Twisted

Julian Faraci is the second protagonist and the other first-person narrator of the story. His family came to the United States from Italy; his grandfather established a dry cleaning business in New York City, which his father continued to run. As a child, Julian witnessed his father’s verbal and physical abuse of his mother, which distressed him because he felt he ought to protect her. He grew up believing he was at fault for his mother’s pain, even though she abused Julian, whipping him with a belt and once breaking his leg because his father had praised him for something. Now that he is an adult, Julian feels obliged to support his mother, but dreads her calls because she manipulates his emotions. He is further frustrated with her because she has never acknowledged the ways she harmed him as a child.

An adult, Julian is handsome, with dark eyes “as black as bottomless pits” (6). He has black hair and is 6’6”. The tattoos on his arms and shoulders, which spread onto his shoulder blades and chest, are trophies that he acquires every time he kills a person. The first person he murdered was his father, using Isabella, the python his father gave him when Julian turned 16. Isabella has become the living being that is most important to Julian, indicating his loneliness and isolation from other people before he falls in love with Yasmin. Another skill he learned in childhood was use of the staff through a local dojo teaching hapkido, a martial art developed in Korea that is focused on self-defense. As an adult, Julian has a custom-made compact metal staff, which is his favorite weapon of assault and torture.

Julian was fascinated by Ali Karam and his diamond empire, Sultans, when he was a child. After he sold the dry cleaning store, he took business classes, got a job in the mailroom of Sultans when he was 18, and, through a combination of hard work and murdering anyone in his way, became the company’s chief operating officer (COO). He views Ali Karam as a mentor and a substitute father, which leads Julian to feel hurt and angry when he realizes that Ali has never considered him as a candidate to inherit Sultans. Julian has no friends and is mostly feared; the person who knows the most about him, and to whom he confides his plans, is his personal assistant, Ian. His dislike of being touched is one reason Julian doesn’t grow close to people; he also doesn’t like people to have control over him.

Julian’s character arc ends this self-isolation. He falls in love with Yasmin, whom he initially views as a spoiled brat and an obstacle to his wish to control Sultans. The power of his attraction to her, which turns into love, causes Julian to rethink his goals. While his character doesn’t change over the course of the story—he holds the same morals, values, and understanding about himself at the end as he does at the beginning—his priorities shift from wanting power over the company to wanting to make Yasmin happy in their marriage. His version of love is bound up with Ownership as a Source of Pride and Joy, as he sees Yasmin’s love and loyalty as a personal possession.

Ali Karam is a supporting character who is a protective father to Yasmin and a mentor and guide to Julian, though Ali also presents an obstacle to Julian’s plans for power when he decides to leave his company to his only daughter. Ali Karam has grey dark hair and dark skin, and his body shows symptoms of the cancer that is ending his life. Ali is proud of the empire he has created out of the company founded by his father, and this pride in his bloodline leads him to select Yasmin as his heir. Ali is loyal to those he loves, as evidenced by the fact he never remarried after Yasmin’s mother died. Though their marriage was arranged, he was deeply in love with her and always admired that she was a strong woman. However, Ali’s more conservative, traditional view of women is at odds with Yasmin’s need for independence, a need he doesn’t understand because he has done everything in his power to keep her safe, sheltered, and innocent of any wrongdoing.

Ali has dealt with criminals and engaged in criminal activity himself to grow his empire, but he sees this as men’s business; Julian can be involved in these enterprises, but Yasmin should not be. Ali and Julian agree that the lamp could be a way to enter the black market trade in antiquities and thus extend their influence. At the end of his life, when Ali reflects on his actions, he wishes he had paid more attention to his daughter’s happiness, rather than sheltering and isolating her. He makes peace with her before he dies.