History Literature / ThirteenthChild

* DeterminedHomesteadersWife: [[spoiler: Rennie after she marries Brant]] along with presumably all the other women who move out west.

* IllGirl: Eff is this for a while after fighting off rheumatic fever.

* DoomMagnet: Eff thinks she's this, among other things, thanks to her extended family's abuse. Her family tells her that it's nonsense

* DoomMagnet: Eff thinks she's this, among other things, thanks to her extended family's abuse.

* EvilUncle: Earn, Eff's uncle who tried to [[WouldHurtAChild convince Eff's parents to murder Eff as a baby]] due to her being the thirteenth child. Earn then spends the next five years abusing Eff and encouraging his children to bully her. It's capped off with Earn trying to have Eff arrested at the age of ''five''. Luckily, the Rothmers move West, [[ppoiler: at least until the wedding]].

* GoodParents: Daniel and Sara Rothmer, who refuse to treat Eff poorly despite her being a thirteenth child.

* EvilUncle: Earn, Eff's uncle who tried to [[WouldHurtAChild convince Eff's parents to murder Eff as a baby]] due to her being the thirteenth child. Earn then spends the next five years abusing Eff and encouraging his children to bully her. It's capped off with Earn trying to have Eff arrested at the age of ''five''. Luckily, the Rothmers move West, [[Spoiler: at least until the wedding]].

* RealityEnsues: If you are an adult bullying a child who has loving parents and siblings, they will show no sympathy when the child hits a RageBreakingPoint, especially when it's supposed to be a happy occasion.

* PowerTrio: Eff, Lan, and William are ego, id and superego, respectively.

* TheAce: Invoke in-universe by people that assume Lan is one thanks to his birth order.
* AdultsAreUseless: Averted. The adults are the people Eff, Lan and William go to with concerns for good reason.
* AgeCut: Happens a few times with Eff going through a few years in just a paragraph and then resuming the narrative.

* AlternateHistory: The nineteenth-century American frontier with magic, dragons and wooly mammoths.

* ApologizesALot: Eff, as a result of the bullying she received as a kid, tends to assume everything is her fault resulting in this trope.

* AsYouKnow: Eff starts the book by talking about how everyone knows seventh sons are special.
* AudienceMurmurs: How the Rationalists crowd in Oak River showed its approval of Eff being willing to go out without protection spells.

* BornLucky: Professor Rothmer and Lan are both considered to be this, being a seventh son and a double seventh respectively.

* BullyingTheDragon: Eff's aunts, uncles and cousins spend the first five years of Eff's life bullying her, ''even while'' they believe she's a TykeBomb who should have been [[OffingTheOffspring killed at birth]] and is doomed to becoming a BigBad in the future.

* ChildProdigy: Lan is treated as one, being a double seventh child, to the extent that his grandfather hires him a special tutor.
* ChildrenAreInnocent: Examined. Eff treated as a monster by her extended family for the first five years of her life, despite never doing anything to deserve it. Years later, when she catches herself wondering whether her sister's possible death would change her status as an [[ThirteenIsUnlucky unlucky thirteenth]], her first reaction is to believe that her aunts and uncles were right about her all along.

* ContainmentField: The Great Barrier Spell is this writ large.
* CoolTeacher: Miss Ochiba, the magic teacher. She offers lessons in non-Avrupan style magic, treats Eff no differently upon finding out Eff is a thirteenth child, and can [[spoiler: stop a young mammoth in it's tracks]]. Eff breaks down crying when Miss Ochiba is fired.
* CubCuesProtectiveParent: In-universe, Wash's sites it as his rule of thumb when in the settlement territory.

* EnergyAbsorption: [[spoiler:The mirror beetles.]] The first two parts of their lifestyle seems perfectly normal, however the adults are [[spoiler: drawn to sources of magic where they use it to trigger their last transformation into the mirrored beetle.]]

* EthnicMagician: Miss Ochiba and Wash, who use Aphrikan (aka African) conjure magic rather than the Avrupan (aka European) magic of almost everyone else.
* EvilUncle: Earn, Eff's uncle that tried to [[WouldHurtAChild convince Eff's parents to murder Eff as a baby]] due to her being the 13th child. Earn then spends the next five years abusing Eff, and encouraging his children to bully her. It's capped off with Earn trying to have Eff arrested at the age of ''five''. Luckily the Rothmer's move East, [[Spoiler: al least until the wedding]].

* FamilyDisunion: Diane's wedding goes well... At first. Then Earn gets drunk and decides to [[BullyingADragon take it out on Eff]].
* FantasticTimeManagement: Quick-drying spells, speed-travel spells and more.
* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Played with. As the setting is an AU Earth, the lands and cultures are pretty much the same, but they all have different names. Columbia is America, Aphrika is Africa, Avrupa is Europe, Ashia is Asia and Cathay is China, among others.
* FlatEarthAtheist: The Rationalists, to some extent, though instead of not believing in something that's there, they decide to go without it (meaning going about their lives on the frontier without the use of magic to protect them.)

* GoodParents: Daniel and Sara Rothmer who refuse to treat Eff poorly despite her being a 13th child.

* HeadInTheSandManagement: The Settlement Office, particularly under Mr Harrison.

* HeroicSafeMode: Caused by Professor Rothmer with a magic-dampening spell after Eff's argument with Earn

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Ben Franklin was a double-seventh son in this world. He and Thomas Jefferson, also a double-seven (Something neither was in our world -- they were a tenth and an only son, respectively), created the Great Barrier Spell to keep the United States of Columbia safe from western wildlife.

* IneptMage: Eff, after the incident with Uncle Earn. While she knows the theory behind different spells, and can do the set up, when she tries to actually cast them things tend to [[FantasticFireworks go wrong]].
* IntergenerationalFriendship: Eff with Wash and Prof Jeffries.
* IstanbulNotConstantinople: Columbia is America, Gaul is France, Cathay is China, etc.
* JustThinkOfThePotential: Brant about a successful Rationalist settlement opening up the rest of the West to settlement.

* LastFertileRegion: Oak River, due to it's [[spoiler: lack of magic.]]

* MamaBear: Mrs. Rothmer, who refuses to let Earn insult Eff, and makes sure to tell him off for [[spoiler: calling on the police to arrest a ''five year old''.]]

* MissingMom: William's mother is an invalid, never shows up in story, and is implied to be unable to have any role in William's raising
* MugglesDoItBetter: Rationalist engineers. Also Brant on the [=McNeil=] Expedition

* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: Played with. Jefferson and Franklin did leave behind their notes for the Great Barrier Spell, but since Franklin was self-taught and Jefferson tended to assume that everyone was as well read as he was, nobody can make any sense out of them.
* NumerologicalMotif: 7 and 13.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Mr Harrison, to the point where Washington [[spoiler: got enough complaints to fire him]] at the end of the series.

* OvershadowedByAwesome: Eff, who's the twin of a MagicalSeventhSon

* PowerTrio: Eff, Lan and William are ego, id and superego, respectively.
* TheProfessor: Several, Eff's father being the main example,

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Eff's parents and mentors. Her parents refuse to believe that she is bad luck, case in point, and do all they can to assure her that she is loved and wanted. [[spoiler:When Rennie elopes, her parents are disappointed but her father makes sure to visit Rennie after she has a baby and makes sure she's all right.]] Meanwhile her teachers see all her potential and do their best to encourage it.
* ScrewDestiny: Not Eff's response, as she's internalized her [[BuffySpeak thirteenth-ness]], but the people she reveals her DarkSecret too have a tendency to respond this way. For example, Miss Ochiba [[spoiler: responds by teaching Eff about numerology in other cultures where 13 is not considered unlucky.]]
* SettlingTheFrontier: It's a story about UsefulNotes/ManifestDestiny and people [[QuestToTheWest heading west]].
* SheIsAllGrownUp: Eff puts her hair up and starts wearing longer skirts while William and Lan are back East going to college. When they get back, [[ShipTease William has this response]].
* ShotgunWedding: It's revealed that [[spoiler:Rennie ran off with a Rationalist]] because of this; [[spoiler:she was sleeping with him and found out she was pregnant. Rather than being forced to confess to her family, whose reaction might have been different, she ran off]].
* SilverHasMysticPowers: As does sulfur, and other minerals and metals.
* SlaveLiberation: How Miss Ochiba's parents met; Miss Ochiba's father purchased slaves for a type 2 liberation, and Miss Ochiba's mother was one of them.
* SouthernFriedPrivate: Wash has a Southern drawl and, like many other black men, fought for the North in the Secession War.

* SternTeacher: Miss Ochiba. On the first day of school, she explains that she wants silence as soon as the bell rings. She enforces this on the first day with magic, taking away all sound, including people shifting, the sound of chalk, [[IntangibleTheft people talking]]...

* SynchronizedSwarming: Swarming weasels.

** Mr. Harrison, who insists on traveling beyond the barrier in an unsuitable buggy, tries to convince the people he's traveling with to use magic on Rationalist land, and spends the time he's in the Rationalist settlement insulting everyone until they kick him out.
** Uncle Earn, who believes that Eff is a future BigBad who should have been killed at birth... And handles this by [[BullyingADragon bullying her]].
* TwinDesynch: Happens a bit after Eff spent a year bedridden
* TwinTelepathy: Averted, as Eff and Lan explicitly do not have twin telepathy, however William later invokes this trope to "explain" why Eff knows that there's trouble where Lan is.
* UnequalRites: Avrupan mages are called magicians while Aphrican mages are conjurefolk and leaders Hijero-Cathayan covens are called adepts.

* YouKnowWhatTheySayAboutX: You know what they say about [[MagicalSeventhSon seventh sons, double seventh sons]] and [[ThirteenIsUnlucky thirteenth children]].
* YoungestChildWins: Subverted. Lan is supposed to be the great magician of the family, but [[spoiler:Eff]] is the one that saves the day

YouKnowWhatTheySayAboutX: You know what they say about [[MagicalSeventhSon seventh sons, double seventh sons]] and [[ThirteenIsUnlucky thirteenth children]].

* BreakTheCutie: Eff's extended family **tries** to do this to her the first five years of Eff's life. [[QuestToTheWest It's part of what convinces the Rothmer parents to move west.]]
* BullyingTheDragon: Eff's aunts, uncles and cousins spend the first five years of Eff's life bullying her, *even while* they believe she's a TykeBomb who should have been [[OffingTheOffspring killed at birth]] and is doomed to becoming a BigBad in the future.

%%* CoolTeacher: Miss Ochiba and Wash, to a lesser extent.
%%* CubCuesProtectiveParent: Wash's rule of thumb when in the settlement territory.

%%* LamarckWasRight: Seventh and double-seventh sons are an odd case of this.%%How are they this, and how are they odd?
%%* LastFertileRegion: Oak River
%%* LectureAsExposition
%%* TheLoad: Mr Harrison, even before he's named in the book.
%%* MagicalNegro: Played with in both Miss Ochiba and Wash.%%How?

%%* MagicTool: Wash's pendant

%%* MamaBear: Mrs Rothmer

%%* AMinorKidroduction

%%* MRSDegree

%%* MySecretPregnancy
%%* {{Neet}}: Rennie

%%* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Mr Harrison.

%%* OvershadowedByAwesome

%%* PolarOppositeTwins: Lan and Eff
%%* PowerIncontinence
%%* PowerLimiter:

%%* PrimAndProperBun: Miss Ochiba

%%* ScrewDestiny: Not Eff's response, but everyone else's.%%How? To what?
%%* SettlingTheFrontier
%%* SheIsAllGrownUp
%%* TheSheriff

%%* ShutUpHannibal: Eff to Uncle Earn.

%%* SkipOfInnocence
%%* SlaveLiberation: How Miss Ochiba's parents met.

%%* SternTeacher
%%* SupernaturalSensitivity: Aphrikan world-sensing.

%%* TooDumbToLive: Mr Harrison, Uncle Earn.
%%* TroubledChild

%%* UnableToSupportAWife

%%* TheUnfavorite
%%* UnlikelyHero

%%* WalkingTechbane
%%* TheWatcher: Wash functions as this for a little while.
%%* {{Whatevermancy}}
%%* WickedWeasel: Swarming weasels.
* WideEyedIdealist: Professor Rothmer considers Brant to be this to some extent.%%How?
%%* WildMagic: What Aphrikan magic uses.

%%* WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility: Double-seven powers.
%%* WonderChild: Lan, as a double-seventh son.
%%* YouKnowWhatTheySayAboutX

%%* TheAce: Lan

%%* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Eff's aunts, uncles and cousins.

%%* AlternateUniverse

%%* AmazingTechnicolorWildlife: Jeweled minks, silverhoofs and other wildlife from the Plains.%%Technicolor how?
%%* AncientArtifact: The wooden pendant seems like this.
%%* ApologizesALot: Eff

%%* BadPowersBadPeople: Eff's aunts and uncles seem to think this is at play.%%That what is at play?

%%* BigDamnHeroes

%%* BreakTheCutie: The first five years of Eff's life.
%%* BugCatching
%%* BullyingTheDragon: Eff's aunts, uncles and cousins spent the first five years of Eff's life bullying her.%%But "dragon" how?

%%* CharacterWitness: William serves as this for Eff.

%%* ConflictKiller: Lan's double-seven status.
%%* TheConscience: Eff is this for Lan sometimes.%%How?

%%* DeterminedHomesteader
%%* DeterminedHomesteadersWife

%%* {{Elopement}}: [[spoiler:Rennie and Brant]]
%%* EnergyAbsorption: [[spoiler:The grubs, beetles and mirror bugs.]]

%%* FamilyDisunion

%%* FantasyForbiddingFather: Professor Graham.

%%* FeatheredFiend: Terrorbirds

%%* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Lan and Eff, respectively.%%How?
%%* FreeRangeChildren

%%* FunctionalMagic
%%* FundraiserCarnival

%%* GoodParents: Daniel and Sara Rothmer.

%%* HereThereBeDragons
%%* HermeticMagic: Avrupan magic

%%* IJustWantToBeNormal: Eff

%%* IneptMage: Eff, after the incident with Uncle Earn.

%%* KickingAssInAllHerFinery

%%* LadyOfAdventure: Eff

%%* MaamShock
%%* MagicAIsMagicA: Just like magic B and magic C%%... what?
%%* MagicIsAMonsterMagnet

%%* BornLucky: Professor Rothmer and Lan.

%%* ChildProdigy: Lan

%%* EvilUncle: Earn

%%* GuiltComplex: Eff
%%* HarmfulToMinors: The extended Rothmer family.

%%* TwinTelepathy: Averted, later invoked by William.%%Averted how? Invoked how?

%%* CryingLittleKid: Poor Eff.

Book one of the Literature/FrontierMagic series by Creator/PatriciaCWrede. It's set in an AlternateUniverse where magic is a normal part of life for the settlers on the Columbian (their version of America) frontier.

* TheAce: Lan

* AgeCut: Happens a few times with Eff going through a few years in just a paragraph and then resuming the narrative
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Eff's aunts, uncles and cousins.
* AlternateHistory: Nineteenth century American frontier with magic, dragons and wooly mammoths
* AlternateUniverse
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Thirteenth children, according to Eff's aunts and uncles
* AmazingTechnicolorWildlife: Jeweled minks, silverhoofs and other wildlife from the Plains
* AncientArtifact: The wooden pendent seems like this
* ApologizesALot: Eff

* AudienceMurmurs: How the Rationalists crowd in Oak River showed its approval of Eff being willing to go out without protection spells
* BadassLongcoat: Seemingly a requirement for living west of the Great Barrier Spell
* BadPowersBadPeople: Eff's aunts and uncles seem to think this is at play
* BecauseDestinySaysSo: Eff spent years being sure that she was going to go bad one day

* BigDamnHeroes

* BornLucky: Professor Rothmer and Lan
* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Rennie is this for a long time
* BreakTheCutie: The first five years of Eff's life.
* BugCatching
* BullyingTheDragon: Eff's aunts, uncles and cousins spent the first five years of Eff's life bullying her

* CharacterWitness: William serves as this for Eff
* ChildProdigy: Lan

* ConflictKiller: Lan's double-seven status
* TheConscience: Eff is this for Lan sometimes.
* ContainmentField: The Great Barrier Spell is this writ large
* CoolTeacher: Miss Ochiba and Wash, to a lesser extent
* CryingLittleKid: Poor Eff
* CubCuesProtectiveParent: Wash's rule of thumb when in the settlement territory
* DeterminedHomesteader
* DeterminedHomesteadersWife

* {{Elopement}}: [[spoiler:Rennie and Brant]]
* EnergyAbsorption: [[spoiler:The grubs, beetles and mirror bugs]]
* EnfantTerrible: Another thing the extended Rothmer family suspected Eff of having been
* EthnicMagician: Miss Ochiba and Wash, who use Aphrikan (aka African) conjure magic rather than the Avrupan (aka European) magic of almost everyone else
* EvilUncle: Earn

* FamilyDisunion
* FantasticTimeManagement: Quick-drying spells, speed-travel spells and more
* FantasyForbiddingFather: Professor Graham
* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Played with. As the setting is an AU Earth, the lands and cultures are pretty much the same, but they all have different names.
** Columbia is America, Aphrika is Africa, Avrupa is Europe, Ashia is Asia, Cathay is China, among others
* FeatheredFiend: Terrorbirds

* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Lan and Eff, respectively
* FreeRangeChildren

* FunctionalMagic
* FundraiserCarnival

* GoodParents: Daniel and Sara Rothmer
* GuiltComplex: Eff
* HarmfulToMinors: The extended Rothmer family.

* HereThereBeDragons
* HermeticMagic: Avrupan magic

* HigherEducationIsForWomen: According to settlers, at least
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Ben Franklin was a double-seventh son in this world. He and Thomas Jefferson, also a double-seven (Something neither was in our world - they were a tenth and an only son, respectively), created the Great Barrier Spell to keep the United States of Columbia safe from western wildlife.
* IJustWantToBeNormal: Eff
* IllGirl: Eff is this for a while after fighting off rheumatic fever
* IneptMage: Eff, after the incident with Uncle Earn
* IntergenerationalFriendship: Eff and Wash, also Eff and Prof Jeffries.
* IstanbulNotConstantinople: Columbia is America, Gaul is France, etc.

* KickingAssInAllHerFinery
* KidsAreCruel: Eff's cousins torment her as a child.
* LadyOfAdventure: Eff
* LamarckWasRight: Seventh and double-seventh sons are an odd case of this
* LastFertileRegion: Oak River
* LectureAsExposition
* TheLoad: Mr Harrison, even before he's named in the book
* MaamShock
* MagicAIsMagicA: Just like magic B and magic C
* MagicIsAMonsterMagnet
* MagicalNegro: Played with in both Miss Ochiba and Wash

* MagicTool: Wash's pendant

* MamaBear: Mrs Rothmer

* AMinorKidroduction

* MRSDegree

* MySecretPregnancy
* {{Neet}}: Rennie

* NumerologicalMotif: 7 and 13
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Mr Harrison
* OurDragonsAreDifferent: They produce steam.
* OvershadowedByAwesome

* PolarOppositeTwins: Lan and Eff
* PowerIncontinence
* PowerLimiter:

* PrimAndProperBun: Miss Ochiba
* TheProfessor: Several, Eff's father being the main example

* ScrewDestiny: Not Eff's response, but everyone else's
* SettlingTheFrontier
* SheIsAllGrownUp
* TheSheriff

* ShutUpHannibal: Eff to Uncle Earn

* SkipOfInnocence
* SlaveLiberation: How Miss Ochiba's parents met.

* SternTeacher
* SupernaturalSensitivity: Aphrikan world-sensing
* SynchronizedSwarming: Swarming weasels
* TerminallyDependentSociety: The Rationalists believe society is too dependent on magic
* TextileWorkIsFeminine: The Rothmer women are in charge of laundry and mending clothes
* ThirteenIsUnlucky: Why Eff's extended family dislikes her.
* TooDumbToLive: Mr Harrison, Uncle Earn
* TroubledChild

* TwinTelepathy: Averted, later invoked by William
* UnableToSupportAWife

* TheUnfavorite
* UnlikelyHero
* UnstoppableRage: Eff fears this is what her magic will become
* WalkingTechbane
* TheWatcher: Wash functions as this for a little while.
* {{Whatevermancy}}
* WickedWeasel: Swarming Weasels
* WideEyedIdealist: Professor Rothmer considers Brant to be this to some extent
* WildMagic: What Aphrikan magic uses

* WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility: Double-seven powers
* WonderChild: Lan, as a double-seventh son
* YouKnowWhatTheySayAboutX
* YoungestChildWins: Subverted. Lan is supposed to be the great magician of the family, but [[spoiler:Eff]] is the one that saves the day

** Columbia is America, Aphrika is [[CaptainObvious Africa]], Avrupa is Europe, Ashia is Asia, Cathay is China, among others

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Eff's parents and mentors

* GentlemanAdventurer: Wash is an interesting variant of this, as is Dr McNeil.

* AMinorKidtroduction

* MugglesDoItBetter: Rationalist engineers. Also Brant on the McNeil Expedition

* IvyLeague