Little Stranger

Malachi Vize is one of the narrators and protagonists of Little Stranger. Malachi’s status as a protagonist has qualities of an anti-hero; though the novel is sympathetic to his desires and goals, the text does not present his actions as moral. Malachi is obsessed with Olivia from an early age, and he behaves in controlling ways toward her, such as by replacing her shampoo when she tries to use one that is not his preferred brand (which she used as a young child) or putting hidden cameras in her bedroom to spy on her.

In Part 2, after Malachi is released from incarceration for brutally beating Jamieson, these possessive tendencies and the exploitative ways he enacts them become more severe. He regularly breaks into Olivia’s apartment, spies on her communications, and drugs her. He rapes her while she is unconscious, something that he rationalizes Olivia secretly wants because she reaches sexual climax. The novel does not ultimately reject Malachi’s way of thinking, as Olivia later indicates that she finds his acts alluring. The novel thus frames Malachi’s sexual violence as a matter of dubious consent rather than non-consent. This is a matter of genre conventions, as dark romance novels often rely upon what Malachi takes as signs of Olivia’s secret consent (such as her journal entries, which express an interest in consenting non-consent and somnophilia, a kink practice wherein partners agree to have sex while one partner is asleep). Malachi is thus presented as having special insight into Olivia’s desires, something that the text (and the genre) uses to validate the match between Olivia and Malachi.

Malachi is diagnosed as a teenager with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), and he demonstrates various qualities consistent with this diagnosis. He has little regard for social expectations; rather, he seems to delight in transgressing them. He presents this outwardly primarily through his appearance. He has many tattoos and piercings, which the text suggests he sports in part as an act of defiance against the people in his life, including his classmates and parents, who call him a “freak” or a “weapon,” respectively. Malachi similarly does not feel any internal conflict about his attraction to Olivia; instead, he refers to their sibling relationship during sexual acts because she finds it arousing.

Malachi is violent toward anyone whom he sees as coming between himself and Olivia. He beats both of the teenagers whom Jennifer attempts to pair with Olivia and later assaults Jamieson so severely that Jamieson suffers permanent damage. Malachi also acts violently toward Olivia, though the psychological framework of the novel suggests that he does so out of love, rather than rage or hatred—even though he spends much of Part 2 convincing himself of his anger toward Olivia for testifying against him following his attack on Jamieson.

Like Olivia, Malachi experienced an early childhood with neglectful and abusive parents; his mother, toward whom Malachi feels lingering protectiveness, had a substance use disorder that led to Malachi being removed from her home. During his time in his birth mother’s home, Malachi found himself routinely ignored, which led him to cease speaking altogether. His use of sign language rather than verbal speech makes him feel he is a “freak.” He feels insecure about his unpracticed speech when he begins trying to speak orally again, something he does out of a desire to show himself to be “good enough” for Olivia. He is ultimately able to speak more successfully when masked, using an assumed name, and while in a position of power over a kidnapped and chained Olivia.

At the end of the novel, Malachi recognizes that his core desire is for Olivia to choose to be with him. Given this, he changes his previous pattern of behavior, in which he stalked and observed Olivia obsessively. He is pleased when, in the novel’s epilogues, Olivia chooses to be with him of her own free will, indicating that he has completed his character arc of learning to trust Olivia and shift his own relationship with control.

Jennifer Vize is Olivia and Malachi’s adoptive mother. She is one of the antagonists in the novel, primarily due to the way she manipulates Olivia to adhere to her expectations. Jennifer is a judge who spends less time on her career when her children are young. The novel implies that this arises in part from her strong interest in maintaining control of her family in a manner that adheres strongly to traditional societal expectations of women, marriage, and working in the home. Jennifer foists these expectations onto Olivia, pushing her into sexual relationships with her suitors of choice, all of whom come from rich, influential families. When Olivia argues that Xander, the man Jennifer ultimately chooses for her to marry, is controlling and dismissive, Jennifer pressures Olivia into marrying him anyway.

Jennifer presents herself as having a savior complex, as she references her children’s past homes as “evil place[s].” Olivia increasingly comes to see Jennifer as having adopted her children specifically to improve her social influence by arranging their marriages. Her focus in this regard is more clearly on Olivia than on Malachi. At the end of the novel, Olivia fears that Jennifer will try to exert the same control over her younger foster daughter, Molly, and urges Jamieson to protect Molly from Jennifer.