History Literature / TheManyHalfLivedLivesOfSamSylvester

* TimeCapsule: Sam's dad finds a capsule in the backyard that was buried in 1987 by Billy and his girlfriend Margarie Frankel, who is now the principal. It contains two cassette tapes, ''Hot Space'' and ''Fame and Fashion'', as well as a letter written by both of them talking about their love of Music/{{Queen|Band}} and Music/DavidBowie.

* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: [[spoiler:Carl murdered Billy by putting peanut oil on his popcorn ball. He later puts Sam's dad in the hospital by secretly adding walnut extract to the nut-free coffee cake Esme was baking for him.]]

* TimeCapsule: Sam's dad finds a capsule in the backyard that was buried in 1987 by Billy and his girlfriend Margarie Frankel, who is now the principal. It contains two cassette tapes, ''Hot Space'' and ''Fame and Fashion'', as well as a letter written by both of them talking about their love of Music/{{Queen}} and Music/DavidBowie.

* DramaticDrop: Shep's mom Esme drops her water glass, shattering it, when Sam [[spoiler:tells her that he knows she saw Billy die]].

* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: [[spoiler:Carl Wayne murdered Billy by putting peanut oil on his popcorn ball. He later puts Sam's dad in the hospital by secretly adding walnut extract to the nut-free coffee cake Esme was baking for him.]]

* HomophobicHateCrime: Sam and their dad left their old home in Montana after Sam was attacked by transphobic classmates who almost strangled them to death with a zip tie [[ABirthdayNotABreak on their eighteenthbirthday]]. Both the teachers and the police dismissed it as a prank, and the attackers suffered no consequences.

Sam is a nonbinary autistic teen fascinated by stories of half-lived lives - kids who died before the age of nineteen. When they and their dad move to a new home in Astoria, Oregon, Sam learns that the house hasn't been inhabited since TheEighties, when a sixteen-year-old named Billy Clement died of anaphylaxis from a peanut allergy in his bedroom. Sam thinks Billy was murdered, as does their new neighbor, a girl named Shep. Sam investigates, and becomes increasingly convinced that Billy's ghost still haunts the house.

* HomophobicHateCrime: Sam and their dad left their old home in Montana after Sam was attacked by transphobic classmates who almost strangled them to death with a zip tie [[ABirthdayNotABreak on their birthday]]. Both the teachers and the police dismissed it as a prank, and the attackers suffered no consequences.

* HomophobicHateCrime: Sam and their dad left their old home in Missoula, Montana after Sam was attacked by transphobic classmates who almost strangled them to death. Neither the teachers nor the police took it seriously, and the attackers suffered no consequences.

Sam is a nonbinary autistic teen fascinated by stories of half-lived lives - kids who died before the age of nineteen. When they and their dad move to a new home in Astoria, Oregon, Sam learns that the house hasn't been inhabited since TheEighties, when a teenager named Billy Clement died of anaphylaxis from a peanut allergy in his bedroom. Sam thinks Billy was murdered, as does their new neighbor, a girl named Shep. Sam investigates, and becomes increasingly convinced that Billy's ghost still haunts the house.

* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: Billy died early in 1989, which means that the story is set in late 2018 and early 2019.

* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: Billy died thirty years ago, which means that the present day is sometime in TheNewTens.