Better Than Dreams - Page 63 of 216 - Staying Up Too Late Reading

I could not resist this topic as I love a book villain, especially one who is a little bit sympathetic or is extremely clever!

Top Ten Villains in Books

1. Voldemort, from the Harry Potter series – I thought I’d kick off with a classic and couldn’t resist putting Voldemort on the list. He’s got it all. He’s physically frightening, creepy, wants to kill the lead character, wants to oppress all Muggles, you name it, if it’s evil, Voldy wants to do it. Plus his middle name is Elvis in the French translation, which is très drôle, non?

2. President Alma Coin, from the Hunger Games trilogy – I know Snow is more iconic but Coin is ultimately more cunning, and therefore more interesting to me. I love it when a villain appears to be the good one but has a self-serving plan.

3. Speaking of self-serving, Piper Greenmantle in Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Cycle is the queen of selfishness. She does whatever suits her in the moment without really thinking about it and that makes her much more scary then any of the other potential villains in this series.

4. Another villain that appears to be ‘the good one’ is Silarial, the Queen of the Seelie Court in Holly Black’s Modern Fairy Tale series. The Seelie Court make a good show of being genteel but behind all that prettiness they’re child-snatching monsters.

5. The Queen in The Sin-Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury has so much power she gets away with only the thinnest veneer of civility, which is quickly brushed away when things don’t go as she had planned.

6. Opal Koboi, from the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer, is probably my favourite villain on this list. She pretends to be an upstanding businessfairy, but is actually deliciously evil and brilliantly cruel. It’s so much fun to both see her put Artemis and the others in danger and get her comeuppance.

7. Opal seized power from her father, and another favourite villain who grasped power when she had the chance to get it is Circe, from Libba Bray’s Gemma Doyle trilogy. She was the girl who wasn’t gifted, who could only access power when her best friend allowed it, and when there was the risk that she would never be able to wield it again, she took matters into her own hands. I have a lot of sympathy for her – even though she does terrible things to get that power.

8. That’s enough individuals – now let’s move on to a villainous organisation. Rush Recruitment is the big bad of the Hobson and Choi series by Nick Bryan (my boyfriend – the fourth book is out today so I couldn’t resist including them on my list), an evil recruitment agency/human trafficking organisation. They’re genuinely terrifying, even though so far they haven’t appeared that frequently, because they have their fingers in so many pies and commit such appalling acts.

8. In the marvellous historical fantasy Sorcerer to the Crown, by Zen Cho, the villain is really institutional prejudice. Everything would have gone a lot differently for the main characters had they not had to deal with racism and sexism throughout their lives – and a good part of the plot involves them fighting it efficiently and hilariously, in order to save the day.

10. Similarly, but more extreme, the villain in Only Ever Yours by Louise O’Neill is the entire goddamn system. Everything is hopeless for frieda and isabel because all the odds have been stacked against them. And that’s the most frightening thing of all.

Let me know in the comments if any of your favourite villains are on my list, and if you’ve participated in this week’s Top Ten Tuesday.

Top Ten Tuesday was created and is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

YALC is in ELEVEN DAYS TIME! But don’t worry, there’s still time to get some reading done…maybe just a little if you’ve got to work! If you want some moral support, the YALC Readathon Challenge is still open, and if my first recommendations post wasn’t enough, I am here for you:

1. Counting Stars, by Keris Stainton

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Counting Stars is at the older end of YA, it could be called NA (New Adult), and it is my favourite of Keris’ books that I’ve read so far. It follows Anna who moves to Liverpool after she finishes school to move into a shared house and work at a theatre, keeping her YouTube channel going all the while. Anna and her housemates deal with adulthood in very different ways, and it was really interesting and entertaining to see them work their way through grown-up problems for the first time. I wrote a draft of a NA novel last year and Counting Stars, although quite different from what I’m working on, confirmed my belief that it’s important that we have more books featuring characters of this age. Keris will be leading a workshop on Writing YA on the Saturday at YALC.

2. Hacker, by Malorie Blackman

This is a really quick read so ideal if you haven’t got much reading time in the next couple of weeks! Vicky’s father, a programmer at a bank, is wrongfully accused of stealing a million pounds. To clear his name, she logs into the bank’s system and tries to work out what has been going on. It was first published in 1992, so it is a bit dated – for a more detailed explanation, watch the video above – but it’s still a quick read, ideal for younger teens.

3. Remix, by Non Pratt

Non will be joining Sophia Bennett on the ‘Teenage Soundtrack: Music in YA’ panel, and rightly so, as Remix is all about the power of music to bring friends together. I made it sound totally cheesy then, didn’t I? It’s not, I promise! Remix is about best friends, Kaz and Ruby, who are going to a music festival together. Their favourite band in the world is playing, and a bunch of their friends are going. In theory, this should be the perfect break from normality, but both of them have secrets they’re trying not to let slip out… I did a full review of Remix here.

4. Lobsters, by Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison

Another book featuring a music festival is Lobsters, but it’s quite different in tone – Remix is more serious, full of friendship and romantic dramas, whereas Lobsters is very much a heartwarming romantic comedy. The tag line is ‘A socially awkward love story’ and that is exactly what you get, as Sam and Hannah try and fail and try again to get together. It’s very funny. In fact, I don’t think I’ve stopped laughing at it and I read it months ago – lines from the book pop into my head sometimes and I start cracking up all over again. I would share my favourite line, the one I laugh at the most, but I don’t want to spoil it for you. Just read it for yourself! The authors are leading a workshop on co-writing.

5. Nobody’s Girl, by Sarra Manning

If festivals aren’t your thing, why not take a trip to Paris with Bea, who has been obsessed with France ever since her mum first told her that her absent father was a Parisien. When she gets the chance to explore Paris for real, she can’t resist – even though she was meant to be in Spain with her school’s Mean Girl clique. She finds romance and adventure and gets into a lot of trouble with her mum. My full review is here.

Have you read any of these? If you haven’t, get on it! While we’re having this heatwave, why not roll with it and take copies of Remix and or Lobsters to the park? Go on! Join the Readathon!

Many thanks to Hot Key Books for sending me a copy of Counting Stars and to Walker Books for sending me Remix.

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