Wild Ride

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A novel by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer.

Welcome to Dreamland Adventure Park! We've got the best ice cream to be found anywhere, a fortune telling booth that's very accurate, the Dragon Roller Coaster, and everyone loves the Tunnel of Love, right?

Oh, and did I mention that the entire park is a prison for five Sealed Evil in a Can demons? And that five people (known as the Guardia) are magically chosen to keep them imprisoned?

Of course, Halloween is coming up again, and you know what that means...

Tropes used in Wild Ride include:

• Action Girl: Weaver
• The Alcoholic: Ethan and Glenda have tendencies towards this at the start.
• Badass Family
• Berserk Button: Tura about cheaters (see below), Vanth about kids
• Bond Creatures: Frankie the raven, also has Mysterious Animal Senses and Amplified Animal Aptitude.
• But We Used a Condom: Mab and Joe
• The Chosen One: the Guardia members
• Color Coded for Your Convenience: though the colors don't exactly line up as listed here.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Ray
• Deal with the Devil: Ray
• Demonic Possession
• Devil in Plain Sight: It's obvious to the reader early on, if not the characters, that Joe is really Fufluns.
• Disney Owns This Trope: one ride at the park bears a significant resemblance to the It's A Small World Ride. Frequently prompts the question, "Hawaii is a country?"
• Disney Villain Death: Ursula
• The Easy Way or the Hard Way: "I always wanted to say that."
• Embarrassing First Name: Bathsheba Weaver.
• Emotion Eater
• Evil Uncle: Ray
• Face Heel Turn: Young Fred
• Fire and Brimstone Hell: subverted
• Five-Bad Band: the Untouchables
  • The Big Bad = Kharos
  • The Dragon and The Brute: Selvans
  • Evil Genius = Fufluns (okay, this is a stretch, but he does think differently from the rest)
  • The Dark Chick: both Vanth and Tura
• Five-Man Band: the Trickster, Seer, Hunter, Sorceress, and Keeper of the Guardia.
  • The Hero and The Big Guy = The Hunter
  • The Lancer = The Keeper
  • The Smart Guy = The Trickster
  • The Chick is done by both The Sorceress and The Seer.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Weaver, of all people.
• The Glasses Gotta Go: Mab likes it when Oliver has his off.
• Goggles Do Something Unusual: spot demon activity
• Government Agency of Fiction: Department 51
• Grand Theft Me: Fufluns does this to Young Fred's Empty Shell body so he can be the official Trickster of the Guardia.
• Heel Face Turn: Fufluns, Vanth, and Tura aren't on board with the "everyone goes to hell" plan.
• Heroic Lineage: most Guardia members are related to/descended from each other.
• High Octane Nightmare Fuel
• Holier Than Thou: Mab's mother
• Humanity Is Infectious
• Human Mom, Nonhuman Dad: interesting variation on this. Ethan and Mab were both produced by human parents, but both their dads were possessed by Kharos at the time of conception, giving them a bit of mutant power. Mab got a double dose because her mother was possessed by Vanth at the time as well. Presumably baby Delphie will have a triple dose of demon exposure.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Mab, or at least be able to fake normal.
• Innocent Bystander
• Kaleidoscope Eyes: indicate when a demon's inside someone or something or if your parent(s) were possessed by a demon while having sex.
• Killed Off for Real
• Last-Name Basis: Weaver and Joe Oliver.
• Leitmotif: "What Love Can Do."
• Living on Borrowed Time: Ethan, at first.
• Living Toys: Beemer
• Long Lost Sibling: Ethan and Mab have the same demon father, if not biological parents. Uh, whatever that means. Possibly Half-Identical Twins, since Glenda notices a strong resemblance between the two, and since they were conceived on the same night, they have similar birthdays.
• Mama Bear: Vanth
• Married to the Job: Mab
• Meaningful Name: Ethan John Wayne. Well, his mom did know what he was going to grow up to be...
• The Medic: Oliver
• The Mole
• Mooks: the minions
• My Beloved Smother: Vanth
• Our Demons Are Different
• Our Dragons Are Different
• Preacher's Kid: Weaver
• Prequel: "Wild Night"
• Prophecy Twist: who Mab ends up with is not the Joe she thinks.
• Psychic Powers: Delphia and Mab
• The Reveal
• Sealed Evil in a Teddy Bear
• Sixth Ranger: Weaver and Oliver
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: Ethan
• Take Over the World: Kharos's goal, of course.
• Team Mom: Glenda
• Technical Pacifist: Oliver would prefer to keep demons alive for study purposes, but is well aware of the difficulties of this.
• Those Two Guys: Skinny and Quentin
• Trademark Favorite Food: ice cream for Cindy
• Trickster Archetype: Fufluns and the Trickster Guardia member
• True Companions
• Unexplained Recovery: Glenda
• You Said You Would Let Them Go: Fufluns to Kharos
• Your Cheating Heart: Tura's job in life is to take care of these people. Permanently.