notes from underground and crime and punishment were my introductions to literature in high school, but this might be my favorite book by dostoevsky so far. the whole book is one anime-villain-tier sociopathic revolutionary's manipulations to destroy a town "for the greater cause". demons has relationship drama, high-society gossip, conspiracies, leftists causing chaos and destruction, arguments for the existence of god, psychotic men, and hysterical women, so basically it's a perfect novel. as a critique of certain tendencies of leftism, a lot of what’s going on here will sound familiar too.
the first part of the book filters people, but i was hooked from the very first chapter, which is a hilarious and passive aggressive introduction to the life of a neurotic do-nothing intellectual. i would describe the first part of this book as "bitchy" which is a massive endorsement. the second part is chaos and the third part is more chaos and tragedy.
because this is a political satire that turns into a tragedy, most of the characters in this book are ideological stand-ins but they still have a soul. my favorites were kirillov (the /lit/ user), the gentleman mavriky, and virginsky's wife, the midwife arina, who is described as being so outspoken and offensive that her words startle a woman into successfully giving birth.
the chapters "at tikkon's" (an absolute masterpiece that is essential to understanding the psychology of the handsome emo fuckboy nikolai stavrogin who hypnotizes and destroys everyone in his wake), "a traveler", and the 2 endings are top-tier dostoevsky. this thing is so jammed full of drama i can't wait to reread it. i should go to mass