This Girl is a young adult novel by British children's author Jacqueline Wilson. It was originally published in 1988 by Oxford University Press. The nine OUP books by Wilson are relatively little-known, all except one having been out of print for many years.
Coral is a 16-year-old misfit who has a fixation with the Victorian era. She lives an unfulfilling life on a council estate with her neglectful parents, and is tired of being ostracised. After losing her job as a waitress, she is hired to work as a nanny in the Lord family's grand Victorian house and her problems seem to be solved. But she struggles to deal with two spoilt young children and their demanding mother Isabel. Complications arise as Coral grows closer to the children's father Toby; and Deb, an impoverished young single mother.
Tropes:
- Abuse Mistake: Subverted when Deb falls over while holding Pete and he suffers an injury. Even though he clearly needs to go to hospital, she refuses to take him, thinking no one will believe that she didn't harm him deliberately. When Coral convinces her to get medical help for him, the doctors do not question Deb's account of events.
- Abusive Parents:
- Coral's mother is emotionally and physically abusive towards her.
- One of the other mothers at the hostel where Deb lives physically abused her baby, who was taken into care.
- Age-Gap Romance: Toby is in his late twenties-early thirties, and Coral is 16.
- All Women Are Lustful: Unusually for a Jacqueline Wilson book, it's made clear that Coral enjoys sleeping with Dean.
- Ambiguously Bi:
- Although Coral has a boyfriend and is attracted to Toby, she fantasises about cuddling in bed with her imaginary friend Rose. She later begins a relationship with Deb, another woman.
- Similarly, Deb has had a sexual relationship with a man, resulting in Pete's conception, before starting a relationship with Coral. However, it's implied that it wasn't consensual.
- Apathetic Student: While not exactly dumb, it's mentioned that Coral didn't really bother with school and used to bunk off a lot. When she reads a story to Freddie and Ada, she trips up on some of the words.
- Author Appeal: Like Wilson, Coral is a working-class girl fascinated by the Victorian era.
- Awful Wedded Life:
- Isabel and Toby do not have a happy marriage. Isabel is controlling and possibly cheats on Toby, who spends all his time on his art partly so that he doesn't have to deal with her.
- Coral's mother Maureen openly cheats on her husband and they more or less live separate lives. Coral observes that Maureen treats him more like a household object.
- Big Sister Bully: Ada picks on Freddie because he likes things "for girls".
- Big Fancy House: The Lords' house is a practically palatial Victorian abode, kept in period. It's big enough that it's got an art studio, at least three bedrooms, and a turret.
- Bittersweet Ending: Coral leaves her job with Isabel and Toby, moves in with Deb, and begins a relationship with her. Eventually, Coral gets a job she enjoys, selling Victorian antiques in a shop. However, she and Deb have some issues to work through (they argue when Deb has been drinking), and may not stay together.
- Boyish Short Hair: Deb has a very short haircut that Coral thinks makes her look like a boy.
- Child by Rape: It's suggested that Pete's conception wasn't consensual, since Deb was too drunk to realize what was going on.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Deb seems to be jealous of Coral's obvious interest in Toby, and can be quite hostile about it.
- Cover Innocent Eyes and Ears: Deb insists on covering Pete's ears while telling Coral about the circumstances of his conception, even though he's too young to understand.
- Darker and Edgier: Features darker themes than Wilson's later books for children and pre-teens; including abuse, neglect, poverty, sexuality, and adultery.
- Department of Child Disservices: Social services have placed Deb and Pete in a filthy, overcrowded hostel that is clearly unsuitable for a baby. Ostensibly it's a temporary measure, but Deb knows many other mums at the hostel who have been waiting for months or years for better housing. By the end of the novel, Deb and Pete have moved into a council flat, but it's tiny and full of mould.
- Does Not Like Men: Deb has been treated very poorly by men in the past, and constantly lectures Coral about why she should never trust them.
- Domestic Abuse: Dean beats Coral after she breaks up with him.
- Driven to Suicide: This is not rare at the council estate Coral lives on, and it's mentioned that she has seen a number of suicides happen.
- Ephebophile:
- Ricky, Coral's boss at the Aspidistra Bistro, is around her mother's age but regularly sleeps with the young teenage waitresses who work for him.
- Toby is attracted to, and almost sleeps with, 16-year-old Coral (who told him she was 18, but looks her real age or younger.)
- Isabel appears to be quite taken with Coral's teenage boyfriend Dean.
- Everyone Loves Blondes: Isabel is blonde and outgoing with many friends.
- Failed a Spot Check: Toby and Isabel don't seem to notice that Coral is under 18, even though it's obvious to Mrs. Grieves, and other characters who know what age she is think she looks young. According to Mrs. Grieves, they also missed obvious signs that one of their previous nannies was on drugs.
- Fat and Skinny: Coral is skinny and contrasted with the chubby Deb.
- Feminine Mother, Tomboyish Daughter: Inverted. Isabel wears masculine clothing and rejects femininity on principle, while Ada (despite Isabel's best efforts) loves dolls, pretty dresses, and anything pink.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Deb has this attitude and says that she thinks abortion is murder, so she wouldn't entertain it when she had an unplanned pregnancy.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Averted. Blonde Isabel is set up as a kind character, but turns out to be controlling and hypocritical. Similarly, her son Freddie has angelic blonde curls but has a naughty streak, deliberately defying Coral.
- Henpecked Husband: Isabel makes all the decisions in her household and Toby meekly goes along with whatever she wants.
- Hide Your Lesbians: Coral and Deb's relationship is not explicitly spelled out on the page, although is made clear to the reader when Coral puts her arm around Deb in front of Isabel to show that they're together.
- Honorary Uncle: Coral's had a number of "uncles" who were all her mother's boyfriends. Deb mentions that exactly the same thing happened in her family.
- Hormone-Addled Teenager: Coral isn't really happy with Dean any more, but stays with him because their sex life is good. Later, she develops a huge crush on Toby pretty much from the moment she meets him.
- Hypocrite:
- Isabel gives lectures about how Victorian women were exploited as servants, but expects Coral to defer to her. She also thinks that domestic labour demeans women, yet has no problem with outsourcing that work to other women.
- Isabel repeatedly tells Coral to hit the children if they misbehave. When Coral actually slaps Freddie (because he trashed Toby's art studio), Isabel is horrified and yells at her that she could have seriously hurt Freddie.
- Coral judges her mother and Isabel for having affairs (or at least she wants to believe Isabel has done this), but thinks it would be okay to sleep with a married man herself.
- Imaginary Friend: Coral has imaginary Victorian friends she talks to. After going to work for Toby and Isabel, she pretends she is a Victorian nursery maid and is friends with another maid named Rose.
- Imaginary Love Triangle: Coral thinks she is in a love triangle with Toby and Isabel. She's wrong - because while Toby is attracted to her, he has no intention of starting a relationship (or even an affair) with her.
- In Touch with His Feminine Side: Freddie likes to dress up, wear dresses and jewellery, and play with Ada's dolls. Isabel encourages this because she doesn't want the children to conform to gender stereotypes.
- Intimate Artistry: Coral and Toby grow closer after he asks to use her as a model for his art.
- It's Not Porn, It's Art: Toby paints artistic images of nude women.
- The Loins Sleep Tonight: What happens when Coral attempts to have sex with Toby.
- Loners Are Freaks: Coral has a boyfriend but no friends in her home town, because others see her interest in the Victorian era as weird. After she moves in with Toby and Isabel, Isabel finds it strange that Coral doesn't seem to have any friends (apart from Deb) and doesn't want to hang out with the neighbours' foreign au pairs.
- Long Hair Is Feminine: Coral has very long hair as part of her Victorian aesthetic.
- Loving a Shadow: Toby is clearly more attracted to his own image of Coral than he is to her. Played with in that he at least recognises this, and isn't seriously interested in taking things further with her.
- Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: Played with when Coral and Deb become a couple at the end. Coral looks more feminine and Deb more masculine, but Coral works to provide for the family while Deb is a SAHM.
- Meaningful Name:
- Deb named her son Peter Jonathon Smith because it sounded like a middle-class businessman's name to her. She wants him to have a successful career and a better life than she has had.
- Toby and Isabel's surname is Lord, reflecting their wealth and position of power over Coral.
- Ada and Freddie have names that would have fit in with well-to-do Victorian children, playing into Coral's fantasies about the Victorians.
- Mirror Character: Isabel's indifference towards her children and overall selfishness mirror Coral's mother.
- Mistaken for Pregnant: Isabel mistakenly assumes Dean attacked Coral because he'd found out she was pregnant.
- Moving the Goalposts: Isabel does this, making her difficult to work for. For example, Coral follows her instructions to ensure the kids are up for breakfast on time - then Isabel yells at her because they're not bathed or dressed, which Coral was not asked to do before breakfast.
- Mrs. Robinson: When Dean visits the Lords' house, Isabel chats with him. Coral notes that she's almost flirting.
- My Nayme Is: Deb's son's middle name is Jonathon rather than the more common Jonathan.
- Older Than They Look:
- Coral looks quite young for 16, to the point where Mrs. Grieves is incredulous that Toby and Isabel believed she was 18.
- Coral perceives Isabel as a very young mum, but she's evidently not that young, since she's earned at least one advanced degree and is established enough in her career that she's still doing well after taking time out to have two children.
- One-Night-Stand Pregnancy: Deb got pregnant after having a one night stand at a party.
- Only Sane Man: Mrs. Grieves is the only person who seems to recognise how careless and neglectful Toby and Isabel really are.
- Outdated Name: In 1988, "Ada" would have been considered an old lady name, although it's since come back into fashion somewhat.
- Outdated Outfit: Coral wears Victorian-style clothing, even though others think it makes her look weird.Ada: Why do you wear sort of party clothes?Coral: I like them.
- Parental Neglect:
- Coral's mum and dad have no interest in being parents, and do not even bother to cook or buy groceries. She goes about her life with almost no involvement from her parents except when there's something in it for them (e.g. pressuring her to get a new job so she can contribute to household expenses.)
- Isabel and Toby leave their children with a series of young, inexperienced nannies, whom they don't run any background checks on, or ask for references.
- Practically Different Generations: It is mentioned that Coral has much older half-siblings from her father's first marriage, although she seemingly hasn't met them.
- Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Coral is described as having beautiful long dark hair.
- Real Women Don't Wear Dresses: Isabel dislikes anything stereotypically feminine, which she sees as weak and sexist. It's mentioned that she previously withdrew Ada from her nursery school because the girls were encouraged to play with dolls and kitchens.
- Really Gets Around: Coral's mother Maureen has had numerous affairs with different men, and her marriage to Coral's father began as another affair.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Coral gives one to Isabel just before quitting her nanny job, calling her out on her hypocrisy.Coral: I thought we were meant to be equals nowadays? Oh no, you want me to bow and scrape to you as much as the Victorian ladies.
- Recycled Plot: Coral is in the same circumstances as Lottie in The Lottie Project. Both have to lie about their age to get a job caring for young children, one of whom is named Freddie; and are exploited by the children's unsympathetic mother. Lottie is an actual Victorian nursery maid, while Coral has a fixation with the Victorian era and likes to pretend she's a nursery maid.
- Relationship Revolving Door: Dean breaks up with Coral when she tells him she is moving away to work as a nanny. They get back together on the day she's due to leave, then don't speak to each other for weeks or months. By the time they see each other again, Coral ends the relationship because she's fallen for Toby.
- Remarried to the Mistress: This is how Coral's parents got together, and it's a significant cause of their financial problems (because her father had to pay child support until he lost his job.)
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Gentle artist Toby and tough working-class boy Dean.
- Sleeping with the Boss:
- Coral doesn't get as far as sleeping with Toby (although they attempt it), but does have an emotional affair with him.
- Maureen is having an affair with her boss and has, as far as Coral knows, cheated with almost every man she's worked for.
- Coral initially works for Ricky, who regularly sleeps with the young waitresses in his employ. At the end of the book, she works for a gay man and is relieved that at least he won't hit on her.
- Slut-Shaming: Deb experienced this after a guy she rejected spread lies about her sleeping around. It got worse when she actually did sleep with someone and got pregnant as a teenager.
- Starving Artist: Subverted. While Toby and Isabel have a big house and can afford a nanny, Coral assumes they don't have that much money because being an artist doesn't pay well. Toby explains that Isabel's rich family takes care of them, and they inherited the house so don't have to pay a mortgage.
- Straw Feminist: Isabel fits this trope, and is a professor of women's history and runs a women's activist group.
- Struggling Single Mother: Deb is struggling to survive on welfare and lives in an overcrowded, dirty hostel with her baby.
- Sympathetic Adulterer: Subverted. Coral thinks she and Toby would be justified in having an affair since Isabel is so selfish, and may have cheated on him. But he feels guilty enough that he can't go through with it.
- Sympathetic P.O.V.: Since the story is narrated from Coral's perspective, Toby is portrayed in a far more sympathetic light than Isabel. However, he is just as selfish and uninterested in his own children as Isabel is.
- Teenage Pregnancy: Deb, who is seventeen, has a baby and lives in a hostel with several other teenage single mothers.
- Title Drop: By Coral's mother towards the end of the novel.
- Third-Option Love Interest: After being conflicted over her feelings for Dean and Toby, Coral ends up in a relationship with Deb.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Deb (tomboy) and Coral (girly) fit this trope.
- Took a Level in Kindness: When Coral moves back in with her parents for a while after leaving her job with the Lords, Maureen has become nicer. She has abandoned her plans to leave Coral's father, acknowledging that he struggles with depression; and no longer yells at Coral or pressures her to get a job so much. Coral surmises that whichever guy Maureen planned to run away with has broken up with her, and is not sure whether Maureen has really changed.
- Unnamed Parent: Coral's mother is named Maureen but we never find out her dad's name.
- Uptown Guy: Coral is working class, while Toby is middle class and can afford to pursue a career as an artist because his wife's family are wealthy.
- Urban Legend Love Life: Deb has only ever slept with one guy, but another boy who she turned down spread rumours that she was very promiscuous.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Coral's name is considered unusual for the time period. She admits to Toby that her parents named her after the Coral betting shop after starting up an in-joke.
- Working-Class Hero: Coral is a working class girl from a council estate. She ends up living on another council estate with her best friend (and eventual girlfriend) Deb.
