History ReplacementGoldfish / Literature

* In the German novel ''The Adopted Room'' by A. Michaelis, 11-years old boy Achim is adopted by a family. He later discovers that they had a son called Arnim who died in an accident when he was 4 - and they were born very close to each other. He contemplates that this is the reason he was adopted by them, despite having asthma.

* In Edith Pattou's ''East'', main character Rose was born to replace [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth her dead older sister Elise]], their mother's favorite of her (altogether) eight children.

* In Creator/PeterDickinson's book ''Eva'', scientists have developed a procedure where the neural patterns of one creature can be 'regrown' in the brain of another creature, thereby preserving the mind. One of the scientists is in a horrible car accident with his wife and daughter. [[spoiler:When his daughter is left shattered and in an irreversible coma, the procedure is done on her, placing her mind in the body of a chimpanzee.]] It's a roller coaster from there.

* In ''Jessica'', Ruthie seems to have a rather odd version of this. Her ImaginaryFriend, Jessica, is her constant companion, always eager to play whatever game Ruthie devises and willing to take the blame for Ruthie's actions. Ruthie's parents are unamused and do not play along. Shortly before starting kindergarten, they suggest that Jessica should stay home. Ruthie, of course, takes her along anyway. After spending the majority of the day homesick and unhappy with only Jessica for companionship, Ruthie is approached by a girl volunteering to be her partner. Ruthie, unsure, brightens up considerably when the girl's name happens to be Jessica. Soon they are best friends, illustrations showing them happily doing all the activities that Ruthie and the first Jessica enjoyed.

* Inverted and played straight in [[Creator/DaveDuncan Dave Duncan's]] ''Strings''. A proper explanation requires retelling half the novel. In short: the protagonist seems to have been raised to continue his grandmother's life's work after his father died in an accident. [[spoiler: At the age of 18 he finds some oddities and concludes that he's probably his father's clone. Either that or his grandfather's clone for brain transplantation. All 3 versions prove wrong, he isn't going to replace anybody. But there are SEVERAL clones of his father, and grandmother did try to RaiseHimRightThisTime. None of them stay on Earth to work on the grandmother's portal project, however.]]

* In ''Literature/TheCasteelSeries'', Heaven Casteel dyes her hair blond to resemble the [[DeathByChildbirth mother she never knew]]. Problem is, this causes her father (who ''already'' seems to be displaying an unhealthy interest in her) to confuse her with her mother (whom he raped, resulting in Heaven's birth), to the point where he tries to force himself on her. This is still a subverted example, as she chose to dye her hair rather than being pressured into it, but in the next book, her daughter ''is'' pressured into doing this by her grandfather (she's living with him, recovering from injuries sustained in the car accident that killed her parents). Sure enough, she nearly becomes his victim as well.

* [[spoiler:Daphne]] in ''Literature/TheGoldenOecumene'' made a replacement for ''herself'' as a last gift to her lover before retreating into a LotusEaterMachine, making its personality an exaggerated parody of everything she thinks her lover wanted in her. CloningBlues are touched upon, but the duplicate eventually develops its own sense of selfhood--and in any event, [[spoiler:the lover is also an ArtificialHuman, having been created from a computer simulation.]]

* In ''Literature/LittleWomen'', Mr Laurence sees his late granddaughter in Beth as both were young girls who loved music. Beth becomes a [[IntergenerationalFriendship favourite]] of his, and after her death, he tells her sister Jo that Jo "must be [his] girl now", to which Jo replies that she'll try to fill Beth's place. However, later books indicate that that role is filled by Amy after she becomes his granddaughter-in-law.
* This is essentially the premise of ''Literature/TheVampireDiaries'', when Stefan sees a girl who looks exactly like his girlfriend Katherine, the vampire who turned him and his brother, presumed dead for 150 years, and decides he has to get to know her. Since this happens at the ''start'' of the series, things don't go so smoothly as in most examples.
* In ''Literature/DoctrineOfLabyrinths'', Diokletian spent decades pining for his [[TheLostLenore former lover Methony]], so when he meets her son, Felix, who bears an [[StrongFamilyResemblance alarming resemblance]] to her, he tries to pursue a sexual relationship with him. Although Felix ''is'' gay and [[AllGaysArePromiscuous not generally that fussy about who he sleeps with]], his vanity is wounded by the idea of being a mere stand-in for his dead mother, and he points out that Diokletian could even potentially be his biological father (Methony was [[ReallyGetsAround known for her promiscuity]] but Diokletian is certainly ''one'' of the men she was sleeping around the time Felix was conceived.) Diokletian never really forgives Felix for refusing to indulge his frustrated fantasies of Methony, but he is at least suitably squicked when he realises his feelings [[IncestantAdmirer might be incestuous]], and makes no further attempt to act on them.
* In "A Double-Dyed Deceiver", a story by Creator/OHenry, the Llano Kid acts as this for a grieving mother whose son is missing, as part of a plot with the local US consul to steal a load of money from the family safe. [[BecomingTheMask He ends up warming to his new 'mother' so much]] that he ultimately decides to stay behind and live as her son, and threatens to kill the consul if he makes trouble. [[spoiler:The story takes a dark twist, when it's revealed that the Kid essentially pulled a KillAndReplace, because the reason why he's in the area in the first place is because he killed a man in a bar fight and skipped town. And the man he killed? ''The missing son.'']]
* In ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', Elrond and Elros may be possibly this for Maedhros, whose twin brothers, Amrod and Amras, had died. However, there is a high chance that they are actually this for their uncles, the seven-year-old Elured and Elurin, who were abandoned to starve to death in the woods in the wintertime after the Second Kinslaying by Maedhros's followers and who Maedhros desperately tried (and failed) to find.
* The ''Literature/{{Underdogs}}'' novel ''Acceleration'' has a major {{reveal}} involving this trope. [[spoiler:Shannon, the AntagonisticOffspring of the villain Grant, is a clone. The original Shannon Grant killed herself the day Grant took over England. Her father had her cloned, with as many of the original's memories as would transfer. The new Shannon stuck around for a while before killing herself again. Her father repeated the process until the fifth clone broke the cycle by running away and joining LaResistance.]]

* ''Literature/{{Clade}}'': After ThePlague, a lucrative market arises for photorealistic computer sims of dead people, created based on photographs, videos, and the memories of the people ordering the sim. Some customers want the sim to be as much like the real person as possible, but others want sims that lack any disappointing traits, or that repeatedly apologize for everything they did wrong during life.
* {{Discussed}} in ''[[Literature/TheDiademSaga Diadem from the Stars]]''. After Vajd tells his young lover Aleytys in glowing terms about her MissingMom Shareem of Vrithian, Aleytys becomes angry with him, thinking he wanted Shareem and is just settling for her daughter. Vajd insists that's not true: Shareem was just the PrecociousCrush of a child and what he feels for Aleytys is real.
* In ''Literature/MyBrotherIsASuperhero,'' [[spoiler:Stellar]] wants to kidnap Zack in order to replace [[spoiler:the version who died in his own universe]].
* ''Literature/TheMonsterGarden'': [[spoiler:After Monnie [[ShooTheDog swims away]], Alf gives Frankie two rabbits. She loves them, but they aren't the same as Monnie.]]

* ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'':
** In ''Literature/EthanOfAthos'', Terrance brings his wife's corpse to the best scientists money can buy and asks them to revive her. They can't, but offer to create a clone identical to Janine in looks, personality, and mannerisms -- perhaps even with a few improvements. Terrance declines, but he does have the scientists splice her DNA into donor ovaries so that he can have thousands or millions of Janine's babies.
** Averted with prejudice in ''Literature/MirrorDance'', by both Miles's and his mother Cordelia's emphatic refusal to treat Miles's clone Mark as anything but Miles's brother. One of the reasons for this is that in the setting, most civilized societies with cloning technology treat a clone as legally either the child of the person who originally commissioned its creation, or the sibling of the clone's genetic progenitor.

* In ''Forever Amber'', the heroine Amber marries the creepy, elderly Earl of Radclyffe. It turns out he's attracted to her because of her resemblance to his long-lost love, Judith, and even has Amber wear Judith's wedding gown. Neither Radclyffe nor Amber realize that [[spoiler:Judith was Amber's mother]].

* Discussed and finally subverted in ''Literature/ShamanOfTheUndead''. Redhead suspects and outright accuses Brittle of treating Ida as new [[spoiler:Lena Wolf]], TheLostLenore, but he disagrees, stating that they ''are'' different and it would be unfair to Ida.
* Inverted and played straight in [[Creator/DaveDuncan Dave Duncan's]] ''Strings''. A proper explanation requires retelling half the novel. In short: the protagonist seems to have been raised to continue his grandmother's life's work after his father died in an accident. [[spoiler: At the age of 18 he finds some oddities and concludes that he's probably his father's clone. Either that or his grandfather's clone for brain transplantation. All 3 versions prove wrong, he isn't going to replace anybody. But there are SEVERAL clones of his father, and grandmother did try to RaiseHimRightThisTime. None of them stay on Earth to work on the grandmother's portal project, however.]]

* Creator/VCAndrews novels are very fond of this trope.
** ''Literature/MySweetAudrina'' has an odd twist to this trope. Audrina, the title character, is a girl living in the constant shadow of her elder sister who had died nine years before she was born, and her parents have absolutely no qualms about letting their daughter know that she was born and raised for the sole purpose of replacing her dead sister. [[spoiler:But as it turns out, Audrina and her sister are one and the same. Audrina had a very sheltered life and, on one of the few times she was allowed to walk home without an escort, she was attacked and raped. She managed to get home safe and sound, but after a few suicide attempts her father forced her into [[LaserGuidedAmnesia electro-convulsive therapy]] in order to erase her memory of the event. Many of her supposed mental problems, as well as the personality defects her parents are constantly trying to fix, are caused by the initial treatment and the constant confusion her parents keep her in to maintain the amnesia]]. And, as it turns out, that's only ''one'' of her problems...
** In the [[Literature/TheCasteelSeries Casteel series]], Heaven Casteel dyes her hair blond to resemble the [[DeathByChildbirth mother she never knew]]. Problem is, this causes her father (who ''already'' seems to be displaying an unhealthy interest in her) to confuse her with her mother (whom he raped, resulting in Heaven's birth), to the point where he tries to force himself on her. This is still a subverted example, as she chose to dye her hair rather than being pressured into it, but in the next book, her daughter ''is'' pressured into doing this by her grandfather (she's living with him, recovering from injuries sustained in the car accident that killed her parents). Sure enough, she nearly becomes his victim as well.
** In ''Literature/{{Celeste}}'', Celeste is forced to take on the identity of her dead twin by her mother. Her dead twin ''brother''. Yeah.
** Melody Logan in the [[Literature/LoganSeries Logan Family series]] was a victim of this in regards to two characters; her cousin Laura and her mother Haille. Her Aunt Sara expected Melody to dress and act as Laura did, and treated her more like she was her daughter Laura and not her niece. Sara's husband Jacob and Laura's twin brother Cary were aware of what Sara was doing and despised Melody for it [[spoiler:though Cary later fell in love with her]]. Because of her strong resemblance to Haille, Melody also faced considerable derision from the Logan Family because of Haille's BlackSheep status and the family merely transferred their hatred for Haille onto Melody.
* ''Literature/{{Tarzan}}'' was the replacement for his [[RaisedByWolves ape mother's]] dead infant.
* [[BrokenAce Kaladin]] [[spoiler:collects young draftees into his squad as replacements for his dead brother Tien]] in ''[[Literature/TheStormlightArchive The Way of Kings]]''.
* In Creator/DanAbnett's Literature/GauntsGhosts novel ''Only In Death'', after [[spoiler:Caffran]]'s death, [[spoiler:Dalin Criid]] is slotted into [[spoiler:his father]]'s place in the Ghosts. He bitterly resents it but is aware that he can do nothing to stop it.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** Harry to Sirius Black. Harry's strong physical resemblance to his father James makes him a substitute for his best friend after Sirius escapes prison and then gets stuck going stir crazy in his parent's house in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix''. This causes some tension between the two in the text when Harry is revealed to be less daring than James and Sirius is unable to handle it appropriately (saying things like "you're not so like your father at all" and "the danger is what would have made it fun for James"), and is reflected also in the film version when Sirius actually calls Harry by James' name in the battle scene where he dies. This Replacement Goldfish situation is also what prevents Sirius from being the father figure that Harry desires, and Harry from being the best friend that Sirius desires, neither are able to fully transition into the Godfather/Godson relationship because of their inability to get past the physical similarities that James and Harry had. Harry can't be the James that Sirius remembers because he never knew him, and Sirius can't be the father that Harry craves because he's trapped by the trauma of his youth.
** Part of the reason why Harry and Cho's relationship failed is this. Cho latched onto Harry mostly because of his connection to her dead boyfriend Cedric.
** Angelina dates Fred Weasley while they are in school (or at least went to the Yule ball with him once); after Fred dies, she marries his identical twin brother George.

* In ''Jessica'', Ruthie seems to have a rather odd version of this. Her ImaginaryFriend, Jessica, is her constant companion, always eager to play whatever game Ruthie devises and willing to take the blame for Ruthie's actions. Ruthie's parents are unamused and do not play along. Shortly before starting kindergarten, they suggest that Jessica should stay home. Ruthie, of course, takes her along anyway. After spending the majority of the day homesick and unhappy with only Jessica for companionship, Ruthie is approached by a girl volunteering to be her partner. Ruthie, unsure, brightens up considerably when the girl's name happens to be Jessica. Soon they are best friends, illustrations showing them happily doing all the activities that Ruthie and the first Jessica enjoyed.
* In Edith Pattou's ''East'', main character Rose was born to replace [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth her dead older sister Elise]], their mother's favorite of her (altogether) eight children.
* ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'':
** Duncan Idaho (who was killed in the [[Literature/{{Dune}} first book]]) is eventually resurrected as a series of clones (which become pretty much disposable at one point). Eventually, the Idaho clones learn to awaken their latent memories of the past.
** Also in the first book, Paul's first son -- Leto II -- is killed by the Harkonnens. In ''Literature/DuneMessiah'', he has another son and names him... Leto II.
* ''Literature/{{Rebecca}}'', by Daphne du Maurier, is an inversion of this. The second Mrs. de Winter spends most of the book failing to live up to the memory of Rebecca, her husband's first wife, who had drowned accidentally. She is explicitly told, often, that she doesn't measure up, by Mrs. Danvers, Rebecca's personal maid. The second Mrs. de Winter becomes more and more desperate in her attempts to live up to Rebecca's memory, because Mrs. Danvers has her convinced that that is what Maxim, her husband, wants. Just when the second Mrs. De Winter (she is never given a first name, and the book is a first person narrative) is near a breakdown, and Mrs. Danvers suggests that she throw herself out of a window, it is revealed that [[spoiler: Maxim never really loved Rebecca, and in fact, came to hate her, because she was cruel, cold, manipulative, and unfaithful. Not only that, she had taunted him one night until he murdered her, by telling him she was pregnant with another man's child, which she intended that he would support.]] It doesn't end there, and [[spoiler: Maxim is vindicated,]] so they can go on with their lives together.
* In the novel ''Literature/{{Skinned}}'', if a person dies but their brain is intact, the brain is scanned and the information is placed into a human-like robot body. Sometimes a person will choose to have it done to themselves. The main character of the book, Lia, is "killed" in a car accident, but her parents choose to keep her around as an android. Needless to say, this causes many emotional difficulties for both the now-robot Lia and her family.
* In the German novel ''The Adopted Room'' by A. Michaelis, 11-years old boy Achim is adopted by a family. He later discovers that they had a son called Arnim who died in an accident when he was 4 - and they were born very close to each other. He contemplates that this is the reason he was adopted by them, despite having asthma.
* ''Literature/SweetValleyHigh'' series:
** Twice, Steven ditches his girlfriend Cara to pursue girls who resemble his dead girlfriend Tricia. To make matters worse, he refuses to see either girl as her own person and instead tries to mold them into Tricia's image--the food they eat, places they go, interests that they have. Not until one of the girls finally blasts him for this and declares that she deserves better than being used as a substitute does he finally realize how unhealthy his behavior is.
** Elizabeth falls for a guy who looks like her ex-boyfriend Todd (who had moved to Vermont), only to find out that he is a jerk.
** Bill Chase falls for Elizabeth because both her looks and personality bear a strong resemblance to his own late girlfriend Julianne.
* [[spoiler:Daphne]] in ''Literature/TheGoldenOecumene'' made a replacement for ''herself'' as a last gift to her lover before retreating into a LotusEaterMachine, making its personality an exaggerated parody of everything she thinks her lover wanted in her. CloningBlues are touched upon, but the duplicate eventually develops its own sense of selfhood--and in any event, [[spoiler:the lover is also an ArtificialHuman, having been created from a computer simulation.]]
* ''The Literature/TheBerenstainBears'' book ''The Berenstain Bears Lose a Friend'' features a literal replacement goldfish like the Monk example below. Sister's goldfish dies and Papa gets her a lookalike to try to keep her from noticing and getting sad. It only works for a short time.
* Nurse Agnes Meredith in ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'' starts hoarding dolls after losing her son Merrin in the first book -- after all, with dolls you at least know what you are with.

* In ''Literature/TheHungerGames'', Katniss can't help but see her little sister Prim in Rue, since Rue is the same age and roughly the same size as Prim. When [[spoiler:Rue is dying]], Katniss actually calls her "Prim" in her thoughts before correcting herself.
* In Creator/PeterDickinson's book ''Eva'', scientists have developed a procedure where the neural patterns of one creature can be 'regrown' in the brain of another creature, thereby preserving the mind. One of the scientists is in a horrible car accident with his wife and daughter. [[spoiler:When his daughter is left shattered and in an irreversible coma, the procedure is done on her, placing her mind in the body of a chimpanzee.]] It's a roller coaster from there.
* In ''Literature/FateOfTheJedi'', [[EldritchAbomination Abeloth]] tries to force Ben Skywalker and Vestara Khai to take the place of The Son and The Daughter, whom she had once been The Mother to back when she was mortal.
* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures, the Doctor's companion Fitz is abducted by Faction Paradox, lives with them for several years and apparently dies. The Doctor replaces him with Kode, a several generations removed copy created from the original's biodata, who he moulds into a duplicate of Fitz. Things become awkward when it turns out the original Fitz is still alive...
-->So how do you feel, Doctor, now you know? Now you realise? Like a dad who pushes his kid up to the post office in a pram then only remembers him when he's on the bus home? Like a kid who gets a new dog, then finds his old one wasn't put down after all?
* ''Literature/TheReynardCycle'': If he is to be believed, after the events of ''Defender of the Crown'', Reynard plans on replacing [[spoiler:Persephone with her own daughter, Larissa.]]
* ''Literature/TheRifter'': John/Jath'ibaye takes up with the young Ourath because Ourath reminds him of Ravishan who is dead, even [[WrongNameOutburst calling him by the wrong name]] sometimes. Not only is it not a satisfactory relationship, but Ourath conspires to murder Jath'ibaye. Jath'ibaye, with his habitual sense of guilt and responsibility, wonders if Ourath would have been a better person if he'd had a lover who appreciated him for himself as his first relationship instead of Jath'ibaye.
* In Ed [=McBain=]'s novelette ''Whatever Happened to Annie Barnes?'' a ruthless, rich Italian, on discovering that the title character bears an uncanny resemblance to his lost love Francesca, uses psychological conditioning in an attempt to remake her into an exact copy of the deceased.
* Lizzie, [[spoiler:for Ripred]] in ''Literature/TheUnderlandChronicles''. [[spoiler:She reminds him of one of his deceased daughters.]]
* In ''Literature/{{Neogicia}}'', the female protagonist ends up mentored by a man whose daughter left home a few years previously. He is quick to state that this trope isn't in play after mentioning that he misses his daughter.
* In the ''Literature/ParadoxTrilogy'', John Brenton sees every daughter he works with as a replacement goldfish for Enna, even calling them by her name.
-->'''Devi''': That's your daughter, isn't it? Enna.
-->'''Brenton''': She's actually Mettou's daughter. I shot my last daughter years ago when she'd degenerated to the point where she was killing people in her sleep. But it makes no difference, they're all Enna to me.
* In ''Literature/TheGiver'', if a child dies, the Community says his name less and less during the day as a way of allowing them to say goodbye to him. The parents can then apply for a replacement child who will be given the same name.
* In ''Film/TheFaultInOurStars'', considering how Hazel says her and Caroline's "cancer selves" could be sisters, Augustus's determination to get to know her as soon as he sees her (insisting she come to his house to watch a movie ''right then'' without actually ''asking'' her or considering that she might have other plans), and his giving her his Wish, essentially his most valuable possession, a mere ''two and a half weeks'' after meeting her, it really sounds like Hazel is Augustus's for Caroline, at least at the beginning of their relationship.
* The main victim in ''Literature/TheBodyInTheLibrary'' is this to elderly Mr. Jefferson, after both his son and daughter die in a plane crash.

* In ''Literature/{{Hannibal}}'', Hannibal seems to be trying to do this with Clarice by making her into a replacement for his dead younger sister. It's heavily implied that he succeeds, since the novel ends with [[spoiler:Hannibal and Clarice becoming lovers and going on the run together.]]
* Hazel from ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'' starts out this way for her half brother Nico. They both know that he originally [[RescuedFromTheUnderworld rescued her from the underworld]] after trying to retrieve his dead sister Bianca and finding that she had chosen to be reincarnated. The subject hovers ([[WrongNameOutburst mostly]]) unspoken between them, but they eventually forge their own relationship independent of Nico's grief.
* In ''Literature/TailchasersSong'', Roofshadow admits that she's drawn to Pouncequick because he reminds her of her deceased brother Snufflenose.
* ''Literature/ADogsLife'' is about a stray dog named Squirrel living on her own and looking for her brother Bone, who was taken by humans when they were puppies. Along her journey, Squirrel comes across a small female called "Moon" that looks very much like Bone would have as an adult. They become friends and travel together, but Moon [[spoiler:ends up hit by a car one day]].
* ''Literature/{{Caliphate}}'': Hamilton loses his girlfriend [[ActionGirl Lauren]] right at the start of the novel when she is killed in an operation against [[FarEastAsianTerrorists Filipino terrorists]] and spends the next 8 years grieving her death. When he is called to infiltrate the titular fundamentalistic state, he falls in love with [[BeautifulSlaveGirl Christian slave girl Petra]] who looks so similar to Lauren that Hamilton believes she could pass off as her younger sister. [[spoiler:At the end of the story after he manages to save the day, he proposes to her in marriage]].
* At the end of Stephen King's ''Literature/TheDarkTower'' series, in [[Literature/TheDarkTower2004 the final book]], [[spoiler:Susannah]] travels through a portal to an alternate version of New York where she meets [[spoiler:an Eddie and Jake Toren, a different Eddie and Jake from the ones she knew]], from a little further out on the beam from the keystone world, but close enough for her.
* In ''Literature/TheChildrenOfHurin'', a few months after Túrin's blonde sort-of LoveInterest Finduilas dies he finds a naked, blonde amnesiac girl lying unconscious on her grave. He sees this as a sign, and they fall in love. [[spoiler: Pity she's actually his long-lost sister]].
* In ''[[Literature/EddieLaCrosse The Sword-Edged Blonde]]'', it actually takes years, but due to flashbacks, it seems more immediate. Eddie's attraction to Cathy Dumont was cut short when she [[spoiler:is murdered along with everyone else in town]], but later, someone with the ability to arrange such things arranges for [[SettleForSibling Liz, Cathy's sister]] to walk right in. Eddie realises that Cathy and Liz aren't the same person, but since Cathy [[LovingAShadow wasn't actually as right for him as he might have thought]], that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

* In ''Double Identity'', [[spoiler:Bethany was cloned from her parents' deceased daughter Elizabeth]].

** Angelina dates Fred Weasley while they are in school; after Fred dies, she marries his identical twin brother George.

* The ''Literature/{{Underdogs}}'' novel ''Acceleration'' has a major {{reveal}} involving this trope. [[spoiler:Shannon, the AntagonisticOffspring of the villain Grant, is a clone. The original Shannon Grant killed herself the day Grant took over Grant. Her father had her cloned, with as many of the original's memories as would transfer. The new Shannon stuck around for a while before killing herself again. Her father repeated the process until the fifth clone broke the cycle by running away and joining LaResistance.]]

* The ''Literature/{{Underdogs}}'' novel ''Acceleration'' has a major {{reveal}} involving this trope. [[spoiler:Shannon, the AntagonisticOffspring of the villain Grant, is a clone. The original Shannon Grant killed herself the day Grant took over Grant. Her father had her cloned, with as many of the original's memories as would transfer. The new Shannon stuck around for a while before killing herself again. Her father repeated the cycle until the fifth clone broke the cycle by running away and joining LaResistance.]]

* The Literature/BerenstainBears book ''The Berenstain Bears Lose a Friend'' features a literal replacement goldfish like the Monk example below. Sister's goldfish dies and Papa gets her a lookalike to try to keep her from noticing and getting sad. It only works for a short time.
* Nurse Agnes Meredith in ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'' starts hoarding dolls after losing her son Merrin in the first book--after all, with dolls you at least know what you are with.