A Ladder to the Sky is a 2018 novel by John Boyne. It follows Maurice, a psychopathic writer who will stop at nothing to get his books published. The story is told from multiple points of view from his victims' to his own.
A Ladder to the Sky provides examples of:
- Alpha Bitch: Rebecca is unfriendly to her sister Edith and later frames her ex-husband Robert.
- Depraved Homosexual: Erich Ackermann. In a jealous fit of rage when his straight friend Oskar rejects his advances, he outs Oskar's half-Jewish girlfriend Alysse's family to the Nazis, resulting in her family and Oskar getting killed. Maurice later uses Erich's neediness to take advantage of him.
- Frame-Up: After he refuses to let her and their kids move, Rebecca frames her ex-husband Robert by planting child pornography on his computer. He gets sentenced to five years in prison as a result.
- Gilded Cage: Maurice is sentenced to life for the murders he committed but doesn't consider prison life to be bad at all.
- He Knows Too Much: Maurice kills his own son Daniel after he finds out his secrets.
- Hypocrite: Maurice tells his son Daniel that stealing is bad... all while plagiarizing other people's works.
- I Should Write a Book About This: Maurice isn't good at writing original stories and bases his novels on other people's works and experiences.
- Male Gaze: Maurice's charming looks attract the attention of several gay men. He uses this to his advantage.
- Meta Fiction: It's a novel about writing novels.
- Mr. Fanservice: Maurice is described as a very attractive man in his youth.
- Posthumous Narration: The first part is narrated by Erich Ackermann, who later commits suicide. The third part is narrated by Maurice's late wife Edith.
- Staircase Tumble: Edith falls down the staircase that Maurice keeps putting off fixing. He later kills her by pushing her down the stairs.
