In universe I mean, not by the reader. I remember the few times I saw stories like that were fairly… cringe; the MC was usually a loner and the people didn’t have a good reason to hate him, if any at all!
But when there is a reason, whether it would be something they did in the past or being bad in the present? I love the drama and conflict potential. Does anyone know a book like this?
Imperial Radch comes to mind. Really, a lot of military-focused genre fiction has shades of this. Black Company, Malazan Book of the Fallen, Old Man’s War, and similar tend to have main characters that aren’t exactly loved outside of their in-universe group. Someone else mentioned Consider Phlebas from the Culture series, but Use of Weapons is another stand-alone from that series that might be worth reading if you’re looking for a main character who is hated for a reason.