Notes

CyberJoly Drim Antoniny Liedtke oraz A kochał ją, że aż strach Anny Brzezińskiej.

Marta Kisiel - Jawor 15
Aleksandra Janusz - Dróżniczka 43
Ewa Białołęcka - Tylko nie w głowę 67
Magdalena Kubasiewicz - Dokąd odeszły cienie 109
Aleksandra Zielińska - Po drugie 147
Anna Hrycyszyn - Z góry nie patrzą 165
Aneta Jadowska - Zielona zemsta 197
Anna Kańtoch - Szanowny panie M. 229
Martyna Raduchowska - Bezduch 253
Milena Wójtowicz - Lot Wieloryba 299
Agnieszka Hałas - Jest nad zatoką dąb zielony 333
Anna Nieznaj - Ognisty warkocz 369

mood whiplash: it's an anthology, after all, as a rule of a thumb - funny stories are better than the serious ones


Aleksandra Janusz
* future imperfect: in dróżniczka, people confuse tuna with dolphin (both are extinct) and attribute ''both'' human-like intelligence; obviously, michiko dreaming about eating tuna is considered a serious faux pas
* After the end:
** kroniki rozdartego świata
** dróżniczka
* It will never catch on: Played with in Maestro, where the phonograph is treated more like a job-stealing robot, but the maestro himself doesn't mind, showing what human can do, inventing ragtime in ahead-of-time phonograph
* used future:
** dróżniczka
** kroniki
* kind-hearted cat lover: if someone owns a cat in her works, they are nice and/or gentle people
* what measure is non-human
** ciasteczko dla lorelei
** dragons in kroniki
* urban fantasy:
** ciasteczko
** dom wschodzącego słońca
** cichostopy
* mundane utility:
** kroniki are running on this
** elves (pixies) from
* doing in wizardy: a running theme of her fantasy works
* sex sells: invoked in-universe in ciasteczko, since elves are genderless, but Paweł still has to sell them to marketing targets
* unphased everyman: a recurring trope in her works, more in terms of "seen it all" professionals than "gosh, we are so cool" adventurers
* horror reveal: ciasteczko dla lorelai is an invasion story; less revealing if you read it with original, really damn scary doodle by janusz
* x meet y: lorelai is gremlins x equilibrium
* what happened with the mouse: alain from maestro wonders what happened with the original cyllinder with maestro's improvisation
* absent minded professor/inventor
* angler fish: wrózie
* i need a freaking drink: paweł, because nobody saves the world while sober
* slept through apocalypse: kinda
* apocalypse anarchy: after teh "winter saving time" kicks in for wrózie
* stealing from dead/i know mortal kombat:
** paweł contemplates frisking a dead guard, because they carry keys and cards in games... then realises he's not drunk enough to cover his scruples
--> Chwilę później przypomniał sobie, że kluczy przeważnie należy szukać w szafkach na klucze, w tym przypadku na portierni.
** cichostopy is watching horror movies for inspiration for his "job"
* downer ending: paweł dies, wrózie just start a new biological cycle
* impossible to lose trinket: cichostopy can't get rid of a ring from the pair he used to "marry" warsaw
* vigilante man: cichostopy


Ewa Białołęcka - Tylko nie w głowę
* ApeShallNeverKillApe: Subverted. The zombies in the nearby greenery square, unable to find anyone to chase or eat, eventually attack one of their own and beat him to death (which takes them a lot of time and effort), but seem to be confused and even distressed by doing so.
* AliensInCardiff: Zombies in an unspecified small town somewhere in the Polish province
* BlackComedy: It's a ZombieApocalypse... [[AliensInCardiff in provincional Poland]]. As experienced by an over-medicated hikikomori. Who fights zombies by [[{{Slapstick}} tying their laces]].
* ConditionedToAcceptHorror:
** What's thrilling about [[Creator/StephenKing King]] and his horror set in some small Maine town, when you have zombies right outside your window?
** [[spoiler: The volunteer stopped counting after dispatching his first 20 zombies, but it's implied it's he reached three digits]].
* CosyCatastrophe: It turns out to be [[spoiler: (mostly) controllable and with organised, functional government response going on since day one. The main character not only slept through the apocalypse, but also the evacuation, and spend week on her own in area that was simply declared "empty" of humans]].
* CrazyCatLady: In a very literal sense. The main character is treated for severe depression and so over-medicated, she spends first two days of the ZombieApocalypse unsure if he finally went full gonzo, or the world have had actually ended.
* DogFoodDiet: The main character ends up so hungry, she contemplates eating her cat's food. The only reason why she stops herself is that the survival of the cat is her main motivation, plus she has other things to eat and the cant doesn't.
* DramaticIrony: The main character has a semi-stocked kitchen of non-perishable food and running water, but no way to cook anything, as she has an electric oven - and there is no power since she woke up the first day. She spends most of the story looking for a portable grill and stuffing herself with corn flakes.
* DrivenToSuicide: She contemplates it, being, well, insane. But after quick check list, she figures that she might not do it correctly, even via overdose, and, much worse, who would take care of her cat, who would obviously suffer if let lose into the wild?
* GenreSavvy: Sufficient to say, our nameless heroine is well-versed in zombie fiction. She however laments that most of the things she learned from watching ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' is useless, because she lives in provincional Poland. She also wonders if being bitten gonna work as it did in ''Film/WorldWarZ'', where on the count of 11 she will turn into a mindless man-eating monster, and follows [[Film/DawnOfTheDead2004 Andy's advice]] to stock up water once it fully sinks in just how messed up the situation is.
* ImprovisedWeapon: meat tenderizer; mop handle with a knife taped to it
* ItsQuietTooQuiet: The first thing that tips off the main character that something is ''seriously'' wrong is that there is a constant, complete silence, all day long, with nothing taking her out of her anti-depresant slumber. Electricity can be off for few hours, but children not screaming at the playground and people not arguing on the nearby parking lot just doesn't happen.
* KindheartedCatLover: Despite her quirks and illness, the main character is deep down a loving and caring person, that also can't stand violence and doesn't even try to harm flesh-eating zombies.
* LemonyNarrator: Not only the story is narrated from the first person perspective for the most part, but the main character has an unspecified mental condition and is heavily medicated, so she has the most random tangents out of the blue.
* LivingEmotionalCrutch: The main character has a cat that apparently served this role even long before the story opened. The only reason the main character gets out of her bed is because the cat comes asking for food. And she doesn't go through suicide attempt (also implied to not be the first one), because who would then look for a cat? The cat even has a MeaningfulName - Miłka[[note]]"Nice One" with a female inflect[[/note]]
* NoDeadBodyPoops: Averted. Much to disgust of the main character, the first "real" zombie she meets shat himself upon his death. She's more terrified of the horrid smell than the fact a creature straight out of the B-movie is chasing her around the apartment block. The particular zombie even ends up nicknamed "Stinker" from that moment on.
* NoNameGiven: The only name we ever learn is that of the cat - Miłka.
* NotAZombie: The blonde neighbour eating the chicken in a really animalistic way... It takes the main character quite some time to process it and connect the dots, but for her credit, she's stoned silly on antidepressants and apparently had hallucinations in her life, so that really isn't her fault for rejecting her first encounter with a zombie as such.
* NotUsingTheZWord: Averted. After having a nasty encounter with one outside the apartment block, the main character not only instantly calls the shambling, undead a zombie, but also name-drops bunch of real-life zombie finction, panicking that her life can't go ''that'' bad. In fact, she then playfully inflect the word zombie throughout the story, trying to find the right way to use it in Polish grammar.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: First of all, they are quite fast - not running fast, but lacking [[ZombieGait the gait]], which obviously unnerves the main character when she's given a proper chase, rather than easily dropping "Stinker". They seem to propagate by spores and are in general fast to get covered in mold. But probably most importantly, they are presented as hapless, bumbling and just as much confused by the situation as the main character.
* PocketProtector: Thank God for [[spoiler: bags of cat litter]].
* RageAgainstTheHeavens: Downplayed, but she ends up asking God why he hates her so much for not bringing a swift, painless end, but instead forcing her to wiggle, squirm and fight for her life.
* ReclaimedByNature: In a sense. After just few days, boars and foxes that were so far only showing up in the middle of the night, are flollicking between the buildings, looking for easy forage now that there are no humans in sight and everything went deadly silent.
* ScoobyDoobyDoors: The chase by "Stinker" around the apartment block looks like a variant of those.
* {{Slapstick}}: When facing three zombies, she just push them around, and ties their laces together before they can get up. And since they can't connect what's up, they just keep tripping over their own legs.
* SleptThroughTheApocalypse: The story opens with the main character realising she just did this and missed all the action in an over-medicated haze.
* ThouShaltNotKill: Because she's a pacifist, and ViolenceIsDisturbing - especially when you have to do it yourself to someone who can easily just trip on his own leg.
* TitleDrop:
-->Anywhere, but the head! They've got spores there!
* UnreliableExpositor: It is established in the second paragraph that the main character, who is narrating the story, is heavily sedated and apparently mentally unstable. This makes the entire story a play - is she experiencing real ZombieApocalypse, or did she go completely mental and the story is told ThroughTheEyesOfMadness?
* UnreliableNarrator: The story gets the full mileage out of the first person narration done by a main character that is a social shut-in with bunch of anxieties regarding human interaction and being heavily sedated almost non-stop for her severe depression.
* ViolenceIsDisturbing: [[spoiler: Not only due to the fact that fighting for your life with a meat tenderizer or an improvised spear is disturbing by itself, but also how violent other humans turn out to be when dealing with zombies, which makes the main character want to puke]].
HumansAreTheRealMonsters: Since the zombies are so damn hapless, just about anyone actually killing them comes off as a heartless monster.
* ZombieApocalypse: The main premise of the story.

Aneta Jadowska - Zielona zemsta
* AerithAndBob: Klon, Malina, Aronia[[note]]Maple, Raspberry, Chokeberry... you can probably see the pattern here[[/note]], but also regular, at least in Poland, names like Janusz, Bronisław or Wiktor. Notably, Malina ''is'' a real name in Poland, but in-universe, it's clearly on the Aerith side of the trope.
* BestServedCold: It takes Klon weeks for the whole elaborate plan to kick off, but the results are spectacular: [[spoiler: Dziurlikowski's mansion, along with their lumberyard, ends up overgrown by a lunar skorfydia, a rare, endangered plant that, as the name implies, grows during full moon. Grows ''[[AlienKudzu really]]'' [[AlienKudzu fast and big]]. And it can only be removed by a highly-competent and licensed green mage, to be moved to a nature reserve, which costs extra]]. In other words - Klon made his family business flourish, while turning the life of his bully into a hell.
-->Apparently, green mages like their revange served cold, then heat up, then cool off again.
* CursedWithAwesome: There is a hex known as "Curse of the Three". It operates as LaserGuidedKarma - whatever you will do, it will come back threefold. Be a dick, and you will suffer. Be a nice person, and you will win the main lottery ticket.
* FirstPersonSmartass: Malina is barely out of highschool, yet considers herself to be the smartest person in the room and makes that known through her narration, always full of snark.
* ForcedTransformation:
** On raw reflex, panicked Malina [[PerilousMarriageProposal turned Klon into a goat when he proposed to her]]. He got better few hours later.
** Meanwhile, the old grimoire of her grandma has a spell that turns ''penis into a venomous snake'', which then attacks its "owner".
* GreenThumb: Almost literally, as a sort of magical power. However, the "green" magic is super-picky when it comes to its rules and how one can even use it in the first place
* HugeGuyTinyGirl: Klon is tall and slender, fit for a basketball player. Malina is not only tiny, but also heavily underweight, looking still like a child despite being 20.
* IneptMage: More in tune of "pretty lame range of magic power" than "can't cast spells properly", but Malina has very limited access to magic as such. Especially when compared with her mother or the infamous witch that was her grandma
* OurWitchesAreDifferent: The main character comes from a witch lineage, with all the curses, cauldrons and what not, but also dancing naked around fires during solistices, cultivating various folk believes and being high on goth fashion. Or at least Malina is, being in her "rebel teen" stage.
* MundaneUtility: Green magic, which is pretty much your generic fantasy earth magic, as a way of running a landscape architecture company, florist shop and a tree school.
* NoodleIncident: Somewhere in the past, Klon, a green mage, tried to propose to Malina, a witch. She panicked and on pure instinct turned him into a billy goat.
* RulesLawyer:
** Young Dziurlikowski figured very early on that Klon would make a great pick-up kid, because as a green mage, he ''has to'' TurnTheOtherCheek, or else he will lose his GreenFinger. Forever. Hence the school runt was constantly picking on the biggest kid in his class, knowing he will never get smacked back.
** [[spoiler: Klon's entire plan hinges on doing most harm possible to Dziurlikowski family, without displeasing the green magic. He spends weeks germinating seeds of a very rare, yet endangered AlienKudzu and plants it all over Dziurlikowski's home and lumberyard, turning both into a magic jungle by the time of next full moon]].
* SchoolyardBullyAllGrownUp: Except Wiktor is still a massive cunt.
* ShamelessSelfPromoter: It's a tie-in to an ongoing book series by Jadowska and the story itself is the only one that wasn't written specifically for the anthology.
* ThemeNaming: All the "weird" names are plant-related.
* UnreliableNarrator: It's narrated by Malina, a snarky, feisty 20 yo witch with serious grudges against various people, so whatever she says, has to be taken with a grain of salt, because she just won't stop attributing things to people.
* UrbanFantasy: It's contemporary provinctional Poland, with more or less real-life history happening, except also magic galore and in the open.
* WillTheyOrWontThey: [[spoiler: Malina and Klon eventually do hook up, just not in this story]].

Milena Wójtowicz - Lot Wieloryba
* AliensInCardiff: [[SpaceWhale Flying whale]] over Wrocław.
* AnachronicOrder: The story keeps jumping between various points of main character's life, along with progress of her current [[TheCaper heist job]].
* BrilliantButLazy: Even discussed toward the main character. She's clearly ''proud'' of being a no-good slacker.
* DatingWhatDaddyHates: She originally went to bed with a student from Senegal, wanting to rill up Pa. Instead and to her dismay, he congratulated her on "at least having a boy from ''here''". So her next boyfriend was an alien calf.
* DeadpanSnarker: The main character is a professional thief that lives in a shadow of her father's political "[[RabbleRouser activity]]" that's constantly dragged by police thanks to it. It's only natural she developed this attitude after n-th time of being tangled into Pa's mess, ''especially'' when dealing with law enforcement.
* EleventhHourSuperpower: She's a regular, mundane thief... until she decides to try to call magic fo help when held at a gunpoint and all hell lets lose, because this time, she's on the other side of the dimensional Patch.
* FirstPersonSmartass: The main character is narrating the story and treats various characters (and the entire race of "brights") with open contempt, commenting on their stupidity, incompetence or poor fashion taste.
* FriendOnTheForce: The red-haired cop handling the main character. Also doubles as a [[FriendsWithBenefits Friend With Benefits]].
* GiantFlyer: Giant flying whales, which is even in the title.
* IJustWantToBeNormal: Downplayed. She has no issues with being sensitive toward magic, but it does get overwhelming when she's treated like a goddess by her calf boyfriend due to having a really rare talent.
* {{Isekai}}: Inverted. The existence of a trans-dimensional "Patches" means it's possible to easily get to either of the {{Alternate Universe}}s, preferably by something that can fly.
* LastNameBasis: Main character father is known either as Sołtysik (his surname) or [[MeaningfulName Sołtys]][[note]]sołtys is a Polish equivalent of a mayor in rural communities, making it fitting for a leader of a reactionary political movement[[/note]] (his political nickname).
* TheMagicGoesAway: At least on Earth. It takes just few hours of exposure to Earth physics (or rather - simply those of "our" dimension) for the magic objects to lose almost all of their power, and things like {{Space Whale}}s to drop from the sky.
* MissingMom: You learn more about Pa than about the main character, while Ma isn't mentioned even once.
* MuggleBornOfMages: Inverted - she's a mage born out of muggles, ''before'' the worlds connected and magic even entered equation.
* NoNameGiven: Pretty much everyone is nameless, including the most important characters, who we only know by their nickname or [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep job]]. It's not because they are truly nameless - it's just that it's narrated by the main character, who simply ''forgot'' most of the names. [[spoiler: Blink and you will miss the fact she herself is named Malwina, and her surname is Sołtysik]].
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Brights are a bunch of racist, imperialistics cunts that the main character describes as "the dreamed Übermensch of the nazis", including just about all the antics that can go with such comparison.
* RiddleForTheAges: Thanks to a serious case of an UreliableNarrator, it's left hangign if she was [[spoiler: truly trying to get revange for murder of her boyfriend, or was as uniterested with the idea as she kept claiming to everyone]].
* ScrewYouElves: The "brights" are a particularly arrogant brand of UrbanFantasy elves that are just unbearably haughty and treat every other race with open contempt as inferior species. The main character makes a living by screwing with them, or even setting them up against each other.
* ThisCannotBe:
** Apparently, this was the reaction from many physicists, right down to ''a wave of suicides'', as they just couldn't wrap their heads about laws of physics going on a walk as a result of sudden opening of a connection with an AlternateUniverse.
** It's implied this was also the reaction of the [[CantArgueWithElves brights]] upon learning that calfs have stronger magic than them. After all, they are ''the'' superior species, which ended up with a genocide and enslavement of calfs, making them refugees to Earth.
* UrbanFantasy: Kinda. The magic on Earth doesn't work, or at least doesn't stay active for long, but it does become a permanent influence on the life of the planet. More so, there is a [[InterdimensionalTravelDevice trans-dimensional gate]] to a world that does have and always had magic, along with fantastic creatures straight out of myth and fantasy novels.

Anna Kańtoch - Szanowny panie M.
* AllLoveIsUnrequited: Part of the tragedy of the story is how all the characters are suffocating under the social mores, not allowed to show their affection, for that would be "inproper"
* AmbiguousTimePeriod: Somewhere in the tail end of the 19th century[[note]]O. mentions reading Tennyson's "newest poem" when she was 16, while he died in 1892[[/note]], and the letter itself is written somewhere later, probably after WW1, given a "modern" societal upheaval is mentioned.
* BeAsUnhelpfulAsPossible: The father is deliberately and intentionally unhelpful for the police, ''for no reason at all''.
* BlitheSpirit: ZigZagged with M., who goes against just about every single feasible Victorian social norm, but he's not a rebel or, for that matter, someone to follow - just a regular, smarmy guy doing dirty businesses and [[spoiler: being a serial killer]]. Meeting him ''still'' manages to be the world-changing experience for O.
* {{Deconstruction}}: Twofer
** As a whole, the story is a pretty vicious deconstruction of a ProperLady in Victorian backdrop. The nameless main character is always acting like she's "expected" to, while the whole thing is narrated as her inner monologue, showing that she's faking just about every one of her actions[[note]]Going hysterical, because women are hysterical, being callous toward her servant, because servants should be treated badly as lesser beings, being a MomentKiller for her own sister, because love is such a silly concept and she shouldn't be looking for it in marriage, gets herself stuck in a loveless MarriageOfConvenience, because that's only proper thing to do... the list really goes on and on[[/note]], while in reality feeling absolutely nothing and just cruising forward, ''knowingly'' making her own life miserable just for the sake of it being part of being "a proper lady". She's deliberately written as as antipathetic as feasible, but she's not evil in any way and none of her actions is intended to make her pitiful or to wonder what broke her - she's absolutely content with the horrible lot she's making for herself, which is probably the main reason why she's so revolting as a character.
** Of BritishStuffiness and Victorian mores that took it to the extreme. Sans for small handful of characters everyone is an incredibly uncarring and unloving - but also unloved - automaton that would rather do what's expected than what's right, act like a human being or, God forbid, allow to show any kind of affection. It is telling that [[spoiler: a brutal serial killer]] comes off as more humane than anyone else in the story.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Where to even begin? Nobody cares about the death of local girl, because, well, she was local - if she was a white girl, that would be something worth sensation or to even mobilise police. Those bodies starting to pile up? Surely, it's just [[SuperPersistentPredator a man-eating lion]]. The constable eventually showing up to question about the disappearance about a house servant? Treat him like dirt, because he dares to stop the family from having a SpotOfTea, and how he even dares with interrupting them in the first place, the low-born commoner like him.
* TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed: Because there is no actual physical disease - Violet is just incredibly lonely and melancholic. Once Richard starts to court her, she quickly starts to improve.
* EpistolaryNovel: A short story, but it's still a letter to the titular "Dear Mr M."
* HowWeGotHere: The letter starts with description of the first meeting with M. and then, in the end, goes full circle through the chronological order of events to get back to it.
* {{Hypocrite}}: The story is a deconstruction of the Victorian moral code, societal {{Double Standard}}s and BritishStuffiness, and it wouldn't be full without a hefty dose of hypocrisy displayed by just about every single Briton in it.
* LastRequest: The younger sister is dying, so wishes to see a specific place. Her parents agree... until it turns out she's not dying ''fast enough'' and thus keeps having those last requests, draining family coffers, as they spends their wealth on various spas and trips to fulfill her wishes and finding better dying spot for her.
* LostInTranslation: Inverted. Ironically, the ending makes more sense in English, than it does in Polish. [[spoiler: O. spells the doom of her own sister when mentioning that forest violets shouldn't be planted in Egypt, as they don't belong here and it would be better for them to die. Her sister name is Wiola. As in - Violet. M. murders her the same day, fulfilling O.'s "wish"]].
DramaticIrony: [[spoiler: Violet ends up murdered by M. just as her health started to improve]].
* NoNameGiven: Various characters are only known by their initials - and some are not even given that.
* NobilityMarriesMoney: The parents want to fix their budget by "selling" O., but the convenance prevents them doing so before her sister dies and the year of mourning have passed.
* NoodleIncident: M. is married to a local, "aboriginal" woman.
* ObliviouslyEvil: Just about every single character that isn't M. and Violet, in large part due to their BritishStuffiness and exaggerated indifference toward the world around them.
* OldMaid: Invoked, specifically in the Christmas cake variant - the main character was 23 upon meeting M. for the first time, which was "a lot, but not enough to be called an old spinster".
* TheOneThatGotAway: O. spends her life longing after M.
* PoliceAreUseless: Not only the police ignores the blatantly clear signs of a killer on a loose for a looong time, but once the sole constable for the whole area starts asking questions, he's effortlessly shrugged off ''for intruding them during their five o'clock tea''.
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: It's implied that the serial killer eventually got encouraged enough by lack of response to his crimes that he "upgraded" the murder spree with rape. The Englishmen insist that it's still part of lion attacks and shrug it off.
* ShelteredAristocrat: O. complains about the sort of upbringing she received, non-stop "protecting" her from anything ugly, dirty or grounded, leaving her utterly unprepared for anything else than being a TrophyWife and a mother.
* SiblingRivalry: Eventually. Since the younger sister just won't die and thus makes O. life increasingly worse, she starts to hate her. Not even due to being a burden for the rest of the family or absorbing attention, but because she finds her ''happyness'', making ''that'' unbearable for O.
* TheSnackIsMoreInteresting: O's father would rather have his tea and small, cream pie than bother with helping police with a murder of a local girl that served in his house. He quickly grows inpatient and pretty much throws the constable out, along with ''forcing'' his own daughter to be unhelpful.
* StiffUpperLip: Part of the deconstruction going in the story. The Britons are potrayed not as stoic, but deliberately uncaring and just flat-out inhuman in their cold-blooded behaviour.
* TooImportantToWalk: Played with. O.'s sister was too ''sick'' to walk, but in the same time came from a "good family".
ImpoverishedPatrician: O's family spend their riches on the trips around Europe and the Med with O.'s dying dying sister.
* TrueLovesKiss: PlayedWith. Wiola is getting better and better when engaging with Richard W. - not because she was actually sick on anything physically, but because she was in depression prior and interacting with him let her ''finally'' find someone to bond with. O. even invokes the trope when concluding her letter, as she's dying herself decades later, being unloved and lonely.

Marta Kisiel - Jawor
* AndThenJohnWasAZombie: [[spoiler: TheFairFolk kidnap Karol and he's stuck with them on their mountain, not much different from them after a mere year since his "disappearance"]].
* AsideGlance: Despite it being a work of literature
-->She looked on a side like a cat observing invisible wonders on the wall
* ChildhoodFriendRomance: Karol would want to get closer to Wika. Except he [[CannotSpitItOut can't spit it out]]. And she doesn't even know.
* CosmicHorrorReveal: It looks like a standard "kids go on a walk to find somethign weird and have adventure", until they run into TheFairFolk, which not only turn out to be real, but just as petty and evil as the folklore makes them. Plus the general implication that AllMyrthAreTrue.
* CreepyTwins: The two fair-haired children that Karol just can't put to any household in the village. That's because they aren't even human in the first place.
* DaylightHorror: The story is set during the final days of summer, right before noon.
* EvilDetectingDog: Fik, the mongrel dog that goes with the children, gets ''really'' angry in the presence of the weird twins.
* TheFairFolk: The Sycamore Folk, but they check all the boxes of the malicious, people-snatching magical creatures to their own realm.
* ForgottenFirstMeeting: [[spoiler: When she was 3, Wika was almost snatched by the sycamore folk. And that's how she get her scars]]. The memory was then repressed, eventually being convinced by adults it was just imagination playing tricks.
* GirlNextDoor: Literally. Each summer, Wika is coming to her grandma house in the village, and Karol lives next door. He is progressively more obsessed about her over the years.
* NotWhatItLooksLike: It looks like Wika might have some issues on her own, like self-harm or maybe family violence, given her oddly-shaped scars on the inner thigh. [[spoiler: That's the mark the sycamore folk left on her when she managed to escape their kidnapping attempt]].
* MagicalBarefooter: The first thing that trips Karol that's something is off about the duo of strange kids is that they don't wear any shoes.
* UncannyValley: The sycamore folk have weird speech patterns and even weirder gestures and facial expressions. The narration constantly compares them to a duo of mantises [[spoiler: and [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie then a trio]]]].
* UptownGirl: Well, a city girl spending summer break at her grandparent's rural house each summer
* UrbanFantasy: A completely mundane, contemporary Polish countryside... and the evil, children-snatching [[TheFairFolk sycamore folk]].