One rainy afternoon, Elena found herself in the corner of a dusty bookstore, where a title caught her eye: Gente Tóxica by Bernardo Stamateas. She downloaded the epub version on her reader right there, desperate for a map out of the fog.

Aunt Marta wasn't just having a hard time; she was a "neurotic" energy-vampire who used her problems to keep the spotlight on herself.

As she read, the archetypes Stamateas described began to take shape in her real life: