Line #5 Literature/UnderAPaintedSky


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3	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/under_a_painted_sky.png]]
4	''Under A Painted Sky'' is a young adult novel by Stacey Lee, published in 2015.
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6	Set in 1849 Missouri (at least at first), the book follows protagonist Samantha and her friend Annamae. When they kill a man in self-defense, they disguise themselves as boys, take the names Sam and Andy, and set off on the Oregon Trail. They meet up with three {{cowboy}}s and become TrueCompanions as they head west.
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8	!! This book provides examples of:
9	* ACappella: The cowboys occasionally sing something silly like Yankee Doodle. Andy sings hymns this way.
10	%%* AsTheGoodBookSays: several times
11	%%* AssholeVictim: Yorkshire. [[spoiler: Angus and Ian.]]
12	* AttemptedRape: Yorkshire tries to rape Samantha. [[AssholeVictim She kills him.]]
13	* BerserkButton: Andy and onions. She doesn't even want to see them and throws up when she's unknowingly fed soup with onions. (Peety, who cooked the soup, didn't know.) The first time this comes up, Sam sees that it's a serious feeling and treats it as such; she's right.
14	%%* BigBad: The Broken Hand gang are set up as this.
15	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Andy meets up with her brother, Isaac, but he dies shortly after; and after many injuries and near-death experiences they still have a long, dangerous road ahead.]]
16	* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Averted. The death of Sam's dad, who is Chinese, kicks off the plot, but the main characters are a diverse group.
17	* ChekhovsSkill: The sweetheart knot is used twice to save a protagonist's life. Sam's musical skill is also key.
18	* DeathOfAChild: There's the baby the Broken Hand Gang killed, as well as [[spoiler: Jeremiah.]]
19	* EasternZodiac: Sam believes in it and references it frequently.
20	* EverybodyKnewAlready: [[spoiler: The girls' disguises. Peety claims he saw through them on the first day, when Andy tried to button her coat the wrong way.]]
21	* FunetikAksent: The Scotsmen have their accents spelt out phonetically.
22	* InsuranceFraud: Sam realizes this has been committed [[spoiler: by Yorkshire, who intentionally burned down the Whistle.]]
23	* InterruptedSuicide: Sam tries to drown herself after her father dies; Andy interrupts.
24	* IntimateHealing: When West has a fever after being kicked by a horse, he won't drink from a spoon, so Sam feeds him soup from her mouth.
25	* MacGuffin: Sam's mother's bracelet. While it was given away for a reason, any other valuable object could be substituted in.
26	* NobodyPoops: Averted. Sam and Andy take bathroom breaks together to keep watch for each other and maintain their disguises, claiming that relieving yourself in public insults Chinese and African ancestors. They also use this time to speak to each other honestly, which leads to Peety remarking that it takes Chinese and African people [[UnusualEuphemism a long time to build their log cabins]].
27	* ShortCutsMakeLongDelays: The shortcut that turns out to be a dead end.
28	* StreetMusician: Sam and her father both played instruments; she mentions earning money for rent this way.
29	%%* SweetPollyOliver: Sam and Andy.
30	%%* TitleDrop
31	* TokenMinority: Averted with the main characters Sam (Chinese) and Andy (African-American), as well as secondary character Peety (Latino).
32	%%* TrueCompanions: Sam and Andy; West, Cay, and Peety. [[spoiler: All five by the end.]]
33	%%* WeHaveToGetTheBulletOut: In a very dramatic scene indeed. Justified by the time period.

Context Literature / UnderAPaintedSky