History Literature / TheAmyVirus

* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: Cyan finally gets to meet the real Amy Zander at the Portland drum store she now owns. She turns out to be just as friendly as Cyan imagined she was, and they do a drum duet together. This causes Spectral Amy to disappear because Cyan doesn’t need her anymore. Cyan’s mother has a HeelRealization and finally stands up to her controlling husband, which culminates in them divorcing. Belinda promises that she’ll clear the charges against Mr. Shusburg to the best of her ability. Belinda, Cyan, and Eroica decide to work together to write a statement outing the Good Brain Diet as a scam, expose Daniel’s abuse (which would guarantee him losing full custody of Cyan and her sisters in the upcoming court case) and end the “autism remission” claims. This would shut down the industry for good. Furthermore, Cyan is allowed to legally change her name, pursue her drumming interests, and can finally get an autism diagnosis and an IEP, which would help her improve her grades and stay focused. The best part is, the whole family can now eat anything they want, so Cyan decides to learn how to cook to make it up to her mom and sisters for running away]].

* Website/TheOtherWiki: Cyan obsessively checks Amy Zander's Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} page, which keeps being deleted for lack of notoriety. She also fantasizes about her own Wikipedia page if she makes it big as a musician.

* Wiki/TheOtherWiki: Cyan obsessively checks Amy Zander's Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} page, which keeps being deleted for lack of notoriety. She also fantasizes about her own Wikipedia page if she makes it big as a musician.

* NiceHat: Eroica wears a purple crochet cat-ear hat all the time.

* RealityEnsues:
** What starts the plot is when Cyan learns from Dr. Ngo, a college-trained school psychologist, that autism is a developmental disorder, so even though you can learn the social and communication skills to get through life, you can’t be “cured” of it. [[spoiler: Cyan’s parents even know that the Good Brain Diet is a fraud]].
** When Cyan starts rebelling against her parents by eating stuff that banned by the Good Brain Diet, it's noted that since she has eaten not-normal food since she was four years old, her body isn't used to the regular food she's eating, so she has to make sure she doesn't eat too much "banned" food or else she'll throw up.
** [[spoiler: Even though Belinda has a HeelRealization at the end and reconciles with Cyan, she acknowledges that she still will face legal trouble and possible lawsuits as she still helped her now ex-husband scam people out of their money]].
* TheRunaway: [[spoiler: After Cyan's parents threaten to institutionalize her to cover up the fact that she's still autistic, Cyan runs away early the next morning, convinced that if her parents are willing to go that far, they'd be willing to kill her if they thought it could bring them more money. When Tam and post-HeelRealization Belinda find her, Cyan outright states that she was given no choice but to run]].
* SatiatingSandwich: [[spoiler: The first meal Cyan has after she runs away is a Subway sandwich with pretty much everything on it]].

* [[ScrewedByTheNetwork Screwed By The Label]]: In-universe example. For Amy's second album in 1971, the label forced her to record a song she hated. When she couldn't get it right, the label dropped her and got another girl to record it.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: [[spoiler: After Cyan runs away, Renate and Eroica go after her because they think she's making a terrible mistake. Once they learn that her parents threatened to institutionalize her, they immediately decide to ''help'' Cyan run away so her parents can no longer hurt her, even when they know they'll get punished by their own parents for it]].

* SnakeOilSalesman: Cyan's parents, Dr. Nansi, and the others who promote the Good Brain Diet to "cure" autism are all this, [[spoiler: and Cyan's parents' case, they know that it's a fraud]]. [[spoiler: At the end, Cyan, [[TheAtoner her mother]], and Eroica are planning to write a final blog post exposing the truth about the diet in order to shut down the scam]].

* SupremeChef: [[spoiler: After Cyan and Belinda reconcile, Cyan promises to learn how to cook so everybody can start eating normal meals again]].

* TeacherStudentRomance: [[spoiler: Cyan's father]] falsely accuses [[spoiler: Mr. Shunsberg]] of this [[spoiler: in order for the school to back off on getting Cyan the help that she needed]]. [[spoiler: Cyan and Belinda plan to reveal the truth at the end]].

* AnAesop: Ann comes to learn a lot throughout the novel, mainly relating to her poor treatment by her parents.

** Cyan's parents are the emotionally and financially abusive type. [[spoiler: Cyan's mother eventually has a HeelRealization and becomes TheAtoner, while Cyan's father just gets worse. This culminates in them divorcing and Belinda taking full custody of Cyan so Daniel can't hurt her anymore]].

* AuthorAvatar: The author, Andee Joyce, is autistic musician/songwriter like Cyan is, and according to the "About the Author" page, she began to discover her musical identity around the time she was embracing her autistic identity, just like Diane does in the story.

** When Cyan's parents are talking about the Ashland Shakespeare Festival, they note that ''Theatre/{{Lysistrata}}'', one of the plays that's being performed during the event, is about the women going on strike against their husbands. [[spoiler: The day the play is performed, Cyan runs away to escape her parents' abuse. This incident is what prompts Belinda [[HeelRealization to finally stand up to Daniel]], which culminates in their divorce and Belinda kicking Daniel out of both her and Cyan's life]].

* TheStoolPigeon: Cyan's father encourages Tam to spy and snitch on Cyan. [[SubvertedTrope It doesn't work]] because Tam treats Cyan with much more respect than either of their parents do, and because by that point in the story, Tam isn't on good terms with her parents, either.

** What starts the plot is when Cyan learns from Dr. Ngo, a college-trained school psychologist, is that autism is a developmental disorder, so even though you can learn the social and communication skills to get through life, you can’t be “cured” of it. [[spoiler: Cyan’s parents even know that the Good Brain Diet is a fraud]].

* Wiki/TheOtherWiki: Cyan obsessively checks Amy Zander's Wikipedia page, which keeps being deleted for lack of notoriety. She also fantasizes about her own Wikipedia page if she makes it big as a musician.

** At first, Cyan's father seems like he genuinely believes that the Good Brain Diet is helping Cyan. He even points out that autistic people are less likely to be hired for jobs. However, as the story goes on, especially after [[spoiler: it's revealed that Cyan's parents know that the Good Brain Diet is a total scam]], it becomes clear that Cyan's father doesn't want Cyan officially diagnosed with autism because he wants complete control of Cyan's life.
--> '''Cyan's father:''' This is our income stream. It’s all we have. If we lose this, we lose everything. We become homeless. All of us. There are no jobs here. There’s fierce competition for even retail jobs in every city in the state. They’re not going to hire us.\\

** Another example is how Cyan's father insists that his daughters become doctors because he believes it's the only guaranteed way to make a living in the 2010s economy because of other jobs are being shipped overseas and/or being lost to younger competitors. While those are genuine concerns, the fact that Cyan's father [[spoiler: actually lost his IT job because he screwed up some code and [[NeverMyFault tried to blame someone else for his mistake]]]] and won't consider that there are other ways to make a decent living [[note]]for example, Tam wants to go to Rhode Island School of Design to study Industrial Design, a major that helps those who achieve it find good high-paying jobs[[/note]] demonstrates that forcing his daughters to become doctors is just another way he enforces his control over his family. This point is also well demonstrated by the fact that he insists they attend Caltech (his Alma Mater) for their undergrad despite there being other good colleges that can help one get into medical school and the fact there's no guarantee they can get into such a prestigious college even with having a relative of theirs attend in the past.

* CareerEndingInjury: [[spoiler: Amy reveals that this is one of the reasons why she left the music industry; she developed severe asthma, and because [[SmokingIsCool everyone smoked in the 1906s]] [[DeliberateValuesDissonance and doing it inside public places was considered acceptable]], it became difficult for Amy to perform publicly]].

* {{Poermanteau}}: Cyan's first name when she decides to [[MeaningfulRename rename herself]] comes from the combination of the first two letters of her original first and middle name ('''Cy'''nthia + '''An'''ne).

* TheAtoner: [[spoiler: At the end, Cyan's mother becomes this, admitting that her husband scared her into promoting the sham diet and financially/emotionally abusing Cyan, and that she's never been brave enough to stand up to him until after Cyan ran away. Afterwards, she decides to divorce him and take full custody of their daughter so he can never hurt her again. Then after finding Cyan in Portland and reconciling with her, she promises to expose the Good Brain Diet as the quack that it is, end the "autism remission" claims, and clear Mr. Shunsberg's name to the best of her ability]].

** At first, Cyan's father seems like he genuinely believes that the Good Brain Diet is helping Cyan. He even points out that autistic people are less likely to be hired for jobs. However, as the story goes on, especially after [[spoiler: it's revealed that Cyan's parents know that the Good Brain Diet is a total quack]], it becomes clear that Cyan's father doesn't want Cyan officially diagnosed with autism because he wants complete control of Cyan's life.

* StarvingArtist: The reason why Cyan's father discourages her drumming and songwriting hobbies, and doesn't want Tam to go to RISD for college, is because he believes that being a doctor is the only way to make a living in the current 2010s US economy. However, this belief also demonstrates one of the ways Daniel [[ControlFreak enforces his control over his family]]. Not only is he insistent that they attend Caltech, his Alma Mater, despite being other good colleges out there, he goes so far as to confiscate any of Cyan's music and instruments to keep her from practicing her hobby. Also, in Tam's case, she's planning on averting this by majoring in Industrial Design at RISD, which would help her find a very good career off her drawings.

* TeacherStudentRomance: [[spoiler:Cyan's father]] falsely accuses [[spoiler:Mr. Shunsberg]] of this [[spoiler: in order for the school to back off on getting Cyan the help that she needed]]. [[spoiler: Cyan and Belinda plan to reveal the truth at the end]].

* OffscreenKarma: [[spoiler: Belinda, Cyan, and Eroica decided to expose the truth about the Good Brain Diet at the end of the story as well as Daniel's abuse to Cyan. This will permanently discredit Daniel, Dr. Nansi, and everybody else involved with the scam, and they would be charged with fraud and faced with several lawsuits. Belinda even acknowledges that she will also have to face legal proceedings because she still helped with the fraud. However, since the story ends after Belinda and Cyan reconcile, we don't see this happen]].

** At first, Cyan's father seems like he genuinely believes that the Good Brain Diet is helping Cyan. He even points out that autistic people are less like likely to be hired for jobs. However, as the story goes on, especially after [[spoiler: it's revealed that Cyan's parents know that the Good Brain Diet is a total quack]], it becomes clear that Cyan's father doesn't want Cyan officially diagnosed with autism because he wants complete control of Cyan's life.

* AuthorAvatar: The author, Andee Joyce, is autistic musician/songwriter like Cyan is, and according the "About the Author" page, she began to discover her musical identity around the time she was embracing her autistic identity.

* CareerEndingInjury: [[spoiler: Amy reveals that this is another reason why she left the music industry; she developed severe asthma, and because [[SmokingIsCool everyone smoked back then]] [[DeliberateValuesDissonance and doing it inside public places was considered acceptable]], it became difficult for Amy to perform publicly]].

** While still emotionally abusive, Belinda is shown to be much less strict with Cyan. For example, she gave Cyan her music-writing notebook back after Cyan's father confiscated it, and when she found out Cyan and Renate were writing letters to each other, Belinda makes sure Daniel doesn't find out about it and never read the letters herself. She also allowed Cyan to go to Renate's New Year Eve party unsupervised and she took Cyan out on a Girl’s Day Out during Christmas Break. She is also shocked at some of the harsher things Daniel does, such as telling Mr. Shusberg "[[PrecisionFStrike Fuck you]]" when he thinks they should get an IEP for Cyan, and [[spoiler: she calls out Daniel for considering buying test papers and homework to keep the remission charade up. During the overheard conversation, she also states that she never should have let Daniel talk her into scamming people with the diet]]. [[spoiler: Cyan running away is what finally kickstarted Belinda's HeelRealization and stand up to Cyan's father, and she becomes the parent who admits that her actions were wrong and put forth the effort to reconcile with Cyan and the other people she has hurt]].

** As Cyan starts losing focus in school and her grades start to slip, she decides to go the school therapist, Dr. Ngo, during his office hours to figure out what's going on. He's the one who helps her realize that there is no such thing as autism remission, and he becomes a major confidant of hers from then on.

''The Amy Virus'' is a novel by Andee Joyce. Fifteen-year-old Cynthia Ann Butt was diagnosed with autism as a young child, but she is now "in remission" thanks to the Good Brain Diet, a quack diet her parents make money promoting. But when she develops an obsession with the obscure 1960s bossa nova singer Amy Zander, she begins to realize she might still be autistic. Over time, she transforms herself into the singer, songwriter, and percussionist Cyan Beaut, but her parents (especially her ControlFreak father) are not happy with her transformation and go to increasingly desperate lengths to hide the truth about her autism.

** When Cyan tells Renate about the Good Brain Diet, the latter notes that the diet's requirements can cause serious malnutrition, which Cyan says that she takes vitamins to counter those deficiencies. Later on, Mr. Shusburg also questions the lack of nutrition in the Good Brain Diet. [[spoiler: Having to take excess vitamins to fulfill nutritional and mineral requirements is a major warning sign of a diet being a scam]].
** When Cyan's parents decide to take her to the Ashland Shakespeare Festival, they note that ''Theatre/{{Lysistrata}}'' is about the women going on strike against their husbands. [[spoiler: The day the play is performed, Cyan runs away, prompting Belinda [[HeelRealization to finally stand up to Daniel]], which culminates in their divorce and Belinda kicking Daniel out of both her and Cyan's life]].

** When Cyan learns from Tam that [[spoiler: her parents know that the Good Brain Diet is a fraud, she also learns that her father is the one who mostly runs the blog because her mom started to get uncomfortable with it. Sure enough, it turns out Belinda never was comfortable with scamming people and went along with the FinancialAbuse on Cyan because she was never brave enough to stand up to her husband. Cyan running away is what finally made her GrewASpine]].

** When Cyan tells Renate about the Good Brain Diet, the latter notes that the diet's requirements can cause serious malnutrition, which Cyan says that she takes vitamins to counter those deficiencies. [[spoiler: Having to take excess vitamins to fulfill nutritional and mineral requirements is a major warning sign of a diet being a scam]].

* ToxicFriendInfluence: Cyan's father believes Renate is this because Renate is encouraging Cyan to stand up to him. In reality, he's the one who's being a toxic influence on his family, [[spoiler: and they become better when Belinda divorces him and kicks him out of their life]].

''The Amy Virus'' is a novel by Andee Joyce. Fifteen-year-old Cynthia Ann Butt was diagnosed with autism as a young child, but she is now "in remission" thanks to the Good Brain Diet, a quack diet her parents make money promoting. But when she develops an obsession with the obscure 1960s bossa nova singer Amy Zander, she begins to realize she might still be autistic. Over time, she transforms herself into the singer, songwriter, and percussionist Cyan Beaut, but her parents are not happy with her transformation and go to increasingly desperate lengths to hide the truth about her autism.

* EmbarrassingLastName: Cynthia Butt, of course which is one of the reasons why she wants to change it to Cyan Beaut. and her friend Renate Silverdick.

** When Cyan learns from Tam that [[spoiler: her parents know that the Good Brain Diet is a fraud, she also learns that her father is the one who mostly runs the blog because her mom started to get uncomfortable with it. Sure enough, it turns out Belinda never was comfortable with scamming people and went along with the FinancialAbuse on Cyan because she was never brave enough to stand up to her husband]].

** When Cyan introduces Renate to the Good Brain Diet, the latter notes that the diet's requirements can cause serious malnutrition, which Cyan says that she takes vitamins to counter those deficiencies. [[spoiler: Having to take excess vitamins to fulfill nutritional and mineral requirements is a warning sign of a diet being a scam]].

** When Cyan learns from Tam that [[spoiler: her parents know that the Good Brain Diet is a fraud, she also learns that her father is the one who mostly runs the blog because her mom started to get uncomfortable with it. Sure enough, Belinda never was comfortable with scamming people with the Good Brain Diet and went along with the FinancialAbuse on Cyan because she was never brave enough to stand up to her husband]].

** Also, Eroica Witt, formerly known as Erica. She added the "O" to her name because she's a fan of classical music.

** Another example is how Cyan's father insists that his daughters become doctors because he believes it's the only guaranteed way to make a living in the 2010s economy because of other jobs are being shipped overseas and/or being lost to younger competitors. While those are genuine concerns, the fact that Cyan's father [[spoiler: actually lost his IT job because he screwed up some code and [[NeverMyFault tried to blame someone else for his mistake]]]] and won't consider that there are other ways to make a decent living [[note]]for example, Tam wants to go to Rhode Island School of Design to study Industrial Design, a major that helps those who achieve it find good high-paying jobs[[/note]] demonstrates that forcing his daughters to become doctors is just another way he enforces his control over his family. This point is also well demonstrated by the fact that he insists they attend Caltech for their undergrad despite there being other good colleges that can help one get into medical school and the fact there's no guarantee they can get into a high-level college like that.

--> '''Renate:''' [[spoiler: We're supposed to be back in Ashland by noon, and it's almost eleven-thirty now. We're doing some backstage tour meet and greet thingie-whatsis. [The Chaperones] are going to freak if we're gone for the entire day and then miss ''Lysistrata'' on top of it. And my parents will ground the crap out of me. And [Portland]'s what, a four and a half hour drive from here, if we don't hit major traffic?]]\\

'''Eroica:''' [[spoiler: For smuggling you into Portland? Oh, I'll totally get grounded for that. Probably won't see my car keys for a month, at least. My dad's not ''that'' lienent. But it's still nothing compared to what your parents plan to do to you.]]

** As Cyan starts losing focus in school and her grades start to slip, she decides to go the school therapist, Dr. Ngo, during his office hours to figure out what's going on. He's the one who helps her realize that there is no such thing as autism remission, and he beomes a major confidant of hers from then on.
** Renate is a former bulimic, so she sees an Eating Disorder therapist once a month to prevent relaspe.

** Also, Eroica Witt, formerly known as Erica.