Stravaganza: Difference between revisions

 

 

The series is as follows:

* ''City of Masks'', which focuses on Lucien, a cancer patient whose talisman is a marbled notebook, who visits Bellezza, the Talian version of Venice;

* ''City of Secrets'', which focuses on Matt, a dyslexic young man whose talisman is a leather-bound book, who visits Padavia, the Talian version of Padua; and

* ''City of Ships'', which focuses on Isabel, a girl overshadowed by her twin brother. Her talisman is a bag full of mosaic tiles, who visits Classe, the Talian version of Ravenna.

 

* [[Alchemy]]: Dr. Dethridge was an alchemist back in England before he discovered stravagation. Also, it is mentioned that Talian alchemists try to turn lead into ''silver'', which is more valuable than gold in Talia.

* [[Anti-Villain]]: Maybe they don't all quite qualify as this, but the di Chimici become a lot more human as the series progresses, and not in a [[Villain Decay]] sort of way.

* [[Action Girl]]: Arianna, Georgia, and Isabel

* [[Avenging the Villain]]: Happens in the fourth book when {{spoiler|the Chimici are trying to arrest Luciano for causing their head of family's death}}.

* [[Awesome Moment of Crowning]]: In ''City of Masks,'' {{spoiler|Arianna is named the new Duchessa of Belleza.}}

* [[Beauty Equals Goodness]]: Inverted: {{spoiler|Gaetano, one of the first sympathetic di Chimici, is markedly less attractive than most of his relatives}}. Likewise, Falco would be a charmingly pretty little boy if he weren't horribly crippled.

* [[Big Brother Instinct]]: Gaetano

* [[Big Screwed-Up Family]]: the di Chimici

* [[Body Double]]: The Duchessa uses different doubles for all the flashy ceremonies, such as the Marriage with the Sea - she began this procedure when {{spoiler|she became pregnant with her daughter, Arianna.}} One such double thinks she can outsmart the Duchessa, rat out her secret, and throw her lot in with the di Chimici with no ill consequences. She's wrong.

* [[City of Canals]]: Bellezza, which reflects Venice

* [[Dramatis Personae]]: At the beginning of the third book, and boy is it useful.

* [[Driven to Suicide]]: {{spoiler|Falco di Chimici}}, who enlists the help of the Stravaganti to {{spoiler|stravagate permanently to our world by dying in his own}}.

* [[Dysfunction Junction]]: Lampshaded and invoked within the story. The Stravaganti postulate that talismans are drawn to teenagers who are unhappy so that they can grow from their experiences in Talia.

* [[Evil Is One Big Happy Family]]: The Di Chimici. Most of them.

* [[Heel Face Turn]] {{spoiler|Enrico, when he realises that he was tricked into killing his fiancée}}

* [[The Hero Dies]]: {{spoiler|In the first book.}} Technically.

* [[Hot Mom]]: Silvia Bellini.

* [[Idiosyncratic Episode Naming]]: 'City of ___'

* [[Iron Lady]]: The Duchessa of Bellezza ''must'' be this to stand up against the di Chimici.

* [[Jerkass]]: Georgia's stepbrother, Russell

* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]: By book three? Oh yes.

* [[Daddy Had a Good Reason For Abandoning You|Mommy Had A Good Reason For Abandoning You]]: Well, she did, Arianna.

* [[Narnia Time]]: Most of the time, it's a consistent one-to-one day ratio between Talia and England, with the only oddity being that day and night are switched. But from the first, we know that the timeflow is much more unstable - Doctor Dethridge, who lived in the Renaissance and was the first Stravagator, regularly gets visits from Stravaganti from modern-day England because time has flown by more quickly in England.

** And this is played [[Tear Jerker|to its heartbreaking conclusion when]] {{spoiler|Lucien's entrapment in Bellezza for about two days translates into a three-week coma in England - coinciding with a resurgence of his brain cancer. His parents, having concluded he's never waking up, decide to cut off his life support.}}

* [[Promotion to Parent]]: Sky Meadows, having to take care of his ill mother.

* [[Purple Eyes]]: Arianna and the Duchessa both{{spoiler|, which is an early clue that they're related}}.

* [[Rebellious Princess]]: Arianna takes on the mantle of Duchessa voluntarily, but she still chafes under all the pressure and rules laid upon her in the later books.

* [[Replacement Love Interest]]: {{spoiler|<s>Falco</s>}} Nick for Georgia. Doubles as [[Second Love]].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Fantasy Literature]]

[[Category:Young Adult Literature]]