Peripeteia

Peripeteia is a fancy word that means a big change or surprise that happens in a story. Imagine you are playing with your toy cars and making up a story. You have a toy red car and a toy blue car. At the beginning of the story, the red car is winning the race and zooming ahead. But then something happens! Suddenly, the blue car gets a burst of energy and starts going super-fast, passing the red car and winning the race. That sudden change in the story, when the blue car takes the lead, is a peripeteia. It makes the story more exciting because you didn't expect it to happen. In books, movies, and TV shows, peripeteia is used to keep people interested and guessing about what will happen next.