History Literature / ResidentEvil

* AdaptationalHeroism: Annette Birkin is portrayed as a caring and good mother despite being her MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate status. She genuinely believes her daughter is safe during the events of the Racoon City outbreak and is horrified to discover she's not.

* AlternateUniverse: What WordOfGod says the books are now.

* AbortedArc: The books were quite popular in America and to a lesser extent Japan but were stopped after ''[=RE0=]'' was adapted. Notably, SD Perry can only speculate for the reasons of this as she would have happily continued them indefinitely.

** Jill Valentine was, of all things, [[MsFanservice getting some nice underwear]] for her evacuation from Racoon City when the place became a miniature zombie apocalypse. The S.T.A.R.S men, notably, had evacuated by this time.

** S.T.A.R.S is no longer Racoon City's version of S.W.A.T but a national organization which exists a bit like the real-life Academy Group as an organization that advises as well as assists local law enforcement with difficult cases. It is also a private organization heavily compromised/paid for by Umbrella and has some similarity to the BSAA.

These books contain the following tropes:

* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Not content with the established game characterizations, Perry opts to provide detail on Irons being a rapist and suggest Nicholi and Wesker are to make them truly vile.

* AscendedExtra: Rebecca Chambers went from being a minor character in ''Resident Evil'' to the star of her own book as well as a major supporting protagonist. This, of course, mirrors her role in the actual games until her PutOnABus status.

** Alex and Alexia Ashford are the villains of ''Code: Veronica''

** Racoon City is a small Midwestern town of about 10,000 people as opposed to the miniature Metropolis it became in the games with over 100,000 people. [[{{Understatement}} Only]] about 7,500 people died in the disaster with it being destroyed primarily by an out-of-control fire. Unlike in the canon setting, Umbrella was also able to cover the cause of the disaster up and blame the S.T.A.R.S. Notably, the fire explanation was the original explanation in canon before it was changed.

** It was H.U.N.K and the Umbrella Security Corps which resulted in the Racoon City outbreak when they destroyed many samples of the T-Virus while slaughtering their way through William Birkin's lab. This is in contrast to the poor disposal conditions of the facility as in canon.

* EpicFail: Jay Reston unleashes all of the Planet's B.O.Ws onto Claire Redfield, Leon Kennedy, Rebecca Chambers, and an original character up to their level. He also tries to use a U.S.S. team against them. None of these work because even one of them have dealt with this sort of thing ''en masse'' before, let alone as a group. [[spoiler: It ends with them releasing a T-virus/Tyrant based on a T-Rex that destroys the Planet and kills Reston.]]

* IdiotPlot: An in-universe one as Annette Birkin and William Birkin planned to give the G-virus to ''The Umbrella Corporation'' in exchange for a seat on the board. Instead, the Umbrella Corporation sent the U.S.S. to take the virus by force and ended up destroying Racoon City. This is in contrast to canon where Birkin intended to sell the G-virus to another organization. May also qualify as PoorCommunicationKills.
* IHaveYourWife: Wesker gleefully taunts Barry Burton about this fact in order to control him during the events of the first game/novel. [[spoiler: It's also a lie. Becomes a case of WhatAnIdiot since he admits he fact it's a lie in front of Barry at the end.]]

** Claire and Leon have their only hook-up in in this series as the two become extremely close following the events of Racoon City's destruction. This relationship causes {{Angst}} as Claire likes both Steve and Leon likes Ada.

* TokenGoodTeammate: Carlos Oliveira is completely unaware the U.S.S is a bunch of raving psychopaths.

* IdiotPlot: An in-universe one as Annette Birkin and William Birkin planned to give the G-virus to ''The Umbrella Corporation'' in exchange for a seat on the board. Instead, the Umbrella Corporation sent the U.S.S. to take the virus by force and ended up destroying Racoon City. This is in contrast to canon where Birkin intended to sell the G-virus to another organization. May also qualify as CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot and PoorCommunicationKills.

* CanonDiscontinuity: The books were considered canon for a long time but have since been dubbed this as the contradictions between them and the setting's developing in-universe backstory have piled up.

* AbortedArc: The books were quite popular in America and to a lesser extent Japan but were stopped after ''Code: Veronica'' was adapted. Notably, SD Perry can only speculate for the reasons of this as she would have happily continued them indefinitely.

* EpicFail: Jay Reston unleashes all of the Planet's B.O.Ws onto Claire Redfield, Leon Kennedy, Rebecca Chambers, and an original character up to their level. He also tries to use a U.S.S. team against them. None of these work because even one of them have dealt with this sort of thing ''en masse'' before, let alone as a group. [[spoiler: It ends with them releasing a T-virus/Tyrant based on a "T-Rex" that destroys the Planet and kills Reston.]]

** To a lesser extent with the Umbrella Corporation as the Board of Directors doesn't have any of the SocialDarwinist beliefs they developed in canon. Instead, the Umbrella Corporation really is OnlyInItForTheMoney. It just so happens they really are incredibly bad at keeping a handle on their creations.

* AbortedArc: The books were quite popular in America and Japan to a lesser extent but were stopped after ''Code: Veronica'' was adapted. Notably, SD Perry can only speculate for the reasons of this as she would have happily continued them indefinitely.

** S.T.A.R.S is no longer Racoon City's version of S.W.A.T but a national organization which exists a bit like the real-life Academy group as an organization that advises as well as assists local law enforcement with difficult cases. It is also a private organization heavily compromised/paid for by Umbrella and has some similarity to the BSAA.

* IdiotPlot: An in-universe one as Annette Birkin and William Birkin planned to give the G-virus to ''The Umbrella Corporation'' in exchange for a seat on the board. Instead, the Umbrella Corporation sent the U.S.S. to take the virus by force and ended up destroying Racoon City. This is in contrast to canon where Birkin intended to sell the G-virus to another organization. May also qualify as PoorCommunicationKills and CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot.

** Racoon City is a small Midwestern town of about 10,000 people as opposed to the miniature Metropolis it became in the games with over 100,000 people. [[SarcasmMode Only]] about 7,500 people died in the disaster with it being destroyed primarily by an out-of-control fire. Unlike in the canon setting, Racoon was also able to cover the cause of the disaster up and blame the S.T.A.R.S. Notably, the fire explanation was the original explanation before it was changed.

** Racoon City is a small Midwestern town of about 10,000 people as opposed to the miniature Metropolis it became in the games with over 100,000 people. "Only" about 7,500 people died in the disaster with it being destroyed primarily by an out-of-control fire. Unlike in the canon setting, Racoon was also able to cover the cause of the disaster up and blame the S.T.A.R.S. Notably, the fire explanation was the original explanation before it was changed.

** Jill and Carlos become extremely close during the events of ''VideoGame/Nemesis'' but she has an interest in Chris.

* ''Nemesis'', a novelization of the third installment of the franchise.

* ''City of the Dead'', a novelization of ''VideoGame/Resident Evil 2''.

** Ada Wong was employed by Trent to get the G-Virus in the books adaptation of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil 2'', which while not impossible, is unlikely given we've since discovered she's been working for Wesker as well as Simons during this time period. Also, the fact he's a non-canon character. To a minor extent, Ada also solves a number of puzzles in the adaptation which Claire and Leon did.

* ManipulativeBastard: Umbrella's problems are almost all due to Trent playing puppetmaster behind the scenes. He's basically organizing their fall the same way Wesker did in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil TheUmbrellaChronicles''.