http://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/35067284#35067284 -- identified: it's Georgia Byng, Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism from 2002
I was just reading Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism. I didn't quite like it, and I'll tell you why. Basically all the significant characters are jerk. The viewpoint character is Molly, who learns to magically mind control everyone, and she abuses this maximally. She mind controls everyone and gives them all sorts of stupid commands. She steals a billion moneys and a personal serf with his mind control power.
In the end of the book, she decides she has to stop using her power, and she tries to tell herself that it's because it's bad to overuse it, but really it's because she was already very lucky to get over with all the crimes without getting caught, so she'd better stop while he's ahead. All the other characters are like that. They have all sorts of excuses, like being orphans, but really, none of them are likable.
(Apparently there's also a film, which is based on but differs a lot, because the writer didn't know there'd be a film when she wrote the book; plus there are five sequel volumes for the book.)
