The Psychopath Next Door is a Watt Pad novels by Carson Faircloth. It has a sequel, The Devil Inside, and a third installment planned for serialization beginning 2022.
Set in a small town, the story follows high schooler Cooper Daniels, an ordinary high schooler who stumbles upon a murder victim's body at a party, and Calla Parker, a sociopath who wakes up covered in blood with no memory from the night before, as they attempt to figure out who is behind a string of murders targeting their classmates.
This series provides examples of:
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Calla loves Rachel in her own way, though she can be pragmatically cold-hearted in interacting with her. According to her mother, she was also very loving towards her little brother before he died in early childhood.
- High on Homicide: How Calla feels after killing Tracy.
- Immoral Journalist: Stephanie.
- Intrepid Reporter: Tom takes his camera everywhere, and eventually begins to take it upon himself to figure out who's behind the murders, and why Cooper keeps getting involved.
- Odd Friendship: Develops between Cooper and Calla by the end of the first book. Calla is a literal sociopath. Cooper is the only one who knows just how sociopathic she is. Despite or because of this, they end up developing a bond.
- Stalker with a Crush: People tend to mistake Cooper's fear of Calla for this. It also turns out to actually be the motivation for most of the murders in the first book.
- Token Evil Teammate: Calla. And every time Cooper forgets it she's ready with a morbid joke to remind him of just how evil she can be.
