50 pages • 1-hour read
Little Stranger
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Background
Medical Context: Antisocial Personality Disorder
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of mental illness.
Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) is a mental health condition that results in a person disregarding ethical obligations and ignoring the feelings or rights of other people. ASPD is often colloquially called “sociopathy” or “psychopathy,” though neither term—unlike ASPD—are considered official diagnoses. In common usage, the term “psychopath” is considered to refer to someone who is more violent than “sociopaths,” who are often seen as more controlling but not as physically violent.
People with ASPD frequently manipulate or intentionally provoke others without regret or remorse. The Mayo Clinic cites symptoms of ASPD as including showing aggression toward people and animals, violating rules, having a sense of superiority, feeling no guilt about harming others or transgressing rules, and showing no regard for personal safety or the safety of others and frequently doing dangerous things (“Antisocial Personality Disorder - Symptoms and Causes.” Mayo Clinic, 2024). In Little Stranger, Malachi’s ASPD mainly manifests in his lack of guilt about the social taboo of his relationship with Olivia, but he is also violently aggressive toward people he feels have transgressed him in some way.
Those who have antisocial personality disorder typically show symptoms in adolescence, usually before age 15. People with these symptoms are unlikely to seek medical or psychological assistance on their own. There is no way to prevent ASPD from developing, but early intervention can help those with ASPD manage the symptoms. Men are known to be at higher risk of ASPD than women—risk factors are not fully understood, but ASPD seems to arise from a genetic predisposition that is then triggered by traumatic situations like neglect or abuse. A family history of ASPD and exposure to insecurity or violence during childhood may increase the chances of developing ASPD (Mayo Clinic). Although the circumstances of Malachi’s childhood before entering the Vize family are unknown, he makes vague references to the type of trauma and neglect that could trigger ASPD.
Genre Context: Dark and Taboo Context
Leigh Rivers advertises Little Stranger as a dark taboo romance; this references two romance subgenres that frequently overlap but are not necessarily the same. Dark romance refers to a romance in which one morally ambiguous character draws their love interest into their morally ambiguous world due to their romantic attachment. Romance novel podcast Fated Mates contrasts this with what they term “morality chain” romance, in which the less moral character is drawn into a more moral world due to their romantic interest (“S03.45: Dark Romance: Monsters Need Love, Too.” Fated Mates, 30 June 2021). Fated Mates hosts and guests further argue that any romance featuring dubious consent or non-consent is necessarily a dark romance, though not every dark romance contains such scenes. Dark romances show the aggression by the less moral character against the more moral character on the page. In Little Stranger, this element is illustrated through Malachi’s persuasion of Olivia to engage in a sexual relationship despite their sibling status; Olivia, in this case, represents the more moral character of the two because she is concerned about and ashamed of her attraction to Malachi because of their familial relation.
Dark romance is controversial; its critics argue that it romanticizes violence and abuse, while its proponents argue that it offers a form of escapism. Some advocates further argue that such narratives provide a cathartic “rewriting” of abuse or trauma narratives, which some readers may find comforting. Whatever the allure, dark romance has seen great popularity on social media platforms like TikTok, whose BookTok subcommunity has shown tremendous potential in increasing sales of the books it popularizes. Popular dark romances, including The Ritual by Shantel Tessier and Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver, often have considerable erotic content.
Taboo romances refer to romance novels that feature relationships that transgress a societal expectation. These relationships may feature significant age differences between romantic leads, power differentials between romantic leads (such as doctor/patient relationships or professor/student relationships), or transgressive relationships like the adoptive sibling relationship presented in Little Strangers or the step-cousin relationship in Penelope Douglas’s Credence. These romances typically focus on the thrill of transgressing society’s rules and the valuation of romantic or sexual affection over external expectations and power structures.
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