After a roller coaster accident and some suspicious business with the police, three friends and two of their new friends join together to uncover the mystery surrounding all the strange events in their town- and end up in the middle of a massive conspiracy.
This is a novel that has been written by Sibuna.
Tropes
- Abusive parents
- Adults are useless
- Anyone can die
- Artificial limbs- Leslie and Casper both end up with these, having lost their leg and their hand, respectively.
- Big bad- Gold.
- Big brother instinct- Jackson is close to and cares about his sister Leslie...despite the former having graduated and moved to New York City. Jackie is the big sister version, as despite how crazy her family is and how neglected she feels, she is extremely protective over her family to the point where she almost drowned to save her little sister Penny, who the bad guys were attempting to drown. [[Spoiler:She failed.]]
- Big, Screwed-Up Family- The Norths.
- Bittersweet ending
- Bullying a Dragon The Golden Alliance members continuously try and hurt Casper despite knowing he's the Dark Lion. Justified, in that the only way to set off the bomb is for the Dark Lion side of him to emerge, and to do that, Casper must be in severe pain.
- Childhood friends- Ben and Jackie have been best friends since they met in Kindergarten.
- Conspiracy theorist- Ben.
- Dirty cop- All the cops work for the Golden Alliance.
- Dumb blonde- Subverted by Leslie, the smartest of the trio (At least in terms of book smarts.) Jackie is also a subversion, though she died her hair and is no longer a blonde.
- Even evil has loved ones- Gold loves his son, Malcolm, more than anything, and Malcolm's loyalty to his father is extremely intense.
- Identical twins- Jett and Hunter, Jackie's little brothers.
- Just Friends- Ben and Jackie, so much.
- Manipulative bastard- Malcolm.
- [1]- In their universe, all the 'werebeasts' are merely normal people with a gene that makes them morph into their beast form (in this case, large black lions) if they are in extreme pain as a flight-or-fight mechanism. This side burns up tons of energy and it's nearly impossible for them not to die from it. They also lose all sense of conscience and go into complete blood thirsty instinct mode. It's passed down by bloodline.
- The cavalry- The Legion, coming in at the last moment to help.
- The faceless- A literal example in Gold, who wheres a pure golden mask and never shows his face, ever.
- Three plus two- Jackie, Ben and Leslie, plus Casper and Robert.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl- Jackie (Tomboy) and Leslie (Girly girl). Neither are particularly girly, however, but Jackie still acts much more tomboyish.
- Two Girls and a Guy- Jackie, Leslie and Ben.
- Wicked stepmother- Casper views his stepmother, Delia, as this, despite her rarely being completely wicked, just strict and frustrated. Hector, Ben's stepfather, is a male variant.
- You are what you hate- Malcolm has a ton of hatred for creatures like the Dark Lions despite being one himself. He doesn't know, though, but his father Gold did.
