Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* HuntingIsEvil: Early in the book TJ describes an incident where he tries and fails to protect a young deer from Rich Marshall, the first of many reasons him and Rich don't get along.. He had overheard Rich talking about having killed a mother deer, and that he wanted to get a tag so he could kill the fawn aswell. TJ goes to where the fawn is hoping to protect it, but Rich and his buddies arrive soon after. TJ tries to shield it with his own body, thinking they won't risk shooting him. His buddies trying beating him up first, but when that doesn't work Rich simply puts the muzzle of his rifle right against its head and pulls the trigger. TJ is horrified when he feels it's life drain from its body, and thinks hunting, particularly for sport alone, is horrible. At the end Rich tries to kill Heidi using the same hunting rifle, but TJ's father takes the shot instead.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Cool Loser TRS cleanup
, has been renamed to Unconvincingly Unpopular Character and is a YMMV audience reaction.
, has been renamed to Unconvincingly Unpopular Character and is a YMMV audience reaction.Changed line(s) 42 (click to see context) from:
* PomPomGirl: TJ's girlfriend Carly spent a few months as a cheerleader before deciding she liked basketball better. Her best friend Kristen is still a cheerleader and is an ExtremeDoormat DomesticAbuse victim who never looks down on the {{Cool Loser}}s.
to:
* PomPomGirl: TJ's girlfriend Carly spent a few months as a cheerleader before deciding she liked basketball better. Her best friend Kristen is still a cheerleader and is an ExtremeDoormat DomesticAbuse victim who never looks down on the {{Cool Loser}}s. "losers".
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Deleted line(s) 24 (click to see context) :
* FailOSuckyName: T.J. is short for The Tao Jones.
Changed line(s) 58 (click to see context) from:
* WouldHurtAChild: Rich Marshall beats Heidi, [[spoiler:and later tells her to use a Brillo pad to scrub her dark skin away, and ultimately tries to ''shoot'' her.]]
to:
* WhoNamesTheirKidDude: T.J. is short for The Tao Jones.
* WouldHurtAChild: Rich Marshall beats Heidi, [[spoiler:and later tells her to use a Brillo pad to scrub her dark skin away, and ultimately tries to ''shoot'' her.]]]]
----
* WouldHurtAChild: Rich Marshall beats Heidi, [[spoiler:and later tells her to use a Brillo pad to scrub her dark skin away, and ultimately tries to ''shoot'' her.
----
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Deleted line(s) 57 (click to see context) :
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Published in 2001, the book mentions the use of Gameboys and Walkmans.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
As i recall, chris' mental disability is the result of childhood suffocation, so it's definitely not autism
Deleted line(s) 12 (click to see context) :
* AmbiguousDisorder: Chris is never outright stated to be autistic, but it's clearly evident.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
* ChocolateBaby: Due to TJ's skin being a different color than anyone in either of their families, his biological mom and her husband found out that he was conceived during an affair.
* ItsPersonal: Chris is brain-damaged from being abused by his mom's boyfriend. TJ is also the child of a neglectful single parent who had abusive boyfriends, and feels he could have easily ended up exactly like Chris, so he views any bullying of Chris the same way he'd feel if he was the victim.
* LawOfInverseFertility: Multiple characters were born to unmarried characters, sometimes through one night stands, while TJ's adoptive parents had four miscarriages while trying for a kid.
Changed line(s) 33 (click to see context) from:
* MalignedMixedMarriage: Alicia’s marriage to Willis was not received well.
to:
* MalignedMixedMarriage: Alicia’s marriage to the black Willis was not received well.
Added DiffLines:
* VillainOfAnotherStory: Plenty of racists and domestic abusers who have little or nothing to do with TJ are clearly the villains of someone else's story. Most notably, there's Rance Haskins, a drug dealer who's dated many women and abused their kids: killing one baby, blinding another, and causing a third (Mott) to lose his leg.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 21 (click to see context) from:
* DisabledSnarker: Mott has a whiplash of a tongue.
to:
* DisabledSnarker: The one-legged Mott has a whiplash of a tongue.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* CoolBigBro: Before his tragic death, Chris's older half-brother Brian treated him well and kept people from bullying him. This is especially noticeable, given that the two of them were raised in separate homes after Brian's dad got full custody of him after leaving Chris's mom.
Added DiffLines:
* TheGhost: Alicia's ex (Heidi's father) left town after being paralyzed in an accident and never physically appears.
Added DiffLines:
* TheNondescript: Swim team member Jackie Craig is described as a "chameleon" who looks and acts so averagely that if he robbed a bank, no one would be able to describe him.
Added DiffLines:
* PomPomGirl: TJ's girlfriend Carly spent a few months as a cheerleader before deciding she liked basketball better. Her best friend Kristen is still a cheerleader and is an ExtremeDoormat DomesticAbuse victim who never looks down on the {{Cool Loser}}s.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 10 (click to see context) from:
* AbusiveParents: ''Good God.'' T.J.'s birth mom, Rich Marshall, Alicia Marshall’s parents and Alicia herself to an extent, Rance Haskins, Simon’s mom, Canada Smith…
to:
* AbusiveParents: ''Good God.'' T.J.'s birth mom, Rich Marshall, Alicia Marshall’s parents and Alicia herself to an extent, Rance Haskins, two of Andy's moms boyfriends, Simon’s mom, Carly's father, Canada Smith…
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Deleted line(s) 33 (click to see context) :
* MixedAncestry: T.J.’s birth mother, Glenda, was white (of Swiss-Norwegian descent, specifically), while his biological father was half-black, half-Japanese. Heidi is half-black, half-white.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
[[quoteright:281:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/images_2682.jpg]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
* ExtremeDoormat: Alicia and Kristen Sweetwater, though both start to recover towards the end of the novel.
* HonorBeforeReason: T.J. tends to react impulsively to slights and injustices to others. This is perhaps best expressed when [[spoiler: Mark Barbour sexually assaults and beats on Kristen Sweetwater and T.J., in a rage, gets in his car to chase him down. In the process he damages his car and incurs a speeding ticket, and his parents are quick to ask him what he would have accomplished had he caught up to Barbour anyway.]]
Changed line(s) 47 (click to see context) from:
** Alicia takes a level when, [[spoiler:she throws herself over her children when Rich storms onto the basketball court with a gun.]]
to:
** Alicia takes a level when, when [[spoiler:she throws herself over her children when Rich storms onto the basketball court with a gun.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** Alicia takes a level when, [[spoiler:she throws herself over her children when Rich storms onto the basketball court with a gun.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 12 (click to see context) from:
* BadassTeacher: Mr. Simet. He was a collegiate swimmer and a coach on the one hand; on the other, he plays the athletic department like a fiddle to get his way and does ‘’not’’ tolerate injustice or other such bullshit from others.
to:
* BadassTeacher: Mr. Simet. He was a collegiate swimmer and a coach on the one hand; on the other, he plays the athletic department like a fiddle to get his way and does ‘’not’’ ''not'' tolerate injustice or other such bullshit from others.
Changed line(s) 15 (click to see context) from:
** [[spoiler:When Rich storms onto the basketball court with his rifle, T.J. and the reader think that he’s going after T.J. or John, but then he aims at ‘’Heidi’’, and then John jumps in the way instead.]]
to:
** [[spoiler:When Rich storms onto the basketball court with his rifle, T.J. and the reader think that he’s going after T.J. or John, but then he aims at ‘’Heidi’’, ''Heidi'', and then John jumps in the way instead.]]
Changed line(s) 17 (click to see context) from:
* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:After a playroom therapy session with Georgia, Heidi tries to figure out how much washing with soap it would take to make her skin white. No one realizes how deeply this sentiment has sunk into her until Abby finds her scrubbing her skin off with a Brillo pad (a pad made of ‘’steel wool’’ imbued with dish soap) at Rich’s suggestion, after Alicia nulls the restraining order she had on him with an ill-advised visit with her kids.]]
to:
* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:After a playroom therapy session with Georgia, Heidi tries to figure out how much washing with soap it would take to make her skin white. No one realizes how deeply this sentiment has sunk into her until Abby finds her scrubbing her skin off with a Brillo pad (a pad made of ‘’steel wool’’ ''steel wool'' imbued with dish soap) at Rich’s suggestion, after Alicia nulls the restraining order she had on him with an ill-advised visit with her kids.]]
Changed line(s) 21 (click to see context) from:
* GottaKillEmAll: Played for laughs. When the bus crashes, Mott asks the team which one person they want killed in the extreme hypothetical situation that Mott is the only one to survive and be rescued. Icko suggests the snowplow driver that ran them off the road, but then Simon’s ‘’immediate’’ answer is [[MoodWhiplash his mom]].
to:
* GottaKillEmAll: Played for laughs. When the bus crashes, Mott asks the team which one person they want killed in the extreme hypothetical situation that Mott is the only one to survive and be rescued. Icko suggests the snowplow driver that ran them off the road, but then Simon’s ‘’immediate’’ ''immediate'' answer is [[MoodWhiplash his mom]].
Changed line(s) 28 (click to see context) from:
* MamaBear and PapaWolf: Lord help you if you wrong T.J., Heidi, or any children; Abby and John Paul Jones will ‘’destroy’’ you.
to:
* MamaBear and PapaWolf: Lord help you if you wrong T.J., Heidi, or any children; Abby and John Paul Jones will ‘’destroy’’ ''destroy'' you.
Changed line(s) 30 (click to see context) from:
* MrFanservice: Tay-Roy is ripped and he knows it, as a former bodybuilder. Played for laughs when it comes to light that Mott and even ‘’[[NotSoAboveItAll Dan]]’’ have been using his pictures to catfish women in Alabama and Illinois.
to:
* MrFanservice: Tay-Roy is ripped and he knows it, as a former bodybuilder. Played for laughs when it comes to light that Mott and even ‘’[[NotSoAboveItAll Dan]]’’ ''[[NotSoAboveItAll Dan]]'' have been using his pictures to catfish women in Alabama and Illinois.
Changed line(s) 39 (click to see context) from:
-->’’’Mott:’’’ Got to do it slow, though.
to:
Changed line(s) 44 (click to see context) from:
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Averted. T.J. received therapy from Georgia for years for his anger and abandonment issues; Heidi sees her for her abuse at Rich’s hands. Mott also refers to having a therapist, and Alicia received counseling from Child Protective Services. Rich was ‘’supposed’’ to attend therapy, but as T.J. puts it, it got in the way of his drinking time.
to:
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Averted. T.J. received therapy from Georgia for years for his anger and abandonment issues; Heidi sees her for her abuse at Rich’s hands. Mott also refers to having a therapist, and Alicia received counseling from Child Protective Services. Rich was ‘’supposed’’ ''supposed'' to attend therapy, but as T.J. puts it, it got in the way of his drinking time.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 9 (click to see context) from:
* Acrofatic: Simon.
to:
* Acrofatic: {{Acrofatic}}: Simon.
Changed line(s) 41 (click to see context) from:
* SesquipedalianLocquaciousness: Dan's default setting. Icko turns it against him, requiring him to do ten push-ups every time he uses a word Icko doesn't understand.
to:
* SesquipedalianLocquaciousness: SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Dan's default setting. Icko turns it against him, requiring him to do ten push-ups every time he uses a word Icko doesn't understand.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
Cutter High School has a storied athletic history, and senior and outcast T.J. Jones is tired of the caste system it enables amongst its students. So what better way to fight back than to form a swim team full of fellow outcasts to claim the school's precious and revered varsity letter jackets?
First problem: Cutter High School doesn't have a pool. Second problem: He's the only one who's any good at swimming.
''Whale Talk'', written by acclaimed author Chris Crutcher, won several awards following its 2001 publication. A film adaptation was announced to be in development in 2015.
----
!!Tropes applicable to this book include:
* AbusiveParents: ''Good God.'' T.J.'s birth mom, Rich Marshall, Alicia Marshall’s parents and Alicia herself to an extent, Rance Haskins, Simon’s mom, Canada Smith…
* Acrofatic: Simon.
* AmbiguousDisorder: Chris is never outright stated to be autistic, but it's clearly evident.
* AsianAndNerdy: T.J. is noted to do very well in class.
* BadassTeacher: Mr. Simet. He was a collegiate swimmer and a coach on the one hand; on the other, he plays the athletic department like a fiddle to get his way and does ‘’not’’ tolerate injustice or other such bullshit from others.
* BaitAndSwitch:
** One night after swim practice, T.J. notices a car following him and assumes it to be Rich. After a few minutes of trying to lose the car, he finally stops to confront the driver…who turns out to be Chris’s aunt. She wanted to thank T.J. for being so good to Chris.
** [[spoiler:When Rich storms onto the basketball court with his rifle, T.J. and the reader think that he’s going after T.J. or John, but then he aims at ‘’Heidi’’, and then John jumps in the way instead.]]
* BrokenBird: Alicia.
* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:After a playroom therapy session with Georgia, Heidi tries to figure out how much washing with soap it would take to make her skin white. No one realizes how deeply this sentiment has sunk into her until Abby finds her scrubbing her skin off with a Brillo pad (a pad made of ‘’steel wool’’ imbued with dish soap) at Rich’s suggestion, after Alicia nulls the restraining order she had on him with an ill-advised visit with her kids.]]
* DisabledSnarker: Mott has a whiplash of a tongue.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: [[spoiler:Barbour is appropriately horrified when Rich grabs his hunting rifle after the basketball game and kills John.]]
* FailOSuckyName: T.J. is short for The Tao Jones.
* GottaKillEmAll: Played for laughs. When the bus crashes, Mott asks the team which one person they want killed in the extreme hypothetical situation that Mott is the only one to survive and be rescued. Icko suggests the snowplow driver that ran them off the road, but then Simon’s ‘’immediate’’ answer is [[MoodWhiplash his mom]].
* HappilyAdopted: T.J.
* HatesBeingAlone: T.J. had serious abandonment issues growing up.
* HeelRealization: [[spoiler:Barbour, after Rich shoots John.]]
* JackOfAllStats: T.J. and Simet are both adept athletes in water and on land. Mott doesn’t fare too badly, either.
* LoopholeAbuse: At their first swim meet, judges are uncertain as to whether Mott can legally participate—his stroke requires his legs to move in perfect symmetry but, well, he only has ‘’one’’ leg. Dan suggests disqualifying Mott from one event, but not the other.
* MalignedMixedMarriage: Alicia’s marriage to Willis was not received well.
* MamaBear and PapaWolf: Lord help you if you wrong T.J., Heidi, or any children; Abby and John Paul Jones will ‘’destroy’’ you.
* MixedAncestry: T.J.’s birth mother, Glenda, was white (of Swiss-Norwegian descent, specifically), while his biological father was half-black, half-Japanese. Heidi is half-black, half-white.
* MrFanservice: Tay-Roy is ripped and he knows it, as a former bodybuilder. Played for laughs when it comes to light that Mott and even ‘’[[NotSoAboveItAll Dan]]’’ have been using his pictures to catfish women in Alabama and Illinois.
* MyGreatestFailure: John’s unintentional killing of a toddler when he was a truck driver. It still haunts him, decades after the fact.
* PercussiveTherapy: Part of Georgia’s playroom therapy involves allowing children to act out their frustrations on inanimate objects.
* PlotDrivenBreakdown: When the team’s bus gets driven off an icy road on the way home from their first meet, it gives them plenty of time to start bonding.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Rich and Barbour are both openly racist.
* ProstheticLimbReveal: Mott, a few times: First, the first time he shows up to training (T.J. almost can't tell him that the exercise they're doing is ''kicks''); the second time invoked at the first meet, dramatically revealing his leg to the audience, to draw attention away from Simon (and then presumably at every meet after); the third time [[spoiler:at the varsity letter ceremony in front of the whole school]].
* TheQuietOne: Jackie hardly ever speaks a word the entire book.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The entire swimming team, deliberately so thanks to T.J.
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: As Mott put it, his mom’s old boyfriend Canada Smith “couldn’t figure out which bed he was supposed to sleep in.” He’s the one person Mott wants killed in the hypothetical detailed under GottaKillEmAll.
-->’’’Mott:’’’ Got to do it slow, though.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Both of T.J.'s parents and Simet.
* SesquipedalianLocquaciousness: Dan's default setting. Icko turns it against him, requiring him to do ten push-ups every time he uses a word Icko doesn't understand.
* TheShrink: Georgia is a Type 3.
* TakingTheBullet: [[spoiler:John jumps in front of a bullet meant for Heidi.]]
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Averted. T.J. received therapy from Georgia for years for his anger and abandonment issues; Heidi sees her for her abuse at Rich’s hands. Mott also refers to having a therapist, and Alicia received counseling from Child Protective Services. Rich was ‘’supposed’’ to attend therapy, but as T.J. puts it, it got in the way of his drinking time.
* ThrowingTheFight: [[spoiler:T.J. throws the state championship to spite Cutter's athletic department.]]
* TookALevelInBadass: Everyone on the swim team.
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Published in 2001, the book mentions the use of Gameboys and Walkmans.
* WouldHurtAChild: Rich Marshall beats Heidi, [[spoiler:and later tells her to use a Brillo pad to scrub her dark skin away, and ultimately tries to ''shoot'' her.]]
First problem: Cutter High School doesn't have a pool. Second problem: He's the only one who's any good at swimming.
''Whale Talk'', written by acclaimed author Chris Crutcher, won several awards following its 2001 publication. A film adaptation was announced to be in development in 2015.
----
!!Tropes applicable to this book include:
* AbusiveParents: ''Good God.'' T.J.'s birth mom, Rich Marshall, Alicia Marshall’s parents and Alicia herself to an extent, Rance Haskins, Simon’s mom, Canada Smith…
* Acrofatic: Simon.
* AmbiguousDisorder: Chris is never outright stated to be autistic, but it's clearly evident.
* AsianAndNerdy: T.J. is noted to do very well in class.
* BadassTeacher: Mr. Simet. He was a collegiate swimmer and a coach on the one hand; on the other, he plays the athletic department like a fiddle to get his way and does ‘’not’’ tolerate injustice or other such bullshit from others.
* BaitAndSwitch:
** One night after swim practice, T.J. notices a car following him and assumes it to be Rich. After a few minutes of trying to lose the car, he finally stops to confront the driver…who turns out to be Chris’s aunt. She wanted to thank T.J. for being so good to Chris.
** [[spoiler:When Rich storms onto the basketball court with his rifle, T.J. and the reader think that he’s going after T.J. or John, but then he aims at ‘’Heidi’’, and then John jumps in the way instead.]]
* BrokenBird: Alicia.
* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:After a playroom therapy session with Georgia, Heidi tries to figure out how much washing with soap it would take to make her skin white. No one realizes how deeply this sentiment has sunk into her until Abby finds her scrubbing her skin off with a Brillo pad (a pad made of ‘’steel wool’’ imbued with dish soap) at Rich’s suggestion, after Alicia nulls the restraining order she had on him with an ill-advised visit with her kids.]]
* DisabledSnarker: Mott has a whiplash of a tongue.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: [[spoiler:Barbour is appropriately horrified when Rich grabs his hunting rifle after the basketball game and kills John.]]
* FailOSuckyName: T.J. is short for The Tao Jones.
* GottaKillEmAll: Played for laughs. When the bus crashes, Mott asks the team which one person they want killed in the extreme hypothetical situation that Mott is the only one to survive and be rescued. Icko suggests the snowplow driver that ran them off the road, but then Simon’s ‘’immediate’’ answer is [[MoodWhiplash his mom]].
* HappilyAdopted: T.J.
* HatesBeingAlone: T.J. had serious abandonment issues growing up.
* HeelRealization: [[spoiler:Barbour, after Rich shoots John.]]
* JackOfAllStats: T.J. and Simet are both adept athletes in water and on land. Mott doesn’t fare too badly, either.
* LoopholeAbuse: At their first swim meet, judges are uncertain as to whether Mott can legally participate—his stroke requires his legs to move in perfect symmetry but, well, he only has ‘’one’’ leg. Dan suggests disqualifying Mott from one event, but not the other.
* MalignedMixedMarriage: Alicia’s marriage to Willis was not received well.
* MamaBear and PapaWolf: Lord help you if you wrong T.J., Heidi, or any children; Abby and John Paul Jones will ‘’destroy’’ you.
* MixedAncestry: T.J.’s birth mother, Glenda, was white (of Swiss-Norwegian descent, specifically), while his biological father was half-black, half-Japanese. Heidi is half-black, half-white.
* MrFanservice: Tay-Roy is ripped and he knows it, as a former bodybuilder. Played for laughs when it comes to light that Mott and even ‘’[[NotSoAboveItAll Dan]]’’ have been using his pictures to catfish women in Alabama and Illinois.
* MyGreatestFailure: John’s unintentional killing of a toddler when he was a truck driver. It still haunts him, decades after the fact.
* PercussiveTherapy: Part of Georgia’s playroom therapy involves allowing children to act out their frustrations on inanimate objects.
* PlotDrivenBreakdown: When the team’s bus gets driven off an icy road on the way home from their first meet, it gives them plenty of time to start bonding.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Rich and Barbour are both openly racist.
* ProstheticLimbReveal: Mott, a few times: First, the first time he shows up to training (T.J. almost can't tell him that the exercise they're doing is ''kicks''); the second time invoked at the first meet, dramatically revealing his leg to the audience, to draw attention away from Simon (and then presumably at every meet after); the third time [[spoiler:at the varsity letter ceremony in front of the whole school]].
* TheQuietOne: Jackie hardly ever speaks a word the entire book.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The entire swimming team, deliberately so thanks to T.J.
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: As Mott put it, his mom’s old boyfriend Canada Smith “couldn’t figure out which bed he was supposed to sleep in.” He’s the one person Mott wants killed in the hypothetical detailed under GottaKillEmAll.
-->’’’Mott:’’’ Got to do it slow, though.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Both of T.J.'s parents and Simet.
* SesquipedalianLocquaciousness: Dan's default setting. Icko turns it against him, requiring him to do ten push-ups every time he uses a word Icko doesn't understand.
* TheShrink: Georgia is a Type 3.
* TakingTheBullet: [[spoiler:John jumps in front of a bullet meant for Heidi.]]
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Averted. T.J. received therapy from Georgia for years for his anger and abandonment issues; Heidi sees her for her abuse at Rich’s hands. Mott also refers to having a therapist, and Alicia received counseling from Child Protective Services. Rich was ‘’supposed’’ to attend therapy, but as T.J. puts it, it got in the way of his drinking time.
* ThrowingTheFight: [[spoiler:T.J. throws the state championship to spite Cutter's athletic department.]]
* TookALevelInBadass: Everyone on the swim team.
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Published in 2001, the book mentions the use of Gameboys and Walkmans.
* WouldHurtAChild: Rich Marshall beats Heidi, [[spoiler:and later tells her to use a Brillo pad to scrub her dark skin away, and ultimately tries to ''shoot'' her.]]
