Nothing about me resembled a pink-haired doll with a jewel in its stomach or a creepy little monster that lived under a bridge. Admittedly, I was kind of short, but Finn was at least six feet tall.
"You're thinking of trolls the way they've been misrepresented, obviously," Finn hurried to explain. "That's why we prefer Trylle. You don't get any of that silly 'Billy Goats Gruff' imagery. But now I have you staring at me like I have totally lost my mind."
"You're thinking of trolls the way they've been misrepresented, obviously," Finn hurried to explain. "That's why we prefer Trylle. You don't get any of that silly 'Billy Goats Gruff' imagery. But now I have you staring at me like I have totally lost my mind."
—Switched
The Trylle Trilogy is a fantasy book series by American author Amanda Hocking. It follows the story of Wendy Everly, an almost eighteen-year-old teenage girl who lives with her aunt Maggie and brother Matt. She recounts her sixth birthday party, when her less-than-stable mother grows convinced that Wendy stole the baby she gave birth to, and proceeds to attempt to kill her.
We then cut back to the present day, where Wendy has forced both her aunt Maggie and Matt to uproot their lives and move when she is again kicked out of school. She begins to be disturbed by the also-new student Finn Holmes who constantly watches her, emotionless and unaware. Wendy ponders on her secret skill; she's always known that, ever since she was little, she has always had the ability to make a person act however she wanted merely by thinking a command. Wendy begins to think her mother might have been onto something.
With the help of Finn Holmes, Wendy finds herself in a world she never knew existed - a world both beautiful and frightening, and Wendy's not sure she wants to be a part of it.
Books in the series:
- Switched, 2010
- Torn, 2010
- Ascend, 2011
Contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: "She lunged at me, screaming at me to tell her what I did with her real baby."
- Aerith and Bob: Names range from Maggie, Matthew, Sara, and Kim to Tove, Ember, Loki, and Elora to name a few.
- Always Save the Girl: Finn to Wendy. Mostly because she's the princess and he's pretty much a bodyguard to the royal family. She does seem like she's sort of capable what with stabbing Jen and leaping on his back when they're hundreds of feet off the ground.
- Arranged Marriage: Loki and the Vittra Queen Sara were engaged when Loki was just a kid, before Oren took an interest in Sara.
- Ax-Crazy: Kim Everly, Wendy's host mom.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: At the end of Ascend, after Wendy uses her powers to defeat Oren and save Loki's life, instead of aging like the other trolls do after they expend a lot of their abilities, a lock of her hair simply turns silver.
- Big Brother Instinct: Matt is very protective towards Wendy and he later acts as such towards Rhys.
- Blessed with Suck:
- The powers the Trylle possess drain their energy and eventually accelerated aging.
- Tove takes the cake with this one. He is hands down one of the most powerful characters in the books, but his powers are too strong, having him constantly hear others' thoughts which leads him to insomnia and bouts of insanity, and he has to constantly use them so he's able to focus on anything else. Worst of all being that he figures he has twenty years tops until his powers completely eat away his brain and destroy his mind.
- Brainwashed: Loki has the ability to brainwash a person. He starts to do it to Wendy in Torn, but stops, saying that he wants her to want to leave with him.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Wendy is portrayed as a bratty teen since she, as a Trylle, simply does not fit into human society.
- Charm Person: Wendy has the power of persuasion.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Tove often falls into this category, since he can sense when others use their powers and their auras.
- Compelling Voice: Several Trylle have the compelling voice ability. However, it only works on trackers or humans.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Wendy had a pretty traumatic childhood, also Loki.
- Dating Do-Si-Do: Wendy and Willa seem to switch the objects of their affection pretty easily.
- Dawson Casting: In-universe example. The Trackers pose as high school seniors to get close to the changelings in order to bring them back to Forening. Duncan in Torn is 27.
- Dead Guy Junior: Willa reveals that the original name her human family gave her was Nikki, but she chose her current name at her naming ceremony because it was the same one her late mother picked.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: It's said that the only person that Elora ever really loved was Thomas Holmes, Finn's father. She's later defrosted further by Wendy.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Elora has the power of precognition, yet can only use her power by painting the future scene.
- Dysfunctional Family: Wendy's father died when she was young, her mother went crazy and tried to kill her when she was six and her brother is not her biological brother.
- Dysfunction Junction: Find a normal, functioning character who isn't breaking some sort of rule, law, or standard.
- Elemental Powers: Some Trylle can control certain elements, like Willa who can control the wind and her mother, who could control the clouds. Finn says the reason for the bipolar weather was because of the Trylle messing with their powers.
- Embarrassing Middle Name: Apparently Wendy's middle name is Luella.
- Fallen Princess: By the epilogue, Wendy's narration reveals that Willa willingly gave up her title as a Marksinna so she could openly be in a relationship with Matt.
- Feuding Families: The Trylle and the Vittra. There's even a chapter in Torn where the two are compared to the Montagues and Capulets.
- Generation Xerox: Elora and Wendy both fall in love with trackers It didn't end well for Elora though Finn and Wendy move on and are on pretty good terms afterwards
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: The Trylle words seem to be Swedish. They call the changeling human children mänsklig ("human"), the village where the Trylle live is called Förening ("Association"), the village where the Vittra trolls love is Ondarike ("evil empire/kingdom"), and the royalty titles include Markis and Markisinna ("Marquis" and "Marchioness"). The word 'Trylle' itself is the Scandinavian verb for doing magic.
- Happily Adopted: "Adopted" would be a pretty loose term, but Wendy is happy with Matt and Maggie, even when she learns they're not her blood relatives.
- Happy Marriage Charade: Both Elora and Oren's and Wendy and Tove's marriages were happiness charades, but they both ended in divorce.
- Hate Sink:
- The Chancellor, a sick pervert who always complains about how Elora runs things.
- Aurora Kroner constantly puts down Wendy and Elora and takes over planning Wendy's wedding.
- Markisinna Laris refuses to use her powers to help her people and kingdom and demands that Wendy be handed over to Oren on a sliver platter.
- How Do I Shot Web?: Wendy takes a while to learn how to use her psychic abilities.
- Hypnotic Eyes: Loki's power, which he inherited from his father, is hypnotic eyes.
- Idle Rich: According to Elora, the changelings that bring in trust funds provide this style of life for the Trylle.
- Informed Attribute: The Trylle lifestyle is said to be a very simple one, where trylle are dedicated to self-actualization and bonding with nature, yet none of the characters are shown to actively practice it.
- Jedi Mind Trick: Persuasion. Lampshaded by Rhys in Torn.Rhys: Aren't you just gonna Star Wars them? When Obi-Wan's like, 'These aren't the droids you're looking for.'
- Lethal Chef: Rhys, who manages to simultaneously burn and drown the stirfry he makes for Wendy when she first arrives in Forening.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Wendy's biological father turns out to be the king of the Vittra. Surprise, Wendy!
- Medicate the Medium: Before Tove learned that he was a troll and was brought back to Forening, he was living at a mental institution.
- Mr. Exposition: Finn, Elora, and Willa all act this role throughout the series.
- Mysterious Parent: Both Wendy's adopted father, the husband of Kim, and Wendy's biological father to the point where she worries when Finn tells her that his father had an affair with her mother. Thankfully, he tells her that they could not be siblings.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Throughout the books, Wendy's powers are too weak to effectively fight Oren with, but when Oren runs a sword through Loki to kill him, Wendy's powers increase enough from distress and heartbreak to finally get through Oren's mental block and bring him down enough for her to cut off his head.
- Older Than They Look: The Trackers. Makes sense, seeing as how their job requires them to pose as high school students, but Wendy's second Tracker, Duncan takes the cake, as he's 27 posing as an 18-year-old.
- Pair the Spares: In the bonus epilogue in the books, Tove, Finn, and Garret are paired off with minor characters.
- Parental Abandonment: A practice of the Trylle. Finn replies with, quite simply, "it's what we do."
- Parental Substitute: Wendy's adoptive Aunt Maggie is this to her and Matt. Garrett also acts as a fatherly figure towards her.
- Picky Eater: The Trylle. Basically, they only eat all-natural, non-processed foods. With Wendy's aunt and brother, it's to the point where they can't even cook for her anymore.
- Prefesr Going Barefoot: The Trylle do not like wearing shoes. Ever. Even at the fanciest of balls, you can bet that everyone will be barefoot.
- Pregnant Badass: Wendy by the end of the third book, even though it was too early for her to know.
- Preppy Name: Michael Conrad Everly, The name that Wendy might have received if she were a boy, comes pretty close to being this.
- Psychic Block Defense: Many trolls can do this, and Wendy does this unconsciously several times.
- Psychic Powers: Several.
- Seers: Elora can paint pictures of future events, however, she doesn't know the context of the events.
- Telepathy: Tove, Elora, and Wendy can communicate mentally with others. Tove can hear everyone's thoughts, all the time.
- Mind over Matter: They can also move things with their minds.
- Rapid Aging: Using their powers causes the Trylle to age much faster than normal.
- Rebellious Princess: Wendy pretty much tires to piss Elora off. She's even called this by Loki in Torn.
- Rich Bitch: Willa. She's a noblewoman who's pretty much a bitch to everyone, especially the manksligs and Trackers. She gets better in later books and does genuinely care about Wendy, though.
- Royal Blood: Wendy comes from a long line of royal Trylle and Vittra, which is why she has so many awesome powers.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Elora is revealed to have done much to keep the peace between the Trylle and the Vittra. When Wendy becomes Queen, she fights hard to stop the changeling practice and to promote equality in Forening.
- Secretly Wealthy: Even Wendy doesn't know how much money her family really has, thinking that her mother's hospital bills and their constant moving has eaten away at their fortune. Turns out, they've been living far below their means.
- Self-Made Orphan: Wendy decapitates Oren by the third book.
- Sexless Marriage: Wendy and Tove's marriage was sexless for the short time it lasted.
- Sexy Mentor: Finn and Tove are both described as being "foxy" by Wendy on more than one occasion
- Shipper on Deck: Willa appears to be this for Rhys and Rhiannon in Torn.
- Shotgun Wedding: The epilogue reveals that Wendy was four months pregnant when she and Loki married.
- Shout-Out:
- When Wendy hears the word changeling, she immediately thinks of the movie of the same name starring Angelina Jolie.
- It's revealed that Matt picked out Wendy's name after reading Peter Pan.
- The two Vittra sent after Wendy are called Jen and Kyra.
- :Queen Sara also has a dog named Froud.
- Switched at Birth: All Trylle babies are switched with human children so that they can bring back trust fund money when they're 18.
- Teen Pregnancy: Wendy gets pregnant and gives birth to her and Loki's son when she's eighteen.
- Totally Radical: What kind of modern-day teenage girl refers to every good looking guy as foxy?
- The Unfavorite:
- Kim much prefers Matt and the son Michael she didn't even know to Wendy, even telling her to "leave Michael alone" as he is a "good boy".
- Rhys is also disliked by Elora because he is a Mankslig, or human.
- Willa suspects that her father prefers her mankslig Rhiannon.
- Universally Beloved Leader: Wendy and Loki's son, Oliver, is this for the Trylle because he's the first member of the royal family, if not the first child, to not be a changeling.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Poor Tove. He has to use his powers in order to focus and keep from going insane, but using his powers too much causes outburst of insanity.
- World of No Grandparents: None of the characters are mentioned having living grandparents we do later learn about Elora's parents and how they died in book 2
- Younger Than They Look: Elora. When Wendy first meets her, she appears to be around 50. We find out in Torn that she's actually only 39. She dies of old age by the end of Ascend. Using her powers caused her age prematurely.
