History Literature / Neverwhere

->''I want to go home."''\\\

%%Zero Context Examples are not allowed and have been commented out on this page. Please do not

->''I want to go home."''

-->'''The Marquis''': What does ''anyone'' want?
-->'''Vandemar''': [[TheBrute Dead things. Extra teeth]].

-->'''Vandemar''': ... No.

* {{Room 101}}: The room the Black Friars put Richard in for "the ordeal."

* BadDreams: Richard has recurring dreams of the Beast of London, presaging his confrontation with it at the end.

* DreamingOfThingsToCome

* PortalDoor: The Portico family's power.
* PortalNetwork: The "associative house" of the Portico family.

** Tons to ''Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland'' and ''Literature/ThroughTheLookingGlass''. Notable instances include Richard noting that he is believing many impossible things and he hasn't even had breakfast yet (the White Queen tells Alice, "Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast") and sarcastically asking "Jam tomorrow?" to convince Messrs. Croup and Vandemar that Islington is never actually going to pay them (a reference to the same White Queen telling Alice, "The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday – but never jam to-day").

* SuicideDare: When Richard is doing the trail, various bill boards suggest throwing himself in front of the train would be a good idea.

* ReplacedWithReplica: After the protagonists get the key the villain is after, Door makes a copy and gives that to Richard, pretending it's the original, so that when they are captured, he can be pressured into giving it to the villain without any guile.

** In the comic, the Marquis gets Croup and Vandemar to give him an hour's MercyLead - except they only promise not to ''touch'' him for an hour. This doesn't mean they can't follow him, or tear a ladder off a wall while he's climbing it.

%%* AccidentalTruth

%%* HomeSweetHome

%%* KingOfTheHomeless

Lancaster University Theatre Group recently performed the first stage adaptation, adapted for stage by Peter Slaney.

* OhCrap: The first indication we get that [[spoiler: freeing Islington is not a good idea. After the trio leave the Black Friars upon winning the ordeal and the MacGuffin: 'We have lost the key. God help us, we have lost the key.']]

* WhamLine: The Abbot saying "We have lost the key. God help us, we have lost the key." is the first indication that [[spoiler: Islington isn't as great as he seems. In fact, the next chapter shows that he's the one who hired Croup and Vandemar]].

* RedPillBluePill: Richard spends most of the story striving to find the way to get back to his old life. [[spoiler:When he does, he regrets it.]]

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: They're called Velvets, they dress like elegant Gothic aristocrats, are apparently all women, and suck the heat out of the body of whoever's dumb enough to kiss them. The Velvets actually have a good bit in common with the Japanese folk monster yuki-onna (snow woman), down to the freezing kiss.

* LivingLegend: Hunter has hunted and will hunt anything.

* CoolGate: The door that the key opens. And the Angelus.

* BodyguardBetrayal: Croup and Vandemar approach Varney and order him to become Door's bodyguard for this express purpose. Fortunately for Door, he loses the spot to Hunter. [[spoiler: Who it turns out does the same anyway, as she was also in their employ]].

%%* AboveGoodAndEvil

* AfterlifeExpress: An [[{{Squick}} especially gruesome]] variant in the form of a subway car filled with the rotting corpses of suicides.

** And Hunter. [[CaptainObvious Guess what she does for a living.]]

* TerrifyingPetStoreRat: Gaiman wanted The Beast Of London to be a wild boar but the people who were sent to to the boar farms said they were too friendly and they ended up using a Highland cow.

* TerrifyingPetStoreRat: Gaiman wanted The Beast Of London to be a wild boar but the people who were sent to to the boar farms said they were too friendly and they ended up using

A movie version has been in development hell for a while now.

* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: For no real reason, the comics show Anaesthesia (an otherwise normal human, mind you) as being ''blue''. An otherwise normal human ''who was born in London Above''. In that same comic, the Marquis, described as having very dark skin, has solid, pitch black skin. Like [[TheLeagueOfGentlemen Papa Lazarou]].

* FridgeLogic: In-universe - Door wonders, in a dream, ''who'' put away her father's journal after he was killed, but forgets this by the time she wakes. The answer turns out to be significant.

* FantasyKeepsake: Used twice in different ways: during the Trial, Richard is able to rebuff the illusion that he's mad and homeless by finding a quartz bead from Anesthesia's necklace. Later, Richard keeps the knife given to him by Hunter after returning to London Above, although since it's just a knife, it doesn't entirely reassure him as to its reality.

* CoolKey: The key kept by the Black Friars is a subversion: as the "key to all reality", in the hands of an Opener it can make them an outright RealityWarper. Yet it looks so mundane that [[spoiler: Croup and Vandemar mistake it for an ordinary house key when Richard offers it to them, and assume he's bluffing]].