Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of rape, mental illness, child abuse, child sexual abuse, child death, death by suicide, animal cruelty and death, graphic violence, death, physical abuse, and emotional abuse.

In The Library at Mount Char, author Scott Hawkins creates a world in which the characters, particularly Father and his librarians, all seem capable of monstrous acts. In Chapter 10, Carolyn tells Steve that demons don’t exist, negating the possibility that Father and the librarians are themselves demons, a tempting interpretation of the cruelty and detachment from human concerns that they display. As the narrative continues, it confirms that Father and the Pelapi are, in fact, human. Their godlike powers come from knowledge, gained over thousands of years, starting with the secret of living long enough to gather it all. With both their existence and their actions, Hawkins uses both their existence and their actions to explore what it means to be human—the cruelty, compassion, corruption, and transcendence demonstrated in the narrative serve as a reflection on the human condition.

David, Carolyn, and Erwin and the government all offer examples of the human capacity for cruelty. David’s role in developing this idea is straightforward.