Line #8 Literature/BrownGirlInTheRing


1	[[quoteright:254:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/browngirl.jpg]]
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3	''Brown Girl in the Ring'' is a 1999 novel by Creator/NaloHopkinson. Ti-Jeanne, a [[TeenPregnancy young mother]], lives in what remains of Central Toronto after it was abandoned by the wealthy and powerful. Speaking of the wealthy and powerful, the premier of Canada needs a human heart to replace her own. She calls on Rudy, who is a powerful gangster who controls the flow of [[FantasticDrug Buff]] to procure it for her. He deputizes Tony, Ti-Jeanne's baby father, to do the killing for the organ. Frightened, Tony calls on Ti-Jeanne and her grandmother Gros-Jeanne for help. And so Ti-Jeanne's journey begins.
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6	It's set about [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture more than twelve / thirteen years in the future]] of 1999, given lines and news that has not occurred at the time, like:
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8	-> Large-scale chaos in the city core: the Riots\
9	In the twelve years since the Riots, repeated efforts to reclaim and rebuild the core were failing\
10	He'd cut headlines from newspapers that were twelve, thirteen years old\
11	Ti-Jeanne had read the headlines:\
12	TEMAGAMI INDIANS TAKE ONTARIO TO COURT: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL FUNDS TEMEAUGAMI ANISHNABAI LAND CLAIM FEDERAL GOVT.
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14	----
15	!! This work contains examples of:
16	* AndIMustScream - The duppy is conscious of what it's doing when Rudy sends it after his victims, although it despises him and wants to be free. The reveal that [[spoiler: it's actually Mi-Jeanne's soul ramps this trope up to eleven. She is ordered by Rudy to kill Ti-Jeanne, and the helpless mother is fully aware and helpless to stop the spirit as she burns her own daughter alive.]]
17	* BodyHorror - Crazy Betty gouged her eyes out years ago and walks around blind with the holes in her head still visible.
18	* ChekhovsGunman - Crazy Betty [[spoiler:who is revealed to be Ti-Jeanne's mother]]
19	* DomesticAbuse - Rudy is depicted to have hit his wife [[spoiler:Gros-Jeanne]]
20	* FamilyThemeNaming: Gros-Jeanne, Mi-Jeanne and Ti-Jeanne - Big, Medium and Small Jeanne - Grandmother, mother and child.
21	* FateWorseThanDeath - [[spoiler: Instead of allowing Dunston to pass to [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Guinea Land]] after killing him, Rudy forces his tormented soul to a purgatory-type world where he is forced to outrun murderous spirits for all eternity. He is finally freed of this torture when Ti-Jeanne shoots the duppy bowl, and his spirit returns to earth by occupying Baby's body.]]
22	* FlayingAlive: Rudy does this to his zombified housekeeper Mabel while a paralyzed Tony is ForcedToWatch.
23	* ForcedToWatch: A paralyzed Tony is forced to watch while Rudy {{flay\|ingAlive}}s Mabel alive.
24	* {{Hologram}}: Presumably, it's what a "deeplight projector" makes, as it creates the visuals and noise of angry kids made to scare people away from the actual kids who live in the subway.
25	* LandmarkingTheHiddenBase: Toronto crime lord and [[HollywoodVoodoo obeah man]] Rudy has his offices in the main pod of the CN Tower.
26	* LukeIAmYourFather: Rudy is [[spoiler:Ti-Jeanne's grandfather]].
27	* MissingMom: Ti-Jeanne's mother left her in the care of Gros-Jeanne. [[spoiler:She's actually Crazy Betty.]]
28	* NoNameGiven: Ti-Jeanne's child is named only 'Baby'. Justified by the fact that it seems to be common practice to wait to name children until a certain amount of time has passed.
29	* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Type V Voodoo zombies.
30	* TheParalyzer: Synapse Cordons and their portable version, the Dazer. Synapse Cordons uses "baseball-sized lump[s] of what looked like modelling clay" to create "stake[s] sprouting a good eight feet high" that define the cordon's borders, and kicking the cordon creates a "synapse surge of current", a.k.a a "daze charge" inside the field, that "short-circuit[s] [the] neuromuscular system".
31	* ThePigPen: The street kids. Justified in that they live in the filth and squalor of the abandoned subway. Their odor and grimy appearance are often mentioned.
32	* ProtagonistTitle: It could refer to Ti-Jeanne living in the circular remenants of Metropolitan Toronto, but more as a reference to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Girl_in_the_Ring_(song) the song]], and the Ring games that are mentioned in {{Epigraph}}s.
33	* RaisedByGrandparents: Ti-Jeanne has a DisappearedDad and MissingMom and so is raised by her grandmother.
34	* SleazyPolitician: Downplayed with Premier Uttley. She's only seeking a human heart instead of the typical pig heart for her transplant to look good in her upcoming reelection campaign, not out of any moral stance on pig farming.
35	* TeenPregnancy: Ti-Jeanne is a teenager, pregnant with Tony's baby.
36	* UrbanHellscape: Implied by one of the newspaper headlines Ti-Jeanne reads that are "twelve, thirteen years old" or so:
37	--> [[AC:Crime at all-time high but budget cuts force Ontario provincial police to downsize]]

Context Literature / BrownGirlInTheRing