YMMV / Spider Kiss

• Jerkass Woobie: As noted in Dark and Troubled Past on the main page, Stag tries to portray himself as this.
  • A more straightforward example: Asa Kemp and (especially) his wife Ruth. When they realize that Stag is going to New York City with The Colonel and Shelly, Ruth blurts out: "They're taking him away, and they're here to Jew us out of our share!" This does not endear them to Shelly Morgenstern, whose father is a cantor. (To give Ruth a little credit, Shelly hadn't been introduced to her by name, so she presumably didn't know he was Jewish.) Still, even Shelly feels sorry for the Kemps after seeing how badly Stag treats them, despite all they did for him.
• Moral Event Horizon: It's hard to say when Stag crosses this line, since he seems to have been born on the wrong side of it.
• Values Resonance: in the wake of countless scandals in the 2010s and 2020s involving popular and beloved artists and celebrities being outed for inappropriate and/or horrific behavior, this novel's themes seem more timely than ever.

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