pretty sure Randall Flagg fits the stereotype- desires no more than to bring terror and misery. cold, calculating, superficial. charming yet something is palpably amiss about him. utterly devoid of humanity. (and he is literally the Devil incarnate)
In practice, I don’t really care much about the “emotional relation” aspect of a book. I don’t have any particular intention when picking out something to read other than to gain new insights and, to an extent, be entertained. Whether or not a book is worth reading is something I find out as I read along, not when scanning the teaser or general description before I’ve actually opened the pages. That being said, I have a bias towards books that explore the worst of humanity, about cast-offs, the dregs of society, unconventional minds and forbidden behaviors. I have a profound sympathy for characters that are lonely and shunned by everyone. As for A Little Life, I found the story both fascinating and comforting, and while I didn’t experience abuse to the same degree Jude did (plus I found the plot kinda weird), his distorted self-image and self-worthlessness was something that deeply resonated with me, although that was something I did not expect to get when I first picked out the book. All I initially knew was that it was a heavy tear-jerker.
can’t remember the title, but this one book about some girl named Darcy whose best friend enters an affair with her (Darcy’s) fiancé. I was 14 when I read it. Darcy is basically your typical mean bitch friend who keeps you, the loser crony, around for the sole purpose of feeding into her superiority complex. anyway, the protagonist (D’s best friend) “accidentally” sleeps with D’s fiancé and after that it’s just a childish churn of cheating, sex, and friends being painfully plastic to each other. eventually protagonist and fiancé decide that they are truly in love and fiancé wants to call off the wedding but hesitates due to guilt; protagonist also falters because she feels even though D is a bitch she doesn’t think D deserves to be slighted like that. in the end though D makes the decision for them by confessing to protagonist that she’s been sleeping with protagonist’s official bf and is pregnant with his child. during D’s confession fiancé happens to be in the same room, hidden and eavesdropping, so he jumps out and then comes an absolute shitstorm where they all yell and point fingers at each other. basically it’s just a horrendous story of a bunch of dumb adults cheating on one another.