Twenties Girl is a 2009 novel by English Chick Lit author Sophie Kinsella (famous for the Shopaholic series).
This novel takes a different route, dealing with a (always wacky) protagonist who is revealed to be quite an improbable Seer.
Twenty-seven-year-old Lara has just broken up with her boyfriend Josh, the HR company she opened with her best friend isn't catching on (and her friend has all but abandoned her) and she struggles with money.
She attends the funeral of her great-aunt Sadie, whom she barely remembers, and while there she gets visited by her great-aunt's ghost, in form of a perky, glamour flapper. Great-aunt Sadie contacts Lara as she can't move on without her precious dragonfly necklace, her favourite item.
Lara is all but coerced by Sadie into going out for the necklace, embarking upon journey that ends up changing her life, finding a new love and an unexpected friendship with her ghost aunt and uncovering hidden family secrets.
The novel displays the following tropes:
- Alliterative Name: The protagonist's name is Lara Lington.
- An Aesop: Your family is important and should not be taken for granted. Your elderly relatives deserve your respect and consideration. Knowing family history is important for knowing your roots.
- Cain and Abel: Lara's father Michael and his brother Bill. Let's not even dig into the fact that Bill stole Sadie's portrait and earned a million of pounds from it to found his company. He never shared a penny with his doting big brother, neither offering him a job or helping in any way, save for free drinks in his shops.
- Deadpan Snarker: Sadie, as it turns out. Her great-niece Lara (and her fashion sense) is often the target of her snark.
- Doting Parent: Lara's parents are less wacky than other parents in Sophie Kinsella's novels (aside for her mother's anxiety issues and her father being too-good-for-his-own-sake) but they are usually supportive if clueless.
- Evil Uncle: Uncle Bill, aside from being an obvious Corrupt Corporate Executive stole Sadie's portrait and sold it at the Tate Gallery for millions and never shared the money with a single relative.
- False Friend: Natalie, Lara's business partner and best friend who left her in deeply problems with their agency and went to Goa on vacation. She also never told Lara she was actually fired from her previous job and steals Lara's credit for dealing with a difficult client as soon as she step in the agency again. Lara eventually tells her off and starts her own agency.
- Foreshadowing: Lara's friend at the police department notice that the resulting portrait of Sadie's necklace description reminds him of something. Of course it does. It was the famous item wore by the English equivalent of Monnalisa.
- Gorgeous Period Dress: Plenty of descriptions are used for Sadie's flapper outfits. Lara herself wears a twenties style evening gown at a business dinner and feels quite glamorous in it.
- MacGuffin: Sadie's necklace. She needs it, otherwise she can't move on. The research bring her closer to Lara and helps both girls to deal with their problems and unconver a dirty secret in their family..
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Sadie is this to Lara, helping her loosing a bit, being more glamorous and how to be more assertive. Lara is one to Ed, helping him come out of his apathy since he moved to London without his girlfriend.
- The Reveal: Sadie's necklace is the Iconic Item of a famous portrait her painter lover made of her. Uncle Bill decades before took advantage of her senile state to cheat her out of the portrait and that's how he became a millionaire.
- Stalker with a Crush: Lara can't stop texting and trying to spy on her ex-boyfriend Josh until she really gets the message that is over.
- Sadie is one to Ed, who can't see her. This fact doesn't discourage her from trying to date him.
- Lara appears as this to Ed, initially. She walks in in his office as a perfect stranger to ask him on a date. She was actually nagged into doing it by Sadie and didn't developed actual feelings for him until later.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: In her youth, Sadie was in love with the vicar's son. He was a bohemian painter and she was his muse, and would pose for him naked. Both their families found it scandalous and would separate them forever.
