History PoorCommunicationKills / Literature

* In ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', it's revealed that humanity was only the third most intelligent lifeform on Earth, behind mice and dolphins. Dolphins knew of the impending destruction of the planet Earth. They made many attempts to alert mankind to the impending doom, but they were mistaken as amusing attempts to punch footballs or whistle for tidbits, so they eventually decided to leave Earth by their own means. The last ever dolphin message was misinterpreted as a surprisingly sophisticated attempt to do a double-backwards somersault through a hoop while whistling the Star Spangled Banner, when in fact the message was this: "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish."

-->Fortunately, these strangers met on a simulator.* In ''Literature/TheAndromedaStrain'', some crucial information fails to get the Wildfire team in time because of a [[FailsafeFailure torn piece of paper jamming the alarm bell on a teletype machine]] (remember, [[TechnologyMarchesOn this was SOTA technology]] in 1966).

* ''Literature/SweetAndBitterMagic'': Marlena resented Tamsin's constant coddling, but never actually revealed this to her. This led her to push herself further and further until she nearly killed herself trying to prove she didn't need Tamsin, which in turn led Tamsin to cast dark magic to try and save her, [[spoiler:a process that killed Amma, nearly killed Marlena, and laid a curse on the land]].* Discussed and averted in ''Literature/{{Tender}}'' by Belinda [=McKeon=]. The main character has grown steadily more obsessed with her gay best friend, culminating in her going to his boyfriend [[spoiler: and saying she's sleeping with him (the best friend) in an attempt to break them up.]] Her now-ex-friend later asks her (during a well-deserved WhatTheHellHero) if she seriously thought his boyfriend was just going to believe her without reservation and go haring off instead of talking to him about it.

* Creator/JRRTolkien's ''Literature/TheFallOfNumenor'': King's Heir Aldarion's love of the sea and obsession with sailing and exploring creates strife between himself and his family and ends ruining his marriage due to his many extended absences. Nonetheless, Aldarion could have avoided his father's and possibly his wife's anger if he'd ever considered telling them that the reason his voyages always lasted longer than he promised was because there was a new threat to their Middle-Earth kin that he was helping them prepare for. His father Meneldur doesn't learn this until Aldarion huffily tosses him a letter from Gil-Galad.
* ''Literature/FoxDemonCultivationManual'': Jiang Liang would have been spared a lot of misery if [[spoiler: Feng Zhuojun's twin had told him Feng Zhuojun was dead]]. Instead, Jiang Liang thinks Feng Zhuojun has abandoned him.
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** Dumbledore:
*** During ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'', he takes steps to try and distance himself from Harry to prevent [[BigBad Voldemort]] from exploiting the [[spoiler:mental connection between himself and the kid]] for his own ends. Unfortunately, he also decides to keep Harry in the dark about certain things, namely how Voldemort's planning to lure him to the Department Of Mysteries via mental visions so that he can retrieve a recording of a prophecy concerning the two. Had Dumbledore been upfront about this - as the man himself admits near the end of the book - the climatic events at the Ministry of Magic would never have happened. Dumbledore puts it down to his being old - and thus forgetting how impetuous those far younger than him can be - as well as not wanting to burden the young Harry with the knowledge of the prophecy.
*** During ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince Half-Blood Prince]]'', when Harry tells him that he overheard Snape and Draco discussing a plot against him, Dumbledore thanks Harry for the information, but tells him to put it out of his mind, and then insists that he trusts Snape without providing any explanation why. He doesn't tell Harry that he and Snape are already onto Draco, or that Snape is loyal due to wanting to honor the memory of Harry's mother - a fact that Snape himself insisted not be shared with Harry, making him at fault here too - with the result that Harry becomes obsessed with trying to figure out Snape and Draco's plot himself.
*** During ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]]'', it's revealed that he never told Harry about his involvement with Gellert Grindlewald and their mutual interest in the titular Hallows during his youth. When Harry finds out about these things through second-hand sources, it shatters his faith in Dumbledore for a long time, with him thinking that the man never truly loved or trusted him.
** The Dumbledore family as a whole provide an example of the trope in ''Deathly Hallows'', when it's revealed that (Albus) Dumbledore had a sister named Arianna whom the family kept secret from the world. In truth, this was because Arianna was assaulted by three muggle boys who saw her doing magic, and the subsequent trauma left her unable to control her magical abilities, leading the family to fear the Ministry would lock her away as a risk to TheMasquerade if they ever learned of her existence. Because the family never told anyone the full story about Arianna however, it becomes a smear on their reputation during Harry's time, with Rita Skeeter alleging that Arianna's mother forcibly hid her away out of shame at giving birth to a child with no magical abilities.
** Sirius:
*** Following his escape from Azkaban, he doesn't try to tell anyone the true story of his crime - that Peter Pettigrew framed him by faking his death while blasting the street apart in the process - until Lupin confronts him and insists that he owes Harry the truth about it. Instead he just roams around the Hogwarts grounds while conspiring with Crookshanks to get his hands on Pettigrew.
*** The entire disaster in ''Order of the Phoenix'' could have been avoided if he'd simply outright said to Harry "Hey, here's this two way mirror your dad used to own, you can use it to talk to me any time". Presumably he assumed that Harry would open the package and learn about it through the attached note, rather than avoid it out of fear that the usage of it would put Sirius in danger.
* ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'', where the excessively gentlemanly heroes deliberately choose not to tell Mina Harker about their vampire hunt so as not to distress her, thus making her the [[DamselInDistress perfect target]]. Ironically, once the damage is done and they must let her in on it, she copes rather better than her husband did. And it's also the reason that Lucy and her mother died; if Van Helsing (who was the only guy who had any inkling of what was going on with Lucy at that point) had been upfront with the women, then there would be no plot. Due to Mrs. Westenra's poor health, too much stress could literally kill her, so Van Helsing avoids explaining how serious things really are lest he frighten her into a heart attack. Unfortunately, this leads directly to the even more stressful situation of a vampire breaking into her house to snack on her daughter, which does that exact thing.

* Creator/PGWodehouse's Literature/JeevesAndWooster novels: Almost everything bad that ever happened to Bertie Wooster. The rest of it seems to be blackmail.
* Every....single...protagonist in Robert Jordan's Literature/TheWheelOfTime series appears to suffer from this. Seriously. While the bad guys are also killing each other off to determine who gets to be TheDragon, the BigBad at least can give clear orders and expect to see them carried out. Usually.
** Considering the whole Aiel vs. the Whitecloaks vs. the Rebel Tower vs. the White Tower vs. Elaida vs. the [[OverlyLongGag Asha'man]] vs.... well, ''everyone'' the Dark one could probably just sit back and wait for the good guys to kill each other off, although at least half of the disputes arise or are at least made worse by agents of the Dark one amongst them.
*** Just looking at specific protagonists: [[TheChosenOne Rand]] doesn't tell anyone anything about anything. He doesn't want his idyllic hometown or his lovers targeted by his enemies, people think he's a [[JustifiedTrope dangerous lunatic]], and he's trying to fight several [[TheChessmaster Chessmasters]] at once. Mat hasn't told Rand what he's been doing for the last five books partly because he likes avoiding responsibility, but mostly because he would need a channeler's help to do it and he doesn't trust or want to be indebted to them. Perrin hasn't told Rand anything for the last four books because it's taken him that long to accomplish what everyone thought would be a simple assignment. Elayne and Egwene have been keeping their distance from Rand for six books because being seen in contact with him would subvert their own political power. Nynaeve and Min don't tell anyone anything because they're worried about Rand's fragile mental state and don't want to do anything he could possibly interpret as a betrayal. Any one of those might make sense, but all of them together... especially considering how many problems [[DramaticIrony the reader knows]] the lack of communication has caused...
** The series also shows the corollary: when the protagonists finally ''get a clue'' and start working together and sharing information, plots get solved. Since Brandon Sanderson took over the series, the pattern of nobody talking to anyone else has broken, and this has allowed them to start preparing for Tarmon Gai'don. Even before then, Rand only survived the Battle of Shadar Logoth because Cadsuane forced him to take some backup along instead of running off and trying to [[spoiler:cleanse ''saidin'']] with only Nynaeve's assistance.
* In ''Literature/TheRepublicOfTrees'', Isobel tells Michael that she broke up with her previous boyfriend because he wanted something from her that she wouldn't give him... [[spoiler:he wanted her to stop cheating on him ]] As the result, Michael learns the truth at the worst possible moment and the already unstable situation spirals out of control to ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'' proportions.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** There's a major one in the [[Literature/AGameOfThrones first book]] combined with an IdiotBall when Catelyn takes Tyrion to the Eyrie. She has taken Tyrion captive as a preemptive first strike against the Lannisters because she and Ned were told that he was responsible for the attempt on their son's life and because they believe that war is inevitable. She believes that war with the Lannisters is inevitable because her sister told her that they were responsible for Jon Arryn's death. She spends days with her sister, and never asks her something like "What evidence do you have that Jon Arryn was murdered?" or "Why do you think the Lannisters murdered Jon Arryn", ''especially'' when she realizes that her sister is changing her story about which Lannister is responsible. The answer basically is because asking her sister about the (non-existent) Lannister involvement would make her realize that the Starks were being set up and the plot would fall apart, as Lysa has no evidence at all and isn't the most reliable (or sane) co-conspirator.
** In the second book, Robb could have avoided a whole mess of trouble if he'd just confided in his underlings a bit more. He goes off to fight the Lannister's western army and leaves his uncle Edmure to hold Riverrun. When the Lannister eastern army starts harrying Riverrun's borders, Edmure rides off with his army and succeeds beating them back to a full retreat. Cue celebrations and parties... until Robb returns and, after publicly honoring his uncle's success, browbeats him in private for disobeying his orders. Turns out he had planned to lure the eastern army into attacking Riverrun so he could come in from the south and crush it between his army and the castle.
--->"But I was never told of this!"
--->"You were told to hold the castle. What part of that did you fail to comprehend?"
** DownplayedTrope, in that it's personal rather than political, but the Lannister twins spend most of ''A Feast for Crows'' having a falling out due to their inability to communicate properly. This it ''is'' a plot device (they can't communicate properly because it would break the plot if they did) -- but it's also a JustifiedTrope for these two. Their entire relationship is premised on the idea of "one soul in two bodies". Within such a belief system, the logical next step is that if you're ''me'' -- the other half of my soul -- I shouldn't ''have'' to explain my feelings to you, you should just ''implicitly get it''. So the Lannister twins aren't just ''incompetently'' bad at communication; they're in some ways ''willfully'' bad at it.
** [[spoiler: Doran Martell]] keeps much of his plans hidden from his family and their allies. This ultimately leads to an ill-fated round of XanatosSpeedChess that led to [[spoiler:Princess Myrcella losing an ear after his daughter Arianne's failed attempt to crown her and his son Quentyn dying in a slow, agonizing death after failing to woo Daenerys and attempting to tame her dragons instead when she's gone]]. Ser Barristan Selmy noted that [[spoiler:if Doran revealed the marriage pact earlier then Daenerys wouldn't experience any trouble in Slavers' Bay]].
* In GRRM's first novel ''Literature/DyingOfTheLight'', this trope remains supreme. Although the main theme of the novel is that people often tend to hold onto once fulfilling things that no longer have a purpose, which impedes their personal growth, a second theme could be that maybe it's better to communicate with your friends and loved ones. Almost none of the unfortunate plot developments would have occurred had the characters actually had reasonable conversations with each other. At some point, this stretches suspension of disbelief like how Gwen never asks the protagonist (who is her ex-boyfriend and visiting her and her husband after seven years of no communication), "So, why ''are'' you here, exactly?" It's also unbelievable that after leaving a relationship because of unreasonable expectations upon her, she enters a second one with a guy from a different culture and never inquires about what this whole "Betheyn" thing means, nor does he offer that information to her despite being enlightened and having a good understanding of how foreign a concept it would be to her.
* Herman Melville took this trope literally in his novella ''Literature/BillyBudd'', in which Billy, a Christlike figure whose only flaw is a tendency to stutter when he gets upset, [[spoiler:killed the master-at-arms, Claggart, after Claggart falsely accused him of conspiracy to mutiny. He got so upset when he couldn't stop stuttering long enough to defend himself that he punched Claggart in the temple and he died. All three main characters--Billy, Claggart, and Captain Vere--die.]] But, then again, without it all of Melville's lovely [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic symbolism]] falls apart, and we can't have that.
* Creator/DavidWeber has this on a grander scale then most with his ''Literature/HellsGate'' series when poor communication causes two civilizations, which hadn't even known the other existed until recently, to start what is promising to be a long and brutal war.
* In Creator/TimothyZahn's ''Literature/TheConquerorsTrilogy'''s trilogy, when humans had First Contact with an alien race, they sent a peaceful first contact radio communication. Unfortunately, the aliens perceived it as [[spoiler:one of their dreaded Elderdeath weapons]]. So, the aliens immediately opened fire, quickly shredding the human battle fleet in minutes and starting a nasty war, based on mutual misunderstandings.
* ''Literature/HonorHarrington'':
** Altered diplomatic communication restarts the Manticore-Haven war. The guy who did it wanted to make the Havenite president just angry enough that she was ''almost'' ready to go to war and he could step in and save the day. He underestimates by about one degree of anger, and millions die. Suffice it to say he's lucky he [[spoiler:died in a ''genuine'' accident, because the president in question was preparing to have him charged with treason and executed. Ironically, Haven notes that he ''actually'' "[[CutHimselfShaving died in an air-car crash]]". But coming clean about his lies would look ''exactly'' like they ''deliberately'' started the war and murdered him as a scapegoat to get out of it.]]
** An unintentional example from that series was the attempted [=McQueen=] coup: [=McQueen=] knew that she'd eventually be considered too much of a threat by the Committee for Public Safety and would be eliminated, and so starts planning her contingency plan for when the time came. Pierre and St-Just also recognized she'd be a threat and would probably have to be eliminated so start planning ''their'' contingency plan for when the time came. A partially overheard conversation results in [=McQueen=] believing they were moving against her immediately (instead of merely planning to at some point in the future), causing her to launch her own plan prematurely.
** Occurs in the very first book: Honor pursues the Havenite Q-Ship running from the Medusa system when she realizes that their plan to grab the system would have the Q-ship "fleeing" to a waiting squadron of warships. She's right, but the premature start of the Medusan uprising the Havenites were promoting screwed up their plan so the captain was running to tell the warships ''not'' to come into the system. But he couldn't admit it because it would confirm Haven's covert actions, and the resulting combat destroys the Q-ship, nearly destroys Harrington's ship, and costs her a large chunk of her crew, even though it was blazingly obvious to him that the jig was up and the Manticorans obviously knew what was going on. His problem was that surrendering the ship would provide concrete proof (not only of the plan, but Havenite Q-Ships). And even were he to be honest about what he was and that he was going to call the operation off, Harrington would have no reason to believe him.

* A large part of later books in the ''Literature/EndersGame'' series. Turns out [[spoiler:the formics were not hostile, but simply unaware that humans were intelligent, at least on an individual level. After the second war, they tried to apologize, but were destroyed before they learned to communicate with us.]] In addition, the whole debate over whether two alien species can communicate and coexist is dominant, especially as a situation gets closer and closer to "Communicate with them, or commit Xenocide." [[spoiler:Placing our heroes in the exact same situation as the formics.]]
* Also, the main plot of ''Literature/SpeakerForTheDead'' occurs because no one stops to ask the Piggies "Say, why exactly did you kill those two people and ritually disembowel them?" Seemingly, neither of the people who got disemboweled (especially the second, who knew by then it ''could'' happen) thought to say anything along the lines of [[spoiler:"Why are you doing this?...What's the third life?...Oh, I see. Uh, humans don't do that. It'll just kill us horribly. Please don't."]]
* ''Literature/BeingThere'' is a variation; the whole plot is based on characters misinterpreting most everything [[SeeminglyProfoundFool Chance the Gardener]] says (with the twist that he cannot correct them because he isn't able to understand what's going on).
* Due to the secret nature of Dreamland ops, the characters of Creator/DaleBrown's books often find themselves going up against ostensible allies both within and without America even when there's not supposed to be overt conflict.
* ''Literature/{{Metro 2033}}'' with the Dark Ones, they just want to find a way to help the humans out, but the telepathy caused people to go mad and thought they were out to kill them like other mutants. Needless to say Artyom realize this a bit too late as he plants the transmitter.

* Creator/AgathaChristie novel:
** In ''Literature/SparklingCyanide'', Sandra Farraday knows that her husband Stephan is having an affair with Rosemary Barton, is afraid Stephan will leave her for Rosemary, and is prepared to kill Rosemary to prevent that from happening. Stephan, on the other hand, has grown tired of Rosemary and realized that Sandra is his real true love, but he's afraid that Sandra will leave him when she finds out about it, and is prepared to kill Rosemary to prevent the affair from becoming public. [[spoiler:Technically, poor communication didn't actually ''kill'' in this case, since neither Stephan nor Sandra was the murderer, but it very easily could have.]]
** ''Literature/AMurderIsAnnounced'': Remembering the scene of the crime, [[spoiler:Miss Murgatroyd]] finally realizes something was wrong, but, not being very quick-minded, she only gets to work out that [[spoiler:"She wasn't ''there''!"]] instead of saying directly that [[spoiler:Letitia Blacklock]] must be guilty. Her friend decides that the matter can be discussed later and goes away, leaving her alone in the house. Since the murderer has been eavesdropping, there is no "later" for poor [[spoiler:Miss Murgatroyd]].

* In ''Literature/TheElenium'' series, an Eshandist leader had a speech problem and at one battle he yelled "Fall on your foes!" but mangled it and his followers heard "Fall on your swords!" He spent the next several years wondering why he lost.

* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'':
** In a novella, Imperial officer Kyle Katarn defects to the Rebel Alliance after he finds out that the Empire recently killed his father. He embarks on a black ops mission to recover part of the Death Star schematics, but is, naturally, monitored by the rebels to see if his turn was legitimate. When he's seen meeting with another Imperial, Mon Mothma gives the order to agent Jan Ors to kill him. What they don't know is that the officer was an old friend of Kyle's whom Kyle had persuaded to help him. Jan and Kyle end up in a MexicanStandoff, and if Jan hadn't found it impossible to kill the man that she was developing feelings for, the scenario would have ended in tragedy.
** There have been some ''terrible'' cases of this trope occurring across the continuity. One of the biggest ones was the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. It turns out that a number of people like Palpatine/Sidious, Vergere, Thrawn, and Darth Krayt ''knew'' about their existence and simply did not tell the galaxy at large - and giving vague hints to only a few people at the most. Sure, most of these people were villains and some of them were neutral, but a lot of grief (among other things) could have spared if people were simply told about it. The same things can be applied to Jacen and Abeloth, as well as Darth Bane's Sith Order and the Jedi Order.
** The entire plot of the third ''Literature/DarthBane'' book, ''Dynasty of Evil'', comes about because Bane becomes suspicious that his apprentice Darth Zannah is planning to break the Rule of Two and just wait for old age and dark side corruption to weaken her master, rather than grow strong enough to take him on directly, and starts plotting against her. Being a Sith, he naturally wasn't inclined to just ''ask'': in actual fact, she just hadn't decided on her own apprentice yet. She ends up adopting Bane's new apprentice as Darth Cognus.
* In ''Literature/CaptainCorellisMandolin'', [[spoiler:Pelagia spends decades waiting for Corelli, during which time she adopts an abandoned baby (named after him, no less). Turns out that Corelli did come back relatively early on, but saw her with the baby, assumed she must've had it with another man, and stormed off without talking to her. When Pelagia asks if he didn't consider the possibility that she was raped in his absence, he [[ValuesDissonance admits that]] [[DefiledForever it probably wouldn't have made a difference to him]].]]

* ''Literature/TheIdiot''. No one seems capable of actually saying what they mean--even Prince Myshkin, the most innocently outspoken character, falls prey to this tendency--and the misunderstandings and suspicions that arise from this are major driving forces on the plot.
* In ''Literature/DirgeForPresterJohn'', John and his people have completely different ideas of what war is. He knows it means a lot of bloodshed (even if he naively also thinks of glory). His people think of the mating season of the cranes and pygmies.
* The CultureClash variety happens in ''Literature/TheLeftHandOfDarkness'', in which a very large mess could have been avoided if Estraven had been more straightforward with Genly as to what his goals were. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], since in Gethenian culture advice is considered an insult, and Estraven was trying to avoid damaging Genly's honor; only later did he realize his mistake.
* In the early ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' books Harry has a chronic problem with not giving his mundane allies enough information. He wises up about it quite a bit in later books, but not before quite a bit of damage is done:
** In ''Literature/{{Storm Front|DresdenFiles}}'' Murphy actually starts to suspect that he's the killer because he keeps balking at telling her anything about the case (partially because the White Council suspects him as well and would see him researching the curse as evidence) and walks right into a giant scorpion in Harry's office created by the actual killer.
** At the beginning of ''Literature/FoolMoon'' Harry does not see fit to tell a young and inexperienced magic user everything he can about a magic circle diagram that she's asking about, instead simply telling her that a set of runes in the diagram must be a mistake, because he can tell it binds creatures of both flesh and spirit and he doesn't want her messing with demons. Only later does he learn that she was trying to use the circle to confine a [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent loup-garou]], and not having enough information about it has gotten her killed and left the loup-garou free to rampage around Chicago racking up a substantial body count.
*** This one actually goes both ways in that she doesn't tell him why she needs the information leaving him to assume the worst (that she's mucking about with demon summoning). If she'd told him why she wanted the information he'd probably have been willing to help.
*** Harry also fails to give Murphy relevant information again, causing her to suspect him to be involved, again.
** In ''Literature/GravePeril,'' Harry tells Susan pretty much everything about going to the vampire's party except for one thing: he's only allowed one guest and anyone else would be considered fair game. Susan then copies his invitation without his knowledge in order to crash the party. Of course it's pretty fair to blame Susan at least as much as Harry. He was insistent that he was not going to bring her, and it shouldn't be hard to figure out that a regular human crashing a Vampire party isn't going to work out well.
** Harry is more open in later books, but he still has trouble handing out critical information. It took him multiple books until he finally told Michael about Lasciel (though it turns out Michael already knew, and was just waiting for him to fess up). In ''Literature/ColdDays,'' Thomas gives him a WhatTheHellHero for not telling him that Harry was going to [[spoiler: become the Winter Knight]], because as someone used to struggling against his darker nature he could have helped. Kirby [[spoiler: might have survived]] in ''Literature/TurnCoat,'' if Harry had warned the Alphas about the naagloshii (prompting another WhatTheHellHero). This list goes on.
** It gets ''really'' bad in ''Literature/PeaceTalks,'' as Ebenezer [=McCoy=] is aghast at the fact that Thomas knows about [[spoiler:Maggie, Harry's daughter]] and believes Harry is being stupid to the point of suicide in letting a White Court vampire get so close to him and his family. The thing is, Ebenezer doesn't know that Thomas is also Harry's brother [[spoiler:and thus Ebenezer's ''grandson'' and Harry doesn't tell Ebenezer until literally the worst possible moment, leading to all kinds of conflict.]] It doesn't help that Ebenezer really, ''really'' hates vampires, for pretty good reasons. Like the fact that [[spoiler:Thomas' dad murdered Harry's mom. Who was Ebenezer's daughter. If Harry told Ebenezer the truth, he might actually hate Thomas ''more''.]]
** The really tragic/ironic part of it all is that Harry refuses to give out information out of a misguided need to protect them. Despite his personal mantra of "knowledge is power," he thinks that what his friends don't know won't hurt them. He has to really get it rubbed in his face before he starts realizing how foolish he's being.
* ''Literature/TheIcePalace'' is virtually built of this trope. The whole story begins with a tragic CannotSpitItOut moment where one of the two main characters (two eleven year old girls) freaks the other one out, and the result is an incredibly huge guilt trip where one of them freezes to death inside a frozen waterfall, and the other goes through a long DespairEventHorizon for five months (i.e. the rest of the book).
* One of the ''Literature/InspectorMontalbano'' books has a bad case of mishearing- Montalbano's lieutenant, Mimi, comes to his house late at night, looking very stressed, and tells him that he's got something that he needs to tell him: he's decided to get married. He phrases this as 'I've decided to take a wife', but Montalbano hears it as 'I've decided to take my life' and freaks out. It takes a while to sort out the situation, but they get there.
* ''Literature/JuniorJediKnights:'' Tahiri's parents rescued Sliven, an injured Tusken Raider, in the desert, and while he was recuperating, he taught them ''gaderffii'' combat in gratitude. Sliven's friends came looking for him and saw Tahiri's father swinging a ''gaderffii'' staff while Sliven looked hurt and helpless. They thought Tahiri's parents were attacking Sliven and killed them before he could explain.
* Jeremy from ''Literature/StrengthAndJustice: Side: Strength'' has a bad case of CannotSpitItOut with his girlfriend over sharing information that there is a possible implication that the LawEnforcementInc they work for might be involved in taking away people's magical powers by force. It finally culminates in his girlfriend thinking he's cheating on her, complete with confrontation.
* Creator/SimonaAhrnstedt gives us a really painful example of CanNotSpitItOut in her debut novel, ''Literature/{{Overenskommelser}}''. It's the story about young Beatrice, who's bullied and pressured by her abusive and tyrannical uncle into an engagement with a man. A man who's not only like forty years older than her, but he also treats women like they're dirt under his shoes. So what does she do? Of course, she tells nobody the truth about why she agreed to marry this man (he would get her beautiful but weak cousin instead, if she didn't sacrifice herself). And unfortunately, her love interest Seth is no better. Since he thinks that she willingly rejected him to marry an old disgusting aristocrat, stupid pride keeps him from admitting that he loves her. Several misunderstandings between them lead to much misery for them both (including that Beatrice gets [[spoiler:brutally raped and battered on her wedding night)]].
* ''Literature/TheReynardCycle'': A lot of the tragedy could have been avoided if Persephone had only made it clearer to Reynard that, though she finds him charming, she would never seriously consider having a relationship with him.
* In the ''Literature/{{Relativity}}'' story "Highway Robbery", the heroes are trying to catch a pair of car thieves, and send out two people as [[TheBait live bait]] to drive around aimlessly for several hours. There's a communicator in each car, so that if something happens, MissionControl will know about it. After doing this for several hours with no luck, they decide to go home and try again the next day. As she begins driving home, Melody's car is stolen (with her in it), but ''mission control has switched off their communicator and is unaware of it.'' In their defense, it was about 4 a.m. at this point and everyone was getting punchy.
* ''Literature/KingdomOfLittleWounds'': Ava believes this is what happened when she reports on Countess Elinor. All she said was the woman had a lover, and then Elinor was arrested for high treason.
* In the ''Literature/InSpirituEtVeritate'' series by Zoe Reed, Kyla is forced under threat of death to break up with Camille over the phone during the climax of the first book. Fully three-quarters of the second book is spent with them still broken up, Kyla under the impression that Camille hasn't forgiven her and Camille under the impression that Kyla dumped her of her own volition. Camille is the more egregious case, since shortly after the phone call she finds Kyla tied up by the bad guy and doesn't connect the two.
* In ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', it's revealed that humanity was only the third most intelligent lifeform on Earth, behind mice and dolphins. Dolphins knew of the impending destruction of the planet Earth. They made many attempts to alert mankind to the impending doom, but they were mistaken as amusing attempts to punch footballs or whistle for tidbits, so they eventually decided to leave Earth by their own means. The last ever dolphin message was misinterpreted as a surprisingly sophisticated attempt to do a double-backwards somersault through a hoop while whistling the Star Spangled Banner, when in fact the message was this: "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish."
* ''Literature/{{Manifestation}}'': At one point, Gabby Palladino is unable to explain the supernatural dangers that she's been seeing all around her, and as a result, she fails to warn a group of innocent people of an impending disaster.
* In Jeramey Kraatz's ''/Literature/TheCloakSociety'' novel ''Fall of Heroes'', defied. [[spoiler:Carla insists on talking with Lux and Lone Star and shutting out the kids. Amp enables them to eavesdrop, justifying it on the grounds that they should not have to.]]
* In ''Literature/TheAndromedaStrain'', some crucial information fails to get the Wildfire team in time because of a [[FailsafeFailure torn piece of paper jamming the alarm bell on a teletype machine]] (remember, [[TechnologyMarchesOn this was SOTA technology]] in 1966).
** Also, a crucial bit of information isn't discovered until it's almost too late, because of a character who was hiding the fact that they were epileptic, and was having a seizure when the vital info was first reported by the computer.
* ''Literature/{{Dragonvarld}}'': If, after seeing her lover Melisande running away with a man, Bellona had been willing to talk to her rather than sticking to her conclusion of infidelity and treason, the plot of the first book might have been rather different. They later reunite and talk it out, but by that stage, [[spoiler:Melisande is on track to die in childbirth after being raped, while Bellona is on track to have to fight her own estranged troops]].

* Nearly the entire plot of ''Literature/ArielBlock'' is Poor Communication Kills, literally. Ariel's mother Roberta hates her, therefore believes that when Ariel asks if her brother is dead, she's really confessing she killed him. Ariel knew he was dead because of Roberta's expression as she left his room but "try telling a thing like that to Roberta". A series of incidents like this go into cascading failures ending [[spoiler: with Roberta killing herself because she doesn't know Ariel has a cassette recorder]].
* [[Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet Romeo & Juliet]] (Older than Steam): Shakespeare's main characters die because Friar Laurence is unable to get word of the plan to [[FakingTheDead fake Juliet's death]] to Romeo. Instead, Romeo receives news that Juliet really is dead, buys poison and goes to her family's tomb, kills Paris after Paris thinks he's there to do something unspeakable to Juliet's body (since he's not aware of their love for each other) where he commits suicide. Juliet then wakes up and, on finding Romeo dead, kills herself.

* Examined in the first written ''Literature/HoratioHornblower'' novel, not as a consequence of bad judgment but because transoceanic communication in 1808 was incredibly dodgy. Before leaving England, Hornblower was given orders to sail to the west coast of Nicaragua without sighting land and support a tinpot dictator fighting the Spanish. Though the order not to sight land is incredibly unrealistic, Hornblower manages it, provides materiel to El Supremo, and hands a captured Spanish frigate to him because he's still acting under orders to assist the rebels. Then he's visited by a Spanish ship which provides the happy news that England and Spain are allies! So Hornblower has to go and get the frigate back, nearly losing his own ship in the process, because otherwise his career would be destroyed for following his orders exactly.
* In Mary Stewart's ''Literature/{{The Wicked Day}}'' the ''entire'' final battle between [[spoiler: Mordred and Arthur and their respective armies]] is the result of a series of misunderstandings.

* In ''Literature/FoundationsEdge'', it is mentioned that the Second Foundation has many urban legends about the importance of properly communicating in a report. The best known (and the one least likely to be true) says that the first report about [[OutOfContextVillain the Mule]] was ignored because, due to some mistake, it was understood to be a report about ''a'' mule, leading to a very costly delay in response.
* ''Literature/TheEnemy''. The misunderstanding between Jordan and Achilleus in the final book is caused by Jordan taking a dog which Achilleus gave to his friend, Paddy. Jordan's eyesight is failing and he needs the dog to act as his eyes, but he is [[HidingTheHandicap reluctant to tell anyone]] and simply takes the animal without explanation, leaving Paddy heartbroken and Achilleus so angry with Jordan that he [[AchillesInHisTent refuses to join the battle against the sickos]]. Jordan does eventually apologise to Achilleus for the way he behaved, but not before Paddy has been killed in a misguided attempt to fight the sickos himself.
* ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'': No one bothers explaining the existence of magic to Mikoto, even when she's brought along on a mission to fight against a magical organization. This eventually leads to her using the [[{{Magitek}} Anti-Art Attachment]] without knowing about the [[PsychicNosebleed consequences]] of an esper using magic.
* In ''Literature/RomeoAndOrJuliet'', not only can the reader choose to have Romeo miss out on the information that Juliet's faked her death, they can also choose to engage in a multitude of ways of having poor communication killing them, like Juliet's nurse engaging in ambiguous syntax, confusing her into thinking that Romeo committed suicide and lashing out at either Verona or the ''entire world'' and trying to kill their population.
* "{{Literature/Northwestward}}": Mr Wayne's mystery comes from his butler (as a servant) being well-mannered enough not to question why his master suddenly flew across the country for no explained reason, and Mr Wayne not asking for clarification when his butler failed to explain why he seemed to lie about his destination. Fortunately, Henry is present to clarify matters.
* In ''[[Literature/TheDarkProfitSaga Orconomics]]'', the protagonists encounter a party of orcs, whose leader is abrasive, insulting, threatens them with weapons, takes them prisoner, separates them and marches them through the streets of their town, and then the tribe's chief offers to "honor" the prisoners with his axe. Before things get too bloody, though, the goblin among the protagonists intervenes and explains that this particular tribe of orcs are merchants, not warriors, and the perceived hostility was, in fact, an aggressive attempt to sell the protagonists the orcs' goods (namely, weapons). When the chief learns of the mix-up, he apologizes to the protagonists and berates his son (the orc party leader) for failing to make it more clear.
* Discussed and averted in ''Literature/{{Tender}}'' by Belinda [=McKeon=]. The main character has grown steadily more obsessed with her gay best friend, culminating in her going to his boyfriend [[spoiler: and saying she's sleeping with him (the best friend) in an attempt to break them up.]] Her now-ex-friend later asks her (during a well-deserved WhatTheHellHero) if she seriously thought his boyfriend was just going to believe her without reservation and go haring off instead of talking to him about it.
* In the fifth ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'' book, Uncle Gary is dating a woman who says she has "30 thousand dollars, maybe 40", whereas Uncle Gary says that he has 45. He means that he has 45 dollars, but she thinks he means that he has 45 ''thousand'' dollars. The woman doesn't know the truth until they get married and the time comes to pay the band. This results in a divorce.
* ''[[Literature/SpaceForce2018 Space Force]]'' by Jeremy Robinson: The Canadian, Russian, and Chinese Special Forces units come to fight the aliens only to mostly kill each other off. All of them want Space Force's experimental space fighter and its sole pilot, Hale, who ends up killing most of them herself.
* ''Literature/TheTravelersGate'':
** The villagers had no idea that they were expected to provide sacrifices or even that they were officially under the domain of the Damascan Kingdom. Cormac certainly didn't help by jumping to slaughter as soon as possible.
** Enosh is little more than an apocalypse cult, brainwashed to believe that freeing the [[SealedEvilInACan Incarnations]] is the right thing to do because of the "[[AppealToNature natural order]]." Alin is not from Enosh, but it takes him a long time to start asking the right questions about why they're doing what they're doing.
** Simon has the problem of just not being good at talking. Several major fights could have been avoided if he was better at explaining himself or asking the right questions. He's still better than Alin, though, who explicitly [[WrongGenreSavvy has no idea what kind of story he's in]] and thinks that [[LargeHam heroic speeches can solve everything]].
* Justified in ''Literature/TheRiddlesOfEpsilon'', which is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. Epsilon has to leave puzzles and clues for Jess, the protagonist, because the forces of evil are watching her and her family. If he just tells her what's going on and how to stop them, they'll hear. Unfortunately, the riddle game causes just as much trouble; his last human ally, Sebastian, couldn't crack the riddles and never fully trusted Epsilon, which meant the BigBad was able to [[spoiler: kill Sebastian's mother after its attempt to mind-control her into finding its MacGuffin failed.]]
* ''Literature/MycroftAndSherlock'' by Creator/KareemAbdulJabbar and Anna Waterhouse is a {{Prequel}} set when Mycroft is an up-and-coming young civil servant and [[Franchise/SherlockHolmes his brother]] is an erratic university student. They are both looking into some strange events that seem to involve Mycroft's friend Douglas's business somehow, and which turn out to be connected to a series of killings. Since Mycroft disapproves of Sherlock's morbid fascination with murder, he glosses over this aspect for fear of encouraging it. Since Sherlock is aware of Mycroft's disapproval, he does likewise for fear of being stopped from investigating. Unfortunately, each brother has only discovered part of what's going on, and cannot make further connections without the other's information.
* ''Literature/{{Digitesque}}'': Much of the series could have been avoided if Ada and Isavel just sat down and talked to each other. In fairness, it's not until about two-thirds of the way through the second book before they realize that they are both involved, but even then they avoid talking as much as they should because they assume they'll be enemies and would really prefer not to ruin their burgeoning friendship. It doesn't help that Ada is a {{Jerkass}} who is terrible at communicating on a good day and Isavel has an advisor who is telling her lies about the nature of the world and what Ada is trying to do.
* ''Literature/ALionInTheMeadow'': The lion, at one point, says that the boy and his mother should have left him alone as he only eats apples... but the thing is, he never ''told'' them that he ate only apples and that would be a strange thing to assume without being told.
* In ''Literature/TheLandOfLoveAndDrowning'', the StarCrossedLovers Anette and Jacob are repeatedly told by their families they can't be together, but nobody tells the truth about ''why''--they're half-siblings--so they don't listen. Jacob's mother at least has a sensible motive for keeping it a secret, because her in-laws will cut Jacob off financially if they find out he's illegitimate. But Anette's sister is just too proud to admit her beloved father had an affair. It takes until almost the end of the book for the pair to learn, by which point it's too late. They're irrevocably in love and already have a child, so all the knowledge does is make all three feel awful.
* Quite a bit of the violence and resentment in ''[[Literature/BrotherCadfael Saint Peter's Fair]]'' could've been averted, had Abbot Radulfus at least ''hinted'' at his intent to bestow a portion of the Fair's profits to Shrewsbury as a charitable gift. The abbot's reticence is due to his determination ''not'' to set any precedent that the town should expect such largess as a regular thing, and to his not realizing how badly the town's young hotheads would take his initial refusal to forfeit even a penny, when the Guild leaders beseeched him.
* ''Fatal Words: Communication Clashes and Aircraft Crashes'', a non-fiction work by Steven Cushing. The title would appear to say everything.
* ''Literature/EndoAndKobayashiLive The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte'':
** Lieselotte truly wanted to befriend Fiene even in ''[[FictionalVideoGame Magikoi]]'' canon. Unfortunately, a combination of needing to put up noble decorum, her own embarrassment, and Siegwald's misinterpretation of their interactions leads to her appearing as an AlphaBitch and Siegwald breaking off their engagement and Lieselotte being overcome with despair and being possessed by the Witch of Yore, resulting in her death.
** This also applies to Lieselotte and her father when she became betrothed to Siegwald. His well-meaning intention was to protect her from any feelings of loneliness and neglect because of the many royal duties Sieg would need to fulfill when he became king, but what he said can be interpreted -- at worst -- as telling Lieselotte that she should expect herself to be akin to an UnwantedSpouse, and/or warning her that SillyRabbitRomanceIsForKids. The result was unwittingly destroying Lieselotte's self-esteem and confidence, which affects how she behaves around other people and leaves her vulnerable to DemonicPossession.
* This is a big reason why Neil and Maggie don't [[RelationshipUpgrade get together]] until the very end of ''Literature/MoonlightBecomesYou'', and leaves Maggie in a far more vulnerable position. A few weeks back, they both happened to be separately attending a film where the heroine loses her husband; Maggie has personal experience with this and began crying her eyes out in the cinema. Maggie realized Neil was behind her and that he could clearly see she was upset (she had previously confided in him that she was a widow); she thought to herself that if he cared for her he would come comfort her. However, Neil left without approaching her and when they saw each other at a restaurant later that evening, he didn't bring it up. As a result, Maggie believes that she's not important to Neil. In actual fact, Neil didn't approach Maggie about it because he wasn't sure she'd seen him and didn't want her to be embarrassed. Subsequently, Maggie is aloof towards Neil and reluctant to confide in him about her investigations into her stepmother's murder, when she could really use someone who cares about her in her corner. She confides in her other love interest Liam instead, who as it turns out is the killer and [[TheyKnowTooMuch tries to silence Maggie]].
* A lot of the plot of ''Literature/{{Soulmate}}'' happens because of Thierry's [[DidntThinkThisThrough poor-planning]] and lack of clear communication with Hannah. He's aware that [[spoiler:Maya, his AxCrazy StalkerWithACrush, is coming to kill Hannah and frame him for it]], as this has happened multiple times over the centuries. While Thierry is understandably wary of scaring Hannah given he doesn't know how much she knows (and states a previous attempt to just [[TheKindnapper carry her off]] ended disastrously), Thierry is still very vague about what's going on and doesn't properly explain that she's in grave danger (or at least have Lupe or his other agents explain this to her) so they can make a safety plan. He also gives her a ring with protective charms and has wards put around her house to prevent anyone from entering without her invitation...which he doesn't explain, either. As a result, Hannah continues assuming that [[spoiler:Thierry has been killing her]] and tells him to buzz off. She refuses to wear the ring [[spoiler:and she invites Maya into her house when she pops round to offer her advice about Thierry]]; Thierry even [[CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot acknowledges how stupid]] the latter was, because ''of course'' Hannah would [[spoiler:invite a seemingly kindly stranger into her property]] (especially as she didn't know about the wards). Thus, [[spoiler:Maya is able to continue attacking and manipulating Hannah, and it takes Hannah much longer to figure out the truth herself]].
* ''Literature/WhileMyPrettyOneSleeps'' has a justified example; after barely surviving being shot by the Sepetti gang, undercover cop Tony Vitale is stuck in a hospital bed and he's either unconscious or hardly lucid when he's awake because of all the medication he's on. He tries to tell his superiors that there's a contract to kill Neeve Kearny, but [[spoiler:Nicky Sepetti]] isn't the one who ordered it. Unfortunately, all he's able to get across to the other cops is "[[spoiler:Sepetti]]...no contract", which they assume to mean there's no contract at all and Neeve is safe. [[spoiler:Tony is eventually able to communicate that he learned Gordon Steuber put out the hit, prompting the cops to move against him and bust him for heroin smuggling, though they still have to find a way to foil the assassin, not to mention Gordon is actually being set-up by the real killer]].
* In ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice'', Darcy, Lizzie, and Jane all feel terrible about not telling anyone what kind of person Wickham is before it's too late. While they have understandable reasons for keeping it on the down-low--Darcy doesn't want to embarrass the lady concerned in Wickham's prior misbehavior any further, while Lizzie and Jane don't want to spread around something Darcy revealed in confidence--they also acknowledge that if more people had known the truth, then [[spoiler: Lydia's disastrous elopement with Wickham]] might've been prevented.
* The book "Airport International" closed a chapter with an incident where a pilot called for "takeoff power"—IE "put the engines at takeoff power"—and his co-pilot heard "take off power", throttled down, and crashed the plane.
-->Fortunately, these strangers met on a simulator.
* ''Literature/{{Dragonvarld}}'': If Bellona had been willing to talk to her lover Melisande rather than sticking to her conclusion of infidelity and treason, the plot of the first book might have been rather different. They later reunite and talk it out, but by that stage, Melisande is on track to die following childbirth after being raped, while Bellona is on track to have to fight her own estranged troops.
* ''Literature/SweetAndBitterMagic'': Marlena resented Tamsin's constant coddling, but never actually revealed this to her. This led her to push herself further and further until she nearly killed herself trying to prove she didn't need Tamsin, which in turn led Tamsin to cast dark magic to try and save her, [[spoiler:a process that killed Amma, nearly killed Marlena, and laid a curse on the land]].

** In ''Literature/StormFront'' Murphy actually starts to suspect that he's the killer because he keeps balking at telling her anything about the case (partially because the White Council suspects him as well and would see him researching the curse as evidence) and walks right into a giant scorpion in Harry's office created by the actual killer.

* This is a running motif throughout ''Literature/FamilyTreeSeries''. Much of the strife in the family (especially from mother to daughter) can be attributed to this trope. The biggest two are between Dana and Abby and Georgie and Francie. Dana didn't want to hurt her mother Abby by telling her the real reason she left for New York as Abby saw it abandonment; however, Dana left because she missed her father and felt [[spoiler:[[ItsAllMyFault guilty for her father's death]] even though she was a child]]) and went back because she missed him. Francie keeps the secret of almost being kidnapped to herself--and the guilt when her not telling anyone resulted in the kidnapping and murder of another child--for several decades and as a result becomes an overprotective mom that uproots her whole family out of fear and almost drives Georgia away by not letting her have any freedoms. It's when Georgie, frustrated after years of being forbidden to do anything, runs away to her Nana Dana's that Dana--of all people, oddly enough--decides they all need to sit down and finally talk about their [[GenerationalTrauma family issues]] without keeping secrets. All four generations talk things out about their various burdens and secrets--and the fifth generation comes into play when [[spoiler:Georgie presents the diaries of Nell, Abby's mother, who had fragile mental health that shattered after her only son was sent away by her controlling husband Luther for being disabled.]]

* The ''Literature/HarryPotter'' books have this trope in spades, but these are the most prominent offenders:

** Harry himself almost always keeps important information from the adults, and when he does try to sound the alarm, [[YouHaveToBelieveMe he never provides any evidence.]]
** Dumbledore is even worse, in ''every single book'' concealing information from Harry that often could save Harry the entire plot. Dumbledore claims in [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix book 5]] to realize why this is a terrible idea after it literally gets someone killed... [[AesopAmnesia and then is right back at it the next book]], failing to tell Harry [[spoiler:that Dumbledore knows about Draco's plot, anything that would reassure Harry about trusting Snape, or that Dumbledore is going to die soon regardless. However, this can be excused as Harry's mind is linked to Voldemort's, meaning Voldemort can potentially find out whatever Dumbledore is planning. And as far as Snape, Dumbledore promised Snape he'd never tell anyone.]]
** Sirius can't even communicate well enough to explain to a bunch of frightened children that he's not actually going to murder them, he somehow failed to say the words "I didn't kill those people, here, check my wand", and the entire disaster in Order of the Phoenix would have been avoided if he'd simply outright said to Harry [[spoiler: "Hey, here's this two way mirror your dad used to own, you can use it to talk to me any time."]] The first instance can be excused by the fact that he's not thinking clearly and that the kids might not believe him in any case, and it's possible he said the second one (or words to that effect) but nobody listened, since he didn't have a trial. But the last one makes no sense and almost comes off as him being "mysterious" on purpose, with devastating consequences.

* In ''Literature/TheRuins'', poor communication literally kills, as the Mayan-speaking locals are unable to effectively warn the main characters away from the titular ruins. TruthInTelevision, as it's very common for Mayans in the poor rural areas of Mexico to speak no or very little Spanish, much less English.

* ''Literature/FoxDemonCultivationManual'': Jiang Liang would have been spared a lot of misery if [[spoiler: Feng Zhuojun's twin had told him Feng Zhuojun was dead]]. Instead Jiang Liang thinks Feng Zhuojun has abandoned him.

* ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'', where the excessively gentlemanly heroes deliberately choose not to tell Mina Harker about their vampire hunt so as not to distress her, thus making her the [[DistressedDamsel perfect target]]. Ironically, once the damage is done and they must let her in on it, she copes rather better than her husband did. And it's also the reason that Lucy and her mother died; if Van Helsing (who was the only guy who had any inkling of what was going on with Lucy at that point) had been upfront with the women, then there would be no plot. Due to Mrs. Westenra's poor health, too much stress could literally kill her, so Van Helsing avoids explaining how serious things really are lest he frighten her into a heart attack. Unfortunately, this leads directly to the even more stressful situation of a vampire breaking into her house to snack on her daughter, which does that exact thing.