She's behind you!
"There was only ever drag."
— Luci LeBang
Luci LeBang is many things: an actor, an artist, a musician, drag queen, a powerful sorceress, but most of all she's past her prime and washed-up. She is offered one last chance of recapturing her former glory when she secures the part of Madam Twankey in the avant-garde play "Phantom of the Pantomime", a wild mix of drag with Aladdin and Phantom of the Opera. But during the try-outs for the play she also meets Luda, a seductive, dangerous woman who she soon takes under her wing as an apprenice in the arts and in magic (there's hardly any different as far as Luci is concerned). They're soon caught in a deadly game of devilry, deceit and drag.
The spellbinding prose debut of comic book legend Grant Morrison, Luda is a novel about drag queens, magic and performance, and how they're ultimatey one and the same.
Tropes featured include:
- Abominable Auditorium: The Vallhambra Theater is the focus of much of the narrative, a strange, dark, possibly haunted place full of grisly stories and the setting of at least one mysterious fire.
- Ambiguous Ending: In traditional Grant Morrison fashion, the ending raises a lot more questions than it answers. Who survived: Luda or Luci (or both)? How much of Luda's story about the Marvells was true? How much of Luci's story was true? Did Luci commit suicide? Did any of it matter?.
- Ambiguous Innocence: It's unclear how much of Luda's naiveté is an act and how much is genuine.
- Ambiguous Situation: Absolutely nothing about Luda (both the character and the novel) is particularly clear, with many ambiguituies being left in the air.
- Arc Words: "She's behind you!", a Audience Participation line from "Phantom of the Pantomime", is repeated by several characters in several different contexts, each more ominous than the last.
- Audience Participation: "The Phantom of the Pantomime" play is very reliant in audience participation in the story, and Luci frequently discusses the thin line separating fiction and reality. In the final chapter she seems to particularly turn her attention towards us, the readership, and our participation in the narrative.
- Author Appeal: Magic, cross-dressing and superhero comic books abound, making it very obvious this is a Grant Morrison story.
- Back-Alley Doctor: Dr. Elspeth Beltane, a dubiously-legal cosmetic surgeon for celebrities, is a more high-end-fashion variation of the archetype.
- The Bad Guys Are Cops: The enigmatic Flat Police, literally shadowy agents of the Mystery City that pursue the protagonists.
- Bizarrchitecture: The Vallhambra Theatre, where the Phantom of the Pantomime is to be staged, has a very bizarre architecture that was apparently the result of both architect's Murdo McCloudie's strange mind and the construction crew looking at the blueprints in reverse.
- Blue-Collar Warlock: Luci when we first meet her is a blue-collar working drag queen and sorceress.
- Brainwashing for the Greater Good: The Marvells (psychologist Charles and behaviorial scientist Victoria) developed an idea of brainwashing local criminal teens from Gasglow into "perfect ladies". This turns out to be a terrible idea.
- Cast from Sanity: Glamour (as Luci's brand of magic is called) takes a heavy toll in one's mind.
- Campbell Country: The book is set in Gasglow, a alternate, creepy and surreal version of Scotland's Glasgow populated by all manner of strange artist and supernatural aura.
- Celebrity Power: Luci is a fading rockstar and reality tv celebrity who also practices magic. Random passerbys often recognize her throughout the novel.
- Corrupted Character Copy: On the surface, Luci and Luda bear a passing resemblance to bruja and semi-apprentice Lord Fanny and Jack Frost from The Invisibles, though the both of them are much more morally dubious and their relationship is far less wholesome.
- Creepy Crossdresser / Wholesome Crossdresser: Both ends of the spectrum are discusssed by Luci and Luda (both being drag queens), with the story ultimately landing on the middle (and the idea that every single person in the cast is profoundly disturbed, the drag queens are just parts of it).
- Dark and Troubled Past: Luda has a very dark, grim backstory. Untangling what exactly it is consists most of the book.
- Dwindling Party: In the plot of "The Phantom of the Pantomime" the cast of Aladdin gets whittled down by the titular Phantom. The same starts to happen with the actors in the play after Luda shows up.
- Eldritch Abomination: The entities featured are surreal, unfathomable, and incomprehensible in morality. The main featured one is the Mercurius (a.k.a the Mannequeen), the multi-gendered trickster deity that Luci worships, but we also get glimpses of a cow deity and something (which may or may not exist) only referred to as The Grand Constable, for which the Flat Police (possibly) works for.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: The reccurring notions of blurring lines between a work of art and its audience and the narrative refrain of "She's behind you!" lean the way of a terror that can lurk in both sides of the fourth wall. The final chapter even ends with Luci warning the reader: She's behind you!.
- Goth Girls Know Magic: Elspeth, a cosmetic surgeon, is a goth girl with a more traditionally Wicca-esque brand of magic belief in contrast to Luci's unusual "Glamour".
- Greater-Scope Villain: Charles Marvell never makes a physical appearance in the present day, but he has engineered a good deal of the headache involved. Depending how you interpret him, Murdo McCloudie the mad architec who may or may not haunt the stage could also count.
- The Hecate Sisters: The "Mother, Maiden and Crone" trinity is frequently referenced by Luci, and she and Luda trade between embodying at least one of the roles.
- Hot Witch: Luci and Luda are quite attractive and quite adept at Glamour magic.
- Identity Absorption: Luda's ability to take on the features of anybody (and absorb their identities) is downright supernatural.
- Incest Is Relative: Charles Marvell harbored some incestuous feelings towards his daughter Penelope, which is what made him conduct a torrid sexual affair with his adopted daughter Luda. We also later learn Luda is, quite probably, Luci's biological daughter, making their sexual dalliances definitely incestuous.
- Lady of Black Magic: Luci portrays herself as an elegant elder mage to Luda, although her masquerade falls apart fairly quickly as her traumas come to the fore.
- Large and in Charge: The director of the "Phantom of the Pantomime" is the very tall and very fat Dominick Float, occasionally nicknamed "Herr Float" for his dictatorial approach to theater.
- Living Shadow: The Flat Police only manifests as 2D shadows upon a wall, with the stated away to block their entrance being to render a room completely dark so as to not cast any shadows.
- Magic Is Feminine: Glamour is associated with femme figures, but the story goes a step further and posits magic being associated with transcending gender identifications (hence both main mages being drag queens).
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Luci herself is ambivalent about the validity of her magic system, but thinks that believing it to be real is all that matters.
- Meaningful Name: Drag names are generally chosen for their specific meaning relating to the person, including both Luci LeBang and Luda. Luci explains the meaning of hers early on, but the question of where "Luda" came from looms in the story until near the end.
- Merlin and Nimue: The story is
openly framed as a retelling of Merlin and Nimue: the wise but greedy master (Merlin/Luci) and the charismatic but scheming apprentice (Nimue/Luda). - Never Found the Body: Neither Luda's nor Luci's corpses are found going by the final chapter, leaving several possibilities in the air.
- No Communities Were Harmed: Gasglow is very obviously meant to be Glasgow, just with a twinge of the supernatural.
- Our Mages Are Different: The main form of magic as presented in the story is called Glamour, and its wielders are generally artists who transcend gender norms using their art to bend reality in various ways.
- Shout-Out: The Marvell Family is a twisted homage to both the Marvel Family, the Marvel Company and Captain Marvell.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Gofannon Rhys, Shakespearean actor in the "Phantom of the Pantomime", who apparently cannot go a full sentence without loudly cursing.
- Soulless Shell: "Philosophical zombies" (the term for this kind of person) are a crucial part of the plot through Charles Marvell's twisted philosophy that the post-WWII population growth caused entire generations to be born without a soul.
- Uncertain Doom: The later revelation that Luda pretended to be several characters across the narrative puts their fates into question. This particularly goes for Charles Marvell, who is said to have fled his home with a boyfriend by Victoria Marvell. Except the person who says that turns out to be Luda pretending to be Victoria Marvell...
- Unreliable Narrator: Neither Luda nor Luci are particularly honest with the audience or themselves. Luci warns the readership several times that she's not to be trusted.
- Upside-Down Blueprints: The Vallhambra Theatre was constructed backwards (partly as a result of the architect's already confusing blueprints), enhancing its eldritch, surreal vibe. This is probably based on an urban legend about Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
- Wainscot Society: Underneath Gasglow a secret city exists inhabited by the eldritch and the mystical. Some characters dub it "Mystery City".
