Top Ten Unexpected Villains

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, so go see what other authors decided to write about for this week’s prompt, Top Ten Unexpected Villains!

This week’s theme is Villain and I couldn’t decide how to do this without spoiling some of these books, especially for the unexpected theme that I went with. For each of these books, the villains were not who I expected them to be. I love to be surprised by villains that we get to know as simple characters – these are my favorites of them, and I won’t tell you who the villains are! You’ll have to read them and find out yourself!

The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo

Othello by Shakespeare

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead

Heart’s Blood by Juliet Marillier

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson

What book villains have surprised you? Please share them with me in the comments!

5 thoughts on “Top Ten Unexpected Villains

  1. I like the theme of your list! I agree with Nimona being on here. 🙂
    I haven’t read any of the other books on your list, but I do plan to read a Leigh Bardugo book (Six of Crows) this October! And Uprooted eventually.

    1. I highly recommend them all – these are some of my favorites, with the exception of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I think you’d particularly enjoy Heart’s Blood! I look forward to you reading Six of Crows because it’s AWESOME. 🙂

  2. Great list! I pretty much love all your choices (The Grisha and Uprooted especially) except maybe the Heart’s Blood pick, but only because I haven’t read that one 😀

    1. Okay well you absolutely should if you love the rest of this list. Its a beauty and the beast retelling that also deals with DV and PTSD and is set in ancient Ireland. I love it a lot!

  3. Terry Pratchett was ridiculously good at writing villains, mostly because he had so much empathy for his characters that he could write from the perspective of someone who thinks they’re doing the right thing while they burn the world down. My personal favorites are Duke Felmet, the Elucidated Brethren, Vorbis, Lily Weatherwax, Lord Rust, and Lord Snapcase, plus an honorable mention for Lord Vetinari even though he’s usually on the side of the heroes.

    Scott Lynch does a whole lot of villains well, but Requin and Selendri have a special place in my heart.

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