Genius Bonus: Nathaniel's pet Chihuahua-cross, the Tod, is described as being easily mistaken for a strange-looking cat or a fox by others. A 'Tod' is an old fashioned English name for a fox.
Nathaniel and his grandfather are both named after the author Nathaniel Hawthorn. Nathaniel references his namesake's book, The Scarlet Letter, and the protagonist who was required to wear a large red A on her dress as a symbol of her crime of adultery.
Jerkass Woobie: Danny turns out to be this: anger aside, he's actually pretty harmless if he likes you. His current cynical and angry attitude is a reaction against the police brutality he experienced when he was younger, the event that set him off on his current path.
Paranoia Fuel: The whole damn town has this effect on people. Nathaniel at one point wonders if he's "beginning to see something dark and terrible in everything", and when in the end even his mother is sucked into the darkness ruling Cheshunt...
The whole possibility that evil- actual, present, unadulterated evil- exists to call upon the darkness within us is pretty creepy. Nathaniel's sudden burst of joy at all the things he imagines could be true if their magic is true turns to fear when he realises that what is true for good magic is also true for bad.
Fridge Brilliance: Lallie appears to the Chain as a relatively young girl. However, it's revealed that during the creation of the first chain fifty years ago, she appeared as "Lallindra", a girl in the same age bracket as the original Chain. This leads to an awkward Love Triangle situation where Anna Galway assumes Zebediah is in love with Lallie and not her. This is shown to be heartbreakingly inaccurate, but by then it's too late and the Chain has broken. It's entirely possible Lallie chose to appear as a child this time around to prevent such complications from happening again.
The ending scene in the abbatoir with pretty much the whole school ready to tear the protagonists to shreds.
Also the Tod's death.
Tear Jerker: The group hug after the Chain saves Seth from his attempted suicide.
Dutch rock group:
Genre Turning Point: Even if their status as a goth metal band is arguable, there's no denying Mandylion was when the genre started to shift. Prior to that album, goth metal was normally associated with bands such as Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and Type O Negative. Afterwards, female fronted goth metal bands started to come out of the woodwork.
Growing the Beard: At Mandylion, and then perhaps again at How to Measure a Planet?
Ripped from the Headlines: Averted with "Colorado Incident" from 2000's if_then_else, it's about the band having to cancel a gig in the state, not the Columbine shootings which occurred the previous year.
The Scrappy: Every era has its fans, though the period with second singer Niels Duffhues is much, much less popular than with any other singer.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: As expected for any band that changes style and singers over the years. No matter how good Silje might be, hardcore Anneke fans are always going to object to the band continuing on without her. There are also still fans who don't like anything after Always...
Vindicated by History: How to Measure a Planet?, while critically praised, was lashed against by their fanbase at the time, and didn't have as much commercial success as their previous albums. It's since been looked at in a more positive light, with some fans considering it one of their best albums of the Anneke era.
, The Scarlet Letter, and the protagonist who was required to wear a large red A on her dress as a symbol of her crime of adultery.