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The Rules of Survival

174 statements
33 feature instances
5 referencing feature instances

The Rules of Survival	type	TVTItem
The Rules of Survival	label	The Rules of Survival
The Rules of Survival	page	TheRulesOfSurvival
The Rules of Survival	comment	The Rules of Survival is a 2006 Young Adult novel by Nancy Werlin.Thirteen-year-old Matthew, eleven-year-old Callie, and five-year-old Emmy live with their sometimes-abusive, sometimes-loving mother Nikki, trying to survive the worst of her mood swings and keep her as happy as possible. When Matthew and Callie meet a stranger named Murdoch who is protective of abused children, they believe he might be the key to a better life. But Nikki is extremely possessive of what's hers, and she's not giving up her place in her children's lives that easily.
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The Rules of Survival	processingComment	Dropped link to AnAesop: Not a Feature - IGNORE
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The Rules of Survival / int_19851b86	type	The Sociopath
The Rules of Survival / int_19851b86	comment	The Sociopath: Nikki ticks all the boxes of a low-functioning one; she's superficially charming, is capable of hiding her worst traits under a Mask of Sanity, has a total Lack of Empathy even for her own family, was cruel even as a child, has a major reckless streak, and harbors no remorse for any of the terrible things she's done.
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The Rules of Survival / int_1994ba0b	type	Gone Horribly Right
The Rules of Survival / int_1994ba0b	comment	Gone Horribly Right: When Murdoch has a restraining order against Nikki, he attempts to get her angry and provoke her into doing something stupid that would break it, getting her in legal trouble. That's exactly what happens when she drives recklessly and gets into a car accident involving Julie, who is paralyzed as a result and loses the ability to walk.
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The Rules of Survival / int_24a045cd	type	Wants a Prize for Basic Decency
The Rules of Survival / int_24a045cd	comment	Wants a Prize for Basic Decency: Nikki accuses her children of being ungrateful if they don't thank her for doing the things a mom is supposed to do — that is, things like make them dinner and take them out to restaurants and amusement parks.
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The Rules of Survival / int_29292e6d	type	Walking the Earth
The Rules of Survival / int_29292e6d	comment	Walking the Earth: After being caught kidnapping Emmy, Nikki is ordered by Murdoch to leave Massachusetts and never return if she doesn't want to go to jail. She spends the next two years drifting around the United States, living her life how she wants — sleeping with random men, doing drugs, and who knows what else. But every now and then, Matthew and Callie get letters from her. (Some are addressed to Emmy, but her older siblings make sure she never sees a single one.) Some of them are loving messages asking the children about their lives, telling them to dress warmly in the winter and eat their vegetables, while some of them are angry rants blaming Matthew and Murdoch for how her life turned out, threatening to kill them and herself.
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The Rules of Survival / int_2d4fa515	type	Ax-Crazy
The Rules of Survival / int_2d4fa515	comment	Ax-Crazy: Nikki is prone to lashing out violently when things don't go her way, even towards her own children.
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The Rules of Survival / int_34dcfc96	type	Kick the Dog
The Rules of Survival / int_34dcfc96	comment	Kick the Dog: Nikki hits Matthew in the face with a bag of mussels when she thinks he doesn't appreciate that she worked hard to cook an elaborate meal of paella for him and his sisters.
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The Rules of Survival / int_36ae9f5d	type	Traumatic Haircut
The Rules of Survival / int_36ae9f5d	comment	Traumatic Haircut: One time, when Nikki was angry that her own hair was less than a full yard long, she impulsively cut almost all of Callie's hair off to "show her how important hair was to a woman". For the rest of that summer, Callie wore baseball caps to hide the bald patches in her hair.
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The Rules of Survival / int_3ae6199a	type	Psychopathic Manchild
The Rules of Survival / int_3ae6199a	comment	Psychopathic Manchild: Nikki is a grown woman in her thirties with three children who has no impulse control or ability to think things through before she does them, never takes responsibility for her worst actions, and throws destructive tantrums when she feels she has been wronged or doesn't get what she wants.
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The Rules of Survival / int_45398e01	type	Psycho Knife Nut
The Rules of Survival / int_45398e01	comment	Psycho Knife Nut: When Matthew was little, Nikki once held a big kitchen knife to his neck for stealing a cookie from the kitchen.
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The Rules of Survival / int_4b4f6a2f	type	Mood-Swinger
The Rules of Survival / int_4b4f6a2f	comment	Mood-Swinger: Nikki can go from loving mother to Ax-Crazy psychopath and back at the drop of a hat. After Murdoch breaks up with her, she takes Matthew, Callie and Emmy out for a family fun day at IHOP and Six Flags to prove she's a better parent than him, then on the car ride home, decides they haven't been grateful enough and drives the car into oncoming traffic until they scream that they love her.
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The Rules of Survival / int_59b9f4df	type	You Are Fat
The Rules of Survival / int_59b9f4df	comment	You Are Fat: Nikki's favorite way to insult her sister Bobbie is to make fun of her weight. When Bobbie tries to welcome her home for Christmas dinner after she comes home from jail:
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The Rules of Survival / int_5e7163c9	type	Alternative Character Interpretation
The Rules of Survival / int_5e7163c9	comment	Alternative Character Interpretation: In-universe, with Matthew's aunt, Bobbie. She helps Matthew and his sisters get away from their abusive mother Nikki (her sister) and later takes them in. He later learns that Nikki was the mean and manipulative one during her and Bobbie's childhood and would always get Bobbie in trouble for things she didn't do. Although Matthew loves his aunt, he privately wonders if part of her motivation for helping them get away from Nikki was to finally get some revenge on her evil sister for ruining her childhood and enjoy watching her life fall apart due to her own actions.
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The Rules of Survival / int_63b02752	type	Hair-Trigger Temper
The Rules of Survival / int_63b02752	comment	Hair-Trigger Temper: Doing literally anything Nikki doesn't like can make her fly into an explosive rage. Her son Matthew has spent his entire life walking on eggshells to keep her happy and making sure his sisters do the same.
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The Rules of Survival / int_69681e01	type	Big Brother Instinct
The Rules of Survival / int_69681e01	comment	Big Brother Instinct: The majority of Matthew's life has been spent trying to protect his two younger sisters from the wrath of their abusive mother. His first memory is comforting a crying Callie when he was four and she was two, while Nikki was smashing chairs in the kitchen.
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The Rules of Survival / int_780a078e	type	Self-Made Orphan
The Rules of Survival / int_780a078e	comment	Self-Made Orphan: Murdoch killed his abusive father at thirteen. It is for this reason that he stops Matthew from doing the same to Nikki. Although Matthew isn't sure Murdoch should have stopped him, Murdoch doesn't regret doing so.
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The Rules of Survival / int_9013aef6	type	Mask of Sanity
The Rules of Survival / int_9013aef6	comment	Mask of Sanity: When she's dating Murdoch, Nikki is able to pretend to be a loving mother and girlfriend, but not forever. He starts realizing how crazy she is when the family is at the beach and she dangles Emmy by her ankles over some sharp rocks.
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The Rules of Survival / int_91672d3e	type	Children Are Innocent
The Rules of Survival / int_91672d3e	comment	Children Are Innocent: Emmy is a bright, happy little girl who is protected from the worst of Nikki's abuses by her older siblings. When Nikki takes the kids out for a fun day at IHOP and Six Flags, Matthew and Callie are on edge all day waiting for something bad to happen and have to force themselves to pretend they're having fun, while Emmy has no idea what's coming and enjoys herself the entire time.
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The Rules of Survival / int_916c72b3	type	Rule of Symbolism
The Rules of Survival / int_916c72b3	comment	Rule of Symbolism: Murdoch works as a home building and improvement contractor; he loves fixing broken-down houses. He's pretty good at fixing people, too.
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The Rules of Survival / int_9633f14b	type	Badass Bystander
The Rules of Survival / int_9633f14b	comment	Badass Bystander: Matthew and Callie's first experience with Murdoch is when they see him protect a kid getting screamed at and shook by his father (a big, intimidating man, it should be noted) by taking the kid away, telling the father to hit him (Murdoch) instead, and firmly telling the kid it's wrong for anyone to hurt him, no matter who does it.
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The Rules of Survival / int_973d220f	type	Never My Fault
The Rules of Survival / int_973d220f	comment	Never My Fault: Nikki abuses her children for their entire lives, harasses Murdoch after he breaks up with her, hits Julie with her car, and generally makes life hell for her entire family after losing custody of her children. Yet, when Matthew and Murdoch show up to rescue Emmy after she's been kidnapped by Nikki and forced to drink so much alcohol that the poisoning nearly kills her, Nikki can only hysterically scream at Murdoch and blame him for the mess her life has become. Murdoch has no rebuttal and simply tells her to leave the state and never return if she doesn't want to go to jail.
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The Rules of Survival / int_a70223	type	Karma Houdini
The Rules of Survival / int_a70223	comment	Karma Houdini: Deconstructed — Matthew wants to kill his physically and emotionally abusive mother, especially after she kidnapped his little sister. Instead, he lets her be. But she can no longer have custody over her children and can't return home out of fear of being thrown into jail for kidnapping. From time to time, she still sends letters to her children, sometimes warm, sometimes threatening, but she has no power over their lives anymore. She can live her own life however she wants, flirty and irresponsible, but as Matthew noted, she is getting older and harsh reality is catching up to her. One of her favorite tactics is using her beauty to seduce random men into doing what she wants, but as she ages, she's going to find it harder to do that.
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The Rules of Survival / int_b11ac9f5	type	Abusive Parents
The Rules of Survival / int_b11ac9f5	comment	Abusive Parents: Nikki is a deranged mother (implied to have borderline and/or narcissistic personality disorder) who switches on a dime between being overly affectionate to her three children and cruelly abusing them. Her oldest son Matthew recounts an incident where she held a knife to his neck for stealing cookies, as well as another where she took him and his sisters to eat at IHOP, then on the way home, decided the kids weren't being grateful enough for the food, so she drove the car into incoming traffic and didn't stop until they screamed that they loved her. After going to jail for trying to run down her ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend with her car, and losing custody of her children to her sister and ex-husband, she decides to torment them as much as she can in revenge. Eventually she kidnaps her youngest daughter Emmy and tries to poison her to death by forcing her to drink a very large amount of alcohol. Besides Nikki, the first time Matthew and Callie meet Murdoch is when he confronts a father who screams at and shakes his son for taking a package of Reese's Pieces from the shelf.
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The Rules of Survival / int_bb18a227	type	It's All About Me
The Rules of Survival / int_bb18a227	comment	It's All About Me: Nikki cares only about her own happiness, or more precisely her freedom to indulge in uncontrolled hedonism, and wants everyone to bow to her whims. At the beginning of the novel, after Murdoch saves a little kid from being beaten by his father, his date's only concern is that there might have been a fight where she might have gotten hurt, and that might have ruined their date.
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The Rules of Survival / int_bc37d80d	type	So Proud of You
The Rules of Survival / int_bc37d80d	comment	So Proud of You: How Matthew feels when he sees Emmy pray to God that she hopes Murdoch is safe and wants him to know she loves him, right in front of Nikki (who has recently become Murdoch's Psycho Ex-Girlfriend).
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The Rules of Survival / int_be009bbc	type	Alliterative Name
The Rules of Survival / int_be009bbc	comment	Alliterative Name: Murdoch McIlvane.
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The Rules of Survival / int_bf1255fa	type	Really Gets Around
The Rules of Survival / int_bf1255fa	comment	Really Gets Around: A PG-13(ish) version — while sex is never mentioned explicitly, it's pretty obvious what Nikki is doing when she brings strange men home and goes out to bars to seduce them into doing her bidding. Plus, she has three children from two different fathers.
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The Rules of Survival / int_bfc84d44	type	Calling Parents by Their Name
The Rules of Survival / int_bfc84d44	comment	Calling Parents by Their Name: Matt refers to his estranged father as Ben. He thinks that it's because even when he was little, he was aware that he couldn't depend on Ben to protect him from Nikki's wrath.
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The Rules of Survival / int_c1e6f5bd	type	Don't Split Us Up
The Rules of Survival / int_c1e6f5bd	comment	Don't Split Us Up: One of the reasons Matthew and Callie never told anyone about their abusive mother was that they didn't want to risk being separated from each other and Emmy in foster care.
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The Rules of Survival / int_daecc607	type	BigSisterBully
The Rules of Survival / int_daecc607	comment	Big Sister Bully: When Nikki was a teenager, she would always get her sister Bobbie in trouble by lying and saying she did things that she didn't. Even as an adult, she makes fun of Bobbie behind her back and makes her children participate.
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The Rules of Survival / int_e24e15a6	type	Has a Type
The Rules of Survival / int_e24e15a6	comment	Has a Type: Murdoch inexplicably seems to be attracted to mean and selfish women like Nikki and the woman he was with at the convenience store. He wonders himself why he's not into nice women like Julie.
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The Rules of Survival / int_f65dd841	type	Mrs. Hypothetical
The Rules of Survival / int_f65dd841	comment	Mrs. Hypothetical: A variation of the trope occurs when Matthew finds a piece of paper Callie's written on with the names of their family with "McIlvane" (Murdoch's last name) after them, expressing her hope that Nikki will marry Murdoch and the family will be happy forever. Then, he sees that she's written several variations of "Callie McIlvane," and finally in shaky letters, "Dr. Callie McIlvane." He's unnerved by it, because he thinks her hopes are getting too high, and life with Nikki has taught them to always be wary of disaster striking.
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The Rules of Survival / int_f829585a	type	Beauty Is Bad
The Rules of Survival / int_f829585a	comment	Beauty Is Bad: Nikki is a beautiful and flirtatious woman who easily seduces men into doing her bidding. She's also a pretty good contender for the worst mother in the world.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

The Rules of Survival	hasFeature	American Literature (N to S) / int_baba86a8
The Rules of Survival	hasFeature	Department of Child Disservices / int_baba86a8
The Rules of Survival	hasFeature	Realistic Fiction / int_baba86a8
The Rules of Survival	hasFeature	Traumatic Haircut / int_baba86a8
The Rules of Survival	hasFeature	Young Adult Literature / int_baba86a8

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