Follow TV Tropes

Following

Literature / On the Spectrum

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/on_the_spectrum.jpg
On the Spectrum is a 2017 young adult novel by Jennifer Gold.

Clara Singerman, the sixteen-year-old daughter of famous ballerina Catherine Malcolm, is invited to spend the summer in Paris with her estranged father, his new wife Mag, and their six-year-old autistic son Alastair. Clara decides to go in order to escape from a social media disaster at home. She explores Paris with Alastair and finds romance with the baker's son Michel.


On the Spectrum contains examples of:

  • Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Clara's dad ruffles Alastair's hair, even though he Hates Being Touched. Clara wonders why he keeps doing something Alastair doesn't like.
  • Alpha Bitch: Avril is the most popular girl in Clara's private school. She also bullied three girls into leaving school in the same year.
  • Brief Accent Imitation: An unpopular girl with a slight lisp shows up uninvited at Avril's party. She says, "We just heard there was a party." Avril mimics, "We jutht heard there wath a party. Did you altho hear you need thomething called an invitation?"
  • Career-Ending Injury: Catherine falls during a performance. It wasn't a heavy fall, but because of her osteoporosis, it breaks her hip. She will never perform again. The accident causes her and Clara to both realize what a serious problem orthorexia is, and how much they need to change.
  • Character Tics: Clara twirls her hair around her finger when she's uncomfortable.
  • Disappeared Dad: Clara has hardly seen her dad since her parents divorced when she was a toddler. Her last visit to his home was four years ago.
  • Ditzy Genius: Clara's friend Bree acts like a ditz, but gets straight A's in school.
  • Dramatic Sitdown: Bree tells Clara to sit down before breaking the news to her about Tom falsely accusing Jacques of corruption on Twitter and claiming he got the information from Clara, who made the mistake of complaining to him about how greedy Jacques is.
  • First-Name Basis: The counselor at Clara's high school is so insistent on this that the kids refer to her as "Call-Me-Jane" behind her back. To her face, most people call her Mrs. Cartwright, despite her efforts.
  • Flowers of Romance: When Michel arrives to pick Clara up for their first date, he brings a bouquet of peonies. For their second date, he brings her a potted orchid.
  • Florence Nightingale Effect: Clara's father was a surgeon who treated her mother and then fell in love with her. It caused a scandal, because Catherine was eighteen and his patient, and he lost his medical license. After their marriage fell apart, Clara's father moved to Europe, where he started a new life as an academic.
  • Half-Breed Discrimination: Michel was bullied in school by the white kids for being black, and by the four other black kids for having a white mother.
  • Hands-On Approach: Michel puts his hands on Clara's to show her how to knead dough.
  • It's All My Fault: Catherine been teaching Clara to obsess over her weight since early childhood. After Catherine is diagnosed with osteoporosis due to decades of inadequate eating and obsessive exercise, and Clara is diagnosed with orthorexia because a teacher saw her surreptitiously weighing apple slices, Catherine takes her to an Italian restaurant, where they both find themselves completely unable to eat. Catherine whispers, "I'm sorry. It's all my fault." She says that she doesn't know any other way of life, because being thin is everything in ballet.
  • Learnt English from Watching Television: Most of Michel's knowledge of English comes from movies and TV. His mom loved Shakespeare and wanted him to know English, so whenever he wanted to watch anything from America or England, she would get the English version.
  • Lethal Chef: Catherine is totally incapable of cooking, so Clara prepares most of their meals. After Clara is diagnosed with orthorexia, Catherine, feeling guilty, decides to cook a turkey breast. Clara comes home to find that Catherine has charred the turkey breast into a smoking black lump that set off the fire alarm.
  • Privacy by Distraction: Dad sends Alastair to refill the cat's water bowl so he can talk to Clara about his autism.
  • Sensory Overload: Alastair is prone to this, and carries headphones and a weighted vest around to calm himself. When he's overwhelmed by smells in a market, Clara wraps her scarf around his lower face so he'll only smell that.
  • The Svengali: Jacques, the company director, has been Catherine's mentor since she was Clara's age. He encouraged her to start smoking, taught her to destroy her health in order to stay thin, and discourages her from having close relationship with anyone other than him. Even though he's gay, Clara compares his relationship with Catherine to an abusive marriage.
  • Your Makeup Is Running: When Clara's dad breaks the news to her about Catherine's accident, Clara cries, and tastes the mixture of salt and mascara.

Top