Top Ten Tuesday: Top 10 Literary Villains

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly event sponsored by the bloggers at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week has a different theme from which to build a top 10 list. This week the theme is…villains! I thought I would go ahead and write on my top 10 literary villains this week. (Sorry in advance for the lack of pretty pictures, but my parents are visiting and so I’m a little short on time and energy for pretty pictures this week.)

1. Mr. Wickham, Pride and Prejudice

Wickham may be a poor excuse for a villain, but I could NOT stand him. I didn’t trust him from the very first time he met Elizabeth, and couldn’t understand how she didn’t see right through him. However, he does succeed in an act of villainy by ruining Lydia and her reputation, forcing a marriage. Eew.

2. Mr. Willoughby, Sense and Sensibility

I have a soft spot for Willoughby, but only as a villain. In college, I totally destroyed his apology letter through close analysis and made it very clear that it was not really an apology but just a way to make himself feel better and feed his ego. Jerk.

3. Benjamin Fox, All Souls Trilogy

I don’t want to spoil anything. Let’s just say, I don’t like evil people who kill others. Add scientific experimentation and it’s just even creepier.

4. Queen Levana, Lunar Chronicles

Queen Levana is pretty much the evilest evil queen to ever live. The book about her doesn’t even make her likable or understandable…it just makes you feel kinda sad that she never had a chance to be a good person. Ever.

5. Sebastian, The Tempest

Sebastian is really more the evil sidekick (and rather inept evil sidekick) in The Tempest. He’s not a great villain or sidekick, but I played him in a play in college so I’ve always had a certain fondness for his evil intentions.

6. Mother of All Darkness a.k.a. Marmee Noir, Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter

There are lots of creepy things in my guilty pleasure series. Marmee Noir is pretty darn creepy, though. Taking over people’s bodies, trying to be reborn as a child from said person….CREEPY.

7. The Dane Twins, A Gathering of Shadows

The Dane Twins terrified me while I was reading A Gathering of Shadows (which is an amazing book everyone needs to read). They torture and kill and maim and do it all slightly gleefully. They’re also described very eerily…and White London is the scariest London of all. Enjoy!

8. Bellatrix Lestrange, Harry Potter

I know, I know…where’s Voldemort? But seriously, I hate Bellatrix Lestrange even more than He Who Shall Not be Named. Why? You ask. She MAY have killed my favorite character in the series, earning her this spot on my list. Ugh. I hate her.

9. The Wicked Witch of the West/Elphaba, The Wizard of Oz and Wicked

In the original Wizard of Oz books, the mentions of the Wicked Witch of the West are actually pretty understated compared to the movies. However, I really found my love of this “villain” when I read Wicked by Gregory Maguire. The book does such a good job of showing how Elphaba is wronged by society and history…and how we are taught to believe that wicked is bad—but we don’t always get the whole story. One of my favorite retellings of all time!

10. The Queen of Hearts, Alice in Wonderland

No list of villains would be complete without the famous crier of “Off with their heads!” I mean, she commands a card army. She’s pretty wonderful as a villain…and I, for one, am looking forward to see what Marissa Meyer does with her backstory this fall in Heartless.

And there’s my top 10 villains as of this moment in time! What do you think of my villains? Who made your Top 10 Tuesday? Leave me a link below so I can check it out!