The Book of Heroes

"Then let us call it by a different name. The good of the Hero shall be called the 'hero' as you have always thought of it. And the dark side of the Hero, that which is evil, shall be called The King in Yellow''."

- The Archdevout

A 2009 novel by Miyuki Miyabe.

Yuriko Morisaki is an Ordinary Elementary School Student. Life is normal, and she is content, until the day her world is thrown into turmoil. Her brother, Hiroki, brings a knife to school and kills a classmate before fleeing the scene and seemingly disappearing off the face of the Earth. Yuriko is frightened, confused, and helpless to do anything about it. That is, until she meets Aju, a talking dictionary. Aju leads her to a room full of ancient books, who advise her to travel to the Nameless Land in search of her brother who has been possessed by a mysterious entity known as "The Hero", or "The King in Yellow". After meeting with the Nameless Devout and gaining the powers of the "Allcaste", she sets off in search of her brother, but she is warned that what she finds at the end of her journey may not be what she hopes for....

This Book Features Examples of:

 * A Fate Worse Than Death: Arguably, the nameless devout. They're people who committed the great sin of trying to 'live a story' (read: achieve their goals without taking the consequences into account), and are subsequently Mind Raped into bland, identical beings with no free will, whose only purpose is to turn the wheels of the cosmic story (and ensure the Big Bad doesn't escape) for the rest of eternity.
 * Animate Inanimate Object: Books in this story are Tsukumogami- inanimate objects which come to life after about a century (it apparently carries over to newer copies of old books), and as such are able to offer advice, and even directly assist, Yuriko.
 * Anthropomorphic Personification: The Hero is a living archetype.
 * Asshole Victim: The boys Hiroki attacked.
 * Black and Grey Morality: Hiroki commited murder, which is why he is punished so severely, but the point is made that the kids he lashed out against weren't exactly shining examples of human decency.
 * Cosmic Horror Story: The villain of this story is the King in Yellow. Savvy readers know exactly what to expect.
 * Crapsack World: The fictional world of the Haetlands- a region which is almost perpetually at war, and is so tiny it can be covered by someone's fingertip on a globe). People being devoured and/or turning into monsters is a common occurrence.
 * Cursed With Awesome: People in the Haetlands who have survived a zombie attack gain superpowers... but the mutation has the unfortunate side effect of killing them inside of two years. Some of the victims are children.
 * Determinator: Come hell or high water, Yuriko will rescue her brother. You can take your criticisms about her age and/or gender and shove 'em.
 * Driven to Suicide:
 * Eldritch Location: The Nameless Land. It's entirely colorless and populated by emotionless Hive Mind clones. Clones which serve 'penance' by releasing nascent stories into the world, and returning ones that have been used up to the melting pot. That's right: the Nameless Land is the birthplace of Tropes.
 * Empty Shell: The nameless devout. See A Fate Worse Than Death. Averted, to some extent, with Sky.
 * For Want of a Nail: Most of the events in the book could have been avoided if Hiroki had just come clean about, instead of trying to do everything himself.
 * Historical Domain Character: It's implied that the Wolf Yuriko meets at the end is none other than.
 * Meaningful Name: It's explained that they call the evil side of the Hero "The King in Yellow" after the book of the same name, which was the closest our world had ever come to producing a fully accurate depiction of the utter madness of the Hero's evil. This is also used to explain the Brown Note effects of the play within the book. Also, Katarhar Abbey is full of sick and dying people.
 * Our Zombies Are Different: Zombies in the Haetlands are corpses possessed by vengeful spirits. Also, they can clone themselves from severed body parts.
 * Pride: Stated outright to be the reason for Hiroki's downfall.
 * Sequel Hook:.
 * Stay in The Kitchen: Dmitri, the Man of Ash, thinks this way. Makes sense, considering he's from a (fictional) traditional sword-and-sorcery world, set sometime in the Middle Ages.
 * Tomato Surprise:.
 * Tome of Eldritch Lore: The Book of Elem, which is indirectly responsible for pretty much everything that happens in the story.