Line #50 Literature/SkippyDies


1	[[quoteright:325:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/skippy_dies_1421.jpg]]
2
3	->''"Skippy and Ruprecht are having a doughnut-eating race one evening when Skippy turns purple and falls off his chair".''\
4	--'''Opening lines'''
5
6	On one seemingly normal night, fourteen-year-old Daniel "Skippy" Juster suddenly drops dead in the middle of a donut-eating contest with his best friend. The novel opens with this scene, and then rewinds to a few months before to explore the circumstances leading up to it. Who was Skippy? What was his life like? How did he die, and just who was responsible? As the story of Skippy's final days are told, we see how his life was intertwined with the lives of his friends, teachers, and many others in his community; and the impact his mysterious death has on them in its aftermath.
7
8	Written by Paul Murray and published February 4, 2010, this novel perfectly combines tragedy and comedy.
9	----
10	!!Tropes present in ''Skippy Dies'' include:
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12	* AbusiveParents: Jeekers' parents are implied to be emotionally abusive, as they put enormous pressure on him to succeed and berate him harshly if he fails.
13	* AdultsAreUseless: None of the adults are able to help the kids very much with their problems. In fact, some of them make it worse, intentionally or not. A lot of the tragedy of the book comes from how the adult characters repeatedly miss opportunities to help Skippy or figure out what's going on with him.
14	** The school therapist, Father Foley, in particular, ''really'' sucks at his job. It may be because he's getting older, but it's implied that he was always that ineffectual and no one else cared enough to do anything.
15	* AgentMulder: Geoff is always uncritically enthusiastic about Ruprecht's wild ideas.
16	* AlliterativeName: Carl Cullen and Barry Barnes.
17	* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Specifically mentioned by Dennis as the reason Lori would go out with Carl. In his words, "The more of an asshole a guy is, the more girls he's got lining up to give him blowjobs. It's a scientific fact."
18	* AllMenArePerverts: All the Seabrook boys are talking about or thinking about sex or watching porn pretty much constantly. The adults aren't much better; many of the teachers such as Howard, [[spoiler: Tom]], and [[spoiler: Father Green, in the past]] allow their sexual desire to keep them from protecting the students' well-being.
19	* AlwaysSecondBest: Jeekers to Ruprecht. When Ruprecht loses it after Skippy dies and starts under performing academically, Jeekers secretly relishes being first in the class for once.
20	* AmbiguousSituation: Some characters' points of view (namely Carl's and Skippy's) are written so surreally that you can't figure out what's happening completely until it's stated more clearly later.
21	* AntagonistInMourning: [[spoiler: Carl]], of all people, has a VillainousBSOD after Skippy's death.
22	* ArmorPiercingQuestion: "You asshole, what is it you even want to say to Skippy? What do you have to say that you couldn't have said before, if you hadn't been too busy trying to prove what a great scientist you were?"
23	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Farley tells a long joke about a wish-granting mermaid that has this as the aesop, but it's a metaphor for the Howard and Skippy's relationships with women. Howard desperately wishes for Aurelie to sleep with him, but once she does it makes him miserable and destroys his existing life. Skippy desperately wishes for Lori (who's often compared to a mermaid), but when he gets her, it makes his life better but also brings him more heartache.
24	* BettyAndVeronica: Skippy is the Betty to Carl's Veronica, for Lori's Archie. Skippy is an innocent, good-hearted nerd, while Carl is a sexually aggressive bad boy.
25	* BigEater: Ruprecht is an enthusiastic eater at all times, and is the reigning doughnut-eating champion of Seabrook.
26	* BitchInSheepsClothing: Janine, who is nominally Lori's best friend, plots behind her back to steal Carl from her, even coming to rub it in rather than supporting Lori when she [[spoiler: has been hospitalized for her eating disorder and]] is not in a good place mentally.
27	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Tom gets away with what he did to Skippy scot-free, and Costigan takes over the school. But Howard, Ruprect, and Lori all find newfound purpose in their lives, and Lori doesn't kill herself.]]
28	* BlandNameProduct: Skippy is obsessed with a fictional video game called ''Hopeland'', which is suspiciously similar to ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda''.
29	* BoardingSchoolOfHorrors: Seabrook College, a boarding school, is a {{downplayed}} example compared to classic Victorian cases (the narration notes that corporal punishment is no longer allowed). Still, students regularly beat and harass each other, most of the teachers are completely ineffective [[spoiler: if not sexually abusing the students themselves]] and those in power prefer to cover things up rather than help any of the students.
30	* BoyfriendBlockingDad: Lori's father, Gavin, shows signs of this. He is very suspicious of any and all boys she interacts with, and grounds her after she skips out after the Hop. Though considering his daughter and her taste in men, it's probably justified.
31	* BreakingSpeech: In the third volume, Dennis reveals that [[spoiler: he faked Ruprecht's experimental "success" as a prank]] and goes on a long speech admonishing Ruprecht for caring more about himself and his overhyped prowess as a scientist than about Skippy. Ruprecht goes into a HeroicBSOD after this speech.
32	* TheBully: Carl and Barry, who beat up younger kids to take their drugs. Siddartha and Garrett from the swim team are more low-key, but still qualify as they constantly harass Skippy. Really, Seabrook is just full of these guys.
33	* CannotTalkToWomen: Skippy. When he first tries to speak to Lori, he stutters and makes a fool of himself, and almost completely bungles the encounter. He's saved only by the fact that she wants drugs, and he happens to have them.
34	* TheCaper: Operation Condor, Ruprecht's elaborate plan to break into the forbidden territory St. Brigid's. While this doesn't involve theft, the elaborate sneaky plan has a similar feeling. The boys decide they need to plant Ruprecht's alternate universe portal pod in the locked room of St. Brigid's due to its pre-Christian mythical history. To get in, they devise a team: Geoff acts as a decoy with a planted lost football to distract the janitor and a secret code in the form of a song, while the rest of them distract the guard dog with dog biscuits, and use a special skeleton key to open the door. Predictably, ThePlan has many fail points: [[spoiler: Ruprecht eats the dog biscuits and Odysseus has to fight the dog, the skeleton key doesn't work, their map is inaccurate, and Mario and Ruprecht are repeatedly almost captured by nuns, forcing them to abandon the pod.]]
35	* TheCasanova: Titch, the most sexually successful of anyone at Seabrook. His appeal lies not in his looks but his aura of normalcy.
36	* CasanovaWannabe: Mario constantly brags about his prowess with the ladies, but he falls completely flat at his one opportunity, the Halloween Hop.
37	* ChallengingTheBully: The book combines this with CockFight. Skippy and Carl are both rivals for Lori's affection, but Skippy is a quiet nerd who is frequently bullied, while Carl is a psycho who bullies younger kids and sometimes pushes Skippy around. After Carl sets fire to Skippy's locker, Skippy challenges him to a fight. Surprisingly, Skippy is able to land a punch on Carl and "win" the fight, by [[IKnowMortalKombat visualizing attacks from his favorite video game.]]
38	* ChocolateOfRomance: Skippy brings a box of chocolates to his date with Lori, but since she's on a diet, she's not interested in them.
39	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Geoff is easily distracted and his mind often wanders in strange directions and jumps to strange conclusions. He tends to immediately jump on board with Ruprecht's outlandish ideas, and is most known for doing a convincing, creepy zombie voice at inappropriate intervals.
40	* ComfortFood: Ruprecht loves donuts and eats more donuts than ever after Skippy's death to console himself.
41	* ConcertClimax: The climax involves Ruprecht, Dennis, Geoff, and Jeekers [[spoiler: using Ruprecht's invention combined with Lori's singing to try and get a message to Skippy]] at the school concert.
42	* ConsummateLiar: Greg Costigan is obsessed with managing the school's image and is incredibly convincing when he talks about the many, many coverups he executes.
43	* CoolKidAndLoserFriendship: Hinted at at the very end. [[spoiler: After Lori, formerly the AlphaBitch and most popular girl in school, talks Ruprecht, who is a frequently-bullied nerd and her former hated enemy, out of suicide]], the two of them make plans to join forces and work together, suggesting the beginning of an OddFriendship. Though at this point their lives have been so thoroughly shattered it's unclear if either is a cool kid or loser anymore.
44	* CoolTeacher: Zig-zagged with Howard. He starts off the book as an ApatheticTeacher who hates his life and just goes through the motions of teaching while seeing himself as a loser, though others note that the students seem to trust him, and he's ordered to try to give guidance to Skippy. As his personal life goes off the rails, he becomes increasingly obsessed with UsefulNotes/WorldWarI and tries to bring the history to life by deviating from the textbook and going on an impromptu field trip, which sets him on a collision course with [[DeanBitterman Acting Principal Costigan]], who hangs a lampshade on the trope by warning him against imitating ''Film/DeadPoetsSociety''. This seems to reach the students, though they're also weirded out by his erratic behavior. By the end of the book, he seems to have found new purpose in sincerely trying to inspire and protect his students.
45	* CoveredInScars: Carl cuts both his arms until there's no skin left on them, just cuts. He did this ''because he was bored.''
46	* TheCynic: Dennis, who has a snarky, contrarian take on everything and always disbelieves Ruprecht.
47	* CrazyJealousGuy: When Carl finds out about Lori seeing Skippy and not him, he doesn't take it well and starts threatening Skippy.
48	* CreepyGymCoach: Jokes are made about Tom the swim coach having an interest in boys. [[spoiler:Turns out he raped Skippy and caused him to commit suicide as a result.]]
49	* DateRape:
50	** Carl goes to the Hop specifically to drug Lori's drink and have sex with her. Thankfully, she's already snuck out with Skippy.
51	** Many elements of the blowjob Lori gives Carl are questionably consenting.
52	* DatingWhatDaddyHates: It's implied that this is a big part of why Lori goes out with Carl.
53	* DeadpanSnarker: Dennis is constantly making fun of his friends and dropping witticisms.
54	* DeanBitterman: Acting Principal Greg Costigan, aka "The Automator". He's dead-set against Howard's attempts to deviate from the textbook or anything that challenges social expectations, and becomes increasingly an enemy of Howard as the book progresses. He's dead-set on modernizing the school, but only cares about money and prestige, not the well-being of students. He also is set against Skippy in particular, seeing him as a troublemaker (rather than the person in trouble that he is) due to his sometimes odd behavior, and uses him as a scapegoat.
55	* DeathEqualsRedemption: Near the end of the book, [[spoiler: Carl]] seems to think so, believing he must die in a fire in order to cleanse what he views as his responsibility for Skippy's death.
56	* DeathOfTheHypotenuse: Subverted. Even after Skippy's death, Carl still has no chance of getting together with Lori.
57	* DeathSeeker: Near the end of the book, [[spoiler: Father Green realizes the building is on fire, pulls the fire alarm, and goes back in his office in the burning building]] to sit there and wait to die.
58	* DefeatingTheUndefeatable: Skippy challenges Carl to a one-on-one fight and wins by [[spoiler: getting a lucky hit right to Carl's glass jaw.]] Nobody believed he could do it-- all of Skippy's friends were convinced Carl would kill him.
59	* DestructiveRomance: The Skippy-Lori-Carl love triangle, for all three of them. The fallout of the relationship drama leaves [[spoiler: Skippy Dead and Lori and Carl deeply psychologically damaged and on the brink of suicide.]]
60	* DiedInYourArmsTonight: Skippy dies in the arms of Zhang Xielin, a random stranger who works at the doughnut shop.
61	* DidntThinkThisThrough: When Mario and Ruprecht have snuck into St. Brigid's and realizes that they forgot the drill they need to get into the room they were looking for -
62	--> '''Mario''': I thought you said you planned this.
63	--> '''Ruprecht''': I did. It's just that I made the plan before I knew what was going to happen.
64	* DontExplainTheJoke:
65	** Mario attempting to give Skippy a good pickup line prompts this:
66	--> '''Mario''': When I see a chick I want to score, I go up to her and say, 'Pardon me, you are stepping on my dick.'
67	--> ''Quizzical looks''
68	--> '''Mario''': Because my dick is so long, you see, that it comes all the way down my trousers and out onto the floor.
69	--> {{Beat}}
70	--> '''Dennis''': Let ''me'' give you some advice, Skippy - never, ever do anything Mario tells you. Ever.
71	** He gets in another one when bragging about how many women he's supposedly had:
72	--> '''Mario''': Cinema is good. I have been on many dates in the cinema - but I have not seen very many films! Because I was having sex. In the cinema.
73	* {{Doorstopper}}: It's 661 pages long.
74	* DownerBeginning: The first chapter describes Skippy's sudden death and his best friend Ruprecht's reaction in detail.
75	* DramaticIrony: After Howard almost hits Skippy with his car, he thinks, "A dead student. That's all [I] need." The reader knows from the title and first chapter that Skippy will die, and in fact this incident comes only a few hours before Skippy's death.
76	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Skippy takes a whole bottle of pills after a very rough day. Carl was later driven to this after his hallucinations and HeelRealization makes him think he has to die to prove his love to Lori, but is saved from the fire by Howard. Towards the end of the book, Lori (and perhaps Ruprecht as well) contemplates suicide as well to escape what her life's become, but decides that she will live to see the good in the world.]]
77	* DrowningMySorrows: Howard after [[spoiler: Halley leaves him]] is pretty much constantly drunk.
78	* DyingDeclarationOfLove: Skippy's last acts before dying were to write 'TELL LORI' on the floor in icing, and nod when the people present guess it means "Tell Lori I love her."
79	* EmbarrassingNickname: The Seabrook students give insulting nicknames to most of their teachers. Notable ones include [[RhymingNames Howard the Coward]] for Howard and Pere Vert for French teacher Father Green. Dennis also frequently calls Ruprecht "Van Blowjob" and variations.
80	* EndearinglyDorky: Skippy is a shy and nerdy kid, and it's impossible not to love him for his dweebiness (he practices video game moves in his room to prepare for a fight) and innocence. He gathers a tight-knit group of friends despite his dorkiness, and various authority figures such as Howard and Father Green find his innocence and geekiness endearing.
81	* EnragedByIdiocy: Near the beginning of the third volume, Dennis is enraged at Ruprecht's denial that Skippy is gone for good, which he sees as idiocy.
82	* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The book has a character named Skippy who dies, so you can't fault it for false advertising.
83	* ExtremeDoormat: People tend to walk all over Skippy.
84	* FalseFriend: Janine is one to both Carl and Lori, exploiting both of them in order to get what she wants.
85	* FatBestFriend: Ruprecht is Skippy's fat best friend, and gets much less characterization than Skippy.
86	* {{Feghoot}}: Farley tells a multi-page story about a man's encounter with a mermaid, all of which was build up to a dirty joke that's a play on the word "head." Of course, it's also an allegory for Howard and Skippy's experiences with women.
87	* FictionalVideoGame: ''Hopeland'', the RPG that Skippy is obsessed with finishing, which has some similarities to ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda''. Skippy struggles to finish the game by [[SaveThePrincess Saving The Princess]] and defeating the three demons parallel his personal struggles to get with Lori and defeat his three personal demons (Carl, [[spoiler: his swim coach who raped him]], and his sick mother).
88	* FiredTeacher: [[spoiler: Howard]] ends up fired towards the end of the book.
89	* FirstKiss: Skippy has his first kiss with Lori, though he lies about it to seem mature.
90	* FirstLove: Lori is Skippy's. She turns out to be his last and only.
91	* FirstNameBasis: The Automator's insistence that all the teachers call him "Greg", to the affront of Father Green, signifies his new, modern corporate approach to running the school and his disregard for tradition and history.
92	* FiveStagesOfGrief: Mentioned by Father Foley to Ruprecht's parents.
93	* FormerTeenRebel: The Automator was in a rock band as a teen which played edgy (for the time), anti-establishment music such as Music/PinkFloyd's "Another Brick in the Wall". Now he's a principal and captain of the vanguard of enforced conformity and corporate values.
94	* FriendToPsychos: Barry is fast friends with the less intelligent and more violent Carl, even when Carl messes things up for him. Carl's craziness comes in handy when intimidating others for their drug racket.
95	* FreudianExcuse: Carl is a cruel, drug-dealing psychopath, but his toxic home life helps explain why, or at least why no one notices.
96	* GeekPhysiques: Ruprecht, the string-theory obsessed TeenGenius, is very fat and is constantly eating. His best friend Skippy, a studious and quiet nerd who loves video games as well as science, is slight and skinny.
97	* GeniusSweetTooth: Ruprecht is a genius with an obsessive love of doughnuts.
98	* TheGhost: Skippy's mom, who is mentioned and described by other characters but doesn't get any dialogue.
99	* GiveGeeksAChance: Skippy, who loves video games and science more than anything, falls in love with the incredibly beautiful and popular Lori, who actually ends up somewhat reciprocating. It doesn't work out well for them though.
100	* GoodAdulteryBadAdultery:
101	** Howard's dissatisfaction with his life with Halley [[spoiler: leads him to sleep with Aurelie (who was in turn cheating on her own fiance by doing so). This loses Howard both women, but Aurelie gets off scot-free and goes to pursue a happy life with her oblivious fiance. Howard's decision to cheat is portrayed more sympathetically than Aurelie's, though Howard is punished by the narrative for it.]]
102	** Carl's father cheats on his wife with several younger women and then violently denies it every time she tries to call him out on it. This gives the impression both in and out of universe that he's a creepy jerk -- perhaps this is where Carl's personality comes from.
103	* GossipyHens: Howard describes some of the teachers at Seabrook like this.
104	* GreenEyedMonster: When Carl hears that Lori is going out with Skippy and not him, he immediately hates the poor kid and swears revenge.
105	* GriefSong: "I wish you were beside me, just so I could let you know...I wish you were beside me, I would never let you go..."
106	* HappyFlashback: Skippy has a brief one to when he was younger and [[spoiler: his mother wasn't sick yet.]]
107	* HarsherInHindsight: In-universe.
108	** Not that this was lighthearted to begin with, but at Skippy's funeral, among other insults, a drunken Farley says all Tom Roche can think about is "boys in their pretty little swimming togs," which makes Tom lose it and attack him. [[spoiler: Once it's revealed that Roche molested Skippy, which was a part of why he committed suicide, that becomes a lot worse.]]
109	** When Father Green asks Skippy if he's a virgin and Skippy says "I don't know," [[spoiler: it's because his swimming coach molested him.]]
110	** Farley did this unintentionally one other time before that:
111	--> [[spoiler: '''Tom Roche''': Busy day. Trying to finalize the arrangements for the swimming trip. Ten boys, the nearest hotel only has four rooms.]]
112	--> [[spoiler: '''Farley''': Pile 'em all into bed with you. Keep you all warm on these cold winter nights.']]
113	--> [[spoiler: '''Tom Roche''': ''tonelessly'' That's hilarious. That's very, very funny.]]
114	** When Skippy's walking down the street, someone from a fundraiser shoves a donation bucket in his face saying brightly, "Help fight cancer!" [[spoiler: Skippy's mother is suffering from severe cancer, and dealing with that is causing him a lot of suffering he internalizes.]]
115	** A ''lot'' of moments can hurt on a second read knowing [[spoiler: what Tom did to Skippy]]. Like these:
116	--> [[spoiler: '''Dennis''': ''teasingly'' [Father Foley] wants to take you away from Father Green, doesn't he? He wants you all to himself...]]
117	--> [[spoiler: '''Siddartha''': Coach never should have picked you. You're his little bum-chum, that's the only reason.]]
118	* HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday: Mario gets a lot of these moments. When it seems like his friends are about to get expelled, he says something along the lines of "If you guys left I would miss you. For the record, that does not mean that I am a homosexual."
119	* TheHeart: It turns out Skippy was this, as his group of friends drift apart after he dies.
120	* HeelRealization: At the end of the book, Carl realizes that he is the demon [[spoiler: and decides he has to die in order to be free of Skippy's ghost.]]
121	* HeroicBSOD: Ruprecht flips out after Skippy's death. He stops answering in class and does nothing but eat doughnuts.
122	* HighSchoolDance: The Halloween Hop, a dance held in the gym, is the big social event at Seabrook College and one of the few opportunities for the all-boys-school students to interact with girls. As such, the characters treat it as a pivotal event for their romantic lives.
123	* HormoneAddledTeenager: Nearly all the teen characters fall into this. Various references are made to Seabrook being filled with "a cloud of hormones". All the boys are constantly talking and thinking about sex, and all the girls are very concerned with boys and making poor relationship choices (and sex, though not as single-mindedly as the boys). The only exceptions are Skippy, who's a late bloomer (and has some other reasons to feel weird about that stuff) and Ruprecht, a TVGenius who's sexuality is somewhat unclear.
124	* HotTeacher: Aurelie. All her students (and some of the fellow teachers) are spellbound by her looks and charm.
125	* HowDareYouDieOnMe: Many people have this reaction when things start falling apart at Seabrook after Skippy dies, becoming angry and blaming him.
126	* {{Hypocrite}}:
127	** Costigan, who makes many gestures to the school's greatness and the success of his students when all he cares about is optics.
128	** Father Green is the most outspoken about adhering to old values and avoiding sin, particularly sexual sins. [[spoiler: In fact, he no longer believes in God, and is haunted by the times that he gave into sin back in Africa by molesting the children he was teaching.]]
129	* ICallHimMisterHappy: The first joke in the book:
130	--> '''Dennis''': Sir, Mario calls his wang Il Duce.
131	--> '''Mario''': Sir!
132	--> '''Howard''': ''Dennis.''
133	--> '''Dennis''': But he does - you do, I've heard you.'Time to rise, Duce,' you say. 'Your people await you, Duce.'
134	* IdolSinger: '''Bethani''', the teen pop star Lori idolizes, who resembles a number of early/mid 2000's teen stars such as Music/MileyCyrus or Music/BritneySpears.
135	* IKnowMortalKombat: Skippy visualizes the attacks from ''Hopeland'' while fighting Carl, which actually allows him to win the fight.
136	* IllKillYou: A scary one from Carl to Skippy after the latter challenges him to a fight. He leans in close and whispers softly in Skippy's ear, "You faggot, I am going to kill you."
137	* IMissMom: Most of [[spoiler: Skippy's]] thoughts about [[spoiler: his cancer-afflicted mother]], who he never gets to speak to or interact with anymore, are along these lines.
138	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Dennis constantly makes fun of his friends and belittles Ruprecht, but he secretly does care about them.
139	* KarmaHoudini:
140	** Greg Costigan, Aurelie, and [[spoiler:Tom Roche]] get no comeuppance for anything they did, all basically getting what they wanted in life despite the bad things they were responsible for.
141	** Guido [=LaManche=] was ultimately responsible for [[spoiler: the bungee-jumping accident that ruined Tom's life]], as he was the one who built the thing and pressured everyone into it. Guido faces basically no consequences for this and goes on to become incredibly successful in life, while Howard is blamed for what happened and haunted by it forever.
142	** Carl gets no official rebuke for drugging the entire school, injuring other kids, or any of the other bad (and illegal) things he does. The ending letter implies that Carl was not found responsible for [[spoiler: deliberately burning down the school and killing Father Green]]. Unlike some other characters, Carl at least is wracked with mental torment for what he sees as his role in Skippy's death.
143	* KeepingSecretsSucks: Howard finds this out when he is forced to agree with the public story that [[spoiler: Father Green molested Skippy and keep the secret that it was actually Tom Roche who did it or lose his teaching job and have his life ruined by Costigan.]]
144	** He finds out earlier than that - he is eaten up with guilt after [[spoiler: he cheats on Halley with Aurelie.]]
145	* KillingIntent: Skippy realizes Carl has this towards him literally the second before their fight begins.
146	* KillTheCutie: Skippy is cute as hell, and he dies in the first chapter.
147	* LackOfEmpathy: Carl seems to be unable to empathize with others, and he's clearly not wired correctly.
148	* LastRequest: "Tell Lori he loves her! Oh my god!" on Skippy's deathbed in the doughnut shop.
149	* LiarRevealed: [[spoiler: Ruprecht claims that he transferred to Seabrook from a prestigious private school after the deaths of his parents, a wealthy baron and his wife. He is revealed to have made up the whole thing when his parents - who are really plumbers - are called to the school to discuss Ruprecht's behavior after Skippy's death.]]
150	* LiteraryAllusion: Other than the obvious in-universe examples, Lorelei is named after [[spoiler: a siren in German mythology who would lure fishermen with her singing and then kill them]].
151	* LocalHangout: All the teen characters (and Seabrook and St. Brigid's students in general) regularly hang out at Ed's Doughnut House, and pivotal scenes such as Carl's "date" with Lori, Carl getting beat up by the Knackers, and Skippy's death all take place in the vicinity of Ed's. Apparently it served the same function when Howard was in school as well.
152	* LongingForFictionland: Skippy becomes increasingly withdrawn into his video game, ''Hopeland'' and events in the game and in his real life become increasingly fused in his mind as the story progresses.
153	* LoserProtagonist: Howard shares the Protagonist slot with Skippy and a few other characters, but he gets a lot of POV time in the narration. Howard is stuck at a job that he hates because he failed out of his other career, is stuck in an unfulfilling relationship, and fears that he'll never do anything meaningful in his life. For much of the book, he lives up to his nickname "Howard the Coward", being generally spineless and stuck reliving his past failures.
154	* LoveAtFirstSight: Skippy becomes obsessed with Lori the instant he sees her. Carl experiences something more like Lust at First Sight with her.
155	* LoveMakesYouCrazy: In Carl's case, love makes you crazier than usual.
156	* LoveTriangle: Skippy, Lori, and Carl.
157	* LustObject: What Carl sees Lori as. His relationship to her mostly involves sexually fantasizing about her, and pressuring her to sleep with him.
158	* {{Manchild}}: Discussed when some of Howard's coworkers read a magazine article about the "kidadult", who displays exaggeratedly childish attributes such as riding on motorcycles and buying electronics. While Howard doesn't have those "kidadult" features, he is trapped in a state of perpetual adolescence. Trapped in his high school, at 28 he still thinks of himself as an awkward teenager and is haunted by the mistakes of his youth. Howard is shy of commitment and longs for the nebulous state of adolescence when the future is still full of many opportunities. His character arc involves learning to accept responsibility and become a man.
159	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: There are a number of seemingly supernatural occurrences that are portrayed ambiguously due to POV switches between overly hopeful or mentally unstable characters. Do Ruprecht's inventions really work? Do ancient Irish burial mounds have power? Are the demons of Hopeland real? [[spoiler: Of the three, the Irish burial mounds resolve as most likely to be really supernatural.]]
160	* MirthlessLaughter:
161	** When Howard comes back to his car (accompanied by [[HotTeacher Aurelie]]) and sees that the students covered his car in feathers as a prank, he laughs mirthlessly to cover up his embarrassment.
162	** Carl does a scary version when he sees that Skippy is serious about fighting him. He ''is'' laughing because he finds it funny, but the way he does it makes it sound wrong and inhuman, like "a robot that laughs without knowing why things are funny."
163	* MissConception: After [[spoiler: Lori]] is forced to swallow after giving [[spoiler: Carl]] a blowjob, she thinks she might be pregnant and freaks out, despite this being impossible.
164	** Justified as she's a teenage girl, even if she got a good sex ed class (which is unlikely) she's not going know everything involving sex or sexual acts.
165	* MissingMom: Technically, [[spoiler: Skippy's]] mother isn't dead or gone, but her [[spoiler: suffering from severe cancer and never being well enough to even speak to him anymore]] creates the same effect.
166	* MotorMouth: One of the school's teachers, [[EmbarrassingNickname Motor Mouth Thompson.]]
167	* MyGreatestFailure: Howard regards [[spoiler: letting Tom take the bungee jump in his place, which ended up causing Tom's life-ruining injuries,]] as this. It still haunts him years afterward.
168	* MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes: After Skippy's taken a fatal dose of pills, he relives many of his happiest memories in life, including many from his childhood.
169	* TheNeedsOfTheMany: Costigan justifies keeping [[spoiler: Roche's molesting Skippy, which was part of what drove him to suicide,]] covered up to maintain Seabrook's good reputation this way. It's heavily implied that the school covers up anything like this that happens as much as they can, and justifies it with this trope.
170	* TheNewRockAndRoll: [[HipHop Rap]] is portrayed in the book as farcially offensive, containing ludicrous amount of sexual and violent references. Once rap gets played at the Halloween Hop, it turns instantly into APartyAlsoKnownAsAnOrgy. There's also a lot of discussion about how Rock 'n Roll itself was once edgy and cool but is now the province of staid adults such as The Automator. The Seabrook boys who have a rock band aren't portrayed as particularly cool.
171	* NiceGuy: Skippy is earnest, quiet, and never says a bad thing to anyone.
172	* NoSenseOfHumor: Carl sometimes laughs without knowing why, and has trouble grasping others' jokes.
173	* NunsAreSpooky: Mario has a paralyzing fear of nuns.
174	* OhAndXDies: Skippy is killed off literally in the title.
175	* OhCrap:
176	** Lori has this reaction just before [[spoiler: going rightfully berserk on Carl when she realizes he is filming her giving him a blowjob and is sending out the video. She also has this reaction when she mistakenly believes she's gotten pregnant because of it.]]
177	** Skippy's thoughts when he sees Carl's KillingIntent the second before their fight begins.
178	* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Howard feels this way towards his aforementioned [[MyGreatestFailure Greatest Failure.]]
179	* OneGenderSchool: Seabrook is an all-boys school, and St. Brigid's is its female sister school next door.
180	* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Skippy is just fourteen years old, and [[spoiler: he killed himself because he had a lot of problems he was afraid to talk to his father about, since he didn't want to do anything else to upset him when he was already dealing with his wife's cancer. After his death, his father realizes this and laments that he made his son unable to get help from him.]]
181	* OvercomeWithDesire: Within fifteen minutes of having a drink, [[spoiler: Aurelie and Howard]] are so eager to sleep with each other that they have sex right then on a classroom desk, even though they're supposed to be supervising the Halloween Hop and [[spoiler: are both in relationships.]] There's no way this could go wrong...
182	* PedophilePriest: A great deal of suspense concerns whether [[spoiler: Father Green]] is a pedophile. His inner monologue implies that he [[spoiler: molested children in Africa while there as a missionary]], and he lusts after Skippy, [[spoiler: but never actually molests him. His coach Tom Roche, however...]]
183	* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Carl and Barry are both racist, sexist bastards. Lori also has a moment of this when she suggests she and Carl play a cruel, racist prank on Zhang.
184	* PosthumousCharacter: Skippy dies in the first chapter of the first volume. The rest of the first and all of the second rewind to the time before his death.
185	* PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy: Eoin "MC Sexecutioner" Flynn and Patrick "Da Knowledge" Noonan have outrageous rapper personas and use every opportunity to rap. On Halloween, they dress in blackface.
186	* PushoverParents: Carl's mother seems to let him do whatever he wants, and his father doesn't seem to care enough about his son to discipline him.
187	* TheQuietOne: Skippy doesn't talk much.
188	* ReassignedToAntarctica: [[spoiler: Tom Roche]] gets a new job at a school in Mauritius midway through the year as punishment/coverup for [[spoiler: molesting Skippy, contributing to his suicide and drug abuse]]. It's treated as a sad event by some of the characters, but it's actually a secretly intentional ReassignmentBackfire, as the new job gives him his dream of [[spoiler: coaching rugby.]]
189	* RhymingNames: Howard the Coward, to his dismay.
190	* RichBitch: Lori is a deconstructed example. Due to her beauty and wealthy parents, she's accustomed to getting everything she wants, and is sometimes randomly cruel to other kids she deems unworthy. After Skippy's death, she finds that her parents substitute material things for affection or emotional expression, and that everyone around her are fake friends. She also angsts about how her own selfishness caused such harm to Skippy, who actually loved her, and learns that you simply can't get everything you want, as her love for both Skippy and Carl was incompatible and led to destruction for all three of them.
191	* SadistTeacher: Father Green hates teaching, hates teaching French, and hates his students. One devastating scene has him tormenting Skippy over perceived obscenity.
192	* SaveOurStudents: Inverted in the first part of the book, which sets up a contrast between the school's troubled but privileged students who aren't helped by any of the authorities, and Howard, the ApatheticTeacher who went to Seabrook and desperately wishes to escape. By the end of the book, [[spoiler: Howard takes steps towards becoming an inspiring teacher and mentor, which culminates in him heroically rescuing Carl from a burning building, and the epilogue hints that he is fully committed to trying to save the kids.]]
193	* SkewedPriorities: The Automator prioritizes the school's image over the well-being of the students. He makes it very clear that he thinks [[spoiler: molesting a student and driving him to suicide]] if you're important to the sports program is much less bad than [[spoiler: chickening out of a dangerous teen prank]]. He also has a tendency to hold minor, teenage physiological accidents against his students, insisting that Skippy throwing up in class or Ruprecht [[spoiler: popping a boner in the gym showers]] is irrefutable proof of their delinquency.
194	* SlippingAMickey: Carl plans to use date rape drugs on Lori at the dance, but when he finds her not there he drugs every single person at the dance.
195	* SpoilerTitle: A deliberate example.
196	* SpurnedIntoSuicide: Played with. Skippy fatally overdoses after finding out his girlfriend [[spoiler:cheated on him]], and gives her a DyingDeclarationOfLove. The whole school naturally assumes he killed himself over her. But in truth the incident with Lori was the last straw for Skippy, who was burdened with a whole host of serious problems. The last third of the book wrestles with who exactly is to blame for Skippy's death, as everyone around him has some amount of responsibility.
197	* StepfordSmiler: After Skippy's death, [[spoiler: Lori]] becomes a Type A. She acts completely normal on the outside, but inside she's deeply shaken and undergoes a slow mental breakdown over time.
198	* StalkerWithACrush: Carl is sexually and romantically obsessed with Lori, and follows her around, lurks outside her house, and harasses her new love interest Skippy.
199	* SuddenPrincipledStand: Howard gives one in the third volume when he's had enough of Costigan's immorality and decides to stop being his usual spineless self.
200	* SuicideByPills: The book begins with the titular character dying on the floor of a doughnut shop as his friends and a shopworker try desperately and futilely trying to revive him. The rest of the story reveals that Skippy took a lethal dose of pain pills in response to a cascade of terrible events.
201	%%* TheSociopath: Carl.
202	* TearsOfRemorse: [[spoiler: Carl of all people has these when he decides to let himself die in the fire to make up for what he's done.]]
203	* TeensAreMonsters: The teens in this story are self-absorbed, drugged-up, hormonal, and sometimes manipulative and two-faced, sometimes psychopathic bullies. However, the book ends with the theme that the teens, at least, are capable of redemption.
204	* TeenGenius: Ruprecht, a brilliant student who spends his spare time building inventions that he says will prove String Theory.
205	* TeenPregnancy:
206	** A minor subplot is Titch accidentally getting Kelly Ann pregnant.
207	** After [[spoiler: giving Carl a blowjob in which he forces her to swallow, Lori]] mistakenly thinks she's gotten pregnant. [[spoiler: She hasn't, obviously, but it's what makes her panic, starve herself with diet pills to try and end the pregnancy, and ends up anorexic.]]
208	* TeensLoveShopping: Zigzagged. At first, Lori loves shopping with her friends, but when Skippy dies, Lori's mom tries to cheer her up by taking her shopping but it just makes her sadder.
209	* TerriblePickUpLines: Mario Bianchi frequently spouts these as part of his advice on how to get girls. Fortunately, all other characters promptly ignore him.
210	-->''Excuse me, you are stepping on my dick. Do you get it? Because my dick is so long, it comes out of my trousers, and onto the floor.''
211	%%* TroubledChild: Skippy.
212	* TVGenius: Ruprecht is a genius whose only interests are the decidedly geeky String Theory, classical music, and Yahtzee. He works these interests into unrelated conversations, and seems baffled by many normal social occasions such as a school dance.
213	* TyrantTakesTheHelm: Costigan's taking over the running of Seabrook is played somewhat like this.
214	* UnreliableNarrator: With all the POV switching, it's hard to figure out what exactly is real, particularly when drug-addled characters like Carl and Skippy take the narrative reins.
215	* VillainousBSOD: After Skippy dies, [[spoiler: Carl]] flips out, mirroring Ruprecht's {{HeroicBSOD}}.
216	* TheVillainKnowsWhereYouLive: Carl lurks around Lori's house in several scenes, and is implied to have slashed the tires of Skippy's bike when Lori invites him over.
217	* VomitChainReaction: Happens when someone spikes the punch at the Halloween Hop. Everyone in a packed gym starts vomiting in unison after drinking the punch.
218	* WeUsedToBeFriends: Skippy's group of friends (Ruprecht, Mario, Dennis, and Geoff) quickly start to become hostile to each other after his death. During a fight between Dennis and Geoff, they are even described as having "the enmity that can only exist between former friends."
219	* WildTeenParty: The instant Howard and Aurelie leave the hall, the Halloween Hop turns into this. The music is replaced with impossibly loud and crude rap music, the punch is quickly spiked, and the dance rapidly turns into APartyAlsoKnownAsAnOrgy as all the kids lose their clothes and get wild.
220	* WouldHitAGirl: Carl fantasizes about beating up Lori for not doing what he says.
221	* YouAreNotAlone: Lori and Ruprecht's conversation at the end of the book has shades of this.
222	* YouthIsWastedOnTheDumb: When Howard was a teen, he was involved in an incredibly poorly thought-out adolescent escapade spearheaded by Guido [=LaManche=]. Guido peer-pressured everyone to go bungee jumping using homemade, jury-rigged equipment off the side of the quarry in the middle of the night, [[spoiler: and after drawing straws, Howard was selected to go first. Howard then chickened out, leading to his nickname "Howard the Coward." Tom Roche had a go in his stead, which unsurprisingly led to a crippling injury and life-long disability.]]

Context Literature / SkippyDies