Oh, I mean yeah they are bad people and based off real people that existed. The Judge is also literally an allegory for the devil/pure evil. Its a good book about bad people. The Road might be more your speed. Still plenty of evil characters but at least your protagonists are good. The boy in that story is basically the antithesis of the judge and is representative of purity in the face of evil. Still has some particularly rough parts. I get what you're saying though. I tapped out of American Psycho for like 3 years after one particularly rough section, only finished it recently. Different author but the only book I've had to put down.