Wicked (novel series)

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A series of five young adult novels by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguié, depicting a family feud between a coven of witches called the Cahors and a coven of warlocks called the Deveraux.

Holly Cathers moves in with her aunt, uncle and cousins after her parents die in a rafting accident. She soon encounters the Deveraux men: Jer, Eli and Michael. Michael and Eli develop a plan to eliminate Holly and her cousins, Nicole and Amanda, while Jer is intent on saving the trio.

The books in the series are:

  • Witch (2002)
  • Curse (2002)
  • Legacy (2003)
  • Spellbound (2003)
  • Resurrection (2009)
Tropes used in Wicked (novel series) include:

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  • Abusive Parents: Michael Deveraux takes this way too far, even going so far as plotting to kill his own son.
  • Action Girl: Almost every female character displays this trope, but especially Holly.
  • Aerith and Bob: Not one of the more extreme examples, but the warlocks range from Michael to Jeraud and the witches have everything from Isabeau to Amanda.
  • Exclusively Evil: There is not a single warlock that is not at least a little evil.
  • Always Save the Girl: Inverted. Holly wants to save Jer from the island of Avalon, even though it would put the rest of her coven in danger.
  • Ancient Tradition: The blind justices.
  • Arranged Marriage: Isabeau and Jean.
  • Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: When Holly becomes a blind justice.
  • Ascended Extra: Anne-Louise Montrachet
  • Astral Projection
    • Jer visits Holly in her dreams and tells her not to search for him.
    • Sasha shows Holly the island of Avalon in another dream.
  • Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other: Nicole and Eli have their moments at the end of Resurrection. And Jean and Isabeau, despite conspiring to kill each others' families, really do care about each other.
  • Badass: Eli, Eve, Nicole, Holly, etc.
  • Badass Family: The Cahors and the Deveraux.
  • Badass Normal: Richard Anderson
  • Bad Powers, Bad People: Warlocks
  • Battle Couple: Quite a few. Holly/Jer, Jer/Kari, Amanda/Tommy, Nicole/Eli, Nicole/Philippe, the list goes on.
  • Beta Couple: Tommy and Amanda
  • Big Bad: The Supreme Coven and Sir William Moore
  • Bilingual Bonus: The books have a heavy amount of French, and later sequences with the Spanish witches involve copious amounts of Spanish.
  • Black and White Morality: Subverted. Although it seems as if this will be the case at first glance, this gets more and more subverted as the books go on.
  • Black Sheep: Jer, a thousand times Jer.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Holly becomes this when she is in thrall to Michael Deveraux.
  • Broken Bird: Jer and Sasha
  • Cain and Abel: Jer and Eli, as well as Jean and Paul-Henri, though the former were arguably a reincarnation of the latter.
  • Can't Catch Up: In Witch & Curse, the Cathers witches display this. However, they more than make up for it by the end of the series.
  • Cast Calculus: It seems like you never get the same combination of characters twice.
  • Catapult Nightmare: Amanda has these very frequently when she, Nicole, Richard, and Owen are staying in the Moores' mansion.
  • Chase Scene: After the battle with Michael Deveraux in Curse, when the Cathers coven gets split up.
  • The Chick: Amanda
  • Chick Magnet: Lampshaded by Eli when he explains that both magic and working out are how he gets girls. And Jer would also definitely count before he was burned by the Black Fire.
  • The Chosen One: Holly, as she possesses both Isabeau's spirit and the most magical power of the age. Nicole was too, when Isabeau tried to possess her first.
  • Cliff Hanger: "That's not Alex Carruthers!"
  • Coming of Age Story: Subverted. The Cathers/Anderson witches are high school seniors when the story starts, and they even attempt to make it in college for a little while. However, that is all quickly given up in favor of fighting evil. Amanda and Tommy try to make up for it, and even get engaged. Nicole loses any enjoyable young-adult years she may have had, though, when she is already a widow with a baby before she turns twenty.
  • The Complainer Is Always Wrong: Kari gets a lot of flack for complaining about a life of danger and magic that she didn't sign up for, and has every reason to hate.
  • Conflict Ball: Holly has to carry this for most of the time once she becomes High Priestess of the Cathers Coven. Jer and Alex toss it back and forth when they are both vying for Holly's affection.
  • Consummate Liar: Eve
  • Could Have Been Messy: Averted. The blood, guts, and gore are described in extreme detail. Resurrection is nauseatingly descriptive at some points.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: At first, all of Michael Deveraux and the Cathers witches' battles go this way. And then in Resurrection, once the Horned God and the Goddess join the final battle, it becomes a chaotic bloodbath where the magical deities kick everyones' ass (until Holly steps in).
  • Dark Action Girl: Eve, definitely. And Holly falls more and more into this category as time goes on.
  • Darkest Hour: Jer, when he learns Holly is in thrall to Michael Deveraux. Holly, when she is possessed by demons from the Nightmare-Dreamtime.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Eli, and Eve gets in some good ones a lot.
  • Distracted by the Sexy: Nicole frequently induces this trope.
  • Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: When Holly is visited by Sasha in a dream, there is the sorcerer's hat in the chamber that Sasha warns her not to touch. We never find out what the sorcerer's hat was.
  • Doomed Hometown: Seattle does not fare too well when Michael Deveraux's fury is unleashed in the form of sea monsters, fires, floods, etc.
  • The Dragon: Michael Deveraux. Although he is conspiring against Sir William, he still pledged loyalty to the Supreme Coven.
  • The Drifter: Jer, after he gets burned by the Black Fire but before he is picked up by Eve.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: Marie-Claire's death
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: Boy, did they ever.
  • Enemy Mine: The Cathers witches are usually fairly reluctant to work with the Mother Coven, and only do so because they are united by a common enemy.
  • Everything's Better with Princesses: Averted. Although the Cahors are very wealthy and influential, Catherine is not a queen and Isabeau is not a princes.
  • Evil Is Burning Hot: Black Fire
  • Evil Old Folks: Sir William
  • Evil Prince: Inverted. James Moore and Jean de Deveraux would definitely count, but they are not princes. They are a rough equivalent, though.
  • Eviler Than Thou: Sir William and Michael Deveraux. Sir William routinely chastises Michael Deveraux as though he were a small child.
  • False Start: Jer and Holly in Witch & Curse.
  • Fate Worse Than Death: The Black Fire times a million. Also, in Resurrection, Jean pours a powder on Catherine de Cahors that sends her to Hell.
  • Feuding Families: The Cahors and the Deveraux.
  • Field Power Effect: Inverted. Water is especially dangerous for Cahors and all who are beloved of a Cahors.
  • First Girl Wins: Averted, in the case of Jer and Holly. Before he met Holly, Jer met Amanda, who had the hots for him; Nicole, who was possessed by Isabeau's spirit; and Kari, whom he dated. Before Holly met Jer, she met Tommy Nagai, though he clearly had something going on with Amanda.
  • Fish Out of Temporal Water: Sasha, when she travels back in time and gets stuck.
  • Flash Back: Used heavily. Isabeau and Jean's story is told throughout the course of the books, as well as the stories of other Cahors, such as Cassandra, Ginny, Veronica, and Giselle.
  • Foreshadowing: Avalon is mentioned before Jer and Nicole and imprisoned there.
  • The Four Loves: Storge, played straight with the Cathers/Andersons and inverted with the Deverauxs. Phileo, mainly in Tommy and Amanda's relationship in the beginning. Eros, used a lot with Isabeau/Jean, Holly/Jer, Nicole/Philippe, and Amanda/Tommy. Agape, which is the biggest one. Most of the characters show willingness to die for the ones they love.
  • Free-Range Children: Holly's parents are dead, Nicole and Amanda's mother is dead and their father goes along on the adventures with them, and Jer and Eli's mother is missing and their father is a murderer. They really do not have to deal with much parental involvement.
  • Freudian Excuse: Jer's identity issues spring from being the Black Sheep in a family of evil warlocks. Eli's violent nature is from being raised by a sadistic murderer who denied him fatherly affection. Eve is cruel and apathetic because she was raised by the Supreme Coven.
  • Full-Contact Magic
  • The Gift: Holly
  • Gondor Calls for Aid: The Cathers witches ask the Mother Coven for help in their feud with Michael Deveraux.
  • Grand Finale: The final battle leaves warlocks and witches questioning how righteous the Horned God and the Goddess truly are, as they both went into the battle and did not discern witches from warlocks when they went on a killing rampage.
  • Great Escape: Nicole and Jer's escape from Avalon.
  • Happy Ending: As surprising as it is, given the series' dark and despairing nature, the characters do genuinely get a happy ending. Holly and Jer get to live in an alternate dimension for all eternity, Tommy and Amanda are engaged, Nicole and Eli are going to raise Owen, and Eve and Derek get together.
  • He Who Fights Monsters: Many characters point out that Holly, in the interest of protecting her coven, has increasingly turned to the darkness for power.
  • The Heavy: Michael Deveraux
  • Held Gaze: Jer and Holly
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Michael Deveraux. He raised his children to be merciless killers, so it should not have been a surprise when Eli killed him.
  • Hot Mom: Marie-Claire


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