Line #41 Literature/TheTroop


1	[[quoteright:343:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thetroopcover.png]]
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3	The Troop is a 2014 Canadian Horror novel by Nick Cutter, unrelated to the [[Series/TheTroop Nickelodeon show of the same name.]]
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5	Scout Master Tim Riggs has led a troop of boyscouts -- Ephraim, Maxwell, Kent, Newton (usually shortened to Newt), and Shelley -- to a secluded island off PEI for a camping trip. However, the sudden appearance of a rail-thin stranger throws those plans into ruin...
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7	!!Examples:
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9	* AdmiringTheAbomination: During an interview, [[spoiler:Dr. Edgerton]] is almost maniacally exultant when describing [[spoiler:how resilient the worms are and how determined they and worms in general are to evolve and survive.]] Likewise, [[spoiler:as the worms eat away at Shelley, he begins to see them as his offspring, proclaiming that he'll be a wonderful father to them and make sure they eat well.]] This is especially notable since said characters are [[LackOfEmpathy entirely indifferent to the suffering of other living things]] and in [[spoiler:Shelley's]] case, [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals gets thrills by inflicting suffering on them]].
10	* AdultsAreUseless: Averted. The boys believe that it's totally OK to pass things off to the adults, since when a grown-up handles things, it gets done right the first time. [[spoiler: It doesn't last.]]
11	%%* AloneWithThePsycho: Kent and Ephraim with Shelley.
12	* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: All the kids treat Newt terribly. The only reason they don’t treat Shelley the same way is because they know something is “off” about him.
13	* AmbiguousEnding: [[spoiler:The novel closes with Max, who went through several months of testing for infection and got a clean bill of health, riding out to the bombed-out remains of the island, with "a nameless hunger building inside him" as he gets closer to the island, that "gnawed at his guts with teeth that knew his name". Whether this means an evolved strain of the worms managed to lie hidden and dormant inside him despite the testing, or if it's meant to be metaphorical of the bitter loneliness he feels now that his friends are dead and he's treated like a leper is unclear.]]
14	* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: Most of the boys defer to Kent since he's the biggest and the strongest ([[JerkJock and the meanest]]).
15	* BeneathSuspicion: Kinda played with in regards to Shelley. It's implied that Shelley's mother might at least suspect him of being disturbed, if not outright convinced. At one point she thinks to herself if he could have harmed the family's pet kitten. [[spoiler:Yes, yes he could]]. It’s described as though something “replaced” Shelley as he grew into his psychopathic tendencies, and Shelley actively cultivates an image of unnerving weirdness to mask his disturbing urges.
16	* BigBadEnsemble: The mutant tapeworms, whose rapid spread and threat to spill into the mainland, are the primary antagonistic force on the island, but Shelley taking advantage of the situation to indulge in his twisted sadism makes the already dire situation even worse for the rest of the boy scouts.
17	* BigEater: The first symptom of [[spoiler: mutant tapeworm infestation]]. Crosses over with ExtremeOmnivore; although they prefer biomass, they'll gobble anything they can get their hands on.
18	* BodyHorror: [[spoiler: The tapeworms' effect on their hosts' bodies]] is both horrifying and nauseating. This includes losing weight EXTREMELY rapidly until they're downright skeletal, developing clusters of weeping cysts, and in some cases, losing teeth and hair. Dr. Nathan Erikson, who worked alongside [[MadScientist Dr. Edgerton]], was reduced to sobbing in horror when observing a chimpanzee [[spoiler: infected with the tapeworms]].
19	--> '''Dr. Erikson''': Subject… suh-suh-subject is… Jesus. Jesus Christ… subject… subject is ''not'' a subject anymore. I mean, holy God, ''is'' she? How could she be? Subject is more bone than anything. Subject… Jesus, you poor thing. You poor fucking thing, you… I just… Clive, you bastard... this is… oh, Jesus.
20	* ChestBurster: [[spoiler: And every orifice besides. The mutant tapeworms do this when their host croaks.]]
21	* CruelTwistEnding: [[AmbiguousEnding Possibly]]. [[spoiler:Max is given a clean bill of health after several months of testing, but the final lines hint that a strain of the worms managed to lie dormant and hidden in him through it all, and his going to look at the bombed-out and chemically sterilized remains of the island awakens them.]]
22	* DeadPersonImpersonation: [[spoiler: Newt, it turns out, has a separate online identity named after and based on his late cousin, whom he greatly admired, that he uses in order to interact more confidently with other people without all of the baggage that comes with being a BullyMagnet.]]
23	* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler: Scoutmaster Tim]] gets a tree unceremoniously dropped on him.
24	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Shelley tearing a crayfish apart.
25	* EvilSmellsBad: Infected release a smell like rotten fruit because their fatty tissues are being broken down.
26	** [[InvertedTrope Inversely]], Scoutmaster Tim notes that all boys tend to give off a kind of pseudo-scent that indicate personality traits, like Bully Scent, Nerd Scent, Jock Scent and so on, but [[TheSociopath Shelley]] doesn't smell like anything. The closest approximation he's able to think of is [[EvilIsSterile a sterilized room in a house long-bereft of human life]].
27	* EvilFeelsGood: Shelley actually ''gets off'' on killing things (the day he drowned a kitten was the most erotic instance in his life). [[spoiler:He reacts to his infestation as if he were pregnant]].
28	* ExplosiveBreeder: [[spoiler: The tapeworms are basically a MixAndMatchCreature of a tapeworm and a [[Recap/StarTrekS2E15TheTroubleWithTribbles Tribble]] (or [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E10SwarmOfTheCentury Parasprite,]] if that's your thing).]]
29	* FirstNameBasis: Kent often addresses adults like this, mostly because he knows he can get away with it.
30	* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: [[spoiler: One strain of the genetically engineered tapeworm was intended as a diet aide. The other as a bioweapon. Guess which one breaches containment?]]
31	* GoneHorriblyRight: [[spoiler: The mutant tapeworms that cause the outbreak were supposed to be used as diet aides, since tapeworm infestations are characterized by a loss of weight. The infected lose weight, alright...]]
32	* GoneHorriblyWrong: [[spoiler:The tapeworms were experimented on to make them unable to survive outside the human colon. Instead, it gives them HollywoodEvolution.]]
33	* HillbillyHorrors: An inversion; the horror is happening ''to'' them, not perpetrated ''by'' them. And since it's Canada, they're newfies.
34	* HorrorHunger: In this case, it's not the ''what'' they're eating that's horrifying and destructive-but ''how much''. PatientZero devours an entire {{Greasy Spoon}}'s worth of eggs (in a "hungry-man" breakfast platter intended to keep a stevedore or fishing trawler crewman satiated until lunchtime, that contains pancakes, sausages, and bacon besides, of which he gobbles ''five orders''), and eats enough to do himself severe internal injury-and he's still hungry. Eventually, he eats live crabs and spiders, rock slime (that snot-like algae on beach rocks), a handful of sand, and finally, the stuffing out of an old couch. [[spoiler: Scoutmaster Tim]] eats wallpaper out of desperation, and [[spoiler: Kent]] eats the entire food supply for the weekend in one go.
35	* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: The only things in this book worse than deadly, infectious worms are their creator, who has no regard for human life, and a teenager who gets off on killing animals.
36	* HyperactiveMetabolism: Deconstructed, the infected can't eat enough to maintain themselves-no matter how much they eat. And since everything they eat is either digested at a normal pace or [[spoiler: scarfed by mutant tapeworms]], they do themselves severe internal damage and starve to death anyways.
37	* KidsAreCruel: Everyone picks on poor Newt, but Shelley is easily the cruelest kid on the island.
38	* LaserGuidedKarma: Shelley gets infested while [[spoiler: murdering Kent, who is also infested. Kent's infestation may also count depending on your views about JerkJock and SchoolBullyingIsHarmless.]]
39	* {{Lockdown}}: The army shows up and quarantines the island and nearby town. They arrest some of the scout’s parents when they try to mount a rescue.
40	* MadScientist: Dr. Clive Edgerton, the man who [[spoiler: genetically modified a tapeworm into a [[VideoGame/StarCraft Zerg]]-like monstrosity.]] He's actually compared to [[GodwinsLaw Joseph Mengele]]. Of all of the epithets the public uses for him, he prefers “Doctor”.
41	* ManlyTears: Several of the boys mention that they cried when either their pets died or [[spoiler: the most beautiful creature they ever saw was needlessly destroyed]].
42	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler: One of Edgerton's assistants does this when it's revealed that he was working on a parasite-based biological weapon, rather than a diet pill.]]
43	** [[spoiler: Max and Newt after they kill a turtle]].
44	* NeverFoundTheBody: [[spoiler:Kent's body ends up being swept away by the tide after Shelley murders him]], and this is played for drama (since [[spoiler:his parents don't get any kind of closure about his death]]) and horror (since [[spoiler:the last we see of his body is fish starting to eat it, possibly giving the worms a way to spread more]]).
45	* NightmareSequence: Kent has one where his dad turns into a worm-riddled zombie and tries to eat him.
46	** Max has a similar one, except his dad only has one worm coming out the top of his head.
47	* NotAZombie: Scoutmaster Tim mistakes PatientZero for a waterlogged zombie when he first sees him.
48	* ParasiticHorror: The book involves a parasite-based bioweapon created as a side-gig to a genetically engineered tapeworm diet aid. While the diet aid was meant to become TheSymbiote, the bioweapon took all the bad things about them and cranked them up to eleven, and added a few more besides.
49	* PatientZero: Thomas Henry Padgett.
50	* PollutedWasteland: The island is doused with napalm and bioweapons-grade cleaner. [[spoiler: It doesn't take]].
51	* PuppeteerParasite: [[spoiler: Queen tapeworms infest the host brain to make them believe they aren't sick]]
52	* RecycledInSpace: This is ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'' with infected monsters:
53	** [[AnimalMotifs Newt]] is a CompositeCharacter {{expy}} of Piggy (sharing the animal-themed name), nerdy, intelligent, and overweight, and picked on all the other kids as a result, but actually the kindest and most sensitive like Simon.
54	** Shelley is Jack: a HateSink sociopath who enjoys torturing animals [[spoiler:and later people]] just for the fun of it.
55	** Ephraim is reminiscent of Roger, who is Jack's [[TheDragon Dragon]] and often participates in his schemes, despite not being as "bad" as him.
56	** Protagonist Max and supporting character Kent are a DecompositeCharacter of Ralph. Like Ralph, Kent is extremely forceful and occasionally becomes tainted by his experiences on the island, but like Ralph, Max largely retains his sanity and acts as the de facto leader of the "good" characters.
57	* TheSociopath: Shelley displays classic signs of being one, like his LackOfEmpathy and his habit of torturing small animals [[spoiler: and later Kent and Ephraim]] for no other reason than [[ForTheEvulz Teh Lolz]].
58	** [[spoiler:Dr. Edgerton]], who is called one outright by an interviewer [[spoiler:for his inhumanly blasé attitude and lack of shame for creating such a deadly bio-weapon and unleashing it upon the world.]]
59	* TheSymbiote: [[spoiler: [[{{Crunchtastic}} Eww-tastic]] mutant tapeworms that guzzle all the body's nutrients, making their host voraciously hungry]].
60	* TheyCallMeMisterTibbs: Clive Edgerton, [[spoiler:the MadScientist who created the tapeworms]], is noted in one of the interludes to only give interviews if he's specifically referred to with his title of ''Doctor''.
61	* ToiletHumor: Inverted into Toilet Horror. Many references are made to passing [[spoiler: tapeworms.]]
62	* VirusVictimSymptoms: [[BigEater Ravenous]] [[ExtremeOmnivore hunger]] and [[EvilSmellsBad a smell like bad fruit]], rapid weight loss, and cysts on the skin.

Context Literature / TheTroop