Oktober

"There are things we all know, horrible truths we are all aware of, but that knowledge doesn't ease the pain."

—Nick, Oktober

Oktober is a web novel by Vak Beacon that follows the misadventures of four 'criminals' as they make their way across the US in a vintage car called Katie. Each chapter is told four times from the point of view of each character, which tends to lead to some bizarre deviations. For instance, each one of them says that Katie is a different model car (Nick says its a Studebaker Avanti, Matthias says its a Jaguar E-type, etc.) Additionally, each character's take on various events differ slightly. Every character has a special color associated with them, Orange for Nick, Blue for Smith, Red for Natasha, and Green for Matthias. Every time the letter "k" pops up in the text, it is colored a different color depending on who is telling the story. It's still in the early stages, but it's worth checking out anyway.

Tropes used in Oktober include:
  • Arc Number: 636
  • Arc Words: "I've seen how this ends" seems to be cropping up a lot.
  • Adult Fear: Smith's wife being killed, and his daughter being tortured and forced to commit murder, before being killed in front of him.
  • Bilingual Bonus: "Le Cafe de Nourriture" that Matthias is fond of translates to "The Cafe of Food".
  • Born Lucky: Renard is the epitome of this.
  • Color Coded for Your Convenience: Each character's color is prominently displayed on the page when they are narrating.
  • Cool Car: Depending on who you ask, Katie is either a Studebaker Avanti, Jaguar E-Type, or 1964 Mustang. All of which are pretty awesome cars. Also, apparently you're not allowed in the trunk.
  • Compelling Voice: Nick, but at this point it's just Informed Ability.
  • Crazy Awesome: Natasha, emphasis on the crazy.
    • Hell, as of the end of Book 1, I'd just call her plain crazy.
  • The Gambler: Renard.
  • Intrepid Reporter: What Nick thought being a journalist would be like.
  • Mind Screw: Bascially all of Natasha's entries the entire thing.
    • Specifically, every one of Natasha's entries are mindbending. Chapter 5 deserves special mention though. Then there is the Labyrinth chapter, during which each character is trapped in some sort of bizarre nightmare world. Additionally, Katie's trunk, which is a secret up until Chapter 6. You assume that there is money or drugs in there, but then it's a portal to some alternate universe. And after Nick gets out of the labyrinth and starts talking to the reader, well...
  • Literary Agent Hypothesis: Could potentially work until Nick realizes he isn't real, and is a character in a book.
  • Painting the Fourth Wall: In addition to the varying colors of the "k"s, each character has a special 'theme' that the site uses.
    • "Oh, huh. See I always thought you used American speech patterns cause of lazy writing."
  • Rashomon Style: Each character recounts the events in varying ways, see Unreliable Narrator below.
  • Secret Police: Natasha is Ex-KGB, it's not been revealed exactly what she did in the KGB, nor why she left. Presumably she was a low-level field agent, without much important knowledge, or else she wouldn't have been let go easily (unless she ran away).
  • Title Drop: Throughout the thing.
  • Unreliable Narrator: None of the characters tell the exact truth.
  • Web Serial Novel to be exact.
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