Top Ten Tuesday: Memorable villains (and some non-villainous antagonists)

Happy Top Ten Tuesday! Today’s theme is a villain-themed freebie and I’ll be honest, I really struggled to come up with ten villains! At first I thought that I don’t really read books with villains, but then Daniel helpfully reminded me that most books have an antagonist. Then I just had to go back in my memory to find ten villains (or non-villainous antagonists) that I actually remembered something about after all this time.

I couldn’t possibly do a villain-themed Top Ten Tuesday without including a bunch of books by V.E. Schwab, so here are three:

• A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC — Holland is a villain/antagonist that is totally and completely redeemed in the final book and I am still not over it.
• THIS SAVAGE SONG — In a book about evil physically manifesting as monsters, you might expect that the monsters would be the villains. But nope, one of the biggest villains in this book is a regular guy named Callum Harker.
• VICIOUS — If you thought I’d be leaving my favorite villain of all time, VICTOR VALE, off of this list, you would be wrong.

• ALL OF THIS IS TRUE — I don’t know if Fatima Ro would technically be considered an antagonist, but she is definitely a super creepy author who hangs out with a bunch of children.
• THE RAVEN CYCLE — You could probably find a couple different villains and antagonists in this series, but the biggest one that came to mind was Greenmantle.
• THE PAWN — When I was going through my Goodreads shelves looking for villains, I just stared at this book cover and shouted, “Ugh, her terrible fake uncle!” I don’t even remember what his name was, but he was gross and horrible.
• SCYTHE — Scythe Goddard is the actual worst. Just… the worst.

• HIS DARK MATERIALS — Another series in which you can probably find more than one villain, but the first that came to mind for me was Mrs. Coulter.
• THE LUNAR CHRONICLES — I don’t know how I didn’t think of Levana right away when I saw this topic. She’s so memorable and also so horrible.
• THE NAME OF THE WIND — Has there been any character in recent memory that I’ve hated as much as Ambrose? I don’t think so.

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Did you do your own Top Ten Tuesday post today? Feel free to leave your link and I’ll check out your post! Who are your favorite villains? Let’s talk in the comments!