History Literature / TheUnitedStatesOfMonsters

** ''Literature/PsychoKillersInLove''
** ''Brightblade''[[/index]]

* {{Adorkable}}: The majority of the protagonists are somewhat dorky geeks as well as heroes. Geekery and kicking ass go together in this world.

* BiTheWay: Most vampires are this according to WordOfGod due to blood being their source of sexual fulfillment. Younger vampires maintain preferences, though.

* FantastyKitchenSink: Virtually every kind of monsters, supernatural being, myth, and legend are true. {{Lampshaded}} in the Red Room books where it's stated that this is due to spirits in the Spirit World taking on the form of supernaturals that humans think up. If something doesn't exist before it becomes a legend, it eventually will.

* {{Dhampyr}}: These exist in the setting but are considered less than their parents.

[[quoteright:308:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/36284239.jpg]]

* ''Literature/RedRoom''
** ''Esoterrorism''
** ''Eldritch Ops''

* LooksLikeOrlock: Seems to be a common thing that happens to Ancients but not all of them.

* GenreSavvy: ''Every character in the world'' which is {{Justified}} for the most part due to the fact they all live in a world which was similar to ours until recently.

''The United States of Monsters'' is DarkFantasy UrbanFantasy series by Creator/CTPhipps and Michael Suttkus which takes place in TheUnmasquedWorld. It is a AffectionateParody of the genre verging on horror comedy where everyone is a smartass familiar with monster tropes and movies but serious crimes occur.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The vampires bailed out the United States during the 2008 Financial Crisis, only to get the government to give them special privileges and protection from which angers the public as they are perceived as receiving special treatment despite having broken the law. Worse, the vampires aren't as rich or necessary to the country as they appear but play on appearances to continue their frauds.
** Vampirism is used as a metaphor for racism and homosexuality with the BrokenAesop element played for laughs as the characters doing so are frequently talking to vampires who actually ''are'' black or homosexual and find the comparison insulting.
* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire: For the most part averted. Peter is a nice enough guy but still capable of killing on a dime anyone who gets in his way. Some are mentioned in the backstory like [[spoiler: Melissa's brother, however.]]
** Gerard Pasteur is closer to this but even he has some creepy qualities like an affection for teenage girls.

* CouncilOfVampires: The Council of Ancients rules the Vampire Nation. There's also a lesser City Council in New Detroit.

* FantasticRacism: Vampires suffer from this and apparently look at humans and other supernaturals with contempt. This is a case of GrayAndGrayMorality as while vampires do commit terrible crimes, so do humans with neither side having a moral high ground.

** Inverted in they're, essentially, the same race with shapechangers sometimes turning into vampires when they die. A vampire's child with a human is also likely to be a shapechanger.
** Played completely straight among shifters in Bright Falls as it's only in Detroit shifters "lower" themselves to serving the undead.

* WeaksauceWeakness: Vampires are almost irresistibly compelled to count sesame seeds on hamburger buns (or in general). Even they find this to be an incredibly stupid weakness.

* WeaksauceWeakness:
Vampires are almost irresistibly compelled to count sesame seeds on hamburger buns (or in general). Even they find this to be an incredibly stupid weakness.

* ActionGirl: Melissa is extremely dangerous, even more so when she becomes a vampire. Both Voivode Ashura and Fatimah turn out to be these as well.
** Jane and Emma both can kick ass despite being teenagers. Being shifters and magic-users helps.
*** Hell, every woman in the series can kick all sorts of ass.

* {{Adorkable}}: Jane, Emma, Alex, and Munin in just the first book alone. Geekery and kicking ass go together in this world.
* TheAllegedCar: Combined with CoolCar in the fact Jane owns a 2001 green Hummer which belonged to her grandfather and is apparently both indestructible as well as constantly breaking down. It also gets 1 mile to the gallon. She's nicknamed it "The Millennium Falcon."
* AllMythsAreTrue: Jane explains human imagination influences the SpiritWorld and spirits often take the appearance of things from their mythology, be they gods, demons, or monsters. This means if something doesn't exist it's only a matter of time before it becomes real and can potentially enter the world.
* [[AllTheOtherReindeer All The Other Weredeer]]: Jane is a petite awkward snarky young woman in a race which is notable for its superhumanly gorgeous women. Mostly played for laughs.
* AmbiguousDisorder: Alex is stated to be somewhere on the spectrum but what his specific condition is, is anyone's guess.
* {{Animorphism}}: Comes with being a series about a weredeer. In this case, Jane doesn't physically transform into a deer but one minute is a human then the next minute is a deer. She's not sure how it works either and speculates on everything from alternate realities to reality being an illusion.

* {{Bambification}}: Played with. While stags are shown to be dangerous and deer are the "mystics" of the shapechanger race, Jane herself is a small and adorable human being with a similar look in her deer form. She does, however, headbutt people and trample them in her "bambi" form, though.
* BettyAndVeronica: Jane has this relationship between FBI Agent Alexander Timmons (The Betty) and local crime lord Lucien Lyons (The Veronica). Jane generally leans towards Alex but still has an attraction to the latter.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Jane and Alex both embody GoodIsNotNice as they pretty much tear through a variety of nasty beasties with little care to the brutality in the process. Otherwise, they're quirky and fun {{Adorkable}} geeks.
* BiTheWay: Jane admits to such in the second book after hints in the first.
** Most vampires are this according to WordOfGod due to blood being their source of sexual fulfillment. Younger vampires maintain preferences, though.
* BigScrewedUpFamily: The Doe and O'Henry families. The Doe Family loves each other and provides for one another [[spoiler: but the mother is a former evil witch and the son is heavily involved in magical drug trafficking while the eldest daughter works for the local crime lord as a dancer.]] The O'Henry family is an abusive patriarchy where their grandfather abuses each generation of the family and controls them with cash.

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Marcus O'Henry is one of these as he controls all of the major employers in Bright Falls, Michigan and uses it to financially dominate his family as well as other citizens. He's abusive to his children, murdered business rivals, and [[spoiler: also got his granddaughter killed to try to lay to rest a ghost threatening him.]]

* CrapSaccharineWorld: Bright Falls, Michigan is a picturesque logging town which is full of QuirkyTown citizens. It's also a place which is riddled with crime, hostile spirits, and a good quarter of its population being shapechangers. This is in addition to the fact the setting is an UnmasquedWorld with the possibility of the government trying to kill all supernaturals just a stone's throw away while many supernaturals are genuinely evil but the government doesn't discriminate from normal ones (or who fight evil ones).

* CrystalDragonJesus: Combined with an InterfaithSmoothie and you get the religion of shapechangers in Bright Falls, MI. They worship a combination of Celtic deities, the Abrahmic God, and Native American spirits. Given AllMythsAreTrue, this is a perfectly valid religion and works for them.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: "Varmint Laws" allow anyone who feels threatened by a shapechanger to shoot at them. As such, most shapechangers keep their identities hidden or live in one of the five states where they don't exist.

* EldritchLocation: Bright Falls, Michigan is a place where the SpiritWorld and physical world's barriers are extremely weak.

* FullyEmbracedFiend:
** Averted. Most vampires seem to hold to some sort of standards to stay sane with Renaud the worst of them and that's because he thinks he's righteous.

* VampireHunter: A very common profession since the Bailout.

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Series]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Straight Outta Fangton]]
* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: Renaud is in charge of whatever group he's involved in, mostly because he's effectively invincible and has mind-control powers.
* BigBad: Renaud is behind all the troubles of the novel.
* BlackAndWhiteInsanity: Renaud believes all vampires are evil so therefore he must kill them all as well as anyone who associates with them. He also is free to use whatever methods he wants as well as his vampire powers (plus BlackMagic) to help him achieve this aim. [[InsaneTrollLogic Even if it gets countless innocent humans killed.]]
* BulletTime: Peter briefly develops this ability when his time powers develop.
* ClassicalMovieVampire: Yorga (a shout out to the Count Yorga movies) is one of these to Peter's disbelief. [[spoiler: It's ObfuscatingStupidity.]]
* CurbStompBattle: The second oldest vampire alive, two Old Ones, a Raksasha, an immortal, and a vampire assassin are just barely able to put up a fight against Renaud before he wears them down.
* DaywalkingVampire: Renaud is supposedly this but we never see it as our hero is a (non-daywalking) vampire himself.
* DefectorFromDecadence: Renaud ''thinks'' he's developed this but he's actually the most monstrous vampire of them all, being a {{Deconstruction}} of the heroic vampire character. Melissa and [[spoiler: Kali]] are both this as they break away from Renaud's group to fight him.
* {{Expy}}: [[Film/{{Highlander}} Renaud is called an Evil Connor Macleod but he's more a vampire Kurgan]] crossed with [[Series/ForeverKnight Nicholas Knight.]]
* ForWantOfANail: Combined with SpannerInTheWorks. Renaud's plan would have gone off flawlessly if not for the fact he'd assumed Melissa would go insane and be killed rather than be rescued by Peter in an act of compassion.
* FullyEmbracedFiend: Subverted with Melissa who immediately turns against her fellow vampire hunters and helps the vampires once changed BUT was actually doing it out of moral reasons as well as her longstanding doubts.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Renaud is a murderous, psychotic, evil vampire rapist who uses the powers of evil gods to fight vampires in the name of God.
* ImprovisedCross: Melissa uses one of these to deal with [[spoiler: Graff Yorga.]]
* LoveMakesYouStupid: All of Renaud's former lovers tend to think the world of him despite how badly he treats them.
* MoreThanMindControl: Renaud uses religious fanaticism and romance to control his minions.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Both Jumping Jack Flash and [[spoiler: Graff Yorga]] employ this.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Renaud gets a couple of these at the end.
* RevengeBeforeReason: Much of the plot depends on Peter being less interested in stopping Renaud and more in killing Eaton.
* RomanticVampireBoy:
* ShoutOut: The opening is a shout-out to ''Film/{{Clerks}}'' with it explictly spelled dout.
** [[LampshadeHanging It then ''immediately'' dives into a discussion of black vampires and how few of them there are.]]
* TragicMonster: Renaud is shown to be this despite having long since crossed the MoralEventHorizon multiple times. Voivode Ashura tries to invoke this with Eaton but it falls on deaf ears (for good reason).
** Jumping Jack Flash relates his Dorian Gray-esque [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil backstory only to get called "Rapey-Boy" for his trouble]] before being dismissed as a monster.
* TranshumanTreachery: A rare heroic example as being a vampire convinces Melissa she was wrong about their evil.
* UnskilledButStrong: Peter is this, being as powerful as a hundred year old vampire for reasons even he doesn't understand. [[spoiler: Then he gets much-much stronger.]]
* VampireRefugee: A {{Deconstruction}} with said character being a FantasticRacism BlackAndWhiteInsanity {{Hypocrite}} who every other vampire justifiably thinks is a psychopath.
* VampireVords: Parodied with Count Yorg who is ObfuscatingStupidity.
* VanHelsingHateCrimes: The Human Rights League is willing to blow up a hotel full of human tourists in order to frame the vampires for it. Melissa also admits to one of her congregation framing a nearby vampire for rape so he'd be killed. [[spoiler: By her, it turns out.]]
* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: We discover how useful 'floating' can be when it's used to scare the hell out of a vampire hunter.
* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: How many religious humans view vampire hunters and vice versa.
* AndThenJohnWasAZombie: [[spoiler: The final line is revealing David is a zombie now.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: I Was a Teenage Weredeer]]

* AlphaBitch: A literal example given Victoria O'Henry is a Mean Girl as well as werewolf. [[spoiler: Except not as she turns out to have been possessed during this time.]]
* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: Emma attempts one to Jane who more or less ignores it due to the fact she doesn't want to endanger their friendship.
* BigBad: The Big Bad Wolf a.k.a The Red Wolf.
* BiTheWay: Victoria O'Henry was sleeping with both the men as well as women in her coven.
* BrokenPedestal: [[spoiler: Jane has this toward her mother when she finds out she's not only an adulterer but a woman who did black magic for the O'Henry family.]]
* ComingOutStory: Parodied with Emma O'Henry who isn't aware Jane has known she was a lesbian since junior high.
* CycleOfRevenge: [[spoiler: The Red Wolf has cursed the town for killing his family, only to have others come after it, and plans for revenge from his followers. Similarly, Lucien Drake wants to avenge the Drake family, which was killed by the O'Henry family for their past enemies.]]
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: [[spoiler: Jane defeats the Big Bad Wolf, who is a local nature god and able to warp reality around himself.]]
* DisproportionateRetribution: The Big Bad Wolf cursed the entire town of Bright Falls [[spoiler: for the death of his children with a mortal woman. Decades ago, they had formed a mob to go after them due to his being a Native American in his avatar and his lover being a respected white woman. The children were accidentally killed during the confrontation only for the Red Wolf to kill the majority of the mob. The Red Wolf goes, Freddy Krueger style, after the survivor's children.]]
* {{Expy}}: Victoria O'Henry is a werewolf version of [[Series/TwinPeaks Laura Palmer.]]
* FaceHeelTurn: The Red Wolf was once a benevolent nature spirit before becoming a demon.
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: Judy Doe abandoned black magic after murdering most of the Drake family but refusing to kill their youngest son.]]
* HumanSacrifice: What was done to the victims using an enchanted blade.
* IncompatibleOrientation: Averted. Jane admits to being bisexual but has other reasons for not getting with her best friend.
* RevengeBeforeReason: One of the bigger themes of the novel. [[spoiler: Averted with Lucien who abandons his plan for revenge because of his love for Jane.]]
* WillingChanneler: The Red Wolf coven channeled the Red Wolf for power, rewards, as well as the ectasy of the experience.
* WrongfullyAccused: Jeremy Doe is the primary suspect for Victoria's murder. [[spoiler: He's not guilty but he's a lot more involved than Jane assumed.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: An American Weredeer in Michigan]]
* BigBad: John Winston Jones is the leader of the Ultralogists.
* BrokenPedestal: Jane has this reaction to the [[spoiler: Goddess of the Forest due to the discovery she was leaving her children to die.]]
** Robyn has this reaction [[spoiler: to her father who was one of the Goddess of the Forest's cultists.]]
* ChurchOfHappyology: The Ultralogists are a thinly disguised version of Scientology, only they have magic.
* CompositeCharacter: John Winston Jones is a combination of L. Ron Hubbard and Timothy Leary.
* EvilIsNotAToy: Jones' plan to control the Goddess of the Forrest wouldn't work. It would end in a Biblical judgement of Bright Falls.
* GrandTheftMe: John Winston Jones can do this as a way to survive, possessing the bodies of his descendants.
* JerkassGods: This proves to be the case for the Goddess of the Forrest, who is an avatar herself for Gaia.
* HalfHumanHybrid: Robyn Taylor is half-human, half forest goddess.
* InfantImmortality: Horrifyingly averted as a pit full of seeming child sacrifices is the start of the story. [[spoiler: The actuality, that they're the abandoned offspring of the local forrest goddess she expected her cult to care for, isn't much better.]]
* KickTheSonOfABitch: What happens to [[spoiler: Marcus O'Henry as Jane executes him in prison with magic to keep him from going after her family.]]
* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler: Marcus O'Henry proves to be responsible for at least some of the problems. So is Alex's father.]]
* MonsterHunter: Larry and Yolanda's profession both before and after The Reveal.
** Lucien and Alex used to be this despite being supernaturals themselves.
* ObliviousToLove: Jane "dated" Lucien for a few weeks without realizing it.
* PlantPerson: Robyn possesses the power to command plants and make them grow.
* RageAgainstTheHeavens: Jane has a minor one of these when she finds out the embodiment of nature she worships as a god is callous and apatheic.
* RelationshipUpgrade: Jane has one of these with [[spoiler: Alex. It's averted with Lucien, who she had one with offscreen, only to break up with him immediately afterward.]]
* SelfMadeOrphan: The discovery Alex killed his father to protect his sister. [[spoiler: Subverted as it turns out his father survived.]]
* VanHelsingHateCrimes: Larry and Yolanda are annoyed (rather than horrified) to find out many supernaturals are decent ordinary people when they've been indiscriminately hunting them.
[[/folder]]

* ''Straight Outta Fangton'' (starring Peter Stone, vampire convenience store clerk)

''The United States of Monsters'' is DarkFantasy UrbanFantasy series by Creator/CTPhipps and Michael Suttkus which takes place in TheUnmasquedWorld where supernaturals came out in the 2008 Bailout. It is a AffectionateParody of the genre verging on horror comedy where everyone is a smartass familiar with monster tropes and movies but serious crimes occur.

* ''Straight Outta Fangton'' (starring Peter Stone, vampire conveinance store clerk)
* ''Literature/TheBrightFallsMysteries''
** ''I Was A Teenage Weredeer'' (starring Jane Doe, weredeer waitress)
** ''An American Weredeer in Michigan'' (starring Jane Doe, weredeer waitress)

* ''I Was A Teenage Weredeer'' (starring Jane Doe, weredeer waitress)
* ''An American Weredeer in Michigan'' (starring Jane Doe, weredeer waitress)

* HalfHumanHybrid: Robyn Taylor is half-human, half forrest goddess.

* BlackAndGrayMorality: Despite being a Young Adult novel, the characters are dark and morally compromised. Jane is willing to work with criminals, the FBI, and monsters to get worse people.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Jane is a young untrained SnarkKnight psychic weredeer who is, nevertheless, the only person who seems to be able to solve any murders in the town.

* FullyEmbracedFiend: Averted. Most vampires seem to hold to some sort of standards to stay sane with Renaud the worst of them and that's because he thinks he's righteous.
* FurAgainstFang: Peter kills a werewolf in ''Straight Outta Fangton.'' Generally, werewolves are vampire employees, though.

* MustBeInvited: If not, you can't use your powers against someone.

* WeaksauceWeakness: Vampires are almost irresitably compelled to count sesame seeds on hamburger buns (or in general). Even they find this to be an incredibly stupid weakness.

* PlantPerson: Robyn