green luna, trying to get into my room to show itself to me one more time."
* AntagonistInMourning: Averted.
* AnxietyDreams: All of them.
* ApocalypticLog: Or possibly not.
* {{Asexuality}}: The narrator assumes this about Ernessa.
* BadassBookworm: Dora, shown in her verbal spar with Ernessa on Dionysian mythology.
* BeautyIsBad
* BirdsOfAFeather
* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler:Lucy]].
* BreakTheHaughty
* BungledSuicide: [[spoiler:Ernessa]], in a way.
* CantStandThemCantLiveWithoutThem
* ChalkOutline: In blood after [[spoiler:Dora's death]].
* CherryBlossoms
* ClingyJealousGirl: The narrator.
* TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch: Twice, in passing.
* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: Or was she?
* CulturedBadass: Ernessa, Dora and the narrator.
* DaddysGirl: Lucy, with the added hints of [[spoiler:abuse]] (with sinister implications, her father won't let her cut her long blonde hair), and the narrator.
* DamagedSoul: [[spoiler:Ernessa]] and [[spoiler:the narrator's father]] in her dreams.
* DarkMagicalGirl
* DaylightHorror: [[spoiler: Lucy's body being found at dawn.]]
* DaywalkingVampire: The narrator believes [[spoiler: Ernessa]] to be this.
* DeathBySex: Implied.
* DefrostingIceQueen: Ernessa.
* DevilInPlainSight
* DidYouThinkICantFeel:
-->[[spoiler:"My father died too.]] Has everybody forgotten that?" I shouted."
* TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed
* DissonantSerenity: Ernessa and the narrator.
* DontYouDarePityMe
* DreamWithinADream: Several times, often simultaneously occurring with sleep paralysis-induced hallucinations.
* TheDrifter
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Ernessa]] may or may not have committed suicide by slitting [[spoiler:her]] wrists after [[spoiler:her father's death (also a possible suicide)]], which act could have [[spoiler:made her a vampire - if she was one,]] considering the UnreliableNarrator. The narrator states this in one of the very last entries in her journal before she [[spoiler: tries to burn down her school]], ThroughTheEyesOfMadness. The narrator also [[spoiler: contemplates this act]], but doesn't go through with it. [[spoiler:Her father did this, too, opening the possibility that the narrator was imprinting her past onto Ernessa, and fantasising about ending her life in the same way]].
* DullEyesOfUnhappiness: Lucy, and the mentioned-in-passing character The Zombie.
* DyingAlone: Averted; the narrator's father is described as saving "one last breath" for her, but her cat deliberately tries to avoid company as it is dying.
* DyingAsYourself: The narrator's father.
* EatingLunchAlone: A couple of times.
* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette
* EmotionlessGirl: Ernessa, who never once displays any emotions, even when alone, and barely has vocal inflection.
* EmpathicEnvironment: The seasonal changes.
* EmptyShell: Portrayed realistically as a result of grief and depression!
* EroticDream
* EvilEyebrows
* ExtremeDoormat
* FiveStagesOfGrief: The narrator, in the entries reflecting on [[spoiler:her father's suicide]] and [[spoiler:Dora's death]].
* FlowerMotif: Blossom.
* FriendlessBackground: The narrator is never mentioned as having friends before she came to the Residence.
--> "I had to learn how to have friends. To be normal."
* GirlsLoveStuffedAnimals: Lucy, who even after [[spoiler:her return from the hospital and the brink of death]] talks about her new ones all the time; partially lampshaded when the narrator comments on how Lucy seems to have not changed at all from her experience.
* GoMadFromTheIsolation: The narrator's diary entries are noticeably more distressed and insane in periods of isolation from her fellow pupils.
* GossipyHens: Most of the girls.
* GroundhogDayLoop
-->[[spoiler:Ernessa's old, old. Her life repeats itself like Lucy's horrible record, skipping over and over, always at the same spot. The moon shadow. She's waiting for my life to become stuck like that.]]
* GrowingUpSucks: For Sofia physically, who suffers from extremely heavy periods, and for a good deal of the other characters emotionally, including the narrator in her wish to return to her childhood [[spoiler:before her father's suicide]].
** Averted, however, where a younger narrator compares her body to that of her fellow students in the changing rooms.
--> "In ninth grade, when I had to change with older girls for swimming, I couldn't help staring at them. My eyes were always drawn to that dark curly patch of hair between their legs, above the soft flesh of the thighs. On a little girl's body, the smooth fold of skin is no different from an eyelid. It's the hair that transforms it. [[FreudWasRight The coarse hair hides the entrance to a secret place.]] My breasts were pathetic little mounds, and some of these girls had big round breasts with huge nipples that were pink and purple and brown. They had the bodies of women. They would catch me looking and accuse me of staring at them. Then everyone would look in my direction and see my puny body."
* HairContrastCouple: Ernessa and Lucy.
* HandsOffParenting: The narrator's mother, who (for bonus points!) is also an artist.
* HatesEveryoneEqually
* HatesSmallTalk: Both Ernessa and the narrator.
* HauntedHeroine
* HeroicBSOD
* HorrorHunger: The narrator theorises.
* HowDareYouDieOnMe: Even after all her preparation for [[spoiler: Lucy's death]].
* IceQueen: Ernessa, who only defrosts so the narrator can witness her [[spoiler:[[WhoWantsToLiveForever practical immortality]] and ancient wisdom]] and talk to her.
* [[spoiler: IHateYouVampireDad]]
* TheIngenue: The narrator's interpretation of Lucy and perhaps even the major theme of Lucy's personality.
* InhumanHuman: Possibly.
* IntelligenceEqualsIsolation: The narrator, after the [[spoiler:respective death and expulsion of Dora and Charley]].
* InTheEndYouAreOnYourOwn
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy
* {{Jerkass}}: Dora.
* KarmaHoudini
* KickTheDog: When Pater, the small dog whose only crime is a rather annoying yapping, is presumably killed by [[spoiler: Ernessa]], the narrator practically quotes this trope summary.
* LesbianJock: Assumed by Charley about Miss Bobbie.
* LesbianVampire: Ernessa seduces Lucy and in the film is seen biting her while they are naked and in bed together.
* LipstickLesbian
* LonersAreFreaks
* LuminescentBlush: In the restaurant scene.
* MacabreMothMotif
* MindManipulation
* MindScrew: Everywhere.
* MisplacedWildlife: There ''is'' such a thing as vampire moths but they're only found in Malaysia.
* MoodSwinger
* MoreThanMindControl: How vampires are described as getting close to their victims in one of the narrator's father's books. Exemplified in her interpretation of Lucy and Ernessa's relationship.
** Alternatively, one might be able to see it between her and Mr. Davies.
* MotorMouth: Charley.
* MysteriousPast: Very little is known about Ernessa Bloch. Her trunk is full of stickers (some old and faded) from places that she visited, she knowns at least two foreign languages, is very intelligent and well read, plays the piano beautifully and somehow manages to bend the rules wherever she goes, leading the narrator to theorize that her parents are rich.
* NietzscheWannabe: Dora, to the extent that she writes a novel based on a fictional dialogue between the man himself and Brahms.
* NoNameGiven: The narrator is unnamed in the book, but in the movie she is named Rebecca.
* NotAfraidToDie: By the end of the book.
* Omniglot: Ernessa read Proust in French and the narrator overheard her using a language that she did not recognize.
* OneGenderSchool: The book and movie are set in an all-girls boarding school.
* TheOphelia:
-->"I was thinking about hair streaming out in the water like golden seaweed. The drowning Ophelia, with hard pink breasts."
* OppositesAttract: Ernessa and Lucy.
* ParentalSubstitute: [[CoolTeacher Mr.]] [[HotTeacher Davies]].
* PersonalHorror
* PsychoLesbian: Possibly?
* PsychologicalHorror: THE WHOLE BOOK
* RantInducingSlight: Basically everything the narrator gets upset about.
* SadistTeacher: Mrs. Halton.
--> "It's too late to [[spoiler: see Lucy]], ever. I don't think I can cry anymore. [[UnableToCry There are no tears left.]] When Mrs. Halton came out to check on us at quiet hour, I was waiting for her outside her sitting room. At first she tried to deny that anyone had been allowed to [[spoiler: see Lucy]], but when I said that I knew Ernessa had been to the hospital, she admitted that Ernessa had visited, but only twice, and very briefly each time. "Lucy asked for her." She said it in a [[ThatMakesMeFeelAngry very mean way]]. She knew she was hurting my feelings. When I insisted that she allow me to see Lucy, she said, "If we must continue this conversation, come into my room.""
* SanitySlippage: The narrator becomes increasingly unstable as the novel and film progress.
* SchoolgirlLesbians: The narrator and Lucy, and Lucy and Ernessa.
* ShadowArchetype: Ernessa and the narrator, or more popularly Ernessa and Lucy.
* SoapOperaDisease: [[spoiler: Lucy]], who seems to vary from day to day, although the narrator is convinced that there is a concrete reason.
* SugarAndIcePersonality: Lucy.
* SuperStrength: Ernessa picks up a heavy wardrobe and moves it with unsettling ease.
* SurvivorGuilt: The narrator experiences this after both [[spoiler: her father's suicide and Lucy's death]].
* TeachersPet: The narrator is Mr. Davies's, and she believes that Ernessa is threatening her similar relationship with Mrs. Norris.
* TeacherStudentRomance: Everyone thinks it's there, but it's barely noticeable until near the end of the book.
* TimeLord: [[spoiler: Ernessa]] seems to be able to do something like regenerating.
** Alternatively, Mrs. Norris is one.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl
* VictimOfTheWeek: This is practically literal by the time the book ends.
* VirginSacrifice: [[spoiler:Lucy]]?
* WeatherDissonance
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds
* {{Yandere}}
* YouAreWhatYouHate
----
Originally a book by Rachel Klein and published in 2002. A film adaptation was released in 2011 directed by [[Literature/AmericanPsycho Mary Harron]].
----
!!This work provides examples of:
* AbstractApotheosis: Ernessa, representing sublimation, sex and the future.
* AfraidOfBlood: Beth, the "little mouse" who feebly attempts to kill herself for attention and interrupts the narrator's sleep.
* AloofAlly: Dora.
* AloofDarkHairedGirl: Ernessa.
* AmbiguouslyGay: Lucy and Ernessa's homosexual longings are more subtly implied (although there are a couple very suggestive scenes) in the film in contrast to their more blatant exploration in the book.
* AngerBornOfWorry
* AnimalMotifs: [[MacabreMothMotif Moths]], who cluster in Ernessa's room trying to get to the moon. The narrator also reminisces about one evening with her father:
-->"One night, in a tangle of wild honeysuckle that grew over the fence and buried us in its scent, we saw a pale green moth with two long tails that fluttered like ribbons in a little girl's hair. The luna moth was as large as a bird. The yellow eyes on its wings gleamed in the light . . . Finally, we went to bed, but I couldn't sleep. I listened to the whirring wings and insect bodies banging against the screen. Every sound outside was the green luna, trying to get into my room to show itself to me one more time."
* AntagonistInMourning: Averted.
* AnxietyDreams: All of them.
* ApocalypticLog: Or possibly not.
* {{Asexuality}}: The narrator assumes this about Ernessa.
* BadassBookworm: Dora, shown in her verbal spar with Ernessa on Dionysian mythology.
* BeautyIsBad
* BirdsOfAFeather
* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler:Lucy]].
* BreakTheHaughty
* BungledSuicide: [[spoiler:Ernessa]], in a way.
* CantStandThemCantLiveWithoutThem
* ChalkOutline: In blood after [[spoiler:Dora's death]].
* CherryBlossoms
* ClingyJealousGirl: The narrator.
* TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch: Twice, in passing.
* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: Or was she?
* CulturedBadass: Ernessa, Dora and the narrator.
* DaddysGirl: Lucy, with the added hints of [[spoiler:abuse]] (with sinister implications, her father won't let her cut her long blonde hair), and the narrator.
* DamagedSoul: [[spoiler:Ernessa]] and [[spoiler:the narrator's father]] in her dreams.
* DarkMagicalGirl
* DaylightHorror: [[spoiler: Lucy's body being found at dawn.]]
* DaywalkingVampire: The narrator believes [[spoiler: Ernessa]] to be this.
* DeathBySex: Implied.
* DefrostingIceQueen: Ernessa.
* DevilInPlainSight
* DidYouThinkICantFeel:
-->[[spoiler:"My father died too.]] Has everybody forgotten that?" I shouted."
* TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed
* DissonantSerenity: Ernessa and the narrator.
* DontYouDarePityMe
* DreamWithinADream: Several times, often simultaneously occurring with sleep paralysis-induced hallucinations.
* TheDrifter
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Ernessa]] may or may not have committed suicide by slitting [[spoiler:her]] wrists after [[spoiler:her father's death (also a possible suicide)]], which act could have [[spoiler:made her a vampire - if she was one,]] considering the UnreliableNarrator. The narrator states this in one of the very last entries in her journal before she [[spoiler: tries to burn down her school]], ThroughTheEyesOfMadness. The narrator also [[spoiler: contemplates this act]], but doesn't go through with it. [[spoiler:Her father did this, too, opening the possibility that the narrator was imprinting her past onto Ernessa, and fantasising about ending her life in the same way]].
* DullEyesOfUnhappiness: Lucy, and the mentioned-in-passing character The Zombie.
* DyingAlone: Averted; the narrator's father is described as saving "one last breath" for her, but her cat deliberately tries to avoid company as it is dying.
* DyingAsYourself: The narrator's father.
* EatingLunchAlone: A couple of times.
* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette
* EmotionlessGirl: Ernessa, who never once displays any emotions, even when alone, and barely has vocal inflection.
* EmpathicEnvironment: The seasonal changes.
* EmptyShell: Portrayed realistically as a result of grief and depression!
* EroticDream
* EvilEyebrows
* ExtremeDoormat
* FiveStagesOfGrief: The narrator, in the entries reflecting on [[spoiler:her father's suicide]] and [[spoiler:Dora's death]].
* FlowerMotif: Blossom.
* FriendlessBackground: The narrator is never mentioned as having friends before she came to the Residence.
--> "I had to learn how to have friends. To be normal."
* GirlsLoveStuffedAnimals: Lucy, who even after [[spoiler:her return from the hospital and the brink of death]] talks about her new ones all the time; partially lampshaded when the narrator comments on how Lucy seems to have not changed at all from her experience.
* GoMadFromTheIsolation: The narrator's diary entries are noticeably more distressed and insane in periods of isolation from her fellow pupils.
* GossipyHens: Most of the girls.
* GroundhogDayLoop
-->[[spoiler:Ernessa's old, old. Her life repeats itself like Lucy's horrible record, skipping over and over, always at the same spot. The moon shadow. She's waiting for my life to become stuck like that.]]
* GrowingUpSucks: For Sofia physically, who suffers from extremely heavy periods, and for a good deal of the other characters emotionally, including the narrator in her wish to return to her childhood [[spoiler:before her father's suicide]].
** Averted, however, where a younger narrator compares her body to that of her fellow students in the changing rooms.
--> "In ninth grade, when I had to change with older girls for swimming, I couldn't help staring at them. My eyes were always drawn to that dark curly patch of hair between their legs, above the soft flesh of the thighs. On a little girl's body, the smooth fold of skin is no different from an eyelid. It's the hair that transforms it. [[FreudWasRight The coarse hair hides the entrance to a secret place.]] My breasts were pathetic little mounds, and some of these girls had big round breasts with huge nipples that were pink and purple and brown. They had the bodies of women. They would catch me looking and accuse me of staring at them. Then everyone would look in my direction and see my puny body."
* HairContrastCouple: Ernessa and Lucy.
* HandsOffParenting: The narrator's mother, who (for bonus points!) is also an artist.
* HatesEveryoneEqually
* HatesSmallTalk: Both Ernessa and the narrator.
* HauntedHeroine
* HeroicBSOD
* HorrorHunger: The narrator theorises.
* HowDareYouDieOnMe: Even after all her preparation for [[spoiler: Lucy's death]].
* IceQueen: Ernessa, who only defrosts so the narrator can witness her [[spoiler:[[WhoWantsToLiveForever practical immortality]] and ancient wisdom]] and talk to her.
* [[spoiler: IHateYouVampireDad]]
* TheIngenue: The narrator's interpretation of Lucy and perhaps even the major theme of Lucy's personality.
* InhumanHuman: Possibly.
* IntelligenceEqualsIsolation: The narrator, after the [[spoiler:respective death and expulsion of Dora and Charley]].
* InTheEndYouAreOnYourOwn
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy
* {{Jerkass}}: Dora.
* KarmaHoudini
* KickTheDog: When Pater, the small dog whose only crime is a rather annoying yapping, is presumably killed by [[spoiler: Ernessa]], the narrator practically quotes this trope summary.
* LesbianJock: Assumed by Charley about Miss Bobbie.
* LesbianVampire: Ernessa seduces Lucy and in the film is seen biting her while they are naked and in bed together.
* LipstickLesbian
* LonersAreFreaks
* LuminescentBlush: In the restaurant scene.
* MacabreMothMotif
* MindManipulation
* MindScrew: Everywhere.
* MisplacedWildlife: There ''is'' such a thing as vampire moths but they're only found in Malaysia.
* MoodSwinger
* MoreThanMindControl: How vampires are described as getting close to their victims in one of the narrator's father's books. Exemplified in her interpretation of Lucy and Ernessa's relationship.
** Alternatively, one might be able to see it between her and Mr. Davies.
* MotorMouth: Charley.
* MysteriousPast: Very little is known about Ernessa Bloch. Her trunk is full of stickers (some old and faded) from places that she visited, she knowns at least two foreign languages, is very intelligent and well read, plays the piano beautifully and somehow manages to bend the rules wherever she goes, leading the narrator to theorize that her parents are rich.
* NietzscheWannabe: Dora, to the extent that she writes a novel based on a fictional dialogue between the man himself and Brahms.
* NoNameGiven: The narrator is unnamed in the book, but in the movie she is named Rebecca.
* NotAfraidToDie: By the end of the book.
* Omniglot: Ernessa read Proust in French and the narrator overheard her using a language that she did not recognize.
* OneGenderSchool: The book and movie are set in an all-girls boarding school.
* TheOphelia:
-->"I was thinking about hair streaming out in the water like golden seaweed. The drowning Ophelia, with hard pink breasts."
* OppositesAttract: Ernessa and Lucy.
* ParentalSubstitute: [[CoolTeacher Mr.]] [[HotTeacher Davies]].
* PersonalHorror
* PsychoLesbian: Possibly?
* PsychologicalHorror: THE WHOLE BOOK
* RantInducingSlight: Basically everything the narrator gets upset about.
* SadistTeacher: Mrs. Halton.
--> "It's too late to [[spoiler: see Lucy]], ever. I don't think I can cry anymore. [[UnableToCry There are no tears left.]] When Mrs. Halton came out to check on us at quiet hour, I was waiting for her outside her sitting room. At first she tried to deny that anyone had been allowed to [[spoiler: see Lucy]], but when I said that I knew Ernessa had been to the hospital, she admitted that Ernessa had visited, but only twice, and very briefly each time. "Lucy asked for her." She said it in a [[ThatMakesMeFeelAngry very mean way]]. She knew she was hurting my feelings. When I insisted that she allow me to see Lucy, she said, "If we must continue this conversation, come into my room.""
* SanitySlippage: The narrator becomes increasingly unstable as the novel and film progress.
* SchoolgirlLesbians: The narrator and Lucy, and Lucy and Ernessa.
* ShadowArchetype: Ernessa and the narrator, or more popularly Ernessa and Lucy.
* SoapOperaDisease: [[spoiler: Lucy]], who seems to vary from day to day, although the narrator is convinced that there is a concrete reason.
* SugarAndIcePersonality: Lucy.
* SuperStrength: Ernessa picks up a heavy wardrobe and moves it with unsettling ease.
* SurvivorGuilt: The narrator experiences this after both [[spoiler: her father's suicide and Lucy's death]].
* TeachersPet: The narrator is Mr. Davies's, and she believes that Ernessa is threatening her similar relationship with Mrs. Norris.
* TeacherStudentRomance: Everyone thinks it's there, but it's barely noticeable until near the end of the book.
* TimeLord: [[spoiler: Ernessa]] seems to be able to do something like regenerating.
** Alternatively, Mrs. Norris is one.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl
* VictimOfTheWeek: This is practically literal by the time the book ends.
* VirginSacrifice: [[spoiler:Lucy]]?
* WeatherDissonance
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds
* {{Yandere}}
* YouAreWhatYouHate
----
