The Princess 99
The Princess 99 is an independently published book that started out online.
The story starts off normal enough: Axel, a farm girl, goes into the city so she can attend Edgewood Academy, a school for wizards (or Crafters as they're called in the book). Then she meet Skye, an alien girl, and things go from weird to nightmarish and crazy from that point on.
In all honesty, it's best described as "What if Harry Potter took place during 1920s New Orleans and aliens were involved?"
The updated print version with reworked spelling and grammar can be purchased for print or download here or the first draft can be read here for free.
The first book in the series is Bird of Prey.
Tropes used in The Princess 99 include:
- Action Girl: Skye, Maree-Celee, the Moimettes
- Adaptation Expansion: The print version contains chapters that weren't in the online one, and some extra scenes between other characters as well.
- Some consider the changes to be Adaptation Decay, such as changes between character design and relationships.
- Adults Are Useless: Subverted somewhat. Prof. Wilde helps Axel while Prof. Marius doesn't.
- Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: Justified with the Moimettes. Inverted from time to time with Skye.
- Animesque : The illustrations in the book seem to range from art nouveau to anime-like to nightmare fuel
- Little Miss Badass: Maree-Celee, Brig
- Berserk Button: Actually mentioned and part of the series. Becomes important after Axel's breakdown
- Beware the Nice Ones: Flow
- Bittersweet Ending: It may seem happy but you have to consider Axel's lost innocence
- Black Eyes of Evil
- Blessed with Suck: Pai is kind and sensitive towards other due to his empathy but his sensitivity also gives him nightmarish seizures
- Blondes Are Evil: Professeur Wilde
- Break the Cutie Poor, poor Axel...
- Bond Creatures The Familiars
- Butt Monkey Not only does Ambrose get turned into custard, but he ends up naked in front of not only his uncle, but several of Edgewood's students and teachers.
- Character Title
- Children Are Innocent (Hahaha.......no)
- Cloudcuckoolander : Eulalie. Just...Eulalie.
- Crowning Moment of Awesome: Flow opens a can of badass in a skirt toward the end and let's not forget Professeur Colette, the doormat and the shyest character beating the stuffing out of Professeur Wilde.
- Crowning Moment of Funny: "Didn't you come here in a car?" "Well, that was more of Ambrose De'Chiasson than I wanted to see."
- Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: "You are not alone, Axel".
- Dark-Skinned Redhead: Maree-Celee.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Skye does this to annoy Marius mostly.
- Dropped a Bridget On Him: Flow does this very often
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Axel
- Elegant Gothic Lolita: The Moimettes
- Everything's Better with Princesses: Skye, Princess Aurore, and the House kids technically.
- Extreme Doormat: Pai with his sister.
- The Fair Folk: The Jealous Dead chapter.
- Foreshadowing: Axel's dreams and Pai's seizures
- Genre Deconstruction: The story is full of stock characters for the genre. A Choosen One? Check. Deadpan Snarker for a teacher whose kind of an asshole? Check. A God Mode Sue? Check. They go to a Wizarding School and have Mons. However, the Deadpan Snarker is only in that condition because his wife and child died horribly, leaving him an empty shell of a man. Skye's nearly-omnipotent powers don't successfully make life easier or make her happier. Not only that, but the ghosts in the school are not...pleasant like in some other works.
- Good Is Not Nice: Lion & Unicorn.
- Hammerspace: Skye and her weapons.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: (Pai and later Axel)
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Haypenny and Marius at one point, then Axel and Marius
- In the Name of the Moon: Skye's first appearance.
- Kids Are Cruel: Especially the rich ones.
- Large Ham: Skye, Brig, and a good chunk of the House kids.
- Laser Guided Tykebomb
- Magic Textbook
- Manipulative Bastard
- Marshmallow Hell: Skye and Ambrose on several occasions.
- Meaningful Name: All of the member of Birds of Prey are named after, well, birds of prey except for Axel's codename, The Cuckoo, named after a bird that lays its eggs in the nests of other birds and takes advantage of the unknowing parents. This fits since Axel is an unknowing killer. Though, Flow does admit that this is "unique" at best.
- Mouthy Kid: Brig, Ambrose, Maree, Jacq, Skye, and a good chunk of the students
- Nightmare Fuel: Where to begin? Let's start with Brig's familiar... It's a rat. A big rat. With a human face
- How about the demon that's literally pulled out of Axel's body, which is an Eldritch Abomination
- No Name Given Maree's mother and the identity of Axel's actual parents, but this may be up for debate in future installments.
- Our Demons Are Different
- Our Souls Are Different : The Familiars and the Crafters
- Our Time Travel Is Different: Skye, an alien from a far-off future, is said to be stuck in the 1920s-like past.
- Outdated Outfit: Done on purpose with the Moimettes
- Papa Wolf: Docteur Haypenny and his daughter.
- And inverted with Ambrose and his dad.
- Parental Abandonment (Mentioned by Flow at the very beginning)
- The Reveal Princess Aurore and the serial killer
- Scholarship Student
- Ship Tease: Skye and Ambrose, though it's debatable if Skye even realizes how he feels.
- Shout-Out: "Who built this place - Tim Burton?"
- Shrinking Violet: Prof. Colette, Axel, Pai
- Slasher Smile: Flow
- The Big Guy: Prof. Nev is described as enormous
- The Roaring Twenties
- The Speechless: The Familiars, except for Nev
- Tear Jerker: Marius and his wife and Axel going berserk
- Technicolor Eyes (Red is rather popular)
- There Was a Door: Haypenny and Prof. Wilde
- That Came Out Wrong: "You ruined it for everybody!"
- Tomato in the Mirror
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Skye and Axel. Maree-Celee and Pumpkin.
- Torture Technician Flow
- Tragic Monster
- Twist Ending
- Wizarding School: Edgewood Academy, Brightwood University, Blackthorne College. The entire book also makes fun of this genre as well.
- What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?: Word of God said on her deviantART page that this happened when the first draft was proof-read.
- The Woobie: Pai, Axel, and a lot of the students actually. Especially the ones forced to go to Edgewood
- This Is Your Premise on Drugs: The book is pretty much "Harry Potter during the 1920s on opium"\x9D
- Make Me Wanna Shout: Axel and any Crafter of Song, really
- Well-Intentioned Extremist : Everyone in the Birds of Prey organization has very good intentions, since they only want civil rights for Muggles, er Nons. Though they try to achieve this in a Tyke Bomb horrifying manner