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Villains, Criminals & Degenerates of All Kinds: A Truly Evil Top Ten Tuesday

- Updated // 18 Comments

Today over at my other blog, The Broke and the Bookish, is my favorite day of all–Top Ten Tuesday! Today is especially awesome. We are talking about the baddest of the bad in literature. I could only think of seven. I’m sure there are more but my mind came to a blank and I realize I need to read some more books with bad guys in them!

In no particular order:

1. President Snow from The Hunger Games: Ooh what a sick man! Exploiting children by having them brutally kill each other brings him delight along with being a monster of a dictator that rules by fear. A very memorable bad guy! I can just smell his rotting evilness as Collins describes his mannerisms and what he looks like.

2. Humbert Humbert from Lolita: I think the scary thing about this one is how there are creeps like this lurking around and preying on innocent children and they really believe they aren’t in the wrong—I’m looking at YOU creepy man on Amazon trying to sell a a pedophile how-to guide. The worst part is throughout the book he is trying to plead his case for how things went done and he makes himself so charming and likeable so that you forget what a monster he is. Gives me the creeps.

3. Lady Catherine de Bourgh from Pride and Prejudice — I despise Darcey’s aunt. She might not be your typical picture of a villain but I think she is a complete monster. Her condescending attitude and the way she tries to control everything. Let’s just give her the ICE QUEEN award! You could also through Caroline Bingley as runner-up for that one!

4. Raskolnikov from Crime and Punishment: He murders two little old ladies just to prove his theory that devises a theory about how “extraordinary men are above the law because in their brilliance they think “new thoughts” and so contribute to society.” (Taken from description on Goodreads). I only read half of this book because my copy got lost in Europe somewhere but he’s a criminal for sure but you won’t loathe him the way you loathe other bad guys!


5. *possible spoilers* Ares from The Lightning Thief: He’s the Greek God of War and Bloodlust. Enough said. But really, he is a pain in the butt for Percy and his pals in this book. And he really is badass..he was dressed in black leather and rides a Harley! I wanted to put another character from this book but I would never want to ruin a big twist for someone!


6. Mrs. Lockton from Chains: Another one in the running for the Ice Queen award! She treats Isabel like an animal and is just HORRIBLE! You will want to punch her in the face. I understand that it was part of the mindset of the day to treat slaves like that but she was really just awful. 


7. Hadrian from Angel Star: Dark angel! He is creepy and yet he somehow is so charming and mysterious in a way. Kind of a hot bad guy from the way he is described. 🙂 

Who are some bad guys that you’ve come across?  Do you ever find yourself rooting for a bad guy or at least feeling a little enticed by them?

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About Jamie

Jamie is a 32 year old married lady (with a new baby!!) who is in denial that she's actually that old to be a married lady and a mom. When she's not reading you can find her doing Pilates followed by eating ice cream, belting out Hamilton (loud and offkey) and having adventures with her husband, daughter and rescue dog.

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Comments

  1. The1stdaughter says

    I'm with you, this would be a little tough to come up with a total of 10 villains, but your list reminded me of some great ones. Especially President Snow, just disgusting. Great choices, now I feel like I need to read a few more books!

    Reply

  2. 1girl2manybooks says

    I have President Snow on my list! Ooh Lady Catherine de Burgh is a good one. She's definitely a nasty piece of work.

    Reply

  4. TwoBibliomaniacs says

    Great topic and list, although I would have to add: William Hamleigh from The Pillars of the Earth and Mrs. Danvers from Rebecca. They both made my blood pressure skyrocket….

    Reply

  7. Red says

    I like the list! I can't help kind of rooting for Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs. I know he's a crazy psychopath that eats people but he is trying to help Clarice. And who likes Chilton anyway?

    Reply

  9. Bibliophile says

    I like your list. Humbert Humbert is on mine as well, and he made it there without me even having read the book.

    Reply

  11. Kayla + Cyna says

    Lady Catherine! She was a true bitch, but we really have her to thank for bringing Darcy and Lizzie together. At least she's not around that much.

    Caroline Bingley though, now there's a woman I'd like to smack upside the head. And ew, Snow.

    Reply

  17. Tara says

    Anna and I had such a hard time coming up with villians last night! I knew when I read yours I would say, "oh yeah, that one" and "that's what his name was!" LOL always love reading these posts from you 🙂

    Reply

  18. benoch says

    Humbert Humbert is sick, but also amazing.

    As for Ares, I haven't read The Lightning Thief, but I do know that a mere mortal named Diomedes (with the help of Athena) knocked him down a peg during the Trojan War. Athena bested him again later, and I think it's important to note that the goddess of wisdom and justice is superior to the god of war.

    Reply