Books and Literature

Hey, hold up! This page may contain a lot of **spoilers.**
It's recommended you play the game first before you read the article.

## *Portrait of Markov*

***Portrait of Markov*** is the name of the book Yuri owns and convinces the protagonist to read with her during her route in both Act 1 and Act 2. According to the protagonist, it features an ominous looking eye on the cover.

### Content

#### Act 1

In Act 1, Yuri introduces the protagonist to the book. When he asks about the plot of the book, she responds: "Basically, it's about this girl in high school who moves in with her long-lost sister... But as soon as she does so, her life gets really strange. She gets targeted by these people who escaped from a human experiment prison... And while her life is in danger, she needs to desperately choose who to trust. No matter what she does, she ends up destroying most of her relationships and her life starts to fall apart..."

#### Act 2

In Act 2, Yuri talks more in-depth about the book, saying: "Basically, it's about this religious camp that was turned into a human experiment prison... And the people trapped there have this trait that turns them into killing machines that lust for blood. But the facility gets even worse, and they start selectively breeding people by cutting off their limbs and affixing them to-- O-Oh, that might be a little bit of a spoiler..."

### Trivia and Lore

* Many people speculate that the book is connected to Dan Salvato’s next game, *Project Libitina*. This is most likely due to the fact that *Portrait of Markov*'s lore involves human experiments in a religious camp, similar to the contents of *Project Libitina*'s website.
* According to the protagonist, the book's main character reminds him of Yuri, because they both second-guess a lot of things they say and do. Yuri reacts to it in two different ways, depending on the current act the player is in.
	+ In Act 1, Yuri acts flustered and says that’s a terrible thing to have in common with the main character.
	+ In Act 2, Yuri acts defensive and nervously tries to dismiss the protagonist's thoughts. Her defensiveness while reading the book likely foreshadows her self-harm habits that appear later in the act.

## *Parfait Girls*

***Parfait Girls*** is the name of a slice-of-life manga series introduced in Act 1 that sets up the themes and characters found in *Doki Doki Literature Club!*. A collection of the series is kept in the Literature Club's closet by Natsuki as her father disapproves of manga. The manga appears to foreshadow the events of the plot.

### Content

The protagonist first reads *Parfait Girls* during the Natsuki run on Day 2 of Act 1. This event unlocks a scene with Natsuki in the credits.

*Parfait Girls* is described as "featuring four girls in colorful attire striking animated feminine poses." This possibly references the title screen of the game, which is exactly the same.

Natsuki says that *Parfait Girls* is just simple things at the start but gets interesting once it gets into the characters' backstories and romance. This is, most likely, foreshadowing the rest of the game.

*Parfait Girls* is also the reason Natsuki started baking, judging by her reaction when the protagonist calls her out for it. According to her, the manga series has a lot of chapters that are related to baking. This alludes to the fact that a parfait is a type of French dessert made from whipped cream, eggs, and fruit.

### Trivia and Lore

* The Urban Dictionary describes a "Parfait Girl" as a "female with many unseen layers, some freaky or random; full of surprises; often hides feelings beneath layers of fluff; a complex kid," similarly to all the girls in the game.
* Only two characters are mentioned, Minori and Alice.
	+ Minori is Natsuki's favorite character. In Japanese, "mi nori" means only and "min ori" means Mandarin; however, this could merely be a coincidence. She may also be the equivalent of Sayori, with the reader always feeling bad for her due to her misfortunes, according to Natsuki.
	+ Alice is mentioned by the protagonist when recapping the story on the third day. He says “Minori and Alice found-“ before being cut off by Natsuki complaining about Monika moving all her manga to the top shelf. There is no more information about her, and she is not mentioned elsewhere.
	+ There is also a character who is in the Literature Club at her school as well as playing piano, mentioned in the *Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!* side story Respect. It is unknown if this is Alice or another character.
* Interestingly enough, in one chapter all of the girls are obsessed with a guy at the ice cream shop. This obscure detail might reference how all the girls are interested in the protagonist, or it could just be a random piece of information.