The Stoneheart Trilogy

A series of novels (Stoneheart, Ironhand, and Silvertongue) written by Charlie Fletcher.

A city has many lives and many layers. London has more than most. Not all layers are underground, and not all the lives belong to the living.

Twelve-year-old George Chapman is about to learn this the hard way. When, in a tiny act of rebellion, George breaks the head from a stone dragon outside the Natural History Museum, he awakens an ancient power—a power that has been dormant for centuries—and the results are instant and terrifying. A stone pterodactyl unpeels from the wall and starts chasing George with unbridled fury. He runs for his life, but it seems that no one can see what he's fleeing. No one except Edie, who is also trapped in this strange world because of her own inexplicable powers.

Now that George has disturbed the fragile truce between the warring statues of London, he is forced into a race for survival where nothing is what it seems, and it's never clear whom to trust.

And this is just the beginning, as the statues of London awake...

Has a character sheet.

Tropes for Stoneheart include:
"George: Look, I'm sorry— [gets slapped by Edie] What the... Why did you...?
 * Boy Meets Girl: George meets Edie.
 * Britain Is Only London
 * British Education System: Well, it does take place in London.
 * Cliff Hanger
 * Cryptic Conversation: The Gunner usually hides thing from George and/or Edie. The Walker lampshades this quite a few times.
 * Dean Bitterman / Sadist Teacher: Killingbeck. Just his name pretty much sums him up.
 * Disappeared Dad: George's father. Also, Edie's father.
 * Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Edie has this emotion strongly enough to slap George when he tries to apologize to her.
 * Disappeared Dad: George's father. Also, Edie's father.
 * Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Edie has this emotion strongly enough to slap George when he tries to apologize to her.
 * Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Edie has this emotion strongly enough to slap George when he tries to apologize to her.

Edie: Don't be sorry for me. Don't treat me like I'm soft. And don't like me."

": Right. Follow me. And, Edie--try not to get lost, eh?
 * Extra-Strength Masquerade: Because the regular Muggles can't see what they wouldn't normally see, anything out of the ordinary they may see is totally ignored.
 * First-Name Basis: makes a Pet the Dog moment when he begins to call Edie by name.

George: [notices Edie grinning] What?

Edie: Edie. He called me Edie. [tries to stop grinning and blushes instead]

George: Well, it's your name, isn't it?

Edie: He usually calls me 'that glint' or 'her.'

George: Well, you grow on people."

"Edie: Listen, you idiot, we--
 * Fish Out of Water / Naive Newcomer: George.
 * Invisible to Normals: The living statues -- the spits and taints. Oh, and the Walker.
 * Ironic Echo:
 * Ironic Echo:

George: Hey, you're the one who said there's no 'we'! I'm agreeing, you're right, okay? I'm just not doing this anymore.

[...]

George: Where are we going? Edie, where are we going?

Edie: It's 'we' now, is it?"

":"
 * Kid Hero: George and Edie.
 * The Mentor: The Gunner towards George and later Edie.
 * Nakama: Slowly but ever surely George, Edie, and the Gunner are forming this.
 * One-Gender School: George goes to an all-boys' school.
 * Power Trio: Arguably -- George (Superego), Edie (Id), and the Gunner (Ego).
 * Sadistic Choice: 's deal to -- go into battle with no weapons at all... or sealing  to a terrible fate.

"George: EDIE!"
 * Say My Name:

"Sphinx: Then you won't get an answer; and you can go away and take your glint with you.
 * Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Dictionary all the way.
 * Sequel Hook
 * Ship Tease: It's difficult to say because there is no pairing in the first book, but George and Edie can easily be paired up because they're both twelve. Even one of the Sphinx lampshades this.

George: She's not my glint.

Sphinx: You can take her anyway."

"The Walker: How very sickening. You found yourself your own little Stone Heart."
 * And the Walker too.


 * The same could even be said about Edie and the Gunner, though it's very unlikely.
 * This ship is squarely sunk when
 * Although that won't stop some people...
 * Shout-Out: In a memory recollected by George, his father had belched following a meal and said, "Better out than in."
 * When You Coming Home, Dad?: George's mother.
 * Last of His Kind: Edie to the Glints. Not that anyone's complaining...

Tropes for Ironhand include:

 * Cliff Hanger
 * Sequel Hook
 * Disney Villain Death: Edie tells George about when.
 * For the Evulz: The Walker admits to . Why? Because he could, and being immortal is boring.
 * The Power of Love: Arguably, this is what
 * Eye Scream: Edie to the . It heals almost instantly, of course, but he is now forever doomed to walk the earth with only one eye, which really, really pisses him off.
 * Also, the Walker's assistant/slave Glint, who sewed her eyes shut so that she wouldn't have to glint the horrible things that have happened in his house anymore.
 * This Is Unforgivable!: The Gunner to the Walker after the former finds out that the latter has . Made especially ironic by the Gunner's Fantastic Racism in the first book.
 * Heel Face Turn: Spout, the gargoyle
 * Face Heel Turn:
 * Unexplained Recovery: In Stoneheart, the Gunner blasted Spout the gargoyle to kingdom come. In Ironhand, he's somehow alive again with no explanation whatsoever as to how he came back.
 * You Can't Fight Fate: Played Straight with.

Tropes for Silvertongue include:

 * Disney Villain Death: Tragically subverted with Edie's mother as she was not a villain in any way. In an attempt to save her daughter from The Walker, she throws herself at him, causing both of them to fall off the roof of a tall building..
 * Hellish Horse: the Night Mare
 * Odd Couple The Clocker, who talks with as few words as possible, and Dictionary.
 * Phantom Zone
 * Taken for Granite: fate.
 * Time Stands Still: At the thirteenth hour.
 * Hope Spot: Edie's mother's heart stone is still alight, which suggests that she might still be alive.
 * Trauma Conga Line: Edie's backstory is pretty much one of these.
 * To elaborate,
 * What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: YMMV The ending is really upbeat, but anything to do with Edie's backstory feels a little like this.
 * Especially the part where