There are some truly terrifying people in this world… truly. Which is why you should vote if you can!
Anyway, sometimes it is easier to leave our world and think about the terrifying fictional villains. Halloween is merely half a month away! Halloween is the holiday where we face our fears. People scare me so much more than ghosts and goblins. There is something so terrifying to see the horrible parts of humanity, and the horrible things humans can do to other humans.
These ideas are really large and really scary, which is why literature is so cool. It gives us a safe space to confront these possibilities and very real things that are happening in our world right now. It is incredibly cathartic to watch these evil characters defeated by heroes.
1. Lilith from A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer
There is just something so deeply scary about someone who can show up wherever, whenever, and can control the space-time continuum. I mean come on! She is terrifying and beautiful, scenes with her really gave me the shivers. Kemmerer did an incredible job at writing Lilith as a character. One of the best villains I have read.
2. Minya from Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
Minya is literally the scariest child I have ever read. Like, she is so controlling and creepy and I just want the best for Sarai and Lazlo, so Minya obviously terrifies me. And the power she holds over Sarai at the end of Book 1 makes me horrified to read Book 2. I just know she will get even worst in the sequel, Muse of Nightmares.
3. The Villain from The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James
I won’t give the name of the villain, because it would be a spoiler, but this book seriously gave me the heeby jeebies. There is something about stories so real that really dig deep into my psyche. No seriously, ghosts do not scare me as much as real people. People can be terrifying… *shivers*
4. President Snow from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Come on!!! You think I wouldn’t include my favorite villain of them all. The one and only Coriolanus Snow. He was SO EVIL, he literally had children kill each other… like, you can’t get more evil than that. I fear for futures like this, if I am honest, so sometimes this story gets a little too real.
5. The Evil fromWilder Girls by Rory Power
What the students go through at Raxter School for Girls is seriously gory and horrifying. I can’t imagine experiencing what they do. This is such a complex and interesting story, and I don’t think I should say the villain of this story because I am pretty sure it is a spoiler as well. But this unique story was… scary. What the villain does is unthinkable.
I love reading a good scary story, with a defeated villain. Although the villain isn’t always defeated, which can leave the reader with more questions than answers, like in Wilder Girls. While reading a contemporary is fun and light-hearted, it doesn’t have the same effect as stories with true villains. I root for the hero’s victory and the villain’s defeat. Like I said, it is very cathartic.
What is the scariest villain you have ever read? Let me know in the comments below!