History AnyoneCanDie / Literature

* If you are a {{Bishonen}} in a Dennis Cooper novel, you will most likely be kidnapped, raped, tortured, and/or murdered, and you will enjoy it. Especially if your name is George Miles.

* ''Literature/TheBeginningAfterTheEnd'': Due to being DarkerAndEdgier than most {{Isekai}} works, quite a few main characters bite the dust over the course of the story. This is especially apparent once the War Arc starts and the CerebusSyndrome kicks in.
** Volume 4: The attack on Xyrus Academy sees many students and faculty get killed, among which are Doradrea Oreguard and Theodore Maxwell (the latter's fate only being revealed in Volume 6).
** Volume 5: Cynthia Goodsky gets put into a coma due the {{Geas}} preventing her from disclosing anything about the Vritra and Alacrya. At the end of the volume, in spite of it being ambiguous as to whether or not it was removed, she is found dead in her bed with her body having been impaled by the trademark black spikes of the Vritra.
** Volume 6: Adam Krensch gets KilledOffscreen at the start of the volume as it turns out there were more mana beasts in the dungeon he and the Twin Horns were in. In addition, Olfred Warend is revealed to be a traitor in league with the Vritra and gets killed for his treachery by Aya Grephin.
** Volume 7: The end of the volume is a major TraumaCongaLine for the protagonists, as not only does TheBadGuyWins, but several major characters are killed off. Arthur's father Reynolds Leywin gets killed during the attack on the Wall. Then, thanks to a SadisticChoice [[TheCommiesMadeMeDoIt regarding their daughter Tessia's life]], Agrona gets Alduin and Merial Eralith to let his forces into the Council Castle, which leads to the death of Buhnd as the Dicathians are forced to evacuate. Afterwards, Alduin and Merial, alongside Blaine and Priscilla Glayder, are executed and their bodies impaled on spikes to mark the end of Agrona's conquest. And on top of all of this, Sylvie is forced to perform a HeroicSacrifice to save Arthur's life, though following volumes would reveal she survived. On the villains' side, the traitorous Rahdeas and Uto are also killed while they are imprisoned to prevent the Dicathians from finding out more about their enemy.
** Volume 9: During the Victoriad, Arthur finally manages to slay Cadell. However, his triumph there and return back to Dicathen is soured by Taci's rampage in the Djinn Sanctuary causing a considerable amount of casualties among the Dicathians. Aya is forced to drain her mana core to trick Taci into thinking he killed the remaining Lances, which costs her life. Meanwhile, Rinia, who had been forced to tap into her CastFromLifespan [[{{Seers}} divination powers]] since the start of the war, is struck down by Taci and eventually expires once Arthur returns to Dicathen and slay Taci. The following volume reveals that Albold and Feyrith were among the casualties of his rampage.
** Volume 10: In order to [[spoiler:allow Arthur to restore Sylvie's physical form, a [[TheAtoner repentant]] Aldir performs his own HeroicSacrifice]].

* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' trilogy plays this one hard, particularly in the final installment. Amidst the deaths of several supporting characters, Katniss has to witness firsthand the death of her younger sister Prim, ''whom she was trying to protect by entering the Games in the first place''.

* ''Literature/AFathersWrath'' has the main character Jon Barton ambushed by church templars and an inquisitor, all fanatics that think themselves the epitome of righteousness for claiming they work in the name of goddess Metia. When Jon starts winning the fight, against all odds, the Inquisitor sets off a FantasticNuke, at extreme point-blank range. Jon himself ''may'' have died from the blast as he sees himself in the same kind of white room he was in when he was first brought to Ipra as a disembodied soul, the woman who would later become his legal wife survives only because she luckily happened to be behind him. His tour guide survived the blast because she hid down a side-tunnel before the fight began, at Jon's orders, and Jon's first slave just barely survived by the rest of her teeth. The rest of his HerosSlaveHarem was vaporized, and the only soul he could save, a traitor.

* ''Literature/InThen'' by Creator/MorrisGleitzman, the sequel to ''Literature/{{Once]}'', Zelda, one of the main protagonists of the series, is killed by the Nazis near the end of the book. She sort of reappears in Now but it's actually the granddaughter of Felix, the other main protagonist.

* ''LightNovel/ALullabySinister''. Main character status means nothing. If you notice that someone is inside the Surrogate School, chances are high that they will be killed in an extremely brutal way regardless of how prominent they are.

* The second volume of ''LightNovel/ASimpleSurvey'', ''A Simple Monitoring''. The first half consists of short stories, all but one of which include at least one death (and the sole exception has the protagonist murdering someone in the backstory). In some stories, only one person is left alive by the end. The protagonist(s) of each story aren't exempt from this.

* ''In Then'' by Morris Gleitzman, the sequel to ''Once'', Zelda, one of the main protagonists of the series, is killed by the Nazis near the end of the book. She sort of reappears in Now but it's actually the granddaughter of Felix, the other main protagonist.

* ''Scarecrow'' by Matthew Reilly. Just prior to the climax of the book, Gant, the main character's love interest that has been part of the team for three books is suddenly and gruesomely killed off. Not to mention that 90% of the cast in each and every one of his books dies.

* How many people die over the main plot of an Creator/RLStine book generally depends on the series -- usually, none for main ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'', one for main ''Literature/FearStreet'' or ''Fear Street Seniors'', and anywhere from a couple to a massacre for any other side series. However, it's almost impossible to predict which books will kill a random (and potentially likeable) character at the end, which will KillEmAll, and which will leave everyone unscathed.

* ''Literature/BattleRoyale'', set in a DeadlyGame where middle school students are forced to kill or be killed, enforces this. The rules of the game necessitate that [[KillEmAll all but one student will die.]]

* In ''Literature/QuantumDevilSagaAvatarTuner'', absolutely [[KillEmAll everyone except for the main characters dies]] by being devoured by the [[EldritchAbomination black ooze]], and then Jinana and Lupa pull a HeroicSacrifice to [[TheRestShallPass stop it and buy time for the Embryon]].

* In Robert [=McCammon's=] ''Literature/SwanSong'', practically ''[[KillEmAll everyone]]'' dies, and since he starts out with so many characters, that's a lot of death. The book is about nuclear holocaust, though, so it makes sense.

* ''Literature/WatershipDown'' is known for its atmosphere of pervasive dread, but the author turns out to be much too kind-hearted to [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt pull the plug]] on his favorite characters, and settles for simple maiming instead. (I guess being rabbits, KillEmAll would be the default outcome, nothing to write home about.) See animated film version, however.

%% Examples are now being arranged in alphabetical order, with the creators on top. Please follow this. Thanks!

* ''Literature/TheCatWhoSeries'': Being beloved by the readers will not save a character from dying. Sometimes they're murdered, but there are also fatal car accidents ([[spoiler: Liz Hart in book #28, during a storm]]), heart attacks ([[spoiler: Eddington Smith in book #23]]), and just plain old age ([[spoiler: Homer Tibbet in book #28, who dies in his sleep]]).

* ''Franchise/ShuuenNoShioriProject'': [[spoiler: And everyone does, in fact, die. ]]

* Taylor Anderson's ''Literature/{{Destroyermen}}'' series has many of the original destroyermen die a few at a time each book. This also includes several important Lemurians, such as Nakja-Mur, the High Chief of Baalkpan, who's killed during the climactic battle in the third book. Each new ship, though, is named after a fallen main (or secondary) character. However, WordOfGod is that several characters, such as Captain Matthew Reddy and Chack Sab-At cannot die for plot reasons, and the fifth book opens with a quote from Courtney Bradford's book, which he is supposed to publish twelve years later, making his survival a ForegoneConclusion. The fifteenth and final book takes this UpToEleven with many important characters dying, sometimes with barely a mention.

* ''Literature/TheLockedTomb'': By the end of ''Literature/GideonTheNinth'', only Harrow and Ianthe are confirmed to still be alive, out of the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters at Canaan House, with even protagonist Gideon dead by HeroicSuicide.

* The ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'', with its LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, sees a lot of them killed off, be they second or third tier characters or major, plot-changing point of view characters. More often than not, the deaths are sudden and pointless.

* In Robert [=McCammon's=] ''Literature/SwanSong'', practically ''[[KillEmAll everyone]]'' dies, and since he starts out with LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, that's a lot of death. The book is about nuclear holocaust, though, so it makes sense.

** Chewbacca's death in ''Vector Prime'' is the epitome of this trope in the Star Wars EU.

%% ** Anakin Solo

* By the end of ''Literature/GideonTheNinth'', only Harrow and Ianthe are confirmed to still be alive, out of the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters at Canaan House, with even protagonist Gideon dead by HeroicSuicide.

* ''Literature/PerryRhodan'' had up to 23 immortality devices preventing aging and disease, but people could still be killed. Between issues 1399 and 1504(out of over 2500), the number of immortals went from 17 to 10. In the aftermath of that, 6 new devices were given to new holders. The 10 old immortals still live (some had near death experiences, one was repeatedly killed and revived), while of the 6 new ones 2 aliens laid them down due to not needing anymore, 3 humans were killed before their normal life expectancy was up, and one female alien was almost [[StuffedIntoTheFridge tortured to death by an insane space pirate]], remaining sane only due to sheer willpower. Even ascended beings are not safe.

* ''Series/RaisedByWolves'' has several examples, including the main character's primary love interest.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome is in full effect in ''Literature/TheNexusSeries''. As of "Crux", Wats, Ted Prang, Mai, Warren Becker, Ilya, Dr. Holtzman, Jake, and Shiva are all dead, with things only to get worse with the looming war between humans and posthumans.

* ''The Gashlycrumb Tinies'' by ''Creator/EdwardGorey'' has this in an alphabetical form of 26 children meeting an each different fate.

* ''Literature/TheColdMoons'' starts with nearly 400 badgers. By the end, over 100 have died and only roughly 260 are left. All of [[spoiler:the old Cadre]] were killed during the journey and [[spoiler:the main badger antagonists]] all died as well.

* In The ''First Law'' trilogy, Joe Abercrombie makes it fairly clear early on anyone can die. In fact, by the end of the series the (initially) most identifiable main character winds up leaping off a cliff, whilst his band of followers have been slowly picked off across the trilogy.