The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
"And, oh, the sigh. Who would ever have thought that a simple expulsion of air from the lungs could be so... so magical?"
Fanboy

The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl is a novel written by Barry Lyga. It is primarily a Coming of Age Story, as is its sequel, Goth Girl Rising.


Tropes used in The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl include:
  • Black Best Friend: Cal. Played with a little, with Fanboy noting that there are actually only about ten black kids in the entire school.
  • Black Comedy: Cal's username, IAmAChildMolester.
  • Blatant Lies: The Great Ecuadorian Tortoise Blight of 1928.
  • Broken Bird: Kyra
  • Closet Geek: Cal
  • Canon Welding: Fanboy and Goth Girl, with all of Barry Lygas' subsequent novels, are set in the same town and have some plotlines that intersect. For instance, the lacrosse players whose grades were hacked into and changed are later revealed, in Hero-Type, to be the result of a prank pulled by the Council of Fools. And the ending of that book is brought upon by the beginning of Boy-Toy.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Both of the titular characters, but Kyra is more vocal.
  • Drives Like Crazy: Kyra.

Kyra/Promethea387: Don't be so paranoid. We can look at it in the car after school and I'll drive you home again.
Fanboy/XianWalker76: But I need to live to Saturday :)

  • Embarrassing First Name: Fanboy sees his name (Donnie) as this. He doesn't seem to have a problem with Donald or Don, though.
  • The Fantastic Trope of Wonderous Titles
  • First-Person Smartass: Fanboy, in the first book. Goth Girl, even more so, in the sequel.
  • Gosh Darn It to Heck: Kyra says "eff" instead of "fuck".
  • Goth: Guess.
  • Groin Attack: Kyra to Fanboy at the end of the first book.
  • Hidden Buxom: As it turns out Kyra has a large chest and uses clothing to disguise it, due to her belief that All Men Are Perverts. And then she flashes Donnie. And Brian Michael Bendis.
  • Important Haircut: After she gets out of the hospital, Kyra shaves all of her hair off.
  • Long Title: Just look at it.
  • Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Kyra is sort of a darker and more destructive version of this in the first book. Ultimately subverted.
  • No Name Given: Fanboy almost plays this straight. There is one occasion in each book where his name is said outright, but the rest of the time, the narration goes out of the way to avoid saying it. It's not quite a subversion, because the first reveal is pretty early on. In addition, the name issue can still be confusing because the way he's typically addressed by other characters in-story -- "Donnie" versus "Donald" and "Don" -- isn't fully spelled out. For that matter, the latter two names weren't even revealed until the second book.
    • It's played straight with Fanboy's last name -- we are only told that it is not the same as his mother's, which is revealed.
  • Pet the Dog: For Dina, who actually gives Fanboy a kiss later in the book and tells him that girls are stupid for wanting only hot, ripped men.
    • Don has one at the end, where he asks his mother if he can feel the kid she's pregnant with.
  • Precision F-Strike
  • Promoted Fanboy: Titular Fanboy wants to become one. He has a Graphic Novel he wants to show Brian Michael Bendis, Schemata, and hopefully have Bendis be so astounded by it that he'll call a publisher on the spot. It doesn't work out the way he'd hoped, but in the second book, when he takes Cal's advice and starts publishing it in the school newspaper, he becomes very popular for it.
  • Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Kyra.
  • Really Gets Around: Kyra's friend Simone.
  • Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: Kyra and her friend Jecca.
  • Shout-Out: To Alan Moore, along with various other comic-related apparel.
  • The Un-Reveal: Fanboy's "third thing".
  • Write Who You Know: In-universe, Kyra points out that Donnie unconsciously modeled his character on Dina, a popular girl at school.