History Literature / TheLikeness

* InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals: Cassie and Lexie.

* InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals: Cassie and "Lexie."

--> ''Frank told me once—and I don’t know whether he’s right or not, and I didn’t tell Sam this either—that all the best undercovers have a dark thread woven into them, somewhere.''

* StarvingStudent: Abby and Lexie, before the Fantastic Five moved in together. Abby frequently points out that were it not for the house, she'd be 'living in a scary bedsit' in Ranelagh. [[spoiler: When the Fantastic Four break up at the novel's end, that's exactly where she ends up.]]
* [[ToKnowHimIMustBecomeHim To Know Her I Must Become Her]]: Technically, it's the premise of the book.

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* [[spoiler:AccidentalMurder]]

* WholePlotReference: The plot contains very direct, and likely intentional, similarities to Donna Tartt's ''Literature/TheSecretHistory.''

* YouSayTomato: Cassie frequently makes notes of the accents of others: her boyfriend Sam has a country accent, being from Galway; her boss Frank has an inner-city Dublin accent; Justin's voice has 'a Belfast tinge;' and Rafe cultivates a 'lazy English sneer.' Lexie's accent is described as 'old fashioned County Dublin,' probably picked up from a television show [[spoiler: given that Lexie was actually Australian.]]

--> 'Lexie was both incapable of thinking about the past,' he said, 'and incapable about thinking more than one step into the future.'

* DrowningMySorrows: Rafe spends the second half of the novel drunk. He's not a very nice drunk.

* AHouseDivided: The Fantastic Four.

* StarvingStudent: Abby and Lexie, before the Fantastic Five moved in together. Abby frequently points out that were it not for the house, she'd be 'living in a scary bedsit' in Ranelagh.
** [[spoiler: When the Fantastic Four break up at the novel's end, Abby ends up in a bedsit in Ranelagh.]]

* BerserkButton: For the Fantastic Four, it's their house: they refuse to speak of Daniel's cousin, who wants to turn it into luxury apartments.
** [[spoiler: This might be because Lexie was going to sell her share of the house to him.]]

* FamilyOfChoice: A very dark and tragic example

* GenkiGirl: Lexie. Cassie guesses that she takes on this identity deliberately to fit in with the others:

* CopBoyfriend: Cassie has one of these. Although Cassie herself is a detective, it's her boyfriend, Sam, who leads the case.

* OldDarkHouse: The house that Cassie moves into, Whitethorn House, is definitely one of these.
* QuirkyHousehold: Cassie points out that the five of them, while not a perfect FiveManBand, are definitely some kind of family, made all the more poignant by the fact that none of the five have real families of their own. Cassie doesn't, either.
** The genius of Lexie, according to Cassie, was that she saw the original four, she understood that they needed a fifth, and turned herself into TheChick to complete their version of the FiveManBand.
--->These five had it all: Daniel the distant but affectionate father, Justin and Abby taking turns to be the protective Mammy and the lofty eldest, Rafe the moody teenage middle kid, and Lexie, the late arrival, the capricious little sister to be alternately spoiled and teased.
** They turn into a DysfunctionalFamily by the novel's end.
** You ''could'' argue that they ''are'' a FiveManBand - Daniel as TheLeader, Lexie as TheChick, Justin as TheSmartGuy and Rafe and Abby sharing both TheLancer and TheBigGuy.

* [[ToKnowHimIMustBecomeHim To Know Her I Must Become Her]]: Technically, it's the premise of the book.

* WorldOfSnark: To a lesser extent, everyone else: Cassie, Cassie-as-Lexie, and Frank. Abby has her snarky moments, too.

* DrowningMySorrows: Rafe spends the second half of the novel drunk. He's not a very nice drunk.

* CopBoyfriend: Cassie has one of these. Although Cassie herself is a detective, it's her boyfriend, Sam, who leads the case.
* BeAsUnhelpfulAsPossible: The Fantastic Four. They're all very polite and pleasant, but they actually don't give anything away, to Frank's ire.
* GoodCopBadCop: Sam and Frank, respectively.
* BerserkButton: For the Fantastic Four, it's their house: they refuse to speak of Daniel's cousin, who wants to turn it into luxury apartments.
** [[spoiler: This might be because Lexie was going to sell her share of the house to him.]]
* MurderIsTheBestSolution: When [[spoiler: Daniel]] aims his gun at Cassie, Cassie shoots back, killing him. Later, Frank says to Cassie that he had chosen "suicide by cop," and that Cassie had no other choice.

* AHouseDivided: The Fantastic Four.

* YouSayTomato: Cassie frequently makes notes of the accents of others: her boyfriend Sam has a country accent, being from Galway; her boss Frank has an inner-city Dublin accent; Justin's voice has 'a Belfast tinge;' and Rafe cultivates a 'lazy English sneer.' Lexie's accent is described as 'old fashioned County Dublin,' probably picked up from a television show [[spoiler: given that Lexie was actually Australian.]]
* XanatosSpeedChess: Daniel, all the way.

** [[spoiler: Lexie plans to keep her baby, but also plans to sell her share of the house to do so - a betrayal so deep and unfathomable that it drives Justin to stab her in his fury and confusion. Keeping the baby may be the right choice for Lexie, but it's an awful choice for her friends.]]

** [[spoiler: Lexie plans to keep her baby, but also plans to sell her share of the house to do so - a betrayal so deep and unfathomable that it drives Justin to stab her in his fury and confusion. Keeping the baby may be the right choie for Lexie, but it's an awful choice for her friends.]]

* XanatosSpeedChess: Daniel, all the way.