Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson

Their odor and grimy appearance are often mentioned. Justified in that they live in the filth and squalor of the abandoned subway. Synapse Cordons uses 'baseball-sized lump of what looked like modelling clay' to create 'stake sprouting a good eight feet high' that define the cordon's borders, and kicking the cordon creates a 'synapse surge of current', a.k.a a 'daze charge' inside the field, that 'short-circuit neuromuscular system'. The Paralyzer: Synapse Cordons and their portable version, the Dazer.Our Zombies Are Different: Type V Voodoo zombies.Justified by the fact that it seems to be common practice to wait to name children until a certain amount of time has passed. No Name Given: Ti-Jeanne's child is named only 'Baby'.Missing Mom: Ti-Jeanne's mother left her in the care of Gros-Jeanne.Luke, I Am Your Father: Rudy is Ti-Jeanne's grandfather.Landmarking the Hidden Base: Toronto crime lord and obeah man Rudy has his offices in the main pod of the CN Tower.Hologram: Presumably, it's what a 'deeplight projector' makes, as it creates the visuals and noise of angry kids made to scare people away from the actual kids who live in the subway.Forced to Watch: A paralyzed Tony is forced to watch while Rudy flays Mabel alive.Flaying Alive: Rudy does this to his zombified housekeeper Mabel while a paralyzed Tony is Forced to Watch.He is finally freed of this torture when Ti-Jeanne shoots the duppy bowl, and his spirit returns to earth by occupying Baby's body. Fate Worse than Death - Instead of allowing Dunston to pass to Guinea Land after killing him, Rudy forces his tormented soul to a purgatory-type world where he is forced to outrun murderous spirits for all eternity.Family Theme Naming: Gros-Jeanne, Mi-Jeanne and Ti-Jeanne - Big, Medium and Small Jeanne - Grandmother, mother and child.Domestic Abuse - Rudy is depicted to have hit his wife Gros-Jeanne.Chekhov's Gunman - Crazy Betty who is revealed to be Ti-Jeanne's mother.Body Horror - Crazy Betty gouged her eyes out years ago and walks around blind with the holes in her head still visible.She is ordered by Rudy to kill Ti-Jeanne, and the helpless mother is fully aware and helpless to stop the spirit as she burns her own daughter alive. The reveal that it's actually Mi-Jeanne's soul ramps this trope up to eleven.

And I Must Scream - The duppy is conscious of what it's doing when Rudy sends it after his victims, although it despises him and wants to be free.TEMAGAMI INDIANS TAKE ONTARIO TO COURT: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL FUNDS TEMEAUGAMI ANISHNABAI LAND CLAIM FEDERAL GOVT. He'd cut headlines from newspapers that were twelve, thirteen years old In the twelve years since the Riots, repeated efforts to reclaim and rebuild the core were failing Large-scale chaos in the city core: the Riots

Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson