History Literature / SkippyDies

* OverprotectiveDad: Lori's father, Gavin, shows signs of this. He is very suspicious of any and all boys she interacts with, and grounds her after she skips out after the Hop. Though considering his daughter and her taste in men, it's probably justified.

* BoardingSchoolofHorrors: Seabrook College, a boarding school, is a {{downplayed}} example compared to classic Victorian cases (the narration notes that corporal punishment is no longer allowed). Still, students regularly beat and harass each other, most of the teachers are completely ineffective [[spoiler: if not sexually abusing the students themselves]] and those in power prefer to cover things up rather than help any of the students.

* PoisonousFriend: Janine is one to both Carl and Lori, exploiting both of them in order to get what she wants.

* CoolKidAndLoserFriendship: Hinted at at the very end. [[spoiler: After Lori, formerly the AlphaBitch and most popular girl in school, talks Ruprecht, who is a frequently-bullied HollywoodNerd and her former hated enemy, out of suicide]], the two of them make plans to join forces and work together, suggesting the beginning of an OddFriendship. Though at this point their lives have been so thoroughly shattered it's unclear if either is a cool kid or loser anymore.

* AdultFear: Skippy is just fourteen years old, and [[spoiler: he killed himself because he had a lot of problems he was afraid to talk to his father about, since he didn't want to do anything else to upset him when he was already dealing with his wife's cancer. After his death, his father realizes this and laments that he made his son unable to get help from him.]]

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Farley tells a long joke about a wish-granting mermaid that has this as the aesop, but it's a metaphor for the Howard and Skippy's relationships with women. Howard desperately wishes for Aurelie to sleep with him, but once she does it makes him miserable and destroys his existing life. Skippy desperately wishes for Lori (who's often compared to a mermaid), but when he gets her, it makes his life better but also brings him more heartache.
* BlandNameProduct: Skippy is obsessed with a fictional video game called ''Hopeland'', which is suspiciously similar to ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda''.

On one seemingly normal night, fourteen-year-old Daniel “Skippy” Juster suddenly drops dead in the middle of a donut-eating contest with his best friend. The novel opens with this scene, and then rewinds to a few months before to explore the circumstances leading up to it. Who was Skippy? What was his life like? How did he die, and just who was responsible? As the story of Skippy’s final days are told, we see how his life was intertwined with the lives of his friends, teachers, and many others in his community; and the impact his mysterious death has on them in its aftermath.

* AbusiveParents: Jeekers’ parents are implied to be emotionally abusive, as they put enormous pressure on him to succeed and berate him harshly if he fails.
* AdultFear: Skippy is just fourteen years old, and [[spoiler: he killed himself because he had a lot of problems he was afraid to talk to his father about, since he didn’t want to do anything else to upset him when he was already dealing with his wife’s cancer. After his death, his father realizes this and laments that he made his son unable to get help from him.]]

* AmbiguousSituation: Some characters’ points of view (namely Carl’s and Skippy’s) are written so surreally that you can’t figure out what’s happening completely until it’s stated more clearly later.
* AntagonistInMourning: [[spoiler: Carl]], of all people, has a VillainousBSOD after Skippy’s death.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: “You asshole, what is it you even want to say to Skippy? What do you have to say that you couldn’t have said before, if you hadn’t been too busy trying to prove what a great scientist you were?”

* BittersweetEnding:[[spoiler: Tom gets away with what he did to Skippy scot-free, and Costigan takes over the school. But Howard, Ruprect, and Lori all find newfound purpose in their lives, and Lori doesn't kill herself.]]

* ComfortFood: Ruprecht loves donuts and eats more donuts than ever after Skippy’s death to console himself.

* CrazyJealousGuy: When Carl finds out about Lori seeing Skippy and not him, he doesn’t take it well and starts threatening Skippy.

** Carl goes to the Hop specifically to drug Lori’s drink and have sex with her. Thankfully, she’s already snuck out with Skippy.

* DatingWhatDaddyHates: It’s implied that this is a big part of why Lori goes out with Carl.

* DefeatingTheUndefeatable: Skippy challenges Carl to a one-on-one fight and wins by [[spoiler: getting a lucky hit right to Carl’s glass jaw.]] Nobody believed he could do it-- all of Skippy's friends were convinced Carl would kill him.

* {{Doorstopper}}: It’s 661 pages long.
* DownerBeginning: The first chapter describes Skippy’s sudden death and his best friend Ruprecht’s reaction in detail.

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Skippy takes a whole bottle of pills after a very rough day. Carl was later driven to this after his hallucinations and HeelRealization makes him think he has to die to prove his love to Lori, but is saved from the fire by Howard. Towards the end of the book, Lori (and perhaps Ruprecht as well) contemplates suicide as well to escape what her life’s become, but decides that she will live to see the good in the world.]]

* FiveStagesOfGrief: Mentioned by Father Foley to Ruprecht’s parents.

** Carl’s father cheats on his wife with several younger women and then violently denies it every time she tries to call him out on it. This gives the impression both in and out of universe that he's a creepy jerk -- perhaps this is where Carl's personality comes from.

* GriefSong: “I wish you were beside me, just so I could let you know...I wish you were beside me, I would never let you go...”
* HappyFlashback: Skippy has a brief one to when he was younger and [[spoiler: his mother wasn’t sick yet.]]

** Not that this was lighthearted to begin with, but at Skippy’s funeral, among other insults, a drunken Farley says all Tom Roche can think about is “boys in their pretty little swimming togs,” which makes Tom lose it and attack him. [[spoiler: Once it’s revealed that Roche molested Skippy, which was a part of why he committed suicide, that becomes a lot worse.]]

* HeroicBSOD: Ruprecht flips out after Skippy’s death. He stops answering in class and does nothing but eat doughnuts.

* IllKillYou: A scary one from Carl to Skippy after the latter challenges him to a fight. He leans in close and whispers softly in Skippy’s ear, “You faggot, I am going to kill you.”
* IMissMom: Most of [[spoiler: Skippy’s]] thoughts about [[spoiler: his cancer-afflicted mother]], who he never gets to speak to or interact with anymore, are along these lines.

* LastRequest: “Tell Lori he loves her! Oh my god!” on Skippy's deathbed in the doughnut shop.
* LiarRevealed: [[spoiler: Ruprecht claims that he transferred to Seabrook from a prestigious private school after the deaths of his parents, a wealthy baron and his wife. He is revealed to have made up the whole thing when his parents - who are really plumbers - are called to the school to discuss Ruprecht’s behavior after Skippy’s death.]]

* LoveMakesYouCrazy: In Carl’s case, love makes you crazier than usual.

** Justified as she’s a teenage girl, even if she got a good sex ed class (which is unlikely) she’s not going know everything involving sex or sexual acts.
* MissingMom: Technically, [[spoiler: Skippy’s]] mother isn’t dead or gone, but her [[spoiler: suffering from severe cancer and never being well enough to even speak to him anymore]] creates the same effect.

* MyGreatestFailure: Howard regards [[spoiler: letting Tom take the bungee jump in his place, which ended up causing Tom’s life-ruining injuries,]] as this. It still haunts him years afterward.

* TheNeedsOfTheMany: Costigan justifies keeping [[spoiler: Roche’s molesting Skippy, which was part of what drove him to suicide,]] covered up to maintain Seabrook’s good reputation this way. It’s heavily implied that the school covers up anything like this that happens as much as they can, and justifies it with this trope.

** Lori has this reaction just before [[spoiler: going rightfully berserk on Carl when she realizes he is filming her giving him a blowjob and is sending out the video. She also has this reaction when she mistakenly believes she’s gotten pregnant because of it.]]

* OneGenderSchool: Seabrook is an all-boys school, and St. Brigid’s is its female sister school next door.

* OverprotectiveDad: Lori’s father, Gavin, shows signs of this. He is very suspicious of any and all boys she interacts with, and grounds her after she skips out after the Hop. Though considering his daughter and her taste in men, it’s probably justified.

* PushoverParents: Carl’s mother seems to let him do whatever he wants, and his father doesn’t seem to care enough about his son to discipline him.

* StepfordSmiler: After Skippy’s death, [[spoiler: Lori]] becomes a Type A. She acts completely normal on the outside, but inside she's deeply shaken and undergoes a slow mental breakdown over time.

* SuddenPrincipledStand: Howard gives one in the third volume when he’s had enough of Costigan’s immorality and decides to stop being his usual spineless self.

* TearsOfRemorse: [[spoiler: Carl of all people has these when he decides to let himself die in the fire to make up for what he’s done.]]

* TyrantTakesTheHelm: Costigan’s taking over the running of Seabrook is played somewhat like this.

* VillainousBSOD: After Skippy dies, [[spoiler: Carl]] flips out, mirroring Ruprecht’s {{HeroicBSOD}}.
* TheVillainKnowsWhereYouLive: Carl lurks around Lori’s house in several scenes, and is implied to have slashed the tires of Skippy’s bike when Lori invites him over.

* WeUsedToBeFriends: Skippy’s group of friends (Ruprecht, Mario, Dennis, and Geoff) quickly start to become hostile to each other after his death. During a fight between Dennis and Geoff, they are even described as having “the enmity that can only exist between former friends.”

* YouAreNotAlone: Lori and Ruprecht’s conversation at the end of the book has shades of this.

* BandGeek: Seabrook doesn't have a proper band, but the authorities forcefully form a small wind ensemble out of a few boys, all of whom are extremely dorky. It's led by Ruprecht, a TeenGenius with limited social skills whose french horn hobby is listed as one of his many geeky traits. Rounding out the quartet is Jeekers, Ruprecht's academic rival and a conscientiously rule-abiding dweeb, Geoff, a RPG-obsessed CloudCuckoolander, and Dennis, who is incredibly embarrassed to be in the group as he views being in a wind quartet the least cool thing he could do.

* FamousLastWords: The last words Skippy says before he dies are, [[spoiler: “Well, maybe it’s my lucky day.” This is after he’s already overdosed on pills and has less than a half hour to live.]]

** Justified as she’s a teenage girl and even if she got took a good sex ed class (which is unlikely) she’s not going know everything involving sex or sexual acts.

** Justified as she’s a teenage girl and even with a good a good sex ed class (which she likely didn’t get) she’s not going know everything involving sex or sexual acts.

* MissConception: After [[spoiler: Lori]] is forced to swallow after giving [[spoiler: Carl]] a blowjob, she thinks she might be pregnant despite this being impossible and freaks out.

* GiveGeeksAChance: Skippy, who loves video games and science more than anything, falls in love with the incredibly beautiful and popular Lori, who actually ends up somewhat reciprocating. [[RealityEnsues It doesn't work out well for them though.]]

* BlandNameProduct: Skippy is obsessed with a fictional video game called ''Hopeland'', which is suspiciously similar to ''Franchise/LegendOfZelda''.

* FictionalVideoGame: ''Hopeland'', the RPG that Skippy is obsessed with finishing, which has some similarities to ''Franchise/LegendOfZelda''. Skippy's struggles to finish the game by [[SaveThePrincess Saving The Princess]] and defeating the three demons parallel his personal struggles to get with Lori and defeat his three personal demons (Carl, [[spoiler: his swim coach who raped him]], and his sick mother).

* GoOutWithASmile: Skippy dies smiling.

* GeekPhysiques: Ruprecht, the string-theory obsessed TeenGenius, is very fat and is constantly eating. His best friend Skippy, a studious and quiet nerd who love video games as well as science, is slight and skinny.

* TheGhost: Skippy's mom, who is mentioned and described by other characters but doesn't get any dialog.

* EmbarrassingNickname: The Seabrook students give insulting nicknames to most of their teachers. Notable ones include Howard the Coward for Howard and Pere Vert for French teacher Father Green. Dennis also frequently calls Ruprecht "Van Blowjob" and variations.