The Traitor Game

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After being bullied, Michael changes schools. The incident - and his mother's inaction in face of it - makes it hard for him to trust in people again, but it all changes when he meets Francis. Francis is the cool and tall redhead who, instead of making fun on him, joins Michael in a game of make-believe, creating a fantasy land called Evgard and its capital, Arcaster. Both boys keep their world hidden safely in a locked box, in the form of maps and poems. Until, of course, Michael gets an anonymous note in his locker saying "I KNOW WHERE ARCASTER IS". Fearing that Francis has betrayed him and their secret, Michael decides to take revenge. It gets worse.

The book intercales between Michael and Francis lifes in reality (in third person, in Michael's POV) and in the Evgard from Michael's imagination (in first person), where they're known as Argent and Columen, a slave and the Duke's son, involved in an ongoing war between their people.

Tropes used in The Traitor Game include:

• Annoying Younger Sibling - Luke, to disastrous consequences.
• Black and Gray Morality
• Break the Cutie
• The Bully - Shipley.
• Character Development
• Coming of Age Story
• Complete Monster - The Duke. Even his son sees it.
• Con Lang - Together with Multilingual Bonus. Mereish language combines a multitude of words from different languages spelt weirdly. Also, lots of latin.
• Conflicting Loyalty - Michael's devotion to Evgard and to Francis.
• Cool Loser - Francis.
• Crapsack World - Evgard, despite Michael's strong belief that Evgard is better than real life. As his imagination reflects the bullying he went through and his distrust of others, it's no wonder.
• Crowning Moment of Heartwarming - When the boys bond, specially in Evgard.
• Depraved Bisexual - Once again, the Duke.
• Despair Event Horizon - Argent, after helping his people destroy the home of his only friend, and then discovering they were exactly the same kind of evil he thought the Evgard were. Michael and Francis dance along it frequently, but Michael crosses it after he thinks Evgard's been burned and Francis seems to cross it after the beating by Shitley, and realizing Michael just watched.
• Deus Angst Machina - Michael gets it bad, but Argent? Argent is captured and forced to watch all his friends get killed. He's raped, becomes the Duke's sex slave and is abused by everyone he knows. When he finally makes a friend in Columen, the Duke's son - who looks exactly like him - Argent betrays him to help his people… who turn out to be a bunch of bastards, as evil as the Duke, and who treat him as a traitor just because of his name. Even his childhood friend distrusts him… And then he dies.
• Double Consciousness - Argent, due to being Mereish, but being friends with Columen, who's Evgard. His mother was also Evgard, giving him an Evgard name that makes the Mereish distrust him.
• Dramatic Irony
• Dysfunction Junction
• Earn Your Happy Ending - What Michael and Francis have to go through. A Bittersweet Ending in case of Evgard, as Argent dies protecting Columen, but his death holds the significance that Francis is more important for Michael than Evgard is.
• Embarrassing First Name - Benedick. The bullies call him "Bent Dick", and Michael's first reaction is ask what the hell his mother was thinking.
• False-Flag Operation - How the Mereish enter Arcaster.
• Fantastic Racism - The Mereish and the Evgard, about eachother. Argent gets the worst of it, because his name is Evgard, but he's Mereish.
• Fantastic Slurs - Argent, because of his Mereish looks, is called "pisciculi albus", "vermiculus" and "color seminis". He says "there are more words for freak and weird and disgusting than I can translate".
• Female Gaze - Micheal directs this at Francis constantly. Yeah.
• A Friend in Need - Subverted. Michael not only causes Francis to get beaten by the school bullies, but also fails to help him.
• Friendless Background: Michael.

'Do you always hit people? Is that how you make friends?' 'I don't know. I don't have any.'

• Friendship Moment: Michael giving Evgard's stuff to Francis, and then holding hands with him.
• Genre Busting
• Good Flaws, Bad Flaws - The main characters are jerks in their own sort of way, but the villains? They range from an homophobic bully to a pedophile rapist.
• Happiness in Slavery - Argent feels terribly guilty because he truly sees Columen as a friend, and ends up leading a life with luxuries he and his people never had.
• Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today? - Michael… while looking into Francis's eyes and holding hands with him.
• Heel Face Revolving Door - Argent, mostly, but it permeates the rest of the book.
• Holding Hands - Michael and Francis at the end.
• Ho Yay - Michael and Francis; Argent and Columen as their counterparts. Specially when Columen calls Argent beautiful. If you remember that it's Michael imagining an alternative version of Francis coming onto him, even before knowing Francis is gay… It gets pretty slashy. Not to mention Micheal's jealous reactions, the romantic nature of the places the boys visit together, the fact that the book closes with the two of them hesitantly holding hands, and see Female Gaze.
• In Medias Res - The book begins with Michael finding the note in his locker, only to explain later how he and Francis became friends.
• In the End You Are on Your Own - A Mereish saying, apparently. Argent's father used to tell him this.
• Kick the Morality Pet - Michael and Argent are masters of this, followed almost immediately by It's All My Fault
• Kids Are Cruel
• La Résistance - Argent was part of it.
• Lost Him In A Dice Game - The Duke loses Argent to Columen in a game of dice. Subverted. After Argent confronts him, Columen reveals the die was weighted - he had no intention of really gambling with Argent's life.
• Made a Slave - Argent.
• Misfit Mobilization Moment - When Michael and Francis finally get around to get their revenge against Shipley.
• Mood Whiplash: One of Francis and Michael's most raw, painful interactions is intercut with a flashback to one of the happiest scenes in the whole book, when the two of them visited a castle together.
• Parental Obliviousness - Michael's mom, when he tried to tell her about being bullied at the Comp.
• Peer Pressure Makes You Evil: Although it's not that the bullies are trying to make anyone evil, but that fear of them and paranoia induced by them twists everything around.
• Rape as Drama - What the Duke does to Argent offscreen.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified - Followed straight, then subverted magnificently.
• Role Playing Game Verse - Evgard.
• Smug Snake - The Duke, Mathon.
• Somebody Else's Problem - Michael often behaves like this, to Francis' horror.
• Invisible to Gaydar - Francis.
• Tear Jerker - The whole novel. YMMV, of course. Except maybe the ending.
• Title Drop - The game "Trecho" is said Traitor Game.
• Trauma Conga Line
• The Woobie - Michael.
• You Said You Would Let Them Go - The Duke promises he'll free the traitors if one of them crosses the Judas Floor without falling. He was lying, of course. Argent succeeds and it doesn't fare well for him.