History Literature / TheMissingPieceOfCharlieOReilly

* ItsAllMyFault: [[spoiler:Liam, Jonathon, and all the other vanished kids asked Brona to erase their existences to undo something they'd done. Sometimes it's something genuinely horrible, like Jonathan burning his brother while playing with firecrackers. Sometimes it's something trivial, like Liam cheating off Charlie's homework, or something that wasn't actually their fault, like a girl who blames herself for her grandfather's death because she was arguing with him when he had a heart attack.]]

* ManOnFire: When Jonathon was fifteen, he and his younger brother [[spoiler:who turns out to have been Charlie]] were playing with firecrackers when their dad showed up, furious. Jonathon dropped the Roman candle he was holding, which went off, turning his brother into a fireball. His dad tackled his brother and rolled with him to put out the flames while Jonathon ran to call 911. In the burn unit, they had to keep him unconscious for over a week because of the pain. [[spoiler:The night before Charlie was supposed to come home from the hospital, Jonathan lay in bed begging for a way to undo the accident. Brona granted his wish.]]
* MinorLivingAlone: Jonathan [[spoiler:escaped from the Asylum into a world where no one remembers him]], so he lied about his age and started working for a lawn care company that pays in cash and doesn't ask questions. His boss rents him a one-room apartment over his garage. Jonathan will be eighteen soon, so he won't have to lie anymore.

* TantrumThrowing: When Jonathan realizes that [[spoiler:forgiveness won't actually bring the Asylum kids back into existence like he thought, meaning he, Ana, and Charlie are stuck there forever]], he throws the king from a chess set across the room so hard it breaks in half. The Asylum's magic quickly repairs it.

* AbandonedArea: Charlie and Ana spend much of their time exploring the deserted industrial area by the shoreline, full of crumbling buildings and even a boarded-up mine. The only place they avoid is the burned-out orphanage, where dozens of kids died.

* CatapultNightmare: Charlie bolts upright crying after a dream in which [[spoiler:a police officer takes Kieran away from his mother on the grounds that she's an unfit guardian who will raise him to be a criminal and sends him to live in the orphanage]].

* MinorLivingAlone: Jonathan [[spoiler:escaped from the orphanage into a world where no one remembers him]], so he lied about his age and started working for a lawn care company that pays in cash and doesn't ask questions. His boss rents him a one-room apartment over his garage. Jonathan will be eighteen soon, so he won't have to lie anymore.

* RetGone: [[spoiler:Brona erases the kids' existences and any effects they had on other people and takes them to live in the burned-out orphanage, which only they can see as an intact building.]]

* TantrumThrowing: When Jonathan realizes that [[spoiler:forgiveness won't actually bring the orphanage kids back into existence like he thought, meaning he, Ana, and Charlie are stuck there forever]], he throws the king from a chess set across the room so hard it breaks in half. The orphanage's magic quickly repairs it.

** Madison's mom and stepdad were disappointed in her because she got all D's and F's in school, due to dyslexia that no one realized she had until [[spoiler:she came to the orphanage]].

* YourFavorite: Brona serves Charlie cinnamon rolls, his favorite food, which his mom used to make before her depression got severe. Unfortunately, although they smell delicious, they're as flavorless as all the other food in the orphanage.

* ManOnFire: When Jonathon was fifteen, he and his younger brother were playing with firecrackers when their dad showed up, furious. Jonathon dropped the Roman candle he was holding, which went off, turning his brother into a fireball. His dad tackled his brother and rolled with him to put out the flames while Jonathon ran to call 911. In the burn unit, they had to keep him unconscious for over a week because of the pain. [[spoiler:The night before his brother was supposed to come home from the hospital, Jonathan lay in bed begging for a way to undo the accident. Brona granted his wish.]]

* HouseFire: Kieran's family makes the decision to move to America after their hovel burns down, killing his sister Nora.

Twelve-year-old Charlie O'Reilly is the only person who remembers Liam, his nine-year-old brother, who suddenly vanished a year ago on Charlie's eleventh birthday. His parents and classmates think he's mentally ill, and the only person who believes him is his best friend Ana Finch, even though she doesn't remember Liam either. Charlie despairs of ever seeing Liam again, until he discovers that Jonathon, the assistant baseball coach, has knowledge that could help him. In the meantime, he starts to experience vivid dreams in which he is Kieran, a boy traveling from Ireland to America in the 1840s.

* ItsAllMyFault: [[spoiler:Liam, Jonathon, and all the other vanished kids asked Brona to erase their existences to undo something they'd done. Sometimes it's something genuinely horrible, like Jonathan burning his brother while playing with firecrackers. Sometimes it's something that wasn't actually their fault, like a girl who blames herself for her grandfather's death because she was arguing with him when he had a heart attack.]]