History Jerkass / Literature

* ''[[Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus The Heroes of Olympus]]'': Octavian, from the second book onwards, is introduced as he cuts up stuffed animals for prophecy-related reasons. Throughout the rest of the series, he becomes increasingly annoying and gets in the way of the protagonists and their world-saving plans. Besides that, he's just an incredible jerkass.''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxyTrilogy'':

* <span style="background-color: initial; color: inherit;">​''[[Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus The Heroes of Olympus]]'': Octavian, from the second book onwards, is introduced as he cuts up stuffed animals for prophecy-related reasons. Throughout the rest of the series, he becomes increasingly annoying and gets in the way of the protagonists and their world-saving plans. Besides that, he's just an incredible jerkass.<span style="background-color: initial; color: inherit;">​<span style="background-color: initial; color: inherit;">​
* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxyTrilogy'':

** Dudley's parents, especially his father Vernon. Vernon is fond of making racist or bigoted remarks, like saying he doesn’t want a “Nancy” for a son. He regularly mistreats Harry, hoping to stomp the magic out of him, by forcing him to live in a cupboard under the stairs and punishing him for any perceived transgression. Vernon's wife, Harry's Aunt Petunia, blatantly favors Dudley over Harry, treats Harry much the same as Vernon, and is generally presented as the neighborhood busybody. She proves sympathetic when it's revealed she forced Vernon to take Harry in [[spoiler:because it was the only way to protect his life]] and a lot of her animosity stemmed from [[spoiler:bitter jealousy that Lily had magic and she did not]].

* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'':

** Nynaeve al'Meara and especially Elayne Trakand, they have all the negatives of Aes Sedai, (aloof, egotistical, and rude), and none of the positives (wisdom). They frequently get captured due to not having backup, and when they are saved they never thank anyone. The ultimate example is when they are captured by members of the Black Ajah, and are taken to the Stone of Tear, a fortress that has never been captured, and is only fated to be captured when the Dragon is reborn. Mat Cauthon learns this, he and Juilin Sandar go into the Stone of Tear, defeat several highly trained guards, duel a High Lord of Tear, and rescue them, and they respond by storming off. It's not until they are told to apologize by Elayne's best friend, Aviendha, and her Warder Birgitte that they do apologize. Then Elayne mocks Mat for being raped multiple times by a woman, after having first annulled her promise to treat him with respect when she thought that he was the criminal and not the victim.

* ''Literature/{{Hamlet}}'': At his worst, Hamlet himself can be quite terrible to the people he interacts with, and his words are always cutting. Case in point: his mocking of Polonius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern and his tirades towards Ophelia and Gertrude

* ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': After Emily flees Knightcharm and infiltrates the dark magic school known as Myth/TheScholomance, she runs into a lot of jerks. Perhaps the worst one is Ceranna Babineaux, the second-ranked student. Ceranna is openly contemptuous of the others and treats them like complete idiots.

* In Shanna Swendson's ''Literature/EnchantedInc'', on a girls' night out, they go to kiss frogs. Katie is warned this is not the way to catch PrinceCharming, because they were [[BalefulPolymorph "frogged" for a reason]].

* ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' has a proliferation of these characters in pretty much every book, which should be expected given what the series is known for. However, the character who takes this UpToEleven is undoubtedly Michael Webster's [[BrattyHalfPint bratty]] [[AnnoyingYoungerSibling little sister]] [[EnfanteTerrible Tara]] from ''Literature/TheCuckooClockOfDoom'', who does a list of horrible things to Michael to make him as miserable as possible, like making him step on a huge wad of gum, deliberately ruining his bike, wrecking his birthday party, exposing him in his underwear to his crush, and framing him for theft so he could get beaten up by a bigger kid. The worst part? [[AbusiveParents His parents actually condone it all and even rebukes him for lying]].

** Stereotypical JerkJock Cormac [=McLaggan=], the substitute Keeper from the Sixth book. How bad is he? In the only match he played in, his team lost 320-60, mostly thanks to believing himself to be the captain and, while [[WhatAnIdiot showing one of the team's beaters how to hit a Bludger, in the middle of a game]], he mishits the Bludger and gives Harry a skull fracture, knocking him out. Sadly, he never gets any onscreen retribution.

* ''Literature/GirlsDontHit'': Joss is a huge jerk toward most people when she's not able to get away with this (aside from a very few). She even drives to other towns just for venting her repressed anger after maintaining a nice mom and wife image most of the time.

* A minor character in ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear: The Doomsday Ship''. In line for an EscapePod he saw two children trying to get ahead of him, so he grabbed them, left the line with them, and locked them in a closet with the full knowledge that when the ship was destroyed, they'd go with it. [[spoiler: It ''wasn't'' destroyed, but he couldn't have known that.]]
* ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' has a proliferation of these characters in pretty much every book, which should be expected given what the series is known for. However, the character who takes this UpToEleven is undoubtedly Michael Webster's [[BrattyHalfPint bratty]] [[AnnoyingYoungerSibling little sister]] [[EnfanteTerrible Tara]] from ''Literature/TheCuckooClockOfDoom'', who does a list of horrible things to Michael to make him as miserable as possible, like making him step on a huge wad of gum, deliberately ruining his bike, wrecking his birthday party, exposing him in his underwear to his crush, and framing him for theft so he could get beaten up by a bigger kid. The worst part? [[AbusiveParents His parents actually condone it all and even rebukes him for lying]].

* The unnamed Seeker, main antagonist of Stephenie Meyer's ''Literature/TheHost'', is like this. Especially notable in that, in a species that is biologically predisposed to being Messiah, she ''still'' manages an attitude that would make Series/{{House}} cringe. Her freed host turns out to be even ''worse''.