History Literature / LightsAreOffButEveryonesHome

* WretchedHive: Wickwire High, where kids openly deal drugs and start fires, bullying is totally unchecked, and rumors spread like an epidemic. Trent mentions in passing that two seniors were caught having sex in the stairwell the year he was a freshmen, a [[NakedPeopleAreFunny kid was stripped nude and thrown out into the halls,]] at least one or two suicides occur every year, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking most importantly,]] Staley is able to mix Rum in his Soda Bottles without significant worry as to whether or not he'll get caught.

* ArcWords: "I am the Dreamer, you are the Dream." Said first by Trent's Sleep Paralysis Demon, then in a dream Diane inspires, then [[spoiler: by himself, to his own written works; showing he has taken control of his own destiny and that while he loves his work, he will no longer destroy himself to produce it.]]

* ShoutOut: Trent names a lot of chapters after either works of art he likes (''[[Literature/VenusInFurs Venus in Inks]]'' and ''The Menaced Assassin'') or songs he likes (''Glycerine'' and ''[[Music/PearlJam Don't Call Me Daughter]]''). One of his short stories is called ''[[Film/FatalAttraction Fetal Attraction]]'' and is about a fetal ghost out to kill her depressive, alcoholic twin brother. His novel is likely named after a song by M83. He also references various horror authors such as [[Literature/AMartianOdyssey Stanley Weinbaum]], Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs, Creator/RobertBloch, and Charles Beaumont, among others. John Callahan of {{WesternAnimation/Pelswick}} and [[Creator/MoWillems Mo Willems]] get shout outs as influences on Staley's art style.

* ShoutOut: Trent names a lot of chapters after either works of art he likes (''[[Literature/VenusInFurs Venus in Inks]]'' and ''The Menaced Assassin'') or songs he likes (''Glycerine'' and ''[[Music/PearlJam Don't Call Me Daughter]]''). One of his short stories is called ''[[Film/FatalAttraction Fetal Attraction]]'' and is about a fetal ghost out to kill her depressive, alcoholic twin brother. His novel is likely named after a song by M83. He also references various horror authors such as [[Literature/AMartianOdyssey Stanley Weinbaum]], Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs, Creator/RobertBloch, and Charles Beaumont, among others. John Callahan of [[WesternAnimation/Pelswick]] and [[Creator/MoWillems Mo Willems]] get shout outs as influences on Staley's art style.

* ShoutOut: Trent names a lot of chapters after either works of art he likes (''[[Literature/VenusInFurs Venus in Inks]]'' and ''The Menaced Assassin'') or songs he likes (''Glycerine'' and ''[[Music/PearlJam Don't Call Me Daughter]]''). One of his short stories is called ''[[Film/FatalAttraction Fetal Attraction]]'' and is about a fetal ghost out to kill her depressive, alcoholic twin brother. His novel is likely named after a song by M83. He also references various horror authors such as [[Literature/AMartianOdyssey Stanley Weinbaum]], Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs, Creator/RobertBloch, and Charles Beaumont, among others. [[WesternAnimation/Pelswick John Callahan]] and [[Creator/MoWillems Mo Willems]] get shout outs as influences on Staley's art style.

* ShoutOut: Trent names a lot of chapters after either works of art he likes (''[[Literature/VenusInFurs Venus in Inks]]'' and ''The Menaced Assassin'') or songs he likes (''Glycerine'' and ''[[Music/PearlJam Don't Call Me Daughter]]''). One of his short stories is called ''[[Film/FatalAttraction Fetal Attraction]]'' and is about a fetal ghost out to kill her depressive, alcoholic twin brother. His novel is likely named after a song by M83. He also references various horror authors such as [[Literature/AMartianOdyssey Stanley Weinbaum]], Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs, Creator/RobertBloch, and Charles Beaumont, among others.

The primary story arc concerns Staley's relationship with Diane Bourdon, a twenty-three-year-old {{Goth}} college girl who seems at first to be a ManicPixieDreamGirl, but SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome as this relationship soon devolves into a dysfunctional, codependent nightmare that threatens to consume the both of them.

* SexEqualsLove: Trent, Connor, and all of the male cast seem to believe this. SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome.

* RomanAClef: Kent Starrett's parents are alive and he is the oldest child of his siblings, and he didn't start dating anyone until he was nineteen. However, the book draws heavily on childhood abuse and psychological traumas he suffered as a teenager, and both Trent and Starrett are high-functioning autistic artists who [[spoiler: survived multiple suicide attempts]].

* LackOfEmpathy: Trent violently despises his abusers, at least when the book starts. [[spoiler: by the end he learns that his brother and Caitlyn Newell are people too, and extends his sympathies to them when they suffer like he does.]]

* CloudCuckooLander: Trent is obsessed with surreal imagery, dark horror and science fiction, and sometimes stays awake for days on end until he hallucinates. Diane's also fairly strange, breeding snakes and covered in tattoos. In the late 2000's, these were all very unusual traits. To a lesser degree, Tabs, the drug-dealer and Maria, Trent's friend and coworker, are as well. When Trent asks if Maria can keep his secret about Diane's age, her response is "[[MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels Los Chupacabras entran, pero no pueden salir!]]" delivered in a harsh whisper, as if it's the phrase is deadly serious.

* CloudCuckooLander: Trent is obsessed with surreal imagery, dark horror and science fiction, and sometimes stays awake for days on end until he hallucinates. Diane's also fairly strange, breeding snakes and covered in tattoos. In the late 2000's, these were all very unusual traits. To a lesser degree, Tabs, the drug-dealer and Maria, Trent's friend and coworker, are as well.

* ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend: Diane seems like this, at first, [[spoiler: later she unleashes her violence on Trent when she finds out Trent has a female friend, Maria. She plays it off as being afraid of her age being revealed and being sent to prison, but adult readers will catch the obvious abusive nature of her actions.]]

* AmazonChaser: Trent loves Maria like a sister, [[TastesLikeDiabetes but could never date her because she's too sweet and waifish]]. Diane, a badass {{Goth}} TomBoy in her early twenties who's both stronger than him and littered with tattoos and piercings, has him dumbstruck with love (or hormones). [[spoiler: It backfires horribly when she starts abusing him.]]

* CompleteMonster: Leo Anderson is the only villainous character given absolutely no positive traits whatsoever.

* CreatorBreakdown: Trent inflicts his suffering on his fictional characters, for catharsis. By the end, [[spoiler: He's learned to be nicer to them, as he's now experiencing a self-inflicted CreatorRecovery.]]

* JerkassWoobie: Trent's been through, and proceeds to go through, an endless procession of brutal tragedies. His vicious cynicism is understandable, if off-putting.

* NarmCharm: Trent's DIY Photoshop, multimedia artwork and bombastically over-the-top, gruesome horror stories.

* ParanoiaFuel: Trent's harassers spread rumors about him nonstop, and hundreds of people who go to his school know his full name and his somewhat undeserved reputation for being a morbid, eccentric, antisocial 'psycho.'

* PerkyGoth: Staley's Friend, Maria Garcia, is a petite gothic girl who loves ponies and kittens as well as skulls and tombstones. She continually tries to be kind to Trent and drag him out of his constant [[TrueArtIsAngsty creative misery]], and is the only one who's fully sympathetic to him [[spoiler: when he reveals Diane's abusive behaviors.]]

* SadistTeacher: Staley carries around everything in a gigantic, seemingly disorganized binder. A Science Teacher embarasses Trent in front of the entire class by asking for him: "Raise your hand if your name is Trent Staley," and telling him he will take charge of organizing his assignments since he "Obviously isn't competent enough to do it himself." Trent's response? "[[TeensAreMonsters You know what I got in this binder?]] [[PrecisionFStrike Your motherfucking wife, why don't I open it up so you can say hi?"]]

* TastesLikeDiabetes: Maria has a tendency to be overly bubbly, which Staley tolerates because he has so few friends.
* TeensAreMonsters: Trent carries a huge binder around because every year Caitlyn Newell and her friends find his locker, and write "Virgin 4 Life" in permanent marker on it, so that he can't use it anymore. Literally everyone outside Trent's circle of friends knocks his writing and refer to him as "crazy" or "retarded" for his career choice, and physical fights are a weekly occurence at Wickwire High.

* TrueArtIsAngsty: Trent believes this, though it's thoroughly deconstructed before the story's over.

* ValuesDissonance: People used a lot more homophobic and islamophobic language in the 2000's, and bullying/cyberstalking weren't as well understood by either adults or adolescents. Trent himself throws around words like "fag" and "retard" without any significant thought as to whether or not there are any potential ramifications, and mentions in passing that there are girls who regularly sexually harass him at school and just get away with it, [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale because they're girls.]] He also refers to girls who terrorize him as "sluts" and openly assumes them to be sexually deplorable, although [[spoiler: when the book ends he finds out one of these girls, Caitlyn Newell, is actually a virgin who was assaulted by a boy who assumed the same thing as Trent did. She explains she just wanted to fit in, and her and Staley become friends.]]

* WordOfGod: Trent is a high-functioning autistic person, as is his creator.
* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler: Diane drugs, chokes, and pins Staley at various points, and at one point when he's holding her hand to try and calm him down she rakes her nails on his knuckles, scarring him.]]

The primary story arc concerns Staley's relationship with Diane Bourdon, a twenty-three-year-old {{Goth}} college girl who seems at first to be a ManicPixieDreamGirl, but RealityEnsues as this relationship soon devolves into a dysfunctional, codependent nightmare that threatens to consume the both of them.

* ManipulativeBastard: Diane nurtures Trent's dependency, and seemingly knows she is the only person who provides him any form of validation or affection, physical or otherwise. It seems sweet and maternal...[[RealityEnsues at first.]] [[spoiler: We later find out that she is grooming him not (just) to meet her sexual needs, whether he's comfortable or not, but as a surrogate child to replace her stillborn daughter.]]

* SexEqualsLove: Trent, Connor, and all of the male cast seem to believe this. RealityEnsues.

* STDImmunity: Lampshaded as Diane has had her tubes tied and Trent is a virgin. Averted with Connor Pressman, who gets some kind of urethral infection and tries to 'cure' it with a cue-tip and hydrogen peroxide. [[RealityEnsues It seems to work, but it's obviously agonizing.]]

* LatinoIsBrown: Subverted with Maria, who paints her face chalky white to be Gothic.

* BigBrotherBully: Trent's adult brother, Vance, was [[BigBrotherWorship once his favorite person in the world]]. Scenes of them bonding and having fun before the car accident litter the book in flashbacks. Because of his brain damage, Vance becomes a perpetually enraged JerkAss who essentially forces Trent to live in his garage by antagonizing him every time he comes insie the house.

* ShoutOut: Trent names a lot of chapters after either works of art he likes (''[[Literature/VenusInFurs Venus in Inks]]'' and ''The Menaced Assassin'') or songs he likes (''Glycerine'' and ''[[Music/PearlJam Don't Call Me Daughter]]''). One of his short stories is called ''[[Film/FatalAttraction Fetal Attraction]]'' and is about a fetal humanoid out to kill her depressive, alcoholic twin brother. His novel is likely named after a song by M83. He also references various horror authors such as [[Literature/AMartianOdyssey Stanley Weinbaum]], Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs, Creator/RobertBloch, and Charles Beaumont, among others.

* STDImmunity: Averted, as Diane has had her tubes tied and Trent is a virgin. Played straight with Connor Pressman, who gets some kind of urethral infection and tries to 'cure' it with a cue-tip and hydrogen peroxide. [[RealityEnsues It seems to work, but it's obviously agonizing.]]

* ShoutOut: Trent names a lot of chapters after either works of art he likes (''[[VenusInFurs Venus in Inks]]'' and ''The Menaced Assassin'') or songs he likes (''Glycerine'' and ''[[Music/PearlJam Don't Call Me Daughter]]''). One of his short stories is called ''[[Film/FatalAttraction Fetal Attraction]]'' and is about a fetal humanoid out to kill her depressive, alcoholic twin brother. His novel is likely named after a song by M83. He also references various horror authors such as [[Literature/AMartianOdyssey Stanley Weinbaum]], Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs, Creator/RobertBloch, and Charles Beaumont, among others.