fiction books villains

• Craft and Criticism
• Fiction and Poetry
• News and Culture
• Lit Hub Radio
• Reading Lists

• Literary Criticism
• Craft and Advice
• In Conversation
• On Translation
• Short Story
• From the Novel
• Bookstores and Libraries
• Film and TV
• Art and Photography
• Freeman’s
• The Virtual Book Channel
• Behind the Mic
• Beyond the Page
• The Cosmic Library
• The Critic and Her Publics
• Emergence Magazine
• Fiction/Non/Fiction
• First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing
• The History of Literature
• I’m a Writer But
• Lit Century
• Tor Presents: Voyage Into Genre
• Windham-Campbell Prizes Podcast
• Write-minded
• The Best of the Decade
• Best Reviewed Books
• BookMarks Daily Giveaway
• The Daily Thrill
• CrimeReads Daily Giveaway

40 of the Best Villains in Literature

*insert evil laugh here.

Villains are the best. We may not love them in our lives, but they’re often the best part of our literature—on account of their clear power, their refusal of social norms, and most importantly, their ability to make stories happen. After all, if everyone was always nice and good and honest all the time, literature probably wouldn’t even exist.

To that end, below are a few of my favorites from the wide world of literary villainy. But what exactly does “best” mean when it comes to bad guys (and gals)? Well, it might mean any number of things here: most actually terrifying, or most compelling, or most well-written, or most secretly beloved by readers who know they are supposed to be rooting for the white hats but just can’t help it. It simply depends on the villain. Think of these as  noteworthy  villains, if it clarifies things.

This is not an exhaustive list, of course, and you are more than invited to nominate your own favorite evildoers in the comments section. By the way, for those of you who think that great books can be spoiled—some of them might be below. After all, the most villainous often take quite a few pages to fully reveal themselves.

The brilliance of Mitsuko (and the brilliance of this novel) is such that, even by the end, you’re not sure how much to despise her. She is such an expert manipulator, such a re-threader of the truth, that she is able to seduce everyone in her path (read: not only Sonoko but Sonoko’s husband) and get them to like it. Including the reader, of course. In the end, Sonoko is still so devoted to her that the grand tragedy of her life is the fact that Mitsu did not allow her to die alongside her.

Because the very worst villain is . . . get this . . . actually inside you. Also, you just fell asleep one time and when you woke up it was your evil id and not you? We’ve heard that one before. (So has Buffy.)

Sure, Xan is also a villain in this novel. But the real, big-picture villain, the thing that causes everything to dissolve, and people to start christening their kittens and pushing them around in prams, has to be the global disease that left all the men on earth infertile.

A villain so villainous that (with the help of Steven Spielberg) it spawned a wave of shark paranoia among beach-goers. In fact, Benchley, who also wrote the screenplay for the film, was so horrified at the cultural response to his work that he became a shark conservationist later in life.

Take, take, take. This kid is the actual worst.

A criminal mastermind— “the Napoleon of Crime,” as Holmes puts it—and the only person to ever give the good consulting detective any real trouble (other than himself). Though after countless adaptations, we now think of Moriarty as Holmes’s main enemy, Doyle really only invented him as a means to kill his hero, and he isn’t otherwise prominent in the series. Moriarty has become bigger than Moriarty.

The housekeeper so devoted to her dead ex-mistress that she’s determined to keep her memory alive—by goading her boss’s new wife to jump out of the window to her death. That’s one way to do it, I suppose.

You could argue that it’s Harry who corrupts Dorian, and James who stalks and tries to murder him, but the  real  source of all this young hedonist’s problems is his own self-obsession. Sometimes I like to think about what this novel would be like if someone wrote it today, with Dorian as a social media star. . .

Few villains are quite so aggressively ugly as Uriah Heep (even the name! Dickens did not go in much for subtlety). When we first meet him, he is described as a “cadaverous” man, “who had hardly any eyebrows, and no eyelashes, and eyes of a red-brown, so unsheltered and unshaded, that I remember wondering how he went to sleep. He was high-shouldered and bony; dressed in decent black, with a white wisp of a neckcloth; buttoned up to the throat; and had a long, lank, skeleton hand.” Some Dickens scholars apparently think that Heep was based on Hans Christian Andersen, in which case, mega burn—unless Andersen was into heavy metal .

As “the most evil woman in creation,” she is on a mission to torture and kill as many children as possible, and often uses murder as a focusing device in meetings. She’s also kind of brilliant—I mean, murdering children by turning them into animals their parents want to exterminate? I have to say, that’s smart.

Cathy Ames is cold as ice—a sociopath who had to learn as a child how to mimic feelings to get by—but soon also learns how easy it is to manipulate, destroy lives, and murder people to amuse herself. Apparently all this is available to her because of her remarkable beauty. In the end, she has a single feeling of remorse and promptly kills herself.

That’s right, I said it. Mired in self-pity! Sullen and annoying! Dresses up as a gypsy to mess with Jane’s mind! Keeps his first wife locked in the attic! Thinks he can marry a nice girl like Jane anyway! Gaslights her constantly! Whatever.

In Atwood’s retelling of the Grimm fairy tale “The Robber Bridegroom,” an evil temptress named Zenia steals the partners of three women (among many, one presumes). Roz, Charis, and Tony, however, use their mutual hurt and hatred to form a friendship—and unpack the many lies and revisions of herself Zenia has offered to each of them. But I can’t really put it better than Lorrie Moore did in a 1993 review of the novel:

Oddly, for all her inscrutable evil, Zenia is what drives this book: she is impossibly, fantastically bad. She is pure theater, pure plot. She is Richard III with breast implants. She is Iago in a miniskirt. She manipulates and exploits all the vanities and childhood scars of her friends (wounds left by neglectful mothers, an abusive uncle, absent dads); she grabs at intimacies and worms her way into their comfortable lives, then starts swinging a pickax. She mobilizes all the wily and beguiling art of seduction and ingratiation, which she has been able to use on men, and she directs it at women as well. She is an autoimmune disorder. She is viral, self-mutating, opportunistic (the narrative discusses her in conjunction with AIDS, salmonella and warts). She is a “man-eater” run amok. Roz thinks: “Women don’t want all the men eaten up by man-eaters; they want a few left over so they can eat some themselves.”

A cynical, manipulative, intelligent beauty with many artistic talents and a premium can-do attitude at her disposal. You’ve never met a more dedicated hustler. By the end, the novel seems to judge her pretty harshly—but I’ve always loved her.

Oh, Henry—brooding, brilliant, bone-tired Henry. Some in the Lit Hub office argued that it was Julian who was the real villain in Donna Tartt’s classic novel of murder and declension, but I give Henry more credit than that. His villainy is in his carefulness, his coldness, his self-preservation at all costs. He is terrifying because we all know him—or someone who could oh-so-easily slide into his long overcoat, one winter’s night.

Isn’t it awesome? We can just make dinosaurs! There is no foreseeable problem with this. We can totally handle it.

Here’s another novel with multiple candidates for Supreme Villain—should it be the Binewski parents, who purposefully poison themselves and their children in order to populate their freak show? Or should it be Mary Lick, a sort of modern millionaire version of Snow White’s Evil Queen, who pays pretty women to disfigure themselves? I think we have to go with Arturo the Aqua Boy, the beflippered narcissist who grows into a cult leader, encouraging his followers to slowly pare away their body parts in a search for “purity.” (But for the record, it’s all of the above.)

It’s true that the monster is the murderer in Shelley’s classic novel—and also, you know, a monster—but it’s Dr. Frankenstein who decided he had to play God and build a creature in his own image without thought to the possible ramifications! Shelley treats him as a tragic figure, but that only makes him a much more interesting villain.

Made iconic by Anthony Hopkins, of course, but made brilliant and terrifying—a serial killing psychiatrist cannibal, come on—by Thomas Harris. “They don’t have a name for what he is.” Also, he has six fingers—though they’re on his left hand, so it couldn’t have been him who killed Mr. Montoya. Still, it puts him in rare company.

Did you think the villain was the whale? The villain is not the whale—it’s the megalomaniac at the helm.

The villainess of choice for every man who has ever claimed his wife made him do it. But I’ve always found Lady Macbeth more interesting than Macbeth himself—she’s the brains behind the operation, not to mention the ambition. Her sleepwalking scene is one of the best and most famous of all of Shakespeare’s plays. Even this makes me shiver:

Out, damned spot! out, I say!—One: two: why, then, ’tis time to do’t.—Hell is murky!—Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him.

It may be the devious villagers who trick the poor etymologist into the sand pit, but it is the sand itself that is the main antagonist in this slim and wonderful novel. The sand that keeps coming, and must be shoveled back. The sand that constantly threatens to swallow everything: first the man, then the woman, then the village—though one assumes the villagers would replace him before that happened. Sand.

In everyone’s favorite horror novel about America in the ’50s, onetime bohemians Frank and April Wheeler move to the ‘burbs, and find it. . . extremely stifling. But it’s not the suburbs exactly but the Wheelers’ inability to understand one another, their fear, their creeping, cumulative despair, that are the forces of destruction here.

“The book was widely read as an antisuburban novel, and that disappointed me,” Yates said in a 1972 interview .

The Wheelers may have thought the suburbs were to blame for all their problems, but I meant it to be implicit in the text that that was their delusion, their problem, not mine. . . I meant it more as an indictment of American life in the 1950s. Because during the fifties there was a general lust for conformity all over this country, by no means only in the suburbs—a kind of blind, desperate clinging to safety and security at any price, as exemplified politically in the Eisenhower administration and the Joe McCarthy witch-hunts. Anyway, a great many Americans were deeply disturbed by all that—felt it to be an outright betrayal of our best and bravest revolutionary spirit—and that was the spirit I tried to embody in the character of April Wheeler. I meant the title to suggest that the revolutionary road of 1776 had come to something very much like a dead end in the fifties.

Fathers don’t get much worse than David Melrose: cruel, brutal, and snobbish, a man who enjoyed humiliating his wife, who raped his young son, and who seemed to doom all those close to him to a life of pain. You could also argue that the British Aristocracy is the villain in the Patrick Melrose books, but . . . David is definitely worse (if slightly less all-encompassing).

Here’s a villain you can’t help but root for—I mean, sort of. You feel his pain as he tries to insinuate himself into the life of the man he so admires (and perhaps loves), and as he is first welcomed and then pushed away. Less so when he murders his beloved and assumes his identity—but somehow, as you read, you find yourself holding your breath around every corner, hoping he will escape yet again.

As slaveowners go, Rufus isn’t the worst (his father might rank) but he isn’t the best, either. He’s selfish and ignorant, and (like most men of the time) a brutal racist and misogynist, who doesn’t mind raping women as long as they act like they like it. Actually, the fact that he thinks he’s better than his father actually makes him worse. That said, the real antagonist in this novel might actually be the unknown and unexplained force that keeps transporting Dana from her good life in 1976 California to a Maryland slave plantation in 1815. What’s that about?

Big Nurse rules the patients of the asylum ward with an iron fist. She is addicted to order and power, and can be quite cruel in commanding it. In comes McMurphy, our hero, who wants to undercut her. He does undercut her, in fact, a number of times—but when he goes too far, she has him lobotomized. The end! I know Ratched is meant to be evil, and it’s supposed to be depressing that she wins, but I can’t help but sort of like the fact that after a man chokes her half to death and rips off her shirt in an attempt to humiliate her (because no one with breasts can have power, you see!), she simply has him put down.

Who is  really  the villain in Rachel Kushner’s most recent novel? It can’t be Romy; serving a life sentence for killing a man who was stalking her. It can’t be the man himself, who didn’t quite understand what he was doing. It can’t be any of the prisoners, nor any of the guards in particular. Nor is this a book with no villain, because the pulsing sense of injustice is too great. It is the whole thing, every aspect, of the American prison system—meant to catch you and bleed you and keep you and bring you back—that is the true villain in this novel (and often, in real life).

Of course it’s O’Brien who does most of the dirty work—but it’s Big Brother (be he actual person or nebulous invented concept) that really, um, oversees the evil here.

He’s a shallow, narcissistic, greedy investment banker, and also a racist, a misogynist, an anti-Semite and a homophobe, and also a sadist and a murderer and a cannibal and Huey Lewis devotee. He’s also weirdly pathetic. Can’t really get any worse than that as a person—but as a character, he’s endlessly entertaining.

It’s José Ignacio Saenz de la Barra who is the most bloodthirsty, but the unnamed General (of the Universe) who is the most compelling villain in this novel: an impossibly long-lived tyrant who has borderline-magical control over the populace, and even the landscape, whose roses open early because, tired of darkness, he has declared the time changed; who sells away the sea to the Americans. He is desperately unhappy; he considers himself a god. Luckily, we get to spend almost the entire novel within his twisting brain.

The genius of old Hum is how compelling he is—that is, despite the horrible thing he spends the entire novel doing (kidnapping a young girl whose mother he has murdered, driving her around the country and coaxing her into sexual acts, self-flagellating and self-congratulating in equal measure), you are charmed by him, half-convinced, even, by his grand old speeches about Eros and the power of language. In the end, of course, no amount of fancy prose style is enough to make you forget that he’s a murderer and worse, but for this reader, it’s pure pleasure getting there.

The slave-hunting Ridgeway, Whitehead writes, “was six and a half feet tall, with the square face and thick neck of a hammer. He maintained a serene comportment at all times but generated a threatening atmosphere, like a thunderhead that seems far away but then is suddenly overhead with a loud violence.” He’s a little more interesting and intelligent than a simple brute—in part due to that sidekick of his—which only makes him more frightening as a character. Tom Hardy is a shoo-in for the adaptation .

Listen: Annie Wilkes is a fan. She’s a big fan. She  loves  Paul Sheldon’s novels about Misery Chastain, and she is devastated to discover—after rescuing Sheldon from a car wreck—that he has killed off her beloved character. Things do not then go well for Paul, because as it turns out, Annie is already a seasoned serial killer who is very handy (read: murderous) with household objects.

The government that has taken control of America in the world of Atwood’s classic dystopia is a fundamentalist theocracy whose leaders have eliminated the boundary between church and state—and worse, have twisted religious principles and political power in an attempt to utterly subjugate all women, erasing their identities and allowing them to exist only so far as they may be of use to the state. It is super fucked up and exactly what I worry about in a country where fundamentalists have any among of political power.

It’s pretty hard to fight back when the thing you’re fighting is the earth itself, which punishes those who walk upon it with extreme, years-long “seasons” of dramatic and deadly climate change. Ah, Evil Earth!

The worst villain is the one who knows you best—the one you might even love. The scariest motive is the lack of one—what Coleridge called Iago’s “motiveless malignity.” The most interesting villain is the one who has even more lines than the titular hero. He is a fantastic villain, a dangerous trickster, whose character has stumped (and intrigued) critics for centuries.

Possibly the most terrifying character in modern literature (or any literature?), Glanton’s deputy is over six feet tall and completely hairless. More importantly, despite the fact that he might be a genius, he inflicts senseless and remorseless violence wherever he goes. The man murders (and, it is suggested, rapes) children and throws puppies to their doom. He might actually be the devil—or simply evil itself.  He never sleeps, the judge. He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die.

This entire novel is based on a single idea: that a loving mother might murder her baby daughter to save her from life as a slave. Sure, the slavers are bad (and the schoolteacher is particularly chilling). Sure, you could make an argument that the vengeful spirit Beloved’s presence is destructive, splintering further an already fractured family. But these are only symptoms, in this the Great American Novel, of the Great American Sin.

The obligatory first place in the scheme of literary evildoers: Satan himself. Though honestly, as depictions of the devil go, Dante’s is somewhat less than fearsome—not least because he too must suffer all the pains and indignities of Hell, tortured and torturing, crying from all six of his eyes as he chomps on Judas Iscariot.

• Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)

Emily Temple

Previous article, next article, support lit hub..

Join our community of readers.

to the Lithub Daily

Popular posts.

Follow us on Twitter

In Praise of an Afternoon at the Movies

• RSS - Posts

Literary Hub

Created by Grove Atlantic and Electric Literature

Sign Up For Our Newsletters

How to Pitch Lit Hub

Advertisers: Contact Us

Privacy Policy

Support Lit Hub - Become A Member

Become a Lit Hub Supporting Member : Because Books Matter

For the past decade, Literary Hub has brought you the best of the book world for free—no paywall. But our future relies on you. In return for a donation, you’ll get an ad-free reading experience , exclusive editors’ picks, book giveaways, and our coveted Joan Didion Lit Hub tote bag . Most importantly, you’ll keep independent book coverage alive and thriving on the internet.

Become a member for as low as $5/month

The greatest villains of literature: best literary villains revealed

These are the ultimate bad folks in print.

To have a hero, you need a villain. And in the annals of literary history, there have been some downright scoundrels, to put it mildly - as this best literary villains guide showcases.

No deed is too dark, no action too despicable for this list of utter reprobates.

We've selected 40 of the very worst (or best, depending on how you look at it) literary villains of all time.

You should feel very very glad that these dastardly characters are confined to the pages of the books that contain them.

If we've missed any vile villains, let us know in the comments below.

The best villains in literature

1 . Judge Holden (Blood Meridian)

Author: Cormac McCarthy

Judge Holden is, apparently, a real, historical figure, though evidence is minimal. After reading Blood Meridian, we'd suggest that we hope he was entirely made-up, seeing as Holden is the devil incarnate, leading a pack of criminals into robbery, rape and murder, throwing in a touch of paedophilia along the way. A seven-foot monster, with pale white skin, McCarthy paints him as almost supernatural in ability, but also in badness. A true villain of the peace in every way.

2 . Sauron (Lord Of The Rings)

Author: JRR Tolkien

Tyrannical ring bearer Sauron's insatiable lust for power provides the foundation for his villainy in the Lord of The Rings trilogy. Desperately seeking the tenth ring in order to bind the magical power that surrounds it, Sauron will stop at nothing to achieve his evil goal, including torturing the little critter Gollum to find the missing ring's whereabouts. He's the all-seeing eye and a source of true evil and villainy to the arbiters of good.

3 . Professor Moriarty (The Final Problem)

Author: Arthur Conan Doyle

The good detective's arch-nemesis ruled the criminal underground of London and this evil mastermind was one of the few who actually rivaled Sherlock's intellectual capacity. Ruthless, vindictive and remorseless, he will stop at nothing to destroy Sherlock. One critic has epitomised Moriarty as "crime itself", whilst Sherlock himself describes him as the "Napoleon of Crime."

4 . Hannibal Lecter (Red Dragon)

Author: Thomas Harris

Not only a psychotic murderer, Hannibal Lecter took it one more step too far by sinking his teeth into cannibalism. Having been consulted as a psychiatrist by the FBI on a series of murders, Lecter helps agent Will Graham through the case before revealing that it was him who committed the crimes. Following a lengthy incarceration in a mental facility, Lecter is approached by Graham to catch another culprit by the name of the Tooth Fairy; Lecter finds him and leads the murderer to Graham's home, with an order to kill him and his family.

5 . Count Dracula (Dracula)

Author: Bram Stoker

Vampire lovers of late might contest this one, but Count Dracula is the ultimate blood-sucking villain. Different from traditional Eastern European vampires, Dracula's charm is what makes him all the more villainous; enticing victims by seducing them, only to inflict a fatal bite.

6 . Randall Flagg (The Stand)

Author: Stephen King

Any character whose face would "make small children crash their trikes into board fences and then run wailing to their mommies with stake-shaped splinters sticking out of their knees", surely deserves credit as one of the greatest villains. Following a plague that has killed most of the population, Flagg tries to reinstate a certain civilisation run on tyranny and brute force, using crucifixion, dismemberment and other instruments of terror to punish those who are disloyal.

7 . Napoleon (Animal Farm)

Author: George Orwell

Just to start things off, this little piggy's character is based on Joseph Stalin. Ruling with an iron trotter, Napoleon ousts fellow pig leader Snowball and subsequently takes over the animal's uprising as the President of Animal Farm, eventually turning his leadership into a dictatorship. His tyranny knows no bounds, as he initiates a wave of terror, in which he orders the deaths of several animals on the farm after coercing them into 'confessions' of wrongdoing.

8 . Nurse Ratched (One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest)

Author: Ken Kesey

A true monster of a woman, Nurse Ratched is every hospital nightmare rolled into one ultra-villainous character. Ruling over a mental institution with absolute power, she uses fear, humiliation and brutality to abuse her vulnerable patients - at least, until Randle McMurphy arrives. Next time you have a slightly cold, unfriendly nurse remember - it could be a whole lot worse.

9 . Shere Khan (The Jungle Book)

Author: Rudyard Kipling

He had a tough start in life, being born with a crippled leg, and given a derogatory nickname by his own mother ("Lungri - the lame one"), but that doesn't excuse Shere Khan becoming the villainous creature that he did. Scheming to disrupt the Wolf Pack and claim the life of young Mowgli, this evil tiger will stop at nothing to obtain his prey. A tough upbringing is no excuse you know (his Dad was probably quite nice).

10 . Annie Wilkes (Misery)

Mentally unstable Annie takes Paul Sheldon in after he breaks both his legs in an accident. As the writer of her favourite novels, Wilkes' reveals a psychotic obsession for him and his books, taking him hostage, subjecting him to psychological and physical torture and forcing him to write his latest novel how she wants it. It's also revealed that she's an infamous serial killer. She stabs a state trooper with a wooden cross and runs him over with a lawnmower, after having chopped Sheldon's foot off with an axe, setting it alight with a blowtorch.

11 . Lord Voldemort (Harry Potter)

Author: J.K. Rowling

Years: 1997-2007

A foe so fearsome that people are scared to say his name out loud. 'You-Know-Who', 'The Dark Lord' and 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named' are some of his more snappy nicknames, but we shouldn't joke, for Rowling herself described him as "the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years" - that's pretty evil. Harry Potter's nemesis and a psychopath with a skull-like face, red eyes and snake-like slits for nostrils, he's unlikely to win any beauty contests: a vile and villainous creature all round.

12 . Iago (Othello)

Author: William Shakespeare

Iago, the scoundrel, hates Othello so much that he tricks him into believing that his wife is having an affair with his Lieutenant. The sneaky devil plans a vendetta against him, driving Othello to kill his own wife. Noted as one of Shakespeare's most sinister villains, Iago possesses carefully nurtured qualities of deception and manipulation. You might not shake in terror if you met him in a dark alley, but if you've wronged him, you'd pay.

13 . Patrick Bateman (American Psycho)

Author: Bret Easton Ellis

To call Patrick Bateman a villain is probably underplaying it a little. A wealthy and successful investment banker yes - but also a violent psychopath, whose hobbies include drug addiction, murder, rape, cannibalism, mutilation and necrophilism. Of course, whether or not any of the violent acts described actually happen or are just figments of his own imagination is open to debate, but this is his story and he is the undisputed villain of it, so in he goes to the list.

14 . Agatha Trunchbull (Matilda)

Author: Roald Dahl

Children's books get all the best villains, and Roald Dahl created more than most. The worst of a despicable bunch is Mrs Agatha Trunchbull, headmistress of Crunchem Hall Elementary School. A cruel sadist who hates children (ideal for a teacher), tortures them in a glass-and-nail-filled cupboard known as "The Chokey" and torments her nicest member of staff, Ms Honey, Trunchbull is a true bully, and a fantastic villain.

15 . Satan (Paradise Lost)

Author: John Milton

The ultimate villain in literature, Milton's continuation of the Biblical figure is a depiction of maleficence at its darkest. The self-indulgent fallen angel aims to destroy, embarking on a vendetta against his creator. He's the basis of evil upon which we have founded our opinion of villainy on so is fully deserving of a place on this list.

16 . Long John Silver (Treasure Island)

Author: Robert Louis Stevenson

One legged pirate Long John Silver was the first man to instil fear in Captain Flint. A manipulative and fearful pirate, Silver gains the trust of protagonist Jim Hawkins, only to reveal himself to be the leader of a mutiny, planning to murder the ship's officers once the treasure is found. Jim catches Silver murdering Tom, one of the crew's loyal seaman. Gives pirates a bad, if not rather fitting, name.

17 . The White Witch (The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe)

Author: CS Lewis

Well, she actually killed Christmas. In the land of Narnia, where the snow always falls, The White Witch prevents Christmas from coming. Strike one. She banished all sense of happiness and hope. Strike two. She turns her enemies into stone. Strike three. On top of that, she's generally quite dispassionate, cruel and uses her magic to terrorise her enemies. Cold and heartless; most definitely one of the most fearsome "children's" baddies ever.

18 . Captain Hook (Peter Pan And Wendy)

Author: JM Barrie

He's got a hook for a hand, he's a pirate, and he hates Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up. There you go. Apparently, he's also apparently the only man who Long John Silver ever feared. He loathes Peter Pan for hacking off his hand and feeding it to a crocodile, as well as for Peter and the Lost Boy's innate moral goodness. He captures Wendy, challenging Peter Pan to a final duel. He gets an ending that is well and truly deserved.

19 . Cathy Ames (East Of Eden)

Author: John Steinbeck

Described in the novel as a "psychic monster", and having a "malformed soul", it's safe to say that Cathy Ames is a high-ranking villain. From a young age, it is clear that Cathy is sexually depraved, causing harm to anyone she holds a relationship with. She manipulates men by using her promiscuity and sexual identity against them; she accuses two young boys of raping her as well as leading her Latin professor to suicide with her wily ways. Perhaps one of the worst events is Cathy's attempt at a primitive abortion using knitting needles. When she fails and gives birth to two sons, she feels nothing for them. She poisons her beneficiary and turns her brothel into a sadistic sex den.

20 . Humbert Humbert (Lolita)

Author: Vladimir Nabokov

Humbert, the narrator of Lolita, uses wordplay and humour in his writing, whilst also seemingly expressing regret for many of his actions, but the fact remains that he is a paedophile, taking the young 12-year-old Dolores, aka Lolita, and leading her into a life of abuse at his hands. Nabokov's genius lies in making us almost sympathise with him - but he remains a undisputed villain.

21 . Grendel (Beowulf)

Author: Unknown

The mythical villain of the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf, Grendel is commonly regarded as a monster, and a descendent of the first Biblical murderer, Cain. He is feared by all except the hero Beowulf - and quite right too, seemingly being a big fan of killing and eating anyone he finds in the mead-hall of Heorot. For that reason alone, he must be ranked as one of the greatest villains of all: if you can't feel safe in a mead-hall, then you can't feel safe anywhere. I'm sure he blames his genes, but it's no excuse Mr. Grendel.

22 . Mr Dark (Something Wicked This Way Comes)

Author: Ray Bradbury

The dark and evil villain of Ray Bradbury's fantastical classic, Mr Dark specialises in luring vulnerable souls into joining the carnival - something which is nowhere near as fun as it sounds. He bears tattoos on his body, one for every victim, and cannot abide positivity or affection. To be honest, we really should have guessed that he wasn't a good guy from the name.

23 . Milo Minderbinder (Catch-22)

Artist: Joseph Heller

An unashamed mercenary, who cares only for himself, and his own profit, Milo Minderbinder is a tremendous literary villain. He will stop at nothing to achieve monetary gain, playing the black market, and working on both sides during the Second World War; even when it involves actions that will kill his own countrymen. Utterly immoral, and utterly committed to pure capitalism, Minderbender only answers to himself and his god: money.

24 . Medea (Medea)

Author: Euripides

Year: 431BC

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Despite leaving her own barbarian people in order to marry Jason, a Greek, then saving him from a dragon, he has decided to leave her to marry a royal princess. Typical man - leave when a better offer comes along. She then proceeds to go on a truly murderous rampage, with Jason's new spouse, together with his new father-in-law being poisoned. The coup de gras comes when, in order to hurt Jason even more, she kills their own children. Think twice before cheating people. Think twice.

25 . Alec D'Urberville (Tess Of The D'Urbervilles)

Author: Thomas Hardy

“I was born bad, and I have lived bad, and I shall die bad, in all probability.” Evidence: he takes a liking to innocent, country bumpkin Tess, entices her into his home and forcibly steals her virginity in the mist, branding her impure. He then manipulates her into thinking her one true love isn't returning to her. But it's fine because Tess gets her own back in the end. Doesn't make him any less of a bastard though.

26 . Kevin (We Need To Talk About Kevin)

Author: Lionel Shriver

That Kevin is the sociopath behind a school massacre should be evidence enough for his villainy. He also hates his mother, manipulates a girl into gouging her eczema affected skin, and it's implied that he is behind an accident in which his sister loses an eye. Not exactly the makings of a President. His remorselessness is eerie as his mother visits him in prison, trying to understand why he killed all those children. His lack of justification is chilling - a testament to his truly villainous qualities.

27 . Nils Bjurman (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo)

Author: Stieg Larsson

This guy could possibly be one of the worst (or best) modern super villains. After the guardian of Lisbeth Sander becomes seriously ill, Nils Bjurman is assigned as her new guardian. He is a sexual sadist who manipulates Lisbeth, only allowing her access to her funds if she performs sexual acts. After a horrific rape scene (which Lisbeth tapes as collateral), Lisbeth gets her own back by tattooing "I'm a sadistic rapist pig" on his stomach. A loathsome villain at his best.

28 . Richard III (Richard III)

In his opening speech, Richard III says it himself: "I am determined to prove a villain //And hate the idle pleasures of these days." And a villain he does prove. The hunchback whose jealousy of his brother's accession to the throne leads to a plot to have his brother, Clarence, conducted to the Tower of London; he orders two murderers to kill Clarence in the tower. Throughout the play he openly outlines his evil intentions and shows no remorse.

29 . Norman Bates (Psycho)

Author: Robert Bloch

A woman is found dead in Bates' apartment. Bates is convinced it is his mother, but it is revealed that Mrs Bates committed suicide years earlier, taking her lover with her. In actual fact, Bates' villainy is revealed in a dark secret: he was the one who killed his mother and her lover. His dissociative personality disorder causes him to assume the identity of his mother, Norma, who was the one who murdered Mary. Here's the kicker: he stole and preserved her corpse, dressed up in her clothes and spoke to himself in her voice. Psycho indeed.

30 . The Wicked Witch Of The West (The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz)

Author: L. Frank Baum

No-one knows the backstory of The Wicked Witch of the West, or her co-conspirators, The Wicked Witch of the South and the Wicked Witch of the East - maybe they were all bullied at school - but they were definitely witches, and definitely wicked. Old, dry, and wizened, she tries to thwart our heroes with plagues of wolves, crows, bees and soldiers, but to no avail. And she even hits Toto the dog with her umbrella. Now that's unforgivable.

31 . Svidrigailov (Crime And Punishment)

Author: Fyodor Dostoyevsky

This guy is an evil force to be reckoned with. The protagonist's theory of the ubermensch is realised in Svidrigailov; he is the epitome of selfishness. Aside from adultery, he's also revealed to be a child molester, and even attempts to rape Dounia. He incites the suicide of a fifteen year old deaf girl as well as one of his servants, and is thought to have poisoned his own wife. Bad man.

32 . Bill Sykes (Oliver Twist)

Author: Charles Dickens

A cruel and vicious man, a criminal and murderer, Sykes' lawless behaviour leads him into a life of destitution and immorality, taking up with a prostitute and carrying out petty crimes. Despite Nancy's love for him, Sykes brutally murders her when he thinks she has betrayed him. The murder is especially graphic and gruesome, especially for a Dickens novel.

33 . Cruella De Vil (The Hundred And One Dalmations)

Author: Dodie Smith

We'll cut straight to the chase here: Ms de Vil kidnaps puppies in order to skin them and use their fur. And not just any puppies: really cute spotty puppies. And if that's not enough for the internet to implode, she also abuses her Persian cat and drowns kittens. Do you need any more evidence? No. Case closed.

34 . Uriah Heep (David Copperfield)

Another of Dickens' dastardly villains, Uriah Heep is perhaps the most cloying of all of them, being patronising and insincere whilst using manipulation to hide his true motivation: pure greed. Employing blackmail, fraud and treachery to gain control of the Wickfield Fortune, Heep's character is so ubiquitous that paragons of virtue such as Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson have been compared to him. A vile villain from the master of vile villains.

35 . Simon Legree (Uncle Tom's Cabin)

Author: Harriet Beacher Stowe

Vicious slave owner Simon Legree exhibits a remorseless, inhuman cruelty, as he brutally beats Tom after he refuses to whip a fellow slave. He despises Tom for his religious faith and tries his best to break him, although Tom refuses to succumb to his terror. He sexually manipulates slaves Cassey and Emmeline, and eventually orders Tom to be whipped to death because of his religion.

36 . Mephistopholes (Doctor Faustus)

Author: Christopher Marlowe

A demonic figure from German folklore, put into literature by Marlowe, Mephistopholes is a servant of Lucifer, charged with collecting the souls of the damned. When Faustus decides to sell his soul to the devil in exchange for Mephistopoles' supernatural powers, he does initially try to dissuade him from making the trade; however, he doesn't try too hard to change Faustus' mind and, is thoroughly useless to him once the trade has been made. Evil, untrustworthy, Lucifer's mate: he definitely deserves his place in the villainous hall of fame.

37 . He (Bambi, A Life In The Woods)

Author: Felix Salten

Oh yes, we haven't forgotten. The single, saddest event of everyone's childhood (bar not getting that Lego Pirate Ship for Christmas) was the moment when Bambi's mother got shot. Therefore, the un-named 'He' who committed the most unforgivable crime in literary history, must rank as one of the greatest villains of all time. No, we're not crying; it's just been raining on our faces.

38 . Blofeld (Thunderball)

Author: Ian Fleming

Break Bond down into its constituent elements and what have you got? The girls, the gadgets, the Martinis and most importantly, the villains. Fleming created so many fantastic rogues that it's hard to pick one, but we're going with the devilish Ernst Stavro Blofeld, an evil genius, "number 1" and head of SPECTRE. The, erm, poster boy for all supervillains since - yes, including Dr. Evil - and he comes with his own cat to manically stroke.

39 . Henry Crawford (Mansfield Park)

Author: Jane Austen

The list would not be complete without a true love rat, and they come no finer than Henry Crawford. Wealthy and flamboyant, he cuts a swathe through the women of Mansfield Park and, just when it seems that he might be a decent man, loses patience and attempts to elope with a married woman - certainly not the done thing in Austen's world. A rogue and a cad and a beastly villain.

40 . Pinkie Brown (Brighton Rock)

Author: Graham Greene

Pinkie is a character that believes himself to be "pure evil", and we're probably not going to dispute that with him. A violent sociopath, who carries out horrific acts of murder and abuse with seemingly no remorse. Feared by members of his own gang -and all this at the age of 17. He hates women and has no friends. Anyone going to say he's not a great villain? We thought not.

• Also see or list of the scariest books ever written

SOMETHING MISSING FROM OUR SHORTLIST?

Best free books for Kindle: classics to read for free

15 Things You Probably Don't Know About Catcher In The Rye

Banned books list: books so controversial they were banned

Related reviews and shortlists.

The best short books under 100 pages and quick to read

The best subscription boxes for the ultimate recurring gifts

The best comedy audiobooks: fantastic funny stories to listen to

The best audiobooks in 2023: great reads to listen to today

Classic books to read before you die: bucket list novels

34 of literature's greatest opening paragraphs

• Search Results

The 50 greatest horror villains in fiction

A list of blood-curdling book antagonists, from bloodsuckers to sea-monsters, cannibals to serial killers, vengeful ghosts to politicians.

Mutilate a pumpkin, carve a pentagram on the floor: it's Halloween, the one time of year we get to celebrate the darker side of things. 

But what is it about great villains that we adore so much? Simply: vice is a hell of a lot more glamorous than ordinary, boring, bed-by-nine virtue. 

Maybe it has something to do with the sheer variety of devilry that we find so alluring – the monsters under the bed, the serial killers at the window, the beasts that lurk inside our darkest fears. Or, to mutilate Anna Karenina 's famous principle: all saints are alike; each sinner sins in its own way. 

But how do you choose a favourite? Well, we couldn't, so we chose 50 instead. Happy Halloween.

1. Big Brother

2. judge holden.

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (1985)

Seven-feet tall, bald as a pebble and as remorseless as Death himself, The Judge might be the most terrifying character in literature. He never sleeps, dances and fiddles with the gusto of a man half his age and murders children. He's an albino enigma and the physical embodiment of eternal war. Basically Moby Dick in cowboy boots.

3. The boy with the scissors

The Paper Dolls by Julia Donaldson (2012)

In this gorgeous children's book about the beauty of memory and dealing with death, a little girl loves her string of paper dolls. Until, that is, a little boy comes along with a pair of scissors and – snip, snip – chops them into pieces. Don't let his rosy cheeks and rainbow scarf fool you: he's pure evil, Death made flesh... he'd might as well be dressed in a black hood and cloak.

4. Count Dracula

5. pennywise.

IT by Stephen King (1986)

The homicidal harlequin of Hell himself – Stephen King's dream clown with the “clotted, chuckling voice” who invites children to “float” in the sewers with him. And by “float” he means he'll drag them to his subterranean lair where he'll feast on their fear until they're face-down in dirty water.

My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (2018)

Ayoola is the eponymous sister who carries a knife in her handbag “the way other women carry tampons.” And let's just say she doesn't use it to carve her name in trees. She is beautiful, too, with a body, literally, to die for (“a figure eight — like a Coca-Cola bottle”). And she manipulates her sister Korede into helping her hide the bodies of the boyfriends she remorselessly kills.

Beloved by Toni Morrison (1987)

Recently freed from slavery, Sethe moves into a house that is “full of a baby's venom.” The baby in question, is the one Sethe killed 18 years earlier to save her from the life she escaped. Now, that baby is back to haunt Sethe in the form of a young woman who inveigles herself into Sethe's mind, breathing her “lively spite” through the house – a literal manifestation of Sethe's grief and the horrors of slavery.

9. Captain Ahab

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851)

You thought the giant whale was the villain? No, the real evil in Melville's masterpiece seethes deep within the man who wants to kill him. Fuelled by toxic vengeance for the white leviathan that took his leg, Captain Ahab's only love in life is hatred – for the whale, for dry land and, above all, for himself.

10. Tyler Durden

11. the sea witch.

The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen (1837)

Looking for everlasting love? Simple, just pop down to the bottom of the sea and the Sea Witch will see you right. The only catch? She'll cut out your tongue; give you legs that cause you unimaginable pain when you walk; and, if you fail to win the love of a dreamboat prince, you'll die of a broken heart and dissolve excruciatingly into sea foam.

12. Hannibal Lecter

Red Dragon by Thomas Harris (1981)

The cannibal king of literature. The emperor of anthropophagy. The gourmand of gastro-murder. Hannibal Lecter is never satisfied with merely killing you; his savagery is far too sophisticated. No, he must sautee your brains and pair your liver with “fava beans and a fine chianti”. That, or just convice you to kill yourself with his psychiatric powers.

13. Hill House

14. the birds.

The Birds by Daphne du Maurier (1952)

The birds don't need weapons to kill you – they were born with beaks, bills, nebs and mandibles. If they were capable of complex emotions you'd call them angry. But they're not capable of complex emotions, they're driven only by an ineffable compulsion to peck you to death because you're a human and they are birds – a vast and emotionless horde of blood-lusting birds.

15. Patrick Bateman

American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis (1991)

He's the ginning face of Wall Street, a monster with a gold-trim business card; far less turned on by “mergers and acquisitions” than he is by “murders and executions”. Shudderingly remote from human life and driven by an unquenchable lust for blood and sexual power, Bateman pleasures in turning murder into art, and our stomachs to mush.

16. Edward Rochester

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (1890)

Dorian Gray is an unquestionably awful guy – certainly not the type you'd want to visit your first Chinese opium den with. But vanity is the real villain in Wilde's classic. And once Gray drinks from vanity's cup, it bleeds through his soul like red wine on a wedding dress.

18. Mephistopheles

Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlow (1592)

The Devil's messenger, Hell's keeper of secrets and, more importantly, its contracts. You want everything you ever dreamed of in life? Sure, he can arrange that for a small price. That price, of course, being your body and soul, consigned to the fires of Hell for the rest of eternity.

19. The Grand High Witch

20. norman bates.

Psycho by Robert Bloch (1959)

He's a psychotic serial killer who dresses up as his dead mother and murders people thinking he is her. And as if that weren't creepy enough, he keeps her mummified corpse in his motel for company.

21. The Silver House

White is for Witching  by Helen Oyeyemi (2006)

The notion of a haunted - or haunting - house has been a crucial part of female-written gothic literature since it emerged in the late 18th century. But Helen Oyeyemi gave it a fresh lick of paint in 2009 with her chilling coming-of-age novel. The Silver House causes its residents to behave uncannily, it's true, but Oyeyemi deftly shows that there are just as many very real horrors lurking outside its walls, too.

22. Humbert Humbert

23. sadako yamamura.

Ring by Koji Suzuki (1991)

She's the vengeful ghost of a psychic girl brutally murdered by her father and left to rot at the bottom of a well. But her psychic powers cannot be curbed by something so trifling as death. So she returns in the form of a cursed video tape to wreak vengeance on all humanity. Once watched, the tape will kill you in seven days... unless you pass it on to someone else.

24. Cruella De Vil

The Hundred and One Dalmatians   by Dodie Smith (1956)

If you were scared by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – about a deranged killer who wears the skin of his victims on his face – imagine how dogs must feel about Cruella de Vil. The embodiment of sloth and greed, she is selfish, spoiled and has a volcanic temper... and her sole purpose in life is to skin dogs and wear them as couture.

25. The White Witch

The Chronicles Of Narnia by C. S. Lewis (1950-1956)

She can hear your thoughts, turn dissenters to ice, control the seasons and her cackle carries on the wind like an untreatable airborne virus. But you're still not convinced of her sheer purity of evil, consider this: she cancelled Christmas. Need I go on?

26. The Woman in Black

27. tom ripley.

The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith (1955)

The real horror inside Tom Ripley is that he's so polite, likeable and charmingly starry-eyed, you find yourself willing him to succeed in his campaign of remorseless manipulation, murder and identity-theft.

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver (2003)

A psychopathic misanthrope of the highest order, Kevin is a morality vacuum who hates his mother, goads a girl with eczema into gouging her own skin, and possibly behind the "accident" that left his sister without an eye. Then he massacres a group of children after luring them in his school's gym. If there were ever an argument that some people are just born evil, Kevin is it.

29. Nurse Ratched

30. steerpike.

Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake (1946)

Calm, calculating and driven only by his own self-interest, he creeps about the crumbling corridors of Gormanghast castle manipulating and murdering his way to the top. As one character observes when she looks into his eyes: “Close-set nostrils they were, not so much eyes as narrow tunnels through which the night was pouring.” The original worm-tongue of duplicity, and one of the creepiest baddies in fiction.

31. Agatha Trunchbull

Matilda by Roald Dahl (1988)

A headteacher who hates children? There are plenty of those in the real world, but none who hates them so much that she denies having ever been one herself. And certainly none who takes such pleasure in publicly humiliating her wards, throwing them over fences for wearing pigtails or force-feeding them cake in assembly is, in Dahl's words, "more like an eccentric and rather bloodthirsty follower of the stag-hounds than the headmistress of a nice school for children".

32. Richard III

33. simon legree.

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beacher Stowe (1852)

Literature is not short of monstrous slave owners, but Simon Legree is down there with the worst of them. He is as happy to have an enslaved person whipped to death for believing in God as he is to spur an unbroken horse refusing a saddle. He is a sexual predator and a violent sadist – one of the vilest characters in all literature.

34. Aunt Lydia

The Handmaid's Tale  and The Testaments by Margaret Atwood (1985 and 2019)

Few figures in The Handmaid's Tale are more ruthlessly terrifying than Aunt Lydia, the imperious instructor who brainwashes, manipulates and tortures handmaids into obedience. But what makes her truly horrifying is not just her cruelty, but also her gender: a woman (a former family court judge, no less) indoctrinating other women into sexual servitude under Gilead's violently patriarchal new world order.

35. Cthulhu

36. rufus weylin.

Kindred by Octavia Butler (1979)

He's a slaveowner with a conscience, which only makes him more despicable. Rufus Weylin is petulant, needy and selfish – a pathetic mysoginist who craves the love of his enslaved people but also doesn't mind raping them so long as the pretend they enjoy it.

37. Mr. Dark

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (1962)

Mr. Dark will grant you your wildest dreams in return only for your soul to fuel his sinister travelling carnival where laughter goes to die. Want to be young again? Sure, you just have to ride his creaky merry-go-round backwards, to the tune of the funeral march, to take a year off your age with every revolution. The only catch: you must live in a child's body with the mind of an old person forever. But his covenants are bespoke, and he'll find the payment that best fits your needs.

38. Mr. Hyde

Jaws by Peter Benchley (1974)

She's the teeth of the sea, the monster of the deep blue, the hulking mass of murderous flesh that will rise silently from the dark and tear you limb from limb because that's just what evolution has hardwired her to do. The book (and the subsequent movie franchise) caused Benchley such guilt over the shark stigma he spawned that he became a shark conservationist in later life.

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkein (1954)

If you've ever lost your wedding ring down the kitchen sink, you have an idea how of Sauron felt. The all-powerful necromancer is what happens when Big Brother gets a little too obsessed with jewellery, and will stop at nothing to get his bling back. Of course, anything's easier to find when you have an all-seeing eye that “pierces cloud, shadow, earth, and flesh”. And plugholes, presumably.

41. Alec D'Urberville

42. pinkie brown.

Brighton Rock by Grahame Green (1938)

A teetotal 17-year-old Catholic gang leader who roams wind-swept Brighton armed with a razor blade, a bottle of acid and a hatred for all humanity (especially women), Pinkie is the embodiment of pure evil – the Devil with a baby face.

43. Joe Goldberg

You by Caroline Kepnes (2014)

A truly dedicated villain grabs you by the throat and tightens his grip page by page. Joe Goldberg is that villain, a stomach-turningly vile manifestation of unconscionable evil and sexual predation. He is a psychopath and a misogynist who sees women only as the sum total of their sexual organs. He hates women, while also wanting to possess them entirely. That, of course, starts with stalking and ends in kidnap, imprisonment and murder.

44. The Crocodile

45. the demon headmaster.

The Demon Headmaster by Gillian Cross (1982-present)

A headteacher who wears sunglasses can mean one of two things: he's either desperately hungover, or he's a megalomaniacal alien warlord who uses his glowing green eyes to hypnotise his victims in his bid to take over the world. Either way, the sunglasses are a definite red flag.

46. Maynard Spencer

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (2019)

The cruelty inflicted on the students at the nightmarish Nickel Academy comes from nearly every aspect of life at the school – and every aspect of that life is controlled by Maynard Spencer, its abusive, manipulative superintendent.

47. Merricat Blackwood

48. the woman in white.

Pine by Francine Toon (2020)

Perhaps the strangest thing about the woman in white that haunts Pine is the fact you quite want her to return. The ethereal presence at the heart of Francine Toon's debut novel leaves the feeling of kisses, an animal smell and precious trinkets for her loved ones. But who is she, and why is she there?

49. Grendel

Beowulf (unknown)

Perhaps only one so terrifying could prove so ripe for reinvention. More than a millennium on from Beowulf's publication and the fearsome monster at its core continues to provide inspiration. Contemporary illustrations may prompt comparisons to the Gruffalo, but be careful - mess with Grendel and face his mother, an arguably more terrifying presence.

50. Victor Frankenstein

Sign up to the penguin newsletter.

By signing up, I confirm that I'm over 16. To find out what personal data we collect and how we use it, please visit our Privacy Policy

This site uses cookies to improve user experience. By continuing to browse, you accept the use of cookies and other technologies.

14 of the Most Compelling Villains from Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books

These book characters are bad to the bone. 

• Photo Credit: Netflix

Regardless of whether you love to hate them or hate to love them, villains play an essential role in creating immersive, realistic plots. Sometimes, they're even more compelling than the hero. 

It's like Tolstoy once said, "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Similarly, many of our heroes in science fiction and fantasy share similar traits: courage, an iron will, and resilience. But our best villains can come in all shapes, sizes, and forms. Some can be the main character of a story, others hide in the shadows. 

This list of 14 compelling villains from sci-fi and fantasy books offers hobbits, futuristic technology, and regular-old humans. The only thing these characters really share in common is that they'll fascinate you as much as they horrify you.

By Pierce Brown

There are any number of villainous characters in the Red Rising trilogy , but the Jackal is easily the most dastardly of them all. It takes a special sort of demented to resort to cannibalism to set a trap, and ultimately cut off his own hand to escape that same trap. And he only gets worse from there! 

The Jackal is cunning, conniving, and has zero qualms about doing anything and everything to win. He’s a terrifying opponent, who will keep you turning the pages long into the night as you root for his demise.

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

By J.R.R. Tolkien

Tolkien's classic has a bevy of compelling villains to choose from. Amazon committed $1 billion to telling the story of Sauron and the Rings of Power . Saruman's betrayal still stings, and the Witch-king of Angmar is an iconic villain. 

But the confrontations between the protagonists of The Lord of the Rings and these villains are more pronounced and much more brief than what Frodo must endure with Gollum. The Stoor hobbit called Sméagol was corrupted by the One Ring. Gollum's insanity serves as both a danger to Frodo and something of a prophecy. 

To be forced to face your own future—a bleak future of single-minded insanity—is more terrifying and compelling than any witch-king could be. 

Want more sci-fi and fantasy? Sign up to get the best in SFF sent straight to your inbox!

Charlie Manx

By Joe Hill

When it comes to villainous vampires , Charlie Manx in Joe Hill 's NOS4A2 takes the blood bag. He doesn’t simply kidnap children to take their lifeforce, he turns them into little killing machines with sharp teeth in return. Even more chilling, Manx actually believes he’s giving these abducted children better lives in a supernatural murder theme park called Christmasland. 

He’s full of vengeance and wrath, willing to go to incredible lengths to murder anyone he finds immoral or unworthy. Ghastly and grim, Manx is sure to send chills down your spine.

Nashira Sargas

The Bone Season

By Samantha Shannon

In an alternate London, being a clairvoyant is dangerous—mostly because there’s a group of immortal humanoids who feed on their auras. In secret. 

Blood-sovereign Nashira Sargas is the head of these brutal beings. She’s brutal in her command, preferring cold cruelty and merciless punishments as her favored methods of leadership. 

Nashira feels she’s above humans and clairvoyants, though she’s willing to tie powerful spirits to herself to use as weapons. And because she’s difficult to kill and wants to take over the human world, she makes an extremely daunting nemesis. 

Nolan Sorrento

Ready Player One

By Ernest Cline

To be fair, the entire Innovative Online Industries (IOI) could arguably be the villain in Ready Player One . But Nolan Sorrento embodies the evil corporate overlord trope with enthusiasm and aplomb. 

It’s not just that he works for IOI. Or that he wants to control OASIS. Or that he blames every bad decision (like murder) on the board, when it’s his name on the memos. 

Sorrento is an abominable villain because even in defeat, he wears his smug smile knowing lawyers and corporate money will shield him from consequences. 

10 Movies Like Ready Player One for Pop  Culture Addicts

Cersei Lannister

A Game of Thrones

By George R.R. Martin

If there’s one thing Westeros has, it’s an abundance of villains. Tywin. Joffrey. Ramsey. Littlefinger. 

While they may seem the more obvious choices, Cersei managed to outlast them all. What makes her intriguing is that she’s constantly dismissed by almost everyone in her life, including those who love her. She’s conniving and petty, but rather than learn how to outmaneuver her enemies, she harbors a vicious appetite for vengeance, which she will unleash with zero regard for consequences. 

Though many watched her fate in the show, the books may lead her down a slightly different path. One thing’s for sure, her cruel and ruthless decisions are only going to escalate now that very few people stand in her way.

Eli Cardale

By V.E. Schwab

Depending on whom one you ask, Eli is either the villain or the hero of V.E. Schwab's Vicious . 

His opponent, Victor, clearly has no qualms using his power for his own ends, and is willing to do whatever it takes to get his way. Eli is far more complicated. He’s a villain with a hero complex, believing it’s his divine right to pursue justice against other ExtraOrdinaries. In that context, what’s wrong with a little serial homicide? Victor manipulates, puts on a façade, and is dishonest about who he is and what motivates him. 

Harrowing and tragic, Eli’s righteous agenda makes him formidable. He’s the type of villain only another villain can destroy, which is why he’s incredibly interesting and terrifying in equal measure.

The Darkling

Shadow and Bone

By Leigh Bardugo

If you like your villains dark and sexy with a side of power-hungry ambition, the Darkling from Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse is definitely for you. 

Even before Ben Barnes brought his devastating charm to life in the Netflix adaptation of the books , the Darkling has been a fan favorite villain for years. It’s hard to argue that his desire to offer a country where the Grisha can live free and safe isn’t noble. The problem is the lengths he’s willing to go in order to see his vision come to life. 

He’s powerful, refusing to bend to anyone. He may genuinely love his fellow Grisha, but his desire for power warps him into a manipulative villain.

For more on Shadow and Bone —including the tension between Mal, Alina, and the Darkling—read this take from our friends at Den of Geek . 

The Haunting of Hill House

Can a house be villainous? Hill House certainly is. It’s malevolent, violent, disorienting, and cruel. Hill House is a predator, hunting its prey with a calculated efficiency. It wears you down, forcing you to question everything you believe to be real; and when your defenses are at their lowest, it pounces, devouring you wholly. 

As with all villains, it’s difficult to say if the house itself was born evil, or the people who lived within it imbued it with their own wicked tendencies over time. Regardless, the house is determined to call certain people home, and to do whatever it can to keep them there forever. 

Unsettling Horror Books by Women

Grand Admiral Thrawn

Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy

By Timothy Zahn

Before Anakin Skywalker chose the Dark Side, Grand Admiral Thrawn was carving his way through the galaxy on a quest for power. Under Emperor Palpatine, he rose through the Imperial ranks thanks to his ruthless but brilliant strategies. 

A firm believer in destroying his enemies by understanding them in intricate detail, he dedicated countless time to studying and understanding every detail of anyone he opposed. This calm calculation paved the way for the Imperial Army to evolve into the First Order after the Empire’s defeat. 

Without Thrawn, they wouldn’t have survived, making his villainous legacy far more insidious than Darth Vader’s brutal reign.

Alex The Large

A Clockwork Orange

By Anthony Burgess

Anthony Burgess structured his entire novel around a violent sociopath, his gang activities, and the consequences of his actions. Sent to prison and forced to endure experimental treatments, it's hard to say that Alex the Large (or DeLarge, as it is in Stanley Kubrick's Oscar-nominated adaptation) is ever really reformed. 

Nonetheless, Burgess's black comedy was named one of Time 's best 100 books since 1923. There's no doubt that Alex and his droogs deserve a spot on any list of compelling villains.

Howard Doyle

Mexican Gothic

By Silvia Moreno Garcia

Spoilers for Mexican Gothic to follow!

Howard Doyle takes creepy villain to a several new levels. He discovered a mushroom that merges with humans, and can prolong their lives while containing their memories. Which sounds cool until you find out that means he can basically take root in someone else’s body to continue living long after he should have died. 

He also uses the spores to induce hallucinations and control other people. And since the fungus is more potent when interacting with certain genetics than others, he’s not above incest and murder to prolong his very extended life. 

Scary-Good Fantasy Horror Books

The Poppy War

By R.F. Kuang

Su Daji has absolutely no qualms about being a villain. In fact, she embraces it. She’s the Empress but goes by the more daunting title, The Vipress. And she fully lives up to her name, using seduction, poison, hypnosis, and more to fight for her deadly ambitions. 

Her cavalier attitude towards murder is one thing, but her willingness to wreak havoc across the Empire in order to remain in power will haunt you throughout the trilogy.

2001: A Space Odyssey

By Arthur C. Clarke

HAL 9000, the sentient A.I. computer that controls the Discovery One spacecraft, was compelling enough to carry the entirety of the Space Odyssey series, from the Oscar-nominated film to the sequels like 2010 and 2061 . More than that, however, it helped popularize an entire subgenre of science fiction, where the artificial intelligence is a little too smart ... and a lot more dangerous than we'd like to admit.

Want more stories like this one?

10 Menacing Characters from Sci-Fi We Never Want to Meet

Lord of the Rings Characters, Ranked

The 50 Best Star Wars Characters in the Galaxy

Sign up to get our favorite sci-fi and fantasy books sent straight to your inbox!

© 2024 OPEN ROAD MEDIA

• We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Our 30 favourite villains in literature

• Follow Us On

Free shipping on orders $45+

Famous Villains Who Shaped The Crime Fiction Genre

The Adventures and the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

Arthur Conan Doyle; Scott McKowen (Illustrator); Arthur Conan Doyle

Professor Moriarty —  When you're dealing with a detective as intelligent as Sherlock Holmes, you need a really formidable villain to face off against him. And that's what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle gave readers with Professor Moriarty. While Holmes solves many crimes and encounters plenty of bad guys throughout the 56 stories and 4 novels that feature him, Moriarty is the one who really becomes the biggest threat to Holmes. Professor Moriarty is a criminal mastermind who doesn't commit the crimes himself but rather uses his intelligence and charisma to get other people to get their hands dirty for him. In "The Adventure of the Final Problem," Holmes calls Moriarty "the Napoleon of Crime," and says, "He is the organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city."

Moriarty first appears in the 1893 short story "The Adventure of the Final Problem." His next appearance wasn't until 1914 in a short story called "The Valley of Fear," written after "The Final Problem," but set before it. Holmes also mentions Moriarty in five other stories. And yet while Moriarty only appeared in a small handful of Holmes' short stories, he has been an extremely influential character, leaving a lasting impression not only on Holmes but on readers everywhere.

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around October 1, 2004. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

Also available from:

• Barnes & Noble
• Books-A-Million

Marcel Allain; Pierre Souvestre

Fantômas —  Fantômas is one of the most popular villains in the history of French crime fiction. The character first appeared in the 1911 novel  Fantômas  by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre. In total, the villain appeared in 32 books written by the two collaborators, and later Fantômas returned in 11 more books written by Allain after Souvestre's death.

Fantômas is a criminal genius who is likely the man behind every unsolved crime. He is highly intelligent and especially difficult to catch because he has the ability to impersonate basically anyone. The only person who has ever come close to catching Fantômas is Inspector Juve, a man who relentlessly pursues the ruthless criminal. Fantômas is a merciless killer who delights in finding creative and increasingly sadistic ways to murder. And because he is a master of disguise, his true identity and appearance remain unknown.

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around November 14, 2018. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

Thomas Harris

Hannibal Lecter —  Hannibal Lecter is a notorious serial killer who eats his victims. The character was created by Thomas Harris and first introduced in the 1981 novel  Red Dragon.  Hannibal Lecter was also a major character in the 1988 novel  The Silence of the Lambs,  1999's  Hannibal,  and the 2006 prequel to the series  Hannibal Rising.  The villain is famously played by Anthony Hopkins in the 1991 film  The Silence of the Lambs  and the 2001 film  Hannibal.  Mads Mikkelsen plays the famous character in the television series  Hannibal. 

Although   Hannibal Lecter is a serial killer with cannibalistic tendencies, the villain is known for his refined tastes and his good manners. In fact, Hannibal is deeply offended by rudeness, and in the novel  Hannibal,  he claims that he prefers to eat the rude. Lecter is a notable and memorable villain because he is a different kind of serial killer. While media often portrays serial killers as outright monsters, Hannibal is more complicated than that. He's extremely intelligent, and he loves music, art, and fine cuisine. In fact, Hannibal disturbingly loved to create complex dishes from the flesh of his victims.

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around May 22, 2000. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

No Country for Old Men

Cormac McCarthy

Anton Chigurh —  Anton Chigurh is the antagonist of Cormac McCarthy's 2005 novel  No Country for Old Men.  The character was famously played by Spanish actor Javier Bardem in the award-winning 2007 adaptation, and Bardem received multiple awards for his performance, including an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA.

But what makes Anton Chigurh so compelling? Chigurh is a serial killer who kills without remorse, but not without morals. As strange as it might seem, this ruthless murderer has his own set of rules and sense of purpose, and he follows that code of conduct when deciding who to kill and who to spare. For instance, he gives many of his victims an opportunity to escape death by making deals with them or by flipping a coin.

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around July 11, 2006. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

Mr. Mercedes

Stephen King

Mr. Mercedes —  Mr. Mercedes is the villain in Stephen King's Bill Hodges trilogy, which consists of the novels  Mr. Mercedes  (2014) , Finders Keepers  (2015),   and  End of Watch  (2016) .  The character was also featured in the short story "If it Bleeds," which was part of the 2020 short story collection of the same name.

Mr. Mercedes's real name is Brady Hartsfield.  Brady Hartsfield is a young man in his 20s who's described as a psychopath who delights in tormenting his victims. The killer was first given the name "The Mercedes Killer" after stealing a car and running over and killing 8 people at a job fair. Brady's sigil is a disturbing smiley face, but he also delights in leaving police several clues and notes in order toy with the authorities.

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around June 3, 2014. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

Dean Koontz

Edgler Foremann Vess —  Dean Koontz's 1995 thriller novel  Intensity  introduced readers to the self-described "homicidal adventurer" Edgler Foremann Vess. In the mini-series adaptation of the novel, Vess was played by John C. McGinley.

Edgler Vess is a formidable antagonist for his sheer strength, his keen intellect, and his charismatic personality. Vess started murdering people in childhood, and he has killed dozens of people since. The motives behind Vess's murders are particularly disturbing. Simply put, Vess kills for the thrill of it. The villain sexually assaults, tortures, and murders his victims for the exhilarating feeling it gives him.

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around January 31, 2012. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

Get recommended reads, deals, and more from Novel Suspects

By clicking 'Sign Up,' I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Hachette Book Group’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

What to Read Next

Terrifying Serial Killers from Crime Fiction

A Serial Killer, The Great London Smog, and The Strangling Of A City

Becky Cooper Talks Murder Mystery

The High-Stakes Thrill of Murder for Hire Books

True Crime Stories and the Families Caught in the Spotlight

Real Life Horror Stories: When Crime Comes Alive

9 Books Featuring Female Villains Who Lean Into Their Wickedness

Reading Lists

Rebecca kelley recommends stories about bad women who chose to go down a dark and devious path.

There is a point in my novel No One Knows Us Here when my heroine does a very, very bad thing. She doesn’t have to do the bad thing—it’s not one of those “steal a loaf of bread to feed her starving family” situations. She has other options and chooses to go down the dark path anyway.

I had early readers who worried that, once my heroine does her horrible deed, she becomes unsympathetic. I could have tweaked the story to make her actions more justified but ultimately decided against it—I wanted her to commit this morally dubious act. Look at famous literary bad guys like Humbert Humbert, Norman Bates, or Hannibal Lecter. A child abuser, mother/murderer, serial killer—do we sympathize with these guys? Or maybe the better question is, do we need to? At some level, yes, we can sympathize with even the most depraved characters, see their humanity despite (maybe even because of?) their wicked behavior. But really, finding a character sympathetic is secondary to whether we find them interesting. As readers, we don’t relate to Hannibal when he chows down on a victim’s brains (at least, I don’t)—we find him fascinating because of his base desires.

Literature doesn’t lack female villains—Nurse Ratched, Cruella de Vil, every wicked stepmother from every fairytale. And more recently, in 2012, Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl , with the sociopathic Amy Dunne (and her famous “cool girl” monologue) proved that bad women can be just as devious and captivating as our Humbert Humberts and Hannibal Lecters. The contemporary villainesses on this list aren’t necessarily riding around on broomsticks, murdering Dalmations and turning them into fur coats, or locking their daughters in high towers. They are girls or women who do the wrong thing, sometimes out of malice, sometimes out of desperation, sometimes out of a very human desire to get exactly what they want, at any cost.

Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage

Baby Teeth fits into the “Is your child a violent psychopath or am I just a horrible parent?” subgenre along with We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver and The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing. In this case, our villainess comes in the form of a little girl, Hanna. Sweet as candy to her adoring father, Hanna terrorizes her mother the minute he turns his back. “It was hard to pour endless love into someone who wouldn’t love you back,” observes the narrator. “No one could do it forever.”

Social Creature by Tara Isabella Burton

Described as “A Talented Mr. Ripley for the digital age,” Social Creature isn’t a retelling or a re-imagination of Ripley as a woman so much as its own, original story, with its own crazy, messed-up characters and plot twists and turns. Poor girl Louise gets swept up in the party animal lifestyle of the rich and glamorous Lavinia. If you know what Tom Ripley would do in this situation, you have a pretty good idea of what happens next. If you don’t—all the better. Ultimately, it wasn’t the story that lured me in so much as the wry, detached writing style and the over-the-top depiction of the wild lives of the spoiled rich. 

An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten, translated by Marlaine Delargy

A Swedish collection of interrelated short stories with a very unsuspecting villainess, an 88-year-old woman, Maud, who travels the world and gets into a little bit of trouble—but nothing a little murder can’t resolve. A celebrity who wants to take over her apartment, annoying neighbors, or anyone else who gets in her way—no one is safe from this octogenarian serial killer. Who would possibly believe such an innocent, feeble-looking lady could be capable of such atrocious crimes?

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Korede and her sister Ayoola have an arrangement: when Ayoola kills a boyfriend “in self-defense,” Korede will get out the bleach and rubber gloves and help her sister get rid of the evidence. That’s just what sisters do for each other, right? The tagline really sells it: “ My Sister, the Serial Killer is a blackly comic novel about how blood is thicker—and more difficult to get out of the carpet—than water…”.

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

By the author of My Year of Rest and Relaxation , Eileen is a creepy little book with a very creepy main character, Eileen Dunlop, who dreams of escaping her stifling life taking care of her alcoholic father and working as a secretary at a boy’s prison. She becomes obsessed with Rebecca, a counselor at the prison, and eventually gets tangled up in a strange and disturbing crime.

What Was She Thinking? [Notes on a Scandal] by Zoë Heller

It’s hard to pin down the better villainess in What Was She Thinking? : Is it Sheba, a grown woman carrying on an affair with one of her underage students? Or Barbara, a frumpy older teacher at the same school, who is writing up her account in Sheba’s defense when the crime comes to light? Here’s what Barbara has to say on the subject: “In the end, I suspect, being female will do nothing for Sheba, except deny her the grandeur of genuine villainy.” The book is much darker and funnier than the movie version (called Notes on a Scandal ) starring Cate Blanchett. 

Out by Natsuo Kirino

Set in the suburbs of Tokyo, a fed-up woman strangles her husband to death—then recruits her night-shift co-workers to help her cover up the crime. I read this book shortly after the English translation came out in 2005, and I still remember some of the gruesome details of these women’s exploits. It’s not easy getting rid of a body in the middle of a gigantic metropolis, as it turns out. One of the women, Masako Katori, emerges as the leader of this ragtag group of criminal novices. A shrewd, fiercely loyal villainess to root for.

White Ivy by Susie Yang

As a child growing up in Boston, Ivy Lin’s immigrant grandmother teaches her the art of thievery, a talent she carries into adulthood, when she finds herself drawn into the world of a WASPy rich family. She then goes to extreme lengths to secure her new position there. White Ivy reminds me of other great books: Donna Tartt’s The Secret History for its commentary on social class and also White Oleander , Janet Fitch’s 1999 hit that also happens to feature an excellent female villain. At the same time, White Ivy offers a completely different take on the immigrant experience and introduces a memorable villainess who never disappoints the reader by doing the right “bad” thing.

The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani

Originally published in France under the name Chanson douce (Lullaby) in 2016, The Perfect Nanny is a parent’s worst nightmare. When a mother decides to return to work as a lawyer, she finds the ideal candidate to tend to her two children—meek, unassuming Louise. From the very beginning, you know how it ends—horrifically—so the tension comes in watching the tragedy unfold. Sometimes the quiet ones are the most villainous of all.

Take a break from the news

We publish your favorite authors—even the ones you haven't read yet. Get new fiction, essays, and poetry delivered to your inbox.

YOUR INBOX IS LIT

Enjoy strange, diverting work from The Commuter on Mondays, absorbing fiction from Recommended Reading on Wednesdays, and a roundup of our best work of the week on Fridays. Personalize your subscription preferences here.

ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER ADVERTISEMENT

Announcing the Winner of Electric Lit’s 2022 Book Cover Tournament

Plus an interview with the designers and artists about the creative process

Dec 30 - Electric Literature Read

More like this.

7 Books About Older Women Behaving Badly

Amy Lee Lillard, author of “Dig Me Out,” recommends novels about women who refuse to disappear and insist on being seen

Oct 8 - Amy Lee Lillard

10 Spy Novels With Women Protagonists

Paul Vidich, author of "The Mercenary," recommends books that go beyond the James Bond model

Feb 1 - Paul Vidich

10 LGBTQ Crime Fiction Must-Reads

There are similarities between the arc of the crime narrative and the coming out narrative, says John Copenhaver, author of the new novel ‘Dodging and Burning’

Mar 5 - John Copenhaver

DON’T MISS OUT

Sign up for our newsletter to get submission announcements and stay on top of our best work.

It's time to come clean people: we're all villain-loving trash. Sure, you can pretend that you're in it for the princesses, or that you never had a secret soft spot for Draco Malfoy, or that you didn't religiously follow Phantom of the Opera fan blogs as a 12-year-old girl (other people did that too, right?). But most of us have at least one so-called "bad guy" who we're secretly rooting for. At least, sometimes we get a little tired of stories about conventionally hot, young, able-bodied teens defeating villains who seem a heck of a lot more interesting they they are. Sometimes we want to hear what the villains have to say for themselves. And as they say: the villain is the hero of their own story. Here are a few books that actually give you the that side of the story, and leave it up to you to decide if they were in the right.

Now, before we get into these stories of complicated witches and redeemable orcs, let me just say that not all fictional villains are necessarily "just misunderstood." A lot of villains are straight up evil. Please do not contact me with your opinions on Kylo Ren. But throughout the history of literature and of the Walt Disney Company, there have been quite a few villains who might just deserve a second chance:

'Circe' by Madeline Miller

The Odyssey is filled with villains aplenty: there's the Cyclops, the sirens, the sea monster Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis. But Circe might just be the most memorable villain from the ancient epic. She's the sexy sorceress who turns men into pigs. Odysseus defeats her and takes her as a lover, before peacing out back to his wife. Cool. But what if there was more to it than that? Circe is an absolutely brilliant re-imagining of Greek mythology, with the witch Circe as our complicated heroine, trying to navigate the life of a lesser goddess in a world full of patriarchal gods and hateful mortal men.

Click here to buy.

'Wicked' by Gregory Maguire

Look, if you love the musical Wicked, you should know that the book is... different. There's just... a lot more political intrigue and humans having sex with tigers. But Gregory Maguire's take on the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz is still one of the more inspired villain stories out there. In his version, the witch is not a black-and-white villain, but a political revolutionary who has always been distrusted and ostracized due to her inexplicable green skin.

'Grendel' by John Gardner

The Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf is about a dude named Beowulf who kills a monster, then that monster's mom, and then a dragon who is apparently unrelated to the monster family. This is the story of Grendel, that first hideous monster, and his life on the outskirts of human society. Grendel is a beautiful study in loneliness, and how hatred develops, and it's also one of the ultimate classics of the "villain's story" genre. A must read for monster fans everywhere.

'Blackhearts' by Nicole Castroman

Even if you're not up on your pirate lore, chances are that you've heard of the dread pirate Blackbeard. He was legendary for terrorizing sailors across the seven seas. He was also a real guy named Edward "Teach" Drummond. Blackhearts is the story of young Mr. Drummond, as well as the story of the determined Anne Barrett, and how they left their respectable, suffocating home in England for a life of freedom on the sea.

'Miranda and Caliban' by Jacqueline Carey

In Shakespeare's The Tempest, Caliban is a "monster," bound to serve as a slave to the wizard Prospero and his innocent daughter, Miranda. Miranda and Caliban takes a different look at the story. After all, Miranda and Caliban grew up on their remote island together. Who's to say that there wasn't something more to the relationship between the wild orphan boy and the lonely wizard's daughter?

'Wide Sargasso Sea' by Jean Rhys

Wide Sargasso Sea is such a classic in its own right at this point, it's easy to forgot that it's technically a "villainous" retelling. In Jane Eyre, however, the first wife of Mr. Rochester is most certainly portrayed as a villain. This is the story of who she was before she was brought from Jamaica to England, and before she "lost her mind" after being sold as a bride to the prideful Mr. Rochester. It will definitely make you reconsider her framing as the "villain" in the original Brontë classic.

'Alias Hook' by Lisa Jensen

Honestly, the older I get, the harder it is to have any sympathy for that little snot Peter Pan. Captain Hook, on the other hand, seems like a complicated guy with a lot going on. At least, in Alias Hook he's a whole lot more than a bumbling fool with a (reasonable) fear of crocodiles: he's a smart, witty man eternally cursed to play a storybook villain, and he's ready for something in his life to finally change.

'Grunts' by Mary Gentle

If you've ever watched a fantasy movie, or read a fantasy novel, or played a fantasy tabletop game, you know that orcs are entirely expendable. They're the nameless villains you can cut down by the dozens on your way to fighting the real big bad. But how does that make the orcs feel? Grunts is a hilarious look at what the orcs think of this arraignment, perfect for Tolkien fans who want to see their favorite stories from a new perspective.

'Because You Love to Hate Me: 13 Tales of Villainy' edited by Ameriie

Because You Love to Hate Me is not the story of one villain. It's 13 stories of 13 villains, exploring alternate perspectives on everything from the Medusa myth to "Jack and the Beanstalk." It's funny, touching, and pure villainous fun from beginning to end, with stories from some of the greatest YA authors out there on some of their most beloved baddies.

'Vicious' by V.E. Schwab

Supervillains are a fixture of superhero fiction. And sure, they might have the occasional tragic backstory, but for the most part we don't dive deep into how they became supervillainous. Vicious is the wickedly smart story of Victor and Eli, and how they went from college roommates with big dreams to superpowered foes out for revenge.

'Heartless' by Marissa Meyer

Before the infamous Queen of Hearts was lopping off heads as a ruler of Wonderland, she wanted to open a bakery. That's how it goes in Marissa Meyer's Heartless, anyway. Baking is not fit job for a future queen, though, and soon young Cath is drawn into a complicated plot filled with love and monsters as she tries to chart a course for herself in an unpredictable kingdom that thrives on disorder.

'Sea Witch' by Sarah Henning

We all know the story of the rather small mermaid and the cruel sea witch who took her voice. But really, we know very little about where that sea witch came from. Who was she before she started "helping" all those poor, unfortunate souls? Sea Witch tell the story of a girl finding her own magic, at the cost of her own heart.

'And I Darken' by Kiersten White

This is it: the gender-bent retelling of Vlad the Impaler you've been waiting for. Yes, this is a wild, heart-pounding historical twist on the "real" Dracula, if he was the fierce princess Lada Dragwlya. Lada has sworn to bring down the Ottoman Empire and return to her birthright in Wallachia... but her revenge plot becomes a little more complicated when she falls for the son of the sultan she despises.

• Reviews by Author
• Reviews by Title
• The Backlist Reader Challenge 2024 – Review Linky
• The Backlist Reader Challenge 2023 – Review Linky
• The Backlist Reader Challenge 2022 – Review Linky
• The Backlist Reader Challenge 2021 – Reviews
• The Backlist Reader Challenge 2020 – Reviews
• The Backlist Reader Challenge 2019 – Reviews
• 2024 Reading Challenges
• 2023 Reading Challenges
• 2022 Reading Challenges
• 2021 Reading Challenges
• 2020 Reading Challenges
• 2019 Challenges
• 2018 Challenges
• 2017 Challenges
• Dragon Books (masterlist)
• Author Birthdays

Best Villains in Fantasy and Science Fiction

October 23, 2018 Lark_Bookwyrm Top Ten Tuesday 15

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature/meme now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl . The meme was originally the brainchild of  The Broke and the Bookish . This week’s topic is Top Ten Villains.

This week’s TTT topic is  Villains.  Since Halloween is just over a week, I decided to go with the scariest villains, but at the bottom, I also added a few of my favorite complex and interesting villains… the ones I secretly like, or at least feel conflicted about.

Scariest Villains

Sauron (Lord of the Rings)  is essentially the devil; he’s a vastly overpowered being who seems to exist for the sole purpose of being evil and seeking dominion over, well, everything. There’s no complexity to Sauron; he is frightening merely because of his immense power and impersonal evil.

Voldemort (Harry Potter)  has a little more complexity, partly because he has more of a backstory (OK, to be fair, Sauron has a backstory if you read  The Silmarillion , but most people don’t) and partly because he’s human, and therefore his motivations are easier to understand. Abandoned by his Muggle father and orphaned by his mother’s death, he grows up in an orphanage, unloved and emotionally neglected…and probably bullied by older children in the orphanage. But it’s clear that he is bad from an early age; by the time Dumbledore encounters the 10- or 11-year-old Tom Riddle, he is already stealing and playing nasty magical tricks on other children. (Given the character of his wizarding family, the Gaunts, Rowling seems to imply that there’s at least some genetic predisposition toward evil… nature  and  nurture, if you will. This conclusion grows stronger when you contrast Harry and Voldemort, who have similar childhood experiences but choose very different paths, Voldemort because of his experiences and Harry despite them.) Nonetheless, Voldemort, like Sauron, is something of a stock Dark Lord; his sole focus is his own power and immortality, and he enjoys the pain and death of others. There is no hope of redemption for Voldemort; he stands as the embodiment of Evil.

The Ringwraiths / the Nazgul (Lord of the Rings)  are terrifying because they evoke our fears of the undead. They seem to exude a miasma of fear and despair; they are (mostly) unkillable; they are implacable and untiring huntsmen. They remind me variously of ghosts, revenants, and the huntsmen of the Wild Hunt. It’s their inhumanity that makes them so frightening, despite or perhaps because of the fact that they were once human.

The Chandrian (The Kingkiller Chronicle) are scary because they are mysterious, because they appear to be demigods or at least near-immortal, and because they are cruel. Most folk think of them as imaginary bogeymen, tales to frighten children with, but the reader knows better… without knowing very much at all. Two very long books into the series, we can only guess at what and who the Chandrian, are based on stories and myths and a few glimpses of them. And we still have no idea whether Kvothe will encounter them again, nor if he will triumph if he does… though so far, the latter doesn’t seem likely.

Prof. Umbridge (Harry Potter)  is the exception in this gallery of scary villains. She is frightening not because of the ways in which she isn’t human, but because of her her ordinaryness. Umbridge’s villainy stems from her arrogance, the petty pleasure she derives from having power over others, and her belief that the ends justify the means. Initially, her allegiance is to the Ministry, and her goal is to increase its power as a means of maintaining order; she sees Dumbledore, Harry, and their supporters as a threat. She seems to neither notice nor care that her methods and those of the Ministry become ever more similar to those of Voldemort. “Power corrupts,” as the saying goes, and Umbridge is a prime example: the more power she wields, the more she craves, and the more openly nasty and cruel she becomes… yet she persists in believing herself justified in the actions she takes. She is clearly based on the ordinary people who carried out atrocities under Hitler and other despots, and a chilling reminder of the dangers of authoritarianism and the abandonment of principles and common human decency in order to further the ends of the state (or of its head.)

The Shadows (Babylon 5)  are another creepy, heavily overpowered villain—in this case, an entire race of them. One of the First Ones, the oldest races in the universe, they operate on the principles of social Darwinism: the weak die, the strong survive. To quote the Bab5 wiki, “The Shadows embrace chaos as the defining characteristic of their race and the supreme force of the universe.” They encourage conflict between the younger races (humans, Narn, Centauri, Minbari, and others), often working through thralls (beings they have taken over, or who agree to their influence.) Spiderlike in appearance, the Shadows’ spider-shaped organic spaceships are terrifyingly powerful, but their ability to control and manipulate individuals and whole worlds is even more frightening.

The Borg (Star Trek)  frighten me because of their implacable drive to “assimilate” all intelligent species they encounter. Where human beings think in terms of either coexistence, conquest, or annihilation, the Borg want to turn everyone and everything into Borg. Borg collectives are essentially hive-minds; all individuality is subsumed and the assimilated being becomes, essentially, an ant or a bee, with no sense of “I” and no individual needs, desires, or drives. The threat posed by the Borg is the loss of self, and of everything that makes us human; to me that is more terrifying than pain or death.

IT ( A Wrinkle in Time ) is much like the Borg in IT’s drive to impose order through removing individuality. IT—a disembodied, telepathic brain—rules the planet of Camazotz and forces everyone into conformity, physical as well as mental… and makes them “happy” to be thus controlled.  This is mind control and loss of individual agency taken to the extreme; it’s also a thinly-veiled portrait of Communist dictatorships as perceived by the author. (The closest example today would be North Korea.) IT is less scary than the Borg mainly because  Wrinkle is a children’s book, but unlike  Star Trek’s  Borg, it is not defeated. Meg is able to break her little brother free through love, but she isn’t able to defeat IT; though Meg and Charles Wallace escape, Camazotz is still firmly under IT’s control.

Most Interesting Villains

I didn’t want to leave this topic without quickly referencing some of the more interesting villains I’ve come across—villains whose complexity and, in a few cases, likableness make them much more rounded characters.

Loki (Marvel’s Avenger films & MCU) Loki is a trickster; you never quite know whether he’s against you or for you. Add to that the fact that he’s charming (particularly as played by Tom Hiddleston) and that his relationship with Thor is a normal sibling love-hate-rivalry taken to the  nth  power, and Loki makes a very complex and compelling villain. Or antihero, depending on the movie.

Zuko (Avatar)  has one of the best redemption arcs I’ve encountered, despite the fact that he’s a teenage villain in a children’s animated TV show. He starts out arrogantly convinced of his own and the Fire Nation’s superiority, and completely determined to find and kill the Avatar to restore his honor, lost in a duel with his own father. Over the course of the show’s three seasons, we see how he became so driven, the ways in which his father’s cruelty shaped him, and the slow eroding of his arrogance and dawning of compassion and humanity, influenced by both his uncle Iroh (whom I love)  and his encounters with ordinary people of other nations.

Magneto (Marvel’s X-Men  films & MCU)  Marvel has given us a lot of Magneto’s backstory, both in the comics and onscreen, and it’s a tragic one. It’s no wonder that he rejects the idea of co-existence with ordinary humans, and works to empower mutants at their expense; his own experiences lead him to expect nothing but cruelty, loss, and exploitation from “normal” people. He’s not evil for the sake of being evil, like a Sauron or a Voldemort; he’s driven by his own pain and the belief that mutants will never be accepted as equals by ordinary humans, so why should they even try? Somehow he and Prof. X manage to be friends even when they are enemies, each convinced that he is right and the other is wrong, but unwilling to cut ties entirely. And Magneto is (mostly) loyal and supportive to those who follow him. In short, it’s very hard to see him as “just” a villain; he’s a complicated man for whom you can feel compassion even when you think he’s wrong.

Gol Dukat   ( Star Trek: Deep Space 9 )  is conniving, self-serving, self-justifying, a tyrant, and a bigot. The former military ruler of Cardassian-occupied Bajor, he was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Bajorans. He’s also sometimes charming, a father who loves his half-Bajoran daughter despite his bigotry, and a patriot, though his loyalty to Cardassia leads him to do some pretty despicable things. And occasionally, he is a useful ally, as long as you don’t trust him too much or turn your back on him. In short, Dukat is complex enough that you can’t simply hate him, because as soon as you do, he’ll do something or say something that makes you feel sympathetic… until the next time he does or says something terrible.

Garack   ( Star Trek: Deep Space 9 ) ST: DS9 abounds in complicate, messy, very human characters. (Even the aliens are often human in character, if not appearance.) And the Cardassians seem to be a favorite source. Elim Garack is a Cardassian exile working as a tailor on the DS9 space station. He is also, you come to suspect and eventually know, a former (and perhaps current) spy, one of the best in Cardassia’s feared intelligence service, the Obsidian Order. He wears a harmless, congenial persona aboard the space station, but underneath is someone much more complex, with hints of a dark, even sinister side. He sometimes helps the Federation or specific members of it, but it’s never quite clear what his motives are nor where his loyalties lie. Federation doctor and resident genius Julian Bashir becomes his friend and something of a protege, but even Julian isn’t entirely sure how much to trust Garack. To be honest, I rather like him, and put him in the “villain” category with reservations; I’m not really sure he belongs there anymore, though he certainly did during the Cardassian occupation.

Villain I’m Most Conflicted About

Darth Vader / Anakin Skywalker . I debated which list to Vader on the list. I mean, he’s  the  iconic villain of my generation, but… well, he’s scary but not invincible, and he’s somewhat complex but not that sympathetic, at least in my eyes. He has a sad backstory, I’ll grant you. (We could have a whole discussion about what sort of “good” people would take a child away from his mother and leave the mother in slavery and expect the child to be fine with that…yes, I’m looking at you, Obi-wan.) But he also makes some bad choices even before he turns to the dark side of the Force. And his so-called redemption really doesn’t work for me. Vader did all these horrible things—participated or at least acquiesced in the destruction of at least one planet, killed his former mentor, and tried multiple times to corrupt or kill his son—but then suddenly when Luke gives himself up and says he “feels the good in [Vader]”, Vader changes his mind, switches back to the Light side, and kills the Emperor. It just doesn’t ring true. There’s no real reason given for him to change so abruptly. We don’t see any self-searching, and there’s very little to indicate he’s having any second thoughts before that time. In fact, at one point he wants to coopt Luke so they can overthrow the Emperor and take the power for themselves (read: for Vader himself.)  Even as he is dying, Vader doesn’t express any real regret or repentence for his actions or his choices. In what way is he actually “redeemed”? Saving Luke and killing the Emperor, no matter how self-sacrificing that action was, can’t make up for all the people Vader killed and tortured. The Star Wars universe doesn’t appear to have a theology that grants absolution for repented sins (which, as I said, he doesn’t repent onscreen, anyway.) So by what right or grace is Anakin/Vader able to become a Force ghost beside the likes of Obi-wan and Yoda?

Who would you choose for a Best or Scariest Villains list, or a Most Interesting Villains list?

• Pinterest 0
• StumbleUpon 0
• Related Posts

15 Responses to “Best Villains in Fantasy and Science Fiction”

Love your list. The Nazgul are very creepy… as creepy as the Dementors in Harry Potter. 🙂

Lark_Bookwyrm

The similarity, plus the fact that I already had two HP villains on my list, are what kept the Dementors off my list. 🙂

Sauron and the Ringwraiths *nods* I love how creepy the Ringwraiths are! And Sauron I think is so compelling because we don’t see him physically, at least not much. In fact, in the films, when he DOES appear in flashbacks it actually takes away from the mystique, for me.

I love your thoughts on Darth Vader, and mostly agree, although I would say two things that for me make it more plausible (his return to the Light side, as it were). The first is when he meets Luke in the Endor base and they have a conversation… at one point Vader says “it’s too late for me,son” or something to that effect. I think? It’s been a while. The stormtroopers lead Luke out and we see Vader contemplating.I like to think he’s very conflicted there. 🙂

The other point is when he tells Luke to tell Leia “he was right” about Vader. In other words, that there was still good in him. Still, your point about it being very abrupt is true. It very much could have been developed better. 🙂 And yes those possibly redemptive moments certainly pale in comparison to the horrible things he’s done, the destruction of Alderaan, etc. It is problematic. 🙂

Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer

Lory @ Emerald City Book Review

Great post. I love that you included IT from A Wrinkle in Time. Books of My Heart

This is a great post – villains I’d to add to your list – Queen Jadis of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe who is prepared to see everyone die before she will relinquish her bleak power; Mr Teatime from The Hogfather – while many of Pratchett’s villains have a redeming aspect, Teatime hasn’t; and the worst of all – the Vogons from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy who destroyed Earth to an administrative schedule even though they were aware there was sentient life there…

Aj @ Read All The Things!

Thank you, Aj! Yes, I agree with you there.

Sophia @ Bookwyrming Thoughts

He’s interesting, yes, but he’s also a rather typical Evil Villain type. Umbridge’s ability to justify her desire for control over others and her enjoyment of their pain, so that she doesn’t realize or acknowledge that she has done horrible things… I find that more chilling, in a way, perhap because it’s more common in real life. I mean, we’ve all met people like Umbridge, who would be nastier and more sadistic if they thought they could get away with it.

Suzanne @ The Bookish Libra

Great list! I didn’t do the TTT this week since I was traveling, but if I had, quite a few of these would have made my list as well.

Umbridge is definitely the scarier of the Potter bad guys. She doesn’t have a Higher Purpose for her actions, she’s just utterly convinced that her bigoted ways are the right ones.

Yes, that’s exactly why Umbridge creeps me out. She’s much more like real people than Voldemort is. Reading about her makes me a lot warier of real people who exhibit that kind of bigotry, because if they get power, they may abuse it in similar ways.

Sunday Post – 28th October, 2018 #Brainfluffbookblog #SundayPost | Brainfluff

[…] Villains in Science Fiction and Fantasy https://bookwyrmshoard.com/top-ten-tuesday/best-villains-in-fantasy-and-science-fiction/ Do you agree with the line-up? Who would you add to this […]

Blog Archive

Recent reviews.

Currently Reading

Reading Challenges

The backlist reader challenge.

Rules & Sign-Up Linky *** Click here to link reviews

• Bea's Book Nook
• Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life
• Book-Wyrm-Knits
• Books of My Heart
• Entering the Enchanted Castle
• I Wish I Lived in a Library
• Lark Writes... on books and life
• The Book Smugglers
• The Caffeinated Reviewer
• Yarn Harlot

Follow by Email

Trending Post : Books Made Into Movies

12 Best Villains in Children’s Books

This post may contain affiliate links.

Mwahahaaaa! The best villains can really make a great children’s book.  Oh sure, it’s great to have a hero who models virtue and courage, but the villains are often the most exciting and memorable characters.  What would Charlie and the Chocolate Factory be without the outrageously spoiled Veruca Salt, or without gluttonous Augustus Gloop?  In a word: BORING!

Yes, villain characters are creepy, sly, and revolting, so why am I recommending your kids read them?

Note: written in 2012 by educator, mom, and “education diva,” Ruth Spivak, with updates and revisions by Melissa Taylor.

Why Kids Need Villain Characters

1.  Villains teach children important lessons about coping with evil in our world. A lot to be learned from the effects of villains on other characters, and from the heroes who fight them.

a-  Absolute power corrupts absolutely. (Darth Vader?)

b- Even the most intimidating bully is weak at heart. (Real life!)

 c- Friendship, persistence, and honesty triumph over evil. ( One Flew Over the Cukoos Nest )

2. Villains are incredibly motivating for reluctant readers. Great villains add elements of humor and adventure that up the excitement in a book. I love it when kids rally with the hero for the downfall of the ridiculous villain.

The Best Villains in Children’s Books

From the biggest brats to the worst dictators, here are some of my favorite books with great villains for kids from ages 3-13.

Best Villains: AGES 3 and Up

DARTH VADER : ( Are You Scared, Darth Vader? by Adam Rex) You don’t even need to love Star Wars to love this book. The narrator wants to find out if Darth Vader is scared of anything. But, nothing will scare Darth Vader. Except, one thing…

FAIRY TALES !

Read them to your kids, again and again.  The language, characters, and plot have survived the test of time for a reason.

I LOVE the villains in these two fairy tale stories:

–> DRESS UP AS THE WOLF CHARACTER!

Best Villains: Ages 6 and Up

The sinister and the funny.   At this age, kids can really begin to appreciate dark humor. Here are a few villains to laugh at:

Best Villains: Age 9 and Up

Of course, not all the best villains in children’s books are funny. You already know the worst “bad guy” of middle-grade fiction, someone who is not redeemable at all…He Who Shall Not Be Named, Lord Voldemort.

DOLORES UMBRIDGE ( Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.) We love to hate Dolores Umbridge, she’s a meanie. And she is also a villain with a fantastic pinked-up outfit . ( Halloween or World Book Day costume idea!?)

–>DRESS UP AS THE VILLAIN, VOLDEMORT !

THE WICKED WITCH OF THE WEST ( The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum) You may know the wicked witch from the movies but it’s also a book– a really good book! This bad guy witch lady is horrible and mean and everything you’d want in a villain.

Best Villains: Ages 13+ and Up

SAURON ( The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien) Of all the villain characters, Sauron is the worst, evilest, power-hungry villain of them all.

So, the next time you’re looking for a book your kids will love, think evil!   Some of the meanest, baddest villains around are the ticket for motivation, great discussions, and education.

Do you or your kids have a favorite villain?

KEEP READING

Melissa Taylor, MA, is the creator of Imagination Soup. She's a mother, former teacher & literacy trainer, and freelance education writer. She writes Imagination Soup and freelances for publications online and in print, including Penguin Random House's Brightly website, USA Today Health, Adobe Education, Colorado Parent, and Parenting. She is passionate about matching kids with books that they'll love.

Similar Posts

Kwame Alexander on New Book, Reading, & Upcoming Tour

Hands-On Addition Activity from 100 Fun and Easy Learning Games for Kids

How to Summarize with a Thinking Map

New, Fascinating Fairy Tale Picture Books

Weather Wonderland: 5 Activities for Appreciating Clouds & Storms

10 Clever Three Little Pigs Retellings

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I absolutely adore this post!!!! Nothing beats the classic fairy tale villians, though there are many that come close. You’ve got me thinking now which one would be my favorites!

Thanks Tif! Another favourite villain is Quilp from Charles Dickens’ Olde Curiosity Shoppe. I wouldn’t recommend that for kids under 13, though. Do you still have the Fairy Tale Challenge? I just noticed it on your site. Looks like fun!

Thanks Rachelle. That’s a pretty sophisticated kind of conversation to be having with a 3 year old, I’m impressed! Just hopped on to TinkerLab. I really like your creative projects! I will definitely be visiting regularly for some inspiration.

What a fun post! My 3 year old and I like to talk about how every good story has a “problem” that needs to be resolved, and the villan is often at the heart of the matter. Ruth, thanks for doing all this research and pulling all these dark characters out of the woodwork for us to enjoy (and hate).

This is very interesting blog and for sure, we will be happy to read it. Thanks that you shared. I love this link up… Good thing you post such valuable information like this. So thanks for hosting!

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

Author Interviews

Peter s. beagle on his new novel, the hero's journey, and why villains talk so much.

Scott Simon

A reluctant hero's quest, a can-do princess, and an evil wizard who just can not shut up: NPR's Scott Simon talks with Peter S. Beagle about his new novel, "I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons."

Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

The 51 greatest movie villains of all time, ranked

• Movie villains are essential pieces to great movies.
• And some — like the Joker, Anton Chigurh, and Annie Wilkes — have become iconic.
• Here are the best movie villains of all time, ranked.

Note: James Bond villains and Disney-animated villains are not included.

51. Biff Tannen ("Back to the Future" franchise)

Perhaps one of the biggest bullies in movie history, we watch Biff terrorize the McFly family over three movies with his "butthead" taunts. And with that, actor Thomas F. Wilson will always be a part of movie history.

50. Norman Stansfield ("Léon: The Professional")

Gary Oldman loves every moment while playing this crooked cop who needs "EVERYONE!!" to take out a hitman (Jean Reno) who just wants to be left alone.

49. Emperor Palpatine ("Star Wars" franchise)

The evil overlord of the Sith is the ultimate puppet master of a galaxy far, far away.

48. Hans Gruber ("Die Hard")

This terrorist mastermind may not have been as memorable if it weren't for the amazing acting by Alan Rickman, who made the character so fun to watch.

47. Buffalo Bill ("Silence of the Lambs")

"Silence of the Lambs" is so diabolical it gave us two memorable villains (we'll meet the other one later).

Ted Levine's portrayal of the serial killer "Buffalo Bill" (real name James Gumb) who is in search of making the perfect woman suit from actual women's skin is horrific regardless how many times you've seen the movie.

46. Staff Sergeant Barnes ("Platoon")

In Oliver Stone's gripping look at the Vietnam War the performance by Tom Berenger as the scarred-up, tough-as-nails Sgt. Barnes is a chilling one. He's so demented his men are convinced "the only thing that can kill Barnes is Barnes."

45. Joan Crawford ("Mommie Dearest")

The off-camera life of actress Joan Crawford is brought to startling life thanks to Faye Dunaway's performance. An adaptation of the memoir by Crawford's adopted daughter Christina Crawford, we watch how the actress manipulated and abused her family. Topped with the classic line: "No wire hangers!!!"

44. Damien ("The Omen")

As the son of an American ambassador (Gregory Peck) who turns out to be the Antichrist, Damien's evil is heightened becomes it comes from what looks like a very cute-looking child, played perfectly by Harvey Spencer Stephens.

43. Hedy Carlson ("Single White Female")

Jennifer Jason Leigh's performance led to a generation of women being completely frightened about getting a new roommate. Hedy Carlson's complete obsession with Allison (Bridget Fonda), even getting the same identical haircut she has, makes her a worthy addition to this list.

42. Green Goblin ("Spider-Man," "Spider-Man: Now Way Home")

Willem Dafoe has always had a knack for delivering off-the-wall performances , but being cast as Green Goblin didn't just allow him to do it for a much bigger paycheck than he often gets, he was also introduced to an audience that doesn't often go see him in indie dramas. 

The result is a performance that has stayed with audiences since 2002's "Spider-Man" was released.

Playing wealthy industrialist Norman Osborn who goes wildly mad and becomes the Green Goblin alter ego after injecting himself with a superhuman serum, Dafoe delivers a wicked Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde persona that's the perfect villain to Spider-Man.

And Dafoe's performance was cemented as an all-time great when Green Goblin wreaked havoc in "Spider-Man: No Way Home."

41. Alex ("A Clockwork Orange")

There are some villains that are so bad you can't help but root for them and that's the case with the lead in one of Stanley Kubrick's most demented movies. Malcolm McDowell's sinister Alex and his "ultra-violent" ways lead to some very dark moments, but the way Alex does everything means you just can't turn away.

40. Amy Dunne ("Gone Girl")

Don't ever cheat on your partner. That's the moral of the story in "Gone Girl," as Amy Dunne shows what payback is. Disappearing on her fifth wedding anniversary and concocting a plan so it looks like her husband, Nick (Ben Affleck), is responsible, Amy (played perfectly by Rosamund Pike) pulls off a mix of twisted liberation and revenge.

39. Harry Powell ("The Night of the Hunter")

This con artist and serial killer who pulls in his prey as a preacher has the creepiness turned up to 11 thanks to Robert Mitchum's twisted performance.

38. Missy Armitage ("Get Out")

Who would think just having some tea would cause such fear, but thanks to the storytelling of Jordan Peele and a performance by Catherine Keener we are given one of the most chilling villains in recent memory: the keeper of The Sunken Place.

37. HAL 9000 ("2001: A Space Odyssey")

The evil computer system of the Discovery One spacecraft seemed like such a sci-fi thing back when Kubrick made "2001." Would you really be surprised if that happened now?

36. Margaret White ("Carrie")

Piper Laurie received an Oscar nomination playing the demented mother of Carrie White (Sissy Spacek), who in her troubled and very religious parenting leads to a thrilling encounter with her daughter at the end of the movie that should remind all parents to keep sharp things away from the kids.

35. Chucky ("Child's Play" franchise)

This murderous children's toy has become a horror staple.

34. Gordon Gekko ("Wall Street")

Michael Douglas delivers the ultimate anti-hero of the 1980s: a Wall Street suit. With his killer appetite for a stock and his "greed is good" mantra, Gekko epitomizes pure evil for some and is an idol to others.

33. Baby Jane Hudson ("What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?")

Bette Davis earned an Oscar nomination for her pure evil performance as a former child star who torments her paraplegic sister.

32. Detective Alonzo Harris ("Training Day")

Denzel Washington did one better than Davis and won an Oscar for his villain role of a corrupt LAPD detective. Like several of the other villains on this list, what makes Washington's performance of Harris so great is throughout you think perhaps he isn't as evil as we think. But then it turns out he's even worse.

31. Freddy Krueger ("A Nightmare on Elm Street" franchise)

He's been tormenting our dreams since the 1980s and we still can't get enough of him.

30. Nurse Ratched ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest")

The heartless "big nurse" that was first brought to life in the Ken Kesey novel was elevated in the big-screen version by Louise Fletcher, who earned an Oscar for her performance.

29. T-1000 ("Terminator 2: Judgment Day")

The greatness of "T2" is it goes and makes a terminator that can realistically go up against the one we met in the first movie. The T-1000, played by Robert Patrick, is also impressive because of the ground-breaking CGI that James Cameron used to pull off its liquid metal body.

28. Calvin Candie ("Django Unchained")

Leonardo DiCaprio's first time in a Quentin Tarantino movie is some pure evil s--- as he plays a super racist plantation owner. The performance is one of DiCaprio's most outlandish and shows that his talents are perfect for Tarantino's world.

27. Gollum ("The Lord of the Rings" franchise)

Like the T-1000, what makes Gollum so memorable is the CGI used to bring this evil character to life. And there's also the voice and motion-capture performance by Andy Serkis.

26. Immortan Joe ("Mad Max: Fury Road")

The evil overseer of The Citadel and the loyal War Boys was the perfect foe in the latest "Mad Max" movie. But here's a fact that amps up the evilness: the actor who director George Miller cast for the role, Hugh Keays-Byrne, is the same one he cast to play the villain, Toecutter, in the first "Mad Max" movie back in 1979.

25. Michael Myers ("Halloween" franchise)

The legendary homicidal maniac with a thing for Jamie Lee Curtis continues to entertain us with his evil ways.

24. Lord Voldemort ("Harry Potter" franchise)

The dark lord, who no one dares speak his name, is given full villainy thanks to the performance by Ralph Fiennes.

23. Predator ("Predator" franchise)

This hunter from another planet first showed up to face off with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1987 movie and ever since has collected the skulls of countless humans.

22. Annie Wilkes ("Misery")

Here's another twisted character from a Stephen King novel. Played masterfully by Cathy Bates in the 1990 movie (which earned her an Oscar), this nurse helps her favorite author Paul Sheldon (James Caan) back to health after a car accident. But the problem is she's a complete psycho, who has no plans of ever letting Paul leave her home again.

21. John Doe ("Seven")

Kevin Spacey's twisted performance is only on screen for a brief time, but it adds another level to the super creepiness of this David Fincher classic.

20. Jason Voorhees ("Friday the 13th" franchise)

Another classic villain makes the list. Voorhees' body count over his movies is hard to compare to anyone else. And the twisted way he's killed people over the decades has become almost an art form in the horror genre.

19. Thanos ("The Avengers" franchise)

The best villains are the ones that are as layered and complex as the heroes. And that is certainly the case with this Titan. After many movies of just being talked about, he's put front-and-center in "Avengers: Infinity War" and in the process it puts the movie on another level than most in the franchise.

18. The Alien ("Alien" franchise)

The xenemorphy has been terrorizing people in space since the late 1970s (and even has faced off against the Predator). With its acid blood and inner mouth that shoots out at its victims, when it comes to villains in sci-fi this one is pretty iconic.

17. Phyllis Dietrichson ("Double Indemnity")

Sometimes a great villain has someone else do their dirty work and that's the case with this classic femme fatale played by Barbara Stanwyck. She received an Oscar nomination for her performance as a wife, who seduces an insurance agent (Fred MacMurray) to kill her husband.

16. Keyser Söze ("The Usual Suspects")

This villain is so evil that the criminals we're following in this movie are scared to death of him and his legend. His evilness is also amped up when we realize at the end of the movie that he was the weakest member of the crew (played by Kevin Spacey) the whole time.

15. Hans Landa ("Inglourious Basterds")

Here's another evil Tarantino character: Christoph Waltz earned an Oscar for his performance as the "The Jew Hunter," who seems to outsmart everyone until he comes up against Lt. Aldo "The Apache" Raine (Brad Pitt) and his team of "Basterds."

14. Leatherface ("The Texas Chainsaw Massacre")

This horrific villain with a love for his chainsaws from Tobe Hooper's classic still gives movie fans sleepless nights.

13. Tyler Durden ("Fight Club")

Brad Pitt and Edward Norton combine their talents to present the duel personalities of the central figure in David Fincher's movie. There's the guy, who's fed up with life and goes off the grid (Norton) and then there's the guy, who builds a cult and tries to bring down capitalism (Pitt).

12. Pennywise ("It" franchise)

Whether your favorite Pennywise is performed by Tim Curry or Bill Skarsgård, it doesn't matter. Both performances makes the character a chilling iconic villain.

11. The Wicked Witch of the West ("The Wizard of Oz")

This is one of those villains that has been embedded in our minds for generations. As the main villain of Oz, who torments Dorothy and her little dog, too, this may have been the first movie villain you encountered in your life.

10. Mr. Potter ("It's a Wonderful Life")

Legendary actor Lionel Barrymore brings this despicable character to life. Epitomizing the scrooge of Bedford Falls, he shows his true evilness when he keeps the cash that the absent minded Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell) leaves by accident in his office.

9. Norman Bates ("Psycho" franchise)

With a kind face and quiet voice, Anthony Perkins crafted this villain into the most memorable from an Alfred Hitchcock movie.

8. Alex Forrest ("Fatal Attraction")

Glenn Close brought a ferocity to this character, who is brushed off by the man (Michael Douglas) she's having an affair with, that you could make the case that the things she did were justified (though boiling the family bunny may have been too much).

7. Terminator ("Terminator" franchise)

It's the movie that made Arnold Schwarzenegger a movie star. As the indestructible T-800 (and with the line "I'll be back"), Schwarzenegger and director James Cameron created a villain that to this day (despite numerous awful sequels) we can't get enough of.

6. Amon Goeth ("Schindler's List")

Ralph Fiennes is pure evil as the commandant of a Nazi concentration camp.

5. The Shark ("Jaws")

Nicknamed Bruce (after the first name of Steven Spielberg's lawyer), this mechanical shark didn't get much screen time, and didn't operate very well behind-the-scenes, but that's what made it so horrific. Just the idea of something down below was scary enough. But at the end, when it finally got its time on screen, it didn't disappoint in how evil it can be. Thanks to ol' Bruce there are people who are still scared to go in the water.

4. Hannibal Lecter ("Silence of the Lambs" franchise)

Yes, Buffalo Bill is pretty bad in this movie, but it's Hannibal the "cannibal" who is the true villain. Played perfectly by Anthony Hopkins, who won an Oscar for the performance, he would go on to play the role in two sequels. And the character itself has also shown up in a TV series.

3. Anton Chigurh ("No Country For Old Men")

Javier Bardem's portrayal of this cold-blooded killer led to an Oscar win. It also led to the character being one of the most evil in the Coen brothers filmography thanks to his use of a coin to decide a person's fate and his weapon of choice, a captive bolt stunner.

2. The Joker ("The Dark Knight")

There have been many great portrayals of DC Comics villain The Joker, but Heath Ledger's went beyond any of them. Appearing in the middle movie of Christopher Nolan's "Dark Knight" trilogy, his performance would not just earn him an Oscar, but elevate the movie to become one of the best comic book blockbusters of all time.

1. Darth Vader ("Star Wars" trilogy)

It's hard to think of a villain who is as memorable and has influenced so many others than Darth Vader. Whether he's Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) turning to the dark side (and killing younglings in the process) or as the Sith Lord, voiced by James Earl Jones, who can kill a man by crushing his throat by using the Force, Vader is the gold standard of villainy.

• Main content

Best new crime fiction: John Connolly’s The Instruments of Darkness is a moving addition to the Charlie Parker series

Also reviewed: abir mukherjee’s hunted; kellye garrett’s missing white woman; fiona mcphillips’s when we were silent; and daniel weizmann’s cinnamon girl.

John Connolly's The Instruments of Darkness builds to a dramatic conclusion while remaining grounded in its characters. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw/Irish Times

Balancing supernatural elements and detective work as memorably as ever, John Connolly’s The Instruments of Darkness (Hodder & Stoughton, £22) – his 21st Charlie Parker novel – offers much for new and returning readers alike. All the regulars are back, including Parker’s oldest allies Louis and Angel, joined by a compelling addition to the series, Sabine, who has her own painful connection to the dead.

The plot begins with a missing young boy, Henry, who’s quickly presumed murdered. When suspicion falls on his mother Colleen, her lawyer hires Parker to help save her from an overzealous prosecutor and a community eager to condemn her: “a child was missing, and his mother was about to be dragged into the machinery of the law. It chewed people up, the innocent as well as the guilty, and called the result justice, but only a fool would accept that as true.” To prevent that, Parker and friends must find Henry while dealing with varied forces including a violent white nationalist group (Connolly’s books have long been unsparingly critical about the US far right) and the ominous backwoods Michaud family.

As Connolly brings these strands together in a dramatic conclusion, the story remains grounded in its characters, even the most minor of whom are vividly and empathetically drawn. That abiding empathy has long been Parker’s DNA, a quality that’s only become more central as he’s aged, and it helps make The Instruments of Darkness a moving entry in this remarkable series.

[  John Connolly: ‘You can blame my Catholic upbringing. I still wear a cross’  ]

David Nicholls: ‘I’m lucky enough to have lots of Irish friends and hope that I got away with writing an Irish character’

George Stephanopoulos: ‘You can only have constructive debates if people are determined to engage in good faith’

Colm Tóibín: ‘Writing a sequel to Brooklyn? The risk is cheapness’

In a departure from his well-received Wyndham & Banerjee series of historical mysteries, Abir Mukherjee’s Hunted (Harvill Secker, £14.99) is a contemporary thriller, rich and taut.

Hunted follows three narrative strands as they converge amid a wave of terror bombings. FBI agent Shreya Mistry follows leads that her colleagues dismiss, while coping with an ageing father and an increasingly distant teen daughter. Aliyah Khan, a young Londoner, is on the lam across the US with Greg Flynn, both of whom have left the Oregon cult that, with its shadowy goals, is behind the bombings. Aliyah’s father Sajid, who fled violence in Bangladesh only to see his elder daughter put in a coma by a police beating in London, sneaks into the US with Greg’s mother Carrie in a desperate bid to find and save their children. A range of secondary characters – the cult leader who’s “Amish with a hint of assault rifle”, Shreya’s colleagues, the rest of Aliyah’s family – fill out the cast to good effect.

Hunted’s political stakes are high, but where many thrillers give their characters just enough background to let them pass for human, Mukherjee emphasises family ties, building an affecting sense of his leads’ inner lives that gives real weight to the climax. Mukherjee handles these converging elements with skill, wit and compassion in this engaging and thoughtful new novel.

Kellye Garrett’s skill at infusing characters and plots with a thrilling pulse is on full display in Missing White Woman (Simon & Schuster, £16.99). Breanna and her new high-finance boyfriend, Ty, have rented a luxurious Airbnb in Jersey City for a long weekend of romance and Manhattan sightseeing. On their last day together, Breanna awakens to find Ty missing and a woman lying in a pool of blood on the floor. Breanna quickly grasps the threat: “A dead white woman. A missing Black man. They’d say he did it. That he was on the run.”

As always with Garrett, this novel centres on a richly drawn main character. Breanna’s fear and confusion are intensified by the grief she feels in having too briefly experienced the promise of a new life for herself, in love and on the long-deferred cusp of starting her own business. This, after years spent paying an enormous price for an injustice done to her in college, one that derailed her ambitions and squeezed her into a life below the radar. The events in Jersey City force her and her past into the public arena, where she hits the bleeding edge of hashtag culture and amateur true-crime investigators before turning both to her advantage.

Telling details fortify this thriller’s portrayal of black men and women pragmatically navigating white communities, from physical neighbourhoods to digital media. This portrayal distinguishes Garrett’s meticulously crafted addition to her already impressive catalogue.

In her debut novel, When We Were Silent (Bantam, £16.99), Fiona McPhillips has produced a complex story of power, abuse and secrets, centred on a series of traumatic events at the posh girls’ school Highfield Manor in 1986, events that ripple through sections set in contemporary Dublin.

The novel opens in the present, introducing the narrator, Louise “Lou” Manson, a lecturer in Trinity’s School of English. As she’s reluctantly drawn to testify in a new abuse case against Highfield, dark secrets from Lou’s past threaten to spill across her life with her wife Alex and their daughter Katie. The book’s centre of gravity, though, is in the sections set in 1986. There, we meet teenaged Lou not long after the suicide of her best friend Tina Forrester, who had been a student at Highfield, where the swim coach Maurice McQueen has long been grooming and raping his proteges, including Tina. Aiming to prove his guilt, Lou enrols at Highfield as the first step in a revenge plot that she hopes will stop the abuse.

Once immersed in that privileged world, Lou’s plan spins out of her control, with dramatic public consequences. Veiled but never really forgotten, those consequences re-emerge amid the new abuse charges. This contemporary narrative almost wilts in the shadow of the very effective 1986 scenes, where McPhillips gives persuasive voice to the emotional chaos that colours teenage life, and to the abuse and complicity that wrought so much suffering for so many.

Tipping its fedora to various California predecessors, most distinctly Chandler and Macdonald, Daniel Weizmann’s Cinnamon Girl (Melville House, £17.99) is populated with characters haunted by the brass rings that slipped through their fingers or, as some see it, were stolen from them. Weizmann shows a soft eye for this Los Angeles of trailer parks and aged dreamers stranded in the past, and that gaze lingers poignantly over the city’s collective heartbreak.

Adam Zantz, a Lyft driver and private detective in training, is also a failed musician. He’s bailed on one challenge after another, a pattern that cost him what little family he had left. When his late uncle’s closest friend asks Zantz to exonerate his dead son – long presumed guilty of a murder – Zantz reluctantly agrees, more to atone for his familial failures than because he thinks he can solve this decades-old case.

Quickly growing more complex than he expected, the investigation takes Zantz through a Macdonaldesque web of failed Hollywood dreams, lurid parental betrayals and lingering adolescent disappointments. With all of its nods at noir PI models, who were often more tender toward their characters than their reputations would sometimes suggest, this is from start to finish a surprisingly gentle, almost innocent novel, and all the better for it.

IN THIS SECTION

Colm tóibín on writing a sequel to brooklyn: ‘i got a lot of inspiration from domhnall gleeson’s performance’, adrian dunbar on beckett: ‘i seemed to be getting knocked around emotionally but didn’t know how he was doing it’, bishop describes as ‘shameful’ church of ireland rejection of motion on baptism for children of unmarried mothers, revenue raises concerns over rule change allowing people to sink up to €2m tax free into pension pots, pay close attention to what intel does next. it’s a test case for ireland, moving back to ireland would mean working till 10pm, no home of my own and bad coffee, tony o’reilly obituary: ireland’s first business superstar whose spectacular fall led to bankruptcy, latest stories, wexford lift off in spectacular style with 26-point win over carlow, jürgen klopp bids emotional farewell to anfield after liverpool win, ‘plan bee’ urges citizen scientists to help monitor endangered wild native irish honeybee colonies, ukraine accuses west of lacking ‘political will’ to prevent deadly russian strikes, cap on passenger numbers at dublin airport hinders tourism growth, warns tourism group.

• Terms & Conditions
• Privacy Policy
• Cookie Information
• Cookie Settings
• Community Standards

8 Books Where Villains Turn Into Heroes

Anmol is the founder of Perspective Magazine, an online publication that explores feminism in South Asia. She has a BA History from LSE and hopes to work for women’s rights in Pakistan, where she currently resides. Anmol is an avid reader, animal lover and a big talker once you get to know her. If she could, she’d hide herself in a room full of books and chai and forever be happy. [email protected]

View All posts by Anmol

Gotham City is torn apart by the war between Batman and the Joker. Ready to take it to the next level, The Joker recruits the flaming sword-wielding knight Azrael to create their version of heaven on Earth while exposing hidden Wayne family secrets. Batman and his estranged allies can stop them—but the distrust between them runs deep. Sean Murphy reimagines the Batman mythos in Batman: Curse of the White Knight . This hardcover collection features the groundbreaking series and the Batman: White Knight Presents Von Freeze one-shot written by Murphy and illustrated by legendary comics artist Klaus Janson.

Who doesn’t love a good redemption arc? There’s always something to be said for seeing villains turn into heroes in our favourite stories. After all, most of us find an escape in our favourite stories. And when things get bad, letting ourselves believe that there is some good worth waiting for, a happy ending for even the most hopeless of characters, can be a good way to take a break from reality.

I think the term villain itself can be understood in so many ways. Especially with something as diverse as books and stories, where characters can take any form and go down any path. While the villains in fairytales and superhero books are much clearer, I think we all can agree that villains aren’t always conventionally bad. And sometimes, perspective means everything. Which is why the characters you’ll see in the list below aren’t all your run-of-the-mill weapon-holding evil villains. They embody the word in different ways and explore different ‘evils’ depending on the world they exist in. Some are misunderstood. Others are villainised on purpose – but all of them somehow find their way towards better ends.

Professor Azur – Three Daughters Of Eve

Elif Shafak’s Three Daughters of Eve is quite a deep read in itself, but the development of Professor Azur’s character is perhaps the most intriguing. Introduced by a mere picture, the Professor is first shown to be the centre of a decade old controversy that had him lose his job over allegations of assault. Even in flashbacks, many see him as coldhearted and rude – with one student even making it a goal to destroy him. It is only at the very end it is revealed that it former student Peri’s failure to show up at his trial is what leads to his conviction.

Azur’s story in many ways is more about being villainised than being a villain. But as the importance of optics and the power of rumours shows us – both can be equally damning. Nevertheless, when Peri decides to revisit her past over 10 years later we see he is not quite the villain the whole world thinks him to be.

Sasha – This House Of Clay And Water

This House of Clay and Water is a book that depicts character arcs in a much more contextualised way. I wanted to add this book and Sasha’s character in particular because of the way her journey from villain to hero is highly relative to the society she lives in. Sasha is initially everything a woman is not allowed to be in Pakistani society. Her sexual promiscuity and preference for social life over being a doting mother make her the villain in the lives of all those around her.

Yet as tragedy rips the ground from beneath her feet we see her turn to a much more accepted persona as it is her friend who now takes the ‘dark’ path. Sasha’s journey is one of extremes. She leaps from one end of the spectrum to the other. Yet the fact that one is more clearly villainised than the other is an indication of how easy it is to switch around what such stark labels mean depending on who says them and where and when they are used.

Black Adam – DC Comics

In contrast to the journeys of the previous two characters is DC’s Black Adam. There’s only so much conversation that can happen around villainous journeys without some good old fashioned supervillains anyway.

Black Adam first appeared in the 1970s as one of the archenemies of Captain Marvel. Initially a corrupted ancient predecessor of Captain Marvel whose only goal is to bring down the Marvel family, Black Adam was soon reformed into somewhat of an antihero. In separating himself from the murderous Theo Adam, Black Adam is able to take on somewhat of a redemption arc.

Shylock – The Merchant Of Venice

Who can forget Shylock’s heartwrenching speech in Shakespeare’s famous The Merchant Of Venice . What started off as a character that was clearly made out to be the villain as a reflection of antisemitic beliefs at the time was completely turned around at his speech. Whether or not he really becomes a hero in the literal sense of the word is up for debate, but we definitely see a different side to the character that was previously quite one dimensional.

Instead of the cruel, harsh businessman he is first shown to be, Shylock now becomes a lot more human and particularly by the end when he is forced to give up all he has – including his religion – audiences can sympathise with even some of his worse actions as being forced by necessity rather than choice.

Falcon (Sam Wilson) – Marvel Comics

What is initially a happy childhood turns sour when young Sam Wilson encounters racism as a young teen and loses both his parents to murder. His experiences leave him jaded. Wilson adopts an alternate persona, “Snap” Wilson, as a professional gang member.

His tryst with the dark side comes to an end on Exile Island where Red Skull fuses him with Redwing, a falcon Wilson befriends, and makes him forget his past as “Snap”. Even though he is befriended by Captain America and helps him on his mission, some might argue that this was not when he truly became a hero. Rather it was when his memories returned but he chose to stay on the side of good that he really embodied his hero self.

Ebenezer Scrooge – A Christmas Carol

There’s hardly a child around who isn’t familiar with the mean old Ebenezer Scrooge. Of course some may find it hard to accept Scrooge’s turn of character as fully genuine. Mostly because it only comes about because the literal Grim Reaper knocks on his door and gives him an ultimatum.

But I suppose in some ways it does show us that it’s never too late to turn over a new leaf, and there’s always a little hero in everyone.

Frankenstein’s Monster – Frankenstein

I suppose in this case most of the villainry of the character comes from the title of monster itself. And yes he wreaks havoc and destruction, but is that destruction intentional or is just because he knows nothing else? His villainy is his revenge against Frankenstein when he is shunned by human society. He embarks on a journey to destroy everything his creator holds dear.

However, at the end, he does eventually learn kindness and even French. He greatest desire is to find love and acceptance and much of his journey towards being somewhat of a hero has come from many seeing the monster as a metaphor for the evils of a society that shuns him rather than being the monster himself.

Deadpool – Marvel Comics

Perhaps Marvel’s most controversial lead character, Deadpool is neither good nor evil. He was first depicted as a supervillain in The New Mutants and later issues of X-Force . Much of his changing history and persona comes from the fact that he suffers from a mental condition that leaves him unable to remember his past.

His disassociation with his past is mainly what allows him to blur the lines between good and bad, which can be taken as an indication that holding on to our past can often be limiting for our growth into better people.

I wanted to chose unconventional villains because the concepts of heroism and villainy aren’t as black and white as children’s stories would have us believe. The journeys that these ‘villains’ explore that turn them into ‘heroes’ are all vastly different from each other. Yet each says the same thing. We can choose to grow and change no matter how difficult. How we do it is dependent on who we are and who we want to be.

You Might Also Like

Advertisement

Supported by

An Appraisal

Alice Munro, a Literary Alchemist Who Made Great Fiction From Humble Lives

The Nobel Prize-winning author specialized in exacting short stories that were novelistic in scope, spanning decades with intimacy and precision.

• Share full article

By Gregory Cowles

Gregory Cowles is a senior editor at the Book Review.

The first story in her first book evoked her father’s life. The last story in her last book evoked her mother’s death. In between, across 14 collections and more than 40 years, Alice Munro showed us in one dazzling short story after another that the humble facts of a single person’s experience, subjected to the alchemy of language and imagination and psychological insight, could provide the raw material for great literature.

Listen to this article with reporter commentary

And not just any person, but a girl from the sticks. It mattered that Munro, who died on Monday night at the age of 92, hailed from rural southwestern Ontario, since so many of her stories, set in small towns on or around Lake Huron, were marked by the ambitions of a bright girl eager to leave, upon whom nothing is lost. There was the narrator of “Boys and Girls,” who tells herself bedtime stories about a world “that presented opportunities for courage, boldness and self-sacrifice, as mine never did.” There was Rose, from “The Beggar Maid,” who wins a college scholarship and leaves her working-class family behind. And there was Del Jordan, from “Lives of Girls and Women” — Munro’s second book, and the closest thing she ever wrote to a novel — who casts a jaundiced eye on her town’s provincial customs as she takes the first fateful steps toward becoming a writer.

Does it seem reductive or limiting to derive a kind of artist’s statement from the title of that early book? It shouldn’t. Munro was hardly a doctrinaire feminist, but with implacable authority and command she demonstrated throughout her career that the lives of girls and women were as rich, as tumultuous, as dramatic and as important as the lives of men and boys. Her plots were rife with incident: the threatened suicide in the barn, the actual murder at the lake, the ambivalent sexual encounter, the power dynamics of desire. For a writer whose book titles gestured repeatedly at love (“The Progress of Love,” “The Love of a Good Woman,” “Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage”), her narratives recoiled from sentimentality. Tucked into the stately columns of The New Yorker, where she was a steady presence for decades, they were far likelier to depict the disruptions and snowballing consequences of petty grudges, careless cruelties and base impulses: the gossip that mattered.

Munro’s stories traveled not as the crow flies but as the mind does. You got the feeling that, if the GPS ever offered her a shorter route, she would decline. Capable of dizzying swerves in a line or a line break, her stories often spanned decades with intimacy and sweep; that’s partly what critics meant when they wrote of the novelistic scope she brought to short fiction.

Her sentences rarely strutted or flaunted or declared themselves; but they also never clanked or stumbled — she was an exacting and precise stylist rather than a showy one, who wrote with steely control and applied her ambitions not to language but to theme and structure. (This was a conscious choice on her part: “In my earlier days I was prone to a lot of flowery prose,” she told an interviewer when she won the Nobel Prize in 2013. “I gradually learned to take a lot of that out.”) In the middle of her career her stories started to grow roomier and more contemplative, even essayistic; they could feel aimless until you approached the final pages and recognized with a jolt that they had in fact been constructed all along as intricately and deviously as a Sudoku puzzle, every piece falling neatly into place.

There was a signature Munro tone: skeptical, ruminative, given to a crucial and artful ambiguity that could feel particularly Midwestern. Consider “The Bear Came Over the Mountain,” which — thanks in part to Sarah Polley’s Oscar-nominated film adaptation, “ Away From Her ” (2006) — may be Munro’s most famous story; it details a woman’s descent into senility and her philandering husband’s attempt to come to terms with her attachment to a male resident at her nursing home. Here the husband is on a visit, confronting the limits of his knowledge and the need to make peace with uncertainty, in a characteristically Munrovian passage:

She treated him with a distracted, social sort of kindness that was successful in holding him back from the most obvious, the most necessary question. He could not demand of her whether she did or did not remember him as her husband of nearly 50 years. He got the impression that she would be embarrassed by such a question — embarrassed not for herself but for him. She would have laughed in a fluttery way and mortified him with her politeness and bewilderment, and somehow she would have ended up not saying either yes or no. Or she would have said either one in a way that gave not the least satisfaction.

Like her contemporary Philip Roth — another realist who was comfortable blurring lines — Munro devised multilayered plots that were explicitly autobiographical and at the same time determined to deflect or undermine that impulse. This tension dovetailed happily with her frequent themes of the unreliability of memory and the gap between art and life. Her stories tracked the details of her lived experience both faithfully and cannily, cagily, so that any attempt at a dispassionate biography (notably, Robert Thacker’s scholarly and substantial “Alice Munro: Writing Her Lives,” from 2005) felt at once invasive and redundant. She had been in front of us all along.

Until, suddenly, she wasn’t. That she went silent after her book “Dear Life” was published in 2012, a year before she won the Nobel, makes her passing now seem all the more startling — a second death, in a way that calls to mind her habit of circling back to recognizable moments and images in her work. At least three times she revisited the death of her mother in fiction, first in “The Peace of Utrecht,” then in “Friend of My Youth” and again in the title story that concludes “Dear Life”: “The person I would really have liked to talk to then was my mother,” the narrator says near the end of that story, in an understated gut punch of an epitaph that now applies equally well to Munro herself, but she “was no longer available.”

Read by Greg Cowles

Audio produced by Sarah Diamond .

Gregory Cowles is the poetry editor of the Book Review and senior editor of the Books desk. More about Gregory Cowles

The Best Fantasy and Sci-Fi Books of 2024, So Far

Yearning for a new world? New stories from Heather Fawcett, Nisi Shawl, Danielle L. Jensen, Sofia Samatar, and more can get you there.

Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.

The books that got me into books were fantasies. There was never a time in my life—post-infantile amnesia, I suppose—when I wasn’t reading a fantasy, being read a fantasy, or trying to write one myself. (Usually all three.) The same goes for science fiction: These were the types of stories that made reading feel limitless, thrilling, like peeking through a keyhole to a vaster (if not necessarily kinder) universe. As I’ve grown older, my reading habits have expanded, my understanding of genre widened, but well-executed fantasy and sci-fi remains my deepest source of literary joy. So it’s a pleasure to present ELLE’s picks for the best of those genres in 2024—through May, for now.

For the purposes of this list, speculative stories will be considered science fiction, while fairy tales, folktales, and mythological retellings will fall under the vast and complicated banner of “fantasy.” Romantasys will fall into this category as well. (You can find our other romance recommendations here .) There’s plenty of genre overlap ahead, but that’s the joy of these books—there’s always something (seemingly) contradictory to explore within them.

Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

Within moments of cracking open the cover to Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland , I was sold. She has followed up her 2020 novel Parakeet with a landmark work of literary science-fiction, set in the crosshairs of “two celestially significant events occurring simultaneously: The departure of Voyager 1 and the arrival of Adina Giorno, early and yellowed like old newspaper,” the author writes. As the Voyager 1 space probe sets its sights on the final frontier, so does the child Adina make a home for herself on Earth. But she is, in many ways, no less foreign to the planet than Voyager 1 is to the outer galaxy: Adina discovers that she’s been sent by her extraterrestrial relatives to report back her earthly findings, all via fax machine. (“Upon encountering real problems, human beings compare their lives to riding a roller coaster, even though they invented roller coasters to be fun things to do on their days off,” Adina notes in one such missive.) This is a wonder of science fiction: as tender and intimate as it is conceptually courageous.

Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

The eagerly awaited follow-up to Heather Fawcett’s first title in the popular Emily Wilde series, Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands is a winsome tale of fairies and academia, an ideal pick for fans of cozy fantasy. Set in 1910, the story follows the titular Emily, a faerie scholar who’s completed an encyclopedia of Fair Folk and is working next on a map of the creatures’ realms. But her relationship with the exiled faerie king Wendell Bambleby promises to complicate much more than her research, particularly as she and Bambleby hunt for the door back to his kingdom—and attempt to dodge his family’s assassination attempts. Clever, immersive, yet approachable for more casual readers, Map of the Otherlands is a genre-blending joy.

So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole

An inventive, vivid take on the Chosen One narrative, Kamilah Cole’s So Let Them Burn is the sort of young-adult fantasy novel both teenage and maturer readers will enjoy—particularly given Cole’s knack for juggling action-heavy dual perspectives. The premise involves 17-year-old Falon, whose ability to wield the power of the gods provides the strength she’ll need to liberate the island of San Irie from the colonizing forces of the Langlish. But her sister has unexpectedly bonded with a dragon from the Langley Empire, and when those dragons turn feral, the gods inform Falon she must eradicate them—and those bonded to them. Desperate to save each other, Falon and Elara flesh out this tale from alternating third-person perspectives in Cole’s exhilarating first entry in a promised series.

Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase

In Tlotlo Tsamaase’s future Botswana, consciousness can be delivered from body to body, making the life of protagonist Nelah possible. Her body used to belong to a criminal, which means the government has her microchipped: Her husband can control her, and the government can watch and assess her every move. Nelah is waiting for her child—gestating in an artificial womb—to arrive, but before that can happen, she and the man she’s in love with (a man who’s very much not her husband) commit a dangerous crime. The resulting fallout haunts Nelah (sometimes literally) in this sci-fi horror novel’s resolute skewering of misogyny.

Kinning by Nisi Shawl

The next entry in Nisi Shawl’s anti-colonial alternative history series, the second after Everfair , Kinning is a profoundly well-realized feat of world-building. Sprawling in its characters and themes, vaguely reminiscent of Game of Thrones’ political dramas, Shawl’s afrofuturist sequel explores the aftermath of Everfair’s Great War, the country having successfully pushed Europe out of the territory. Citizens plan to spread further peace via a fungus that generates empathy in those who interact with its spores, even as Everfair itself remains threatened from outside and within its borders. This is a complex, challenging story, but without question an impressive one.

Faebound by Saara El-Arifi

Faebound —with its simply stunning cover—takes place in a world where elves, humans, and fae once co-existed, but now only elves remain, and they’re eternally at war. Sisters Yeeran and Lettle soon find their lives bifurcated by the fighting: Yeeran is exiled outside the Elven Lands, and Lettle must pair up with one of Yeeran’s soldiers, Rayan, to find her lost sibling. Only then do they each discover that the fae are alive and well, and that the magic in store for them is well beyond what they’d once expected. This is a passionate and intriguing—but accessible—beginning to a planned Sapphic romantasy trilogy.

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

The Tainted Cup is the beginning chapter of Robert Jackson Bennett’s Shadow of the Leviathan series, and it imbues elements from myriad genres—primarily fantasy, sci-fi, and mysteries—to create a delicious detective story set in an equally unforgettable magical world. In Bennett’s Khanum, where massive leviathans threaten the world outside the empire’s walls, an imperial officer is murdered in an aristocrat’s summer home. Two detectives, Ana and Din, must tackle this mystery. Together, they make something of an odd couple: Ana’s brilliance rivals that of Sherlock Holmes himself, while Din is a magically enhanced “engraver,” one with a perfect memory. These lead protagonists’ platonic partnership, and Bennett’s remarkable imagination, make this book a strange and singular thrill.

Bride by Ali Hazelwood

There’s an intentional silliness to Ali Hazelwood’s paranormal romance Bride , in which the vampires are “Vampyres,” the werewolves are “Weres,” the protagonist is named Misery, and her marriage of convenience to a “very powerful and dangerous Were” might actually be...something more? But this on-the-nose humor, a signature in Hazelwood’s work, only serves to underscore the shameless indulgence of Misery’s story. Bride will certainly not enrapture all fantasy readers (particularly those wishing to avoid sex scenes), but for Hazelwood’s many existing fans, this surprise genre twist from the contemporary romance author has plenty of winks to impart.

Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli

Heartless Hunter , an instant New York Times bestseller, has already amassed a sizable (and passionate) audience, but it’s certainly not too late to pick up this addictive romantasy, which tracks the love affair between a persecuted witch and a witch hunter. Protagonist Rune comes from privilege, but after a revolution seizes power from the once-ruling witches, she’s now hiding in plain sight: socialite by day, witch vigilante by night. (Alias: The Crimson Moth.) Working to protect her people from witch hunters, she decides to court one of them; he, in return, agrees to the relationship to gain intel about her operations. But just as their fake relationship blooms into something deeper, their political ties could easily break them apart. Relentlessly trope-y? Sure. But this is a satisfying binge-read nonetheless.

Sunbringer by Hannah Kaner

Hannah Kaner follows up the first book in her Fallen Gods series, Godkiller , with Sunbringer , set immediately after the events of its predecessor. Brilliant mythology-inspired world-building paves the foundation for Kaner’s fantasy adventure, but it’s the fully realized ensemble cast that, ultimately, makes the series so memorable. In Sunbringer , Kissen, Inara, Skediceth, Elogast, and King Arren trade third-person perspectives as a war between gods and humans bubbles into the foreground in Middren, seeding fertile ground for an epic showdown to come.

The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo

“Foxes, people say, are wicked women,” Yangsze Choo writes in her historical fantasy The Fox Wife , set in early-1900s Manchuria as the Qing dynasty wanes. Choo (author of The Ghost Bride and The Night Tiger ) introduces readers to Snow, a fox spirit who can shapeshift into a woman, and Detective Bao, who believes Snow is connected to a murder. But Snow, living as a human and working as a maidservant, has her own mission in mind: She wants revenge against the photographer who paid a hunter to murder her daughter. Folklore and mystery converge in Choo’s alluring, atmospheric tale.

A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen

I know better than to buy a book based solely on its character art, but there’s no denying the cover of Danielle L. Jensen’s A Fate Inked In Blood (illustrated by Eleonor Piteira) merits the attention. Blessedly, the book’s inside contents are just as richly rendered. The latest story from fantasy stalwart Jensen ( The Bridge Kingdom series, The Dark Shores series), Fate centers on Freya, a young woman trapped in a loveless marriage—loveless enough that her husband betrays her, setting off a series of events that culminates in a shocking reveal: The blood of a goddess runs in Freya’s veins. That blood makes her powerful, but it also makes her a target for Skaland’s jarl, who believes his fate is tied to Freya’s. Still, it’s this jarl’s son, Bjorn, who will prove the most complicating factor in Freya’s fight for survival. This is an absorbing viking romantasy steeped in Norse mythology, and the start to a series with real momentum.

The Siege of Burning Grass by Premee Mohamed

“They locked him up while his leg grew back.” So begins The Siege of Burning Grass , Premee Mohamed’s ferocious story of violence and resistance in a world of wound-healing wasps and floating cities. Protagonist Alefret is a peacemaker—or, anyway, he’s trying to be—but he’s since been targeted and imprisoned by his own government, then ordered to go undercover in the rival empire of Med’ariz. There, he’s tasked with seeding an anti-war effort amongst the people, an effort which Alefret’s government aims to capitalize on—and claim victory at last. But revolutions are costly in more ways than one, and Mohamed navigates these nuances with empathy and righteous verve.

The Prisoner’s Throne by Holly Black

As a childhood enthusiast of The Spiderwick Chronicles , I’ve loved watching Holly Black’s fantasy career evolve, and her conclusion to the Stolen Heir duology, The Prisoner’s Throne , is a treat for old fans and newcomers alike. In the fairy world of Elfhame, Black has created a entertaining tableau of political intrigue and romance—most notably between High King Cardan and High Queen Jude (iykyk). And as war beckons in The Prisoner’s Throne , the imprisoned Prince Oak finds his loyalties (and his love) stretched to the brink.

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

One of my most anticipated reads of the spring, Sierra Greer’s feminist sci-fi Annie Bot is much as I’d hoped it would be: frightening but measured, referential but fresh. The titular Annie is indeed a robot—a Stella model coded as a Cuddle Bunny, to be exact—designed for use by Doug, who’s customized her into a near-mirror image of his ex. She does housework; she does...other things. She can set her internal body temperature and read Doug’s annoyance rankings. He can set her libido levels. (“A four’s good,” he says. “She’s, like, ready at a four, but not actively assertive.”) As Annie notes early in the novel, “I only exist because I’m wanted.” These themes are certainly not new, but it’s how Greer writes this mash-up of Ex Machina , Her , Westworld , and The Stepford Wives that makes its tension resonate so loudly, even if it’s meant more as an allegory of women’s liberation than a treatise on the threats of AI. A quick read, but one you won’t soon wipe from memory.

Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson

Although set in the same universe as her debut, The Space Between Worlds , Micaiah Johnson’s Those Beyond the Wall is set 10 years after the events of the former, and can be read as a standalone. (But you should definitely read The Space Between Worlds .) This clear-eyed, undaunted sci-fi saga introduces readers to a woman who goes by the name of Mr. Scales, a street-savvy “runner” living outside the walls of the gleaming Wiley City, in a far poorer desert community known as Ashtown. After she witnesses a friend’s gruesome death, she follows the breadcrumb trail to the multiverse-hopping technology residing inside Wiley City. But to stop this tech (and its users) from destroying the people of Ashtown, she’ll need to rely on more than her own wits. Gritty and raw, this is a fine work of dystopian fiction, one sure to chafe and unsettle as much as it thrills.

I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger

To start, what an absolutely fabulous title. Peace Like A River author Leif Enger’s latest is so much more than its cheeky cover; in fact, it might be one of the most optimistic post-apocalyptic novels you’ll ever read, if also one of the more unusual. In Enger’s imagined near-future America, the president is proudly illiterate, pandemics and wildfires are growing by the hour, and an entirely new class of billionaires known as “astronauts” are happy to watch from above as the plebs flee their now-closed schools for solace in drugs and government labor. But protagonist Rainey does not see the end of the world as a black hole, especially when he looks to his wife, Lark, who runs a bookstore in spite of the enormous risk inherent in doing so. It is his unflappable faith in goodness that leads him, much like Orpheus, to sail Lake Superior in search of Lark when a visitor unexpectedly tears them apart. This is a triumphant, generous work of art—neither cloying nor nihilist.

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

Ninth House, Hell Bent, and Six of Crows author Leigh Bardugo steps into the Spanish Golden Age for a fantasy remarkably unlike her previous works. The Familiar is a stunning accomplishment, set in 16th-century Madrid, where the Inquisition haunts Luzia Cotado, an orphaned “not quite Spanish” scullion with a hidden talent for magic—and Jewish blood that puts her at imminent risk. When her mistress discovers Luzia’s unique skillset, she puts them to use, attracting the attention of the king’s secretary and his familiar, the immortal Guillén Santángel. With Santángel’s help, Luzia might just be able to survive—or even thrive—but, as any fantasy reader can tell you, power always has its consequences.

A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland

A Sweet Sting of Salt is an altogether entrancing retelling of the traditional folktale “The Selkie Wife,” in which a man steals a selkie’s skin and forces her to become his wife. (Selkies, as a refresher, are mythological creatures who take the form of seals in the ocean and humans on land.) In Sting , the selkie in question is discovered by midwife Jean Langille on the coast of 19th century Nova Scotia, where she’s wracked with birthing pains. Jean helps deliver the woman’s child, and soon surmises this mysterious stranger is Muirin, the wife of her fisherman neighbor, Tobias. But Tobias and Muirin are clearly hiding some sort of secret, and as Jean slowly realizes she’s falling in love with Muirin, so too must she face the danger that threatens them both should their relationship continue. A beautifully written Sapphic fantasy, Sutherland’s debut announces her as a writer to watch.

The Jinn Daughter by Rania Hanna

Rania Hanna’s debut novel The Jinn Daughter is a lush and mesmerizing story of motherhood and magic, its influences pulled from Middle Eastern mythology. Protagonist Nadine has a daughter, Layala, whom she’ll do anything to protect. But Nadine is also a jinn, one who tells the stories of the dead through the pomegranate seeds she collects each morning. Soon, Death herself arrives on Nadine’s doorstep—she has come for Nadine’s half-jinn daughter Layala, whom Death wants to replace her as the underworld’s ruler. This is not a fate Nadine can accept for Layala, and so a fight for her daughter’s life commences. This is a short but sweeping story of a mother’s unrelenting devotion.

What to Read in 2024

Shelf Life: Miranda July

Kaliane Bradley on The Ministry of Time

Read an Excerpt from 'The Midnight Feast'

Shelf Life: Claire Messud

Honor Levy Says ‘Goodnight Meme’

Lilly Dancyger on 'First Love'

Shelf Life: Jen Psaki

Robinne Lee on 'The Idea of You'

Kelsey McKinney Has a Juicy New Book on the Way

Shelf Life: Whoopi Goldberg

Inside the Ritual of Painting Ballet Slippers

Wealth of Geeks

The Best TV Villains of All Time

Posted: May 19, 2024 | Last updated: May 19, 2024

Like any great film, novel, comic book, or video game, every television show requires a strong villain to maintain audiences’ interest on a week-in, week-out basis.

As individuals tasked with undermining the protagonist at every opportunity, villains create an inherent sense of conflict that most shows thrive on, outfitting TV series with a necessary degree of palpable drama.

Whether they take the form of deranged serial killers or genocidal aliens, these TV villains have proved more than a threat to their heroic counterparts, testing their foes’ mental, physical, and emotional limits throughout their series’ run.

Gus Fring (Breaking Bad)

Gustavo Fring may not have appeared as the final villain in Breaking Bad , yet one can feel his influence around every corner. The polar opposite of his colleague-turned-rival Walter White, Fring leads a similarly-split life as an efficient fast food restaurateur and the pragmatic kingpin of his own criminal empire.

Handling both duties with clear-cut cool-headedness, Fring’s almost robotic approach to his illegal operations make him a dangerous threat to Walt and Jesse, with every action–no matter how minute–dictated by his genius strategic mindset.

Benjamin Linus (Lost)

A master manipulator of people, Benjamin Linus made Emperor Palpatine look like a dime-store conman by comparison. The soft-spoken leader of the Others, Ben resorted to a variety of desperate measures to ward intruders off his island home, whether wiping out his childhood community or sacrificing his family members for the “greater good.”

A chaotic personality whose true allegiances audiences could only guess at, Ben always managed to keep three steps ahead of his opponent, playing a game of mental chess while they struggled through a game of checkers.

Daleks (Doctor Who)

A war-like race of aliens bent on total universal conquest, Daleks remain devoid of any emotional faculties save for one: hate. Hostile xenophobic mass murderers seeking to impose their collective will on the galaxy, Daleks have shown themselves willing to eliminate any lifeform they deem weak or inferior–including their own brethren.

Having evolved into perfect killing machines through years of experimental mutation and chemical fallout, every time it seems like the last Dalek has died off, another pops up with their shrill battle cry of “ Exterminate! Ex-termi-nateeeee! ”

Joffrey Baratheon (Game of Thrones)

Though many of his family members proved just as unlikable, Joffrey Baratheon takes the cake for the most annoying Game of Thrones antagonist in all of Westeros. The eldest son of Cersei Lannister, Joffrey grew up with the self-assured knowledge he would one day become king–a title that granted him unlimited reign to do whatever he wanted.

Inheriting neither his mother’s cunning intelligence nor his father’s inherent bravery, Joffrey uses his monarchical duties to satisfy his sadistic desires, even at the cost of his family’s precarious standing in times of war.

Mr. Burns (The Simpsons)

In many ways, Mr. Burns personifies all the worst aspects of American capitalism, including its rampant greed, unscrupulous business practices, and its cutthroat view of average employees. An ancient businessman of almost unimaginable wealth, C. Montgomery Burns nevertheless strives to obtain more–or, at the very least, take what little others might have.

Unmoved by any semblance of basic morality, Mr. Burns has shown himself more willing to sic the hounds on someone looking for a handout before he might even consider lending a helping hand.

Bob (Twin Peaks)

In true David Lynch fashion, of course the most evil character in all of Twin Peaks would have the ordinary name, “Bob.” A long-haired demon who infects his victims’ dreams until he manages to possess their minds, Bob feeds on the suffering he inflicts on unsuspecting people.

Though that description pretty much sums up his entire personality, Bob’s devilish appearance alone can cause viewers’ hearts to skip a beat whenever he manifests on-screen.

Newman (Seinfeld)

Not every TV antagonist needs to murder people to establish themselves as a nuisance. For proof of that fact, just look at Jerry Seinfeld’s apartment neighbor and perpetual nemesis, Newman.

The best friend of Kramer and a recurring irritant for Jerry, Newman takes special delight in inconveniencing Jerry’s life whenever an opportunity arises. Making his presence known with his straight-faced line delivery and theatrical evil laugh, Newman made for a hilarious foil for Jerry and his friends every time he figured into the show.

Homelander (The Boys)

The prospect of an evil Superman may sound terrifying on paper, but the reality of Homelander somehow transcends the limits of the imagination. The godlike leader of the Seven and the most powerful superhero on the planet, Homelander’s omnipotent superhuman abilities are matched only by his twisted ego and narcissistic worldview.

Using his powers to terrorize those beneath him (I.E. everyone), Homelander might smile and wave at the public’s camera, but in private, he switches to his true form: an unstable egotist who views the average person with the casual indifference of an insect.

Klingons (Star Trek)

Yes, classifying an entire alien species as “villains” seems like a gross oversimplification. Yet in their earliest appearances, Klingons stood apart as a militaristic intergalactic regime who prided themselves on their combat skills.

Taking inspiration from Ancient Spartan civilization, Star Treks’ creative minds constructed an in-depth intergalactic society with the Klingons, one that has since grown to encompass its own cultural traits and distinct language (now available to learn on Duolingo).

The Joker (Batman: The Animated Series)

While Heath Ledger’s portrayal of Batman’s arch-enemy remains unrivaled, audiences shouldn’t look past the influence of Mark Hamill’s praised vocal performance in Batman: The Animated Series .

Despite the series gearing itself towards kids, Hamill’s portrayal of the Clown Prince of Crime endeared itself to generations of viewers. In fact, the Star Wars alumnus’s distinct cackle and trademark nasal voice proved so popular, Hamill has served as the go-to voice for the character in subsequent animated movies, video games, and TV series in the decades that followed.

Kilgrave (Jessica Jones)

Though his traumatic upbringing may cause audiences to sympathize with him, Kilgrave’s ongoing abuse of Jessica Jones makes him an altogether despicable villain. Perpetuating the cyclical phenomenon of inherited trauma, Kilgrave prefers to see himself as the victim rather than the abuser, twisting others to his mental will.

Even after his apparent demise, Kilgrave still manages to torment Jessica from beyond the grave, forcing viewers (and Jones herself) to wonder whether they’ve really seen the last of this purple-clad telepath.

Hannibal Lecter (Hannibal)

Few serial killers make murder look as downright appetizing as Hannibal Lecter. A larger-than-life personality in the annals of horror fiction, Mads Mikkelsen’s portrayal of Thomas Harris’s murderous cannibal sets itself apart from Anthony Hopkins’ loquacious Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs .

An intellectual genius able to dissect his victims’ psyche even as he plans a delectable feast from their corpse, Hannibal ranks as one of the most merciless serial killers in all of television history.

The Trinity Killer (Dexter)

Speaking of serial killers, one shouldn’t discouns the sworn nemesis of Dexter’s titular vigilante with Thomas Mitchell (better known as the Trinity Killer). At first glance, John Lithgow’s mild-mannered church deacon seems like the furthest thing from a demented murderer, yet beneath his unassuming exterior lies a cold-hearted psychopath capable of destroying entire families.

For this reason alone, Mitchell appears among the most realistic depictions of a psychopaths in all of pop culture–lulling people with his apparent friendliness while keeping his inner demons in check. He also ranks as one of the most frightening TV villains to date.

Boyd Crowder (Justified)

The tragedy of Justified ’s Boyd Crowder has to do with his inevitable descent back into the life of crime he tries so hard to leave behind. From leading a racist hate group to finding religion in prison, Boyd’s narrative journey makes for an engrossing enough reason to watch Justified on its own.

Despite his best attempts to do the right thing and start a new life for himself, however, Boyd’s troubled upbringing always leads him back to square one, often casting him opposite Timothy Olyphant’s law-abiding U.S. Marshal, Raylan Givens.

Plankton (SpongeBob SquarePants)

Yes, Plankton may not tower over his adversaries, but his vast intellect and unwavering commitment to steal the Krabby Patty secret recipe make him a serious threat among TV villains.

Hatching all kinds of harebrained schemes to sneak into the Krusty Krab, Plankton’s repeated attempts to best his lifelong business rival Eugene Krabs forms the backbone of every major SpongeBob episode in existence.

Kingpin (Daredevil)

Certain actors forever remain attached to their comic book characterization, whether discussing Willem Dafoe’s giggling iteration of the Green Goblin or Hugh Jackman’s grizzled performance as Wolverine. With Marvel’s Kingpin, said honor goes to Vincent D’Onofrio, who hands in the definitive performance of New York crime boss, Wilson Fisk.

A villain with a genuine conscience and his fair share of wholesome traits, Fisk’s conflicting desire for power and the love he holds for his family make him a fascinating foil to Daredevil and his allies.

The Smoking Man (The X-Files)

Making his first appearance way back in The X-Files ’ pilot episode, the Smoking Man always seemed like the spectral embodiment of forces beyond human understanding.

Conveying a sense of profound mystery without even having to utter a word, the Smoking Man personified the prevailing questions about the universe that plagued Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. Whenever he skulked through the background, viewers knew to expect some new conspiracy on the horizon.

Moriarty (Sherlock)

One doesn’t earn the moniker “The Napoleon of Crime” without good reason. The unstable arch-enemy of Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes, Andrew Scott’s portrayal of James Moriarty reinvigorated the Victorian villain for the modern age.

Whether dancing along to Queen or laying siege to the Tower of London, Moriarty appeared a more than formidable match for Sherlock’s intellect, exploiting Holmes’ personal attachments for the sake of solidifying his mental superiority over Sherlock.

The Governor (The Walking Dead)

Most people won’t admit it, but The Walking Dead ’s Governor may serve as the most accurate depiction of what the average survivor might go through amidst a zombie apocalypse. While he may have had a screw loose before the shambling walkers destroyed civilization, Philip Blake’s mental health no doubt took a turn for the worse while serving as the leader of Woodbury.

Like Lost ’s Ben Linus, he proved himself capable of committing monstrous acts for what he perceived as the safety of his town–even if such responsibilities pushed him over the deep-end towards a full-on murderous breakdown.

Ralph Cifaretto (The Sopranos)

Symbolizing the most toxic characteristics of the American Mafia, Ralph Cifaretto gives Goodfellas ’ Joe Pesci a run for his money as the most unstable gangster in the hard-boiled genre. A talkative loudmouth with obvious sadistic tendencies, Cifaretto’s impressive track record makes him a valuable–if annoying–member of the criminal organization.

Locking horns with Tony Soprano and vying for control of the mobster’s crew, most viewers will have a hard time finding any redeemable qualities whatsoever about this sociopathic weasel.

Read More From Wealth of Geeks

• The Best TV Anti-Heroes to Make Viewers Fall In Love (and Hate)
• Live From New York: The Best and Worst SNL Characters and Impressions

More for You

Political adviser and CNN commentator Alice Stewart found dead

18 Life Rules Jesus Gave Us to Live By

I’m a Financial Advisor: These Are the 9 Worst Money Moves People Make After 70

It’s time to bring back the world’s greatest fighter jet – from the 1990s

Officer involved in incident that led to Scottie Scheffler's arrest 'did not have body cam footage turned on'

Bronny James Measures 3 Inches Shorter At Combine Than USC

Richard Gere and Uma Thurman arrive at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival premiere of 'Oh Canada'

16 Overpriced Cars That Aren’t Worth the Money

18 Incredible Facts About Dinosaurs

Beyoncé Is a Total Bombshell in a Ruched Dress With a Gaping Bust Cutout

Should you avoid living in a 55-plus community? Here are 5 big problems with adult retirement communities in America

Basketball player collapses mid-game

Horizon: An American Saga trailer previews Kevin Costner’s epic Western movie

Map reveals best places to live in the US if nuclear war breaks out

‘I’m weary of repeating myself’: How do I deal with rich friends who take $22,000 cruises and book $800 hotel rooms? Prices are crazy enough already.

‘That’s absurd’: Fetterman fires back at AOC over House clash

12 Strange Facts About Redheads You Never Knew

The Best Handguns of 2024, Tested and Reviewed

I'm 70 And I've Lived Alone My Entire Adult Life. Here's What Everyone Gets Wrong About Single People.

These Short Haircuts for Older Women Are Timeless and Chic