Top 5 Tuesday || Top 5 Villains More Interesting Than the Hero

Top 5 Tuesday

It’s time for another T5T, as hosted by Shanah @ Bionic Bookworm! This week, we’re talking villains, really good villains!

Actually, though, the books I have in mind aren’t necessarily perfect for the prompt. They’re actually books with villains EQUALLY interesting compared to the heroes.

What can I say? Takes a lot for me to love a villain since I almost always love the heroes more.

A Conjuring of Light Cover

A Conjuring of Light by VE Schwab

I haven’t reviewed this one on the blog yet (keep your eyes peeled in mid-September!), but HOLY SMOKES.

I mean, it’s not a secret that I adore Schwab’s work, but this was amazing. The villain in ACoL is the perfect blend of threatening and powerful that suits the stakes of the final book of the trilogy. I adore the protagonists too much to say I loved the villain more, but he gave them a damn good run for their money.

The Abyss Surrounds Us Cover

The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie

Now, I’m not sure if Santa Elena is a villain when she’s more of antagonist, but wow, she is fantastic. She’s imposing and threatening and difficult to predict. And ruthless. She makes an awesome obstacle for the protagonists, especially because there’s no way to avoid working with her (well, more like for her). Definitely an amazing antagonist!

Sparrow Hill Road Cover.jpg

Sparrow Hill Road by Seanan McGuire

EVERYTHING about SHR is amazing. McGuire has this truly incredible way of crafting a story in a non-linear way, and her characters have a glorious depth to them. Not to mention the paranormal facet to our world that she developed is incredible.

But the villain? Ohhhhh, he’s a fantastic one. Always lurking just out of sight, menacing, and intent on claiming Rose Marshall’s soul. The stakes are high, not to mention personal, and you can’t help but hate him.

 

Nimona Cover

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

This one is an easy choice, because the villains are the protagonists! This is the best graphic novel I’ve ever read, and Nimona is a delightful, exciting, shark-happy protagonist who’s into villainy for a good time. Not to mention that the villainous team is given such great character development. The best villains!

Vicious Cover

Vicious by VE Schwab

I can’t even feel bad about putting another Schwab novel on the list, especially when it’s from the Villains series. She’s so, SO GOOD at crafting fully rounded characters, and somehow, she manages to make her antagonists relatable, which can sometimes be frightening to see. But this book in particular grapples with characters firmly in the moral gray area, plus an antagonist that’s most certainly evil and skewed. It’s amazing, and probably the most innocent character in the whole book is the dog. Everyone else? Not nearly so much, not at all.

Who are some of your favorite villains?

0 thoughts on “Top 5 Tuesday || Top 5 Villains More Interesting Than the Hero

        1. Depends on what you like! Want urban fantasy that’s got morally grey characters all over? Vicious! Want YA about ghosts and libraries and the hard parts of loss? The Archived! Want MORE GHOSTS, but MG? City of Ghosts releases in two weeks! Want fantasy with a thief, a magician, and a lot more, all told in amazing prose and taking the top slot as my personal favorite? A Darker Shade of Magic!

          1. Not a problem. I try to warn folks so they don’t go in without knowing like I did. I had to set the book down for a bit because of it, but enjoyed it once I was in the right space to continue.

  1. I haven’t read any of these books so far so I’ll have to trust you LOL Some of my favorites are Warner from Shatter Me; Sebastian Morgenstern from The Mortal Instrument and …much more!

  2. Schwab is probably on my next to discover author (I’m reading Vicious soon) so I’m uber excited to hear that her villains are amazing! Villains bring such a great layer of complexity and intrigue to a story, I am PUMPED. 😁 Great post!!

    1. I really hope you like her work! She’s my absolute favorite of all time and she has this incredible sense of how to develop characters. Be warned though, for Vicious, that there is some stuff dealing a little graphically with suicide. I like to warn folks before they jump in because it caught me off guard and I needed a break before I could come back to it.

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