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. Our Book of the Month for Age 5+ is The Baddies, the brand-new picture book from superstar author-illustrator duo Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. The Baddies are the meanest and the nastiest ghost, witch, and troll in the land. But when The Baddies set their sights on a new little girl to scare, she soon teaches them that you don’t have to be big to be brave, and that baddies don’t always win. 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.

Ramsay is cruel, unapologetic, and very, very evil. We can all agree that he’s better off dead. He did a lot of bad things like mutilating victims, raping Sansa Stark, killing children, and lots of other people, and more. His crimes are huge. He is one book villain that we can’t never forget about. Be it if you read about it or watch the series, in either version you hate him with all your guts. Our fae prince. Cardan Greenbriar is one of the antagonist in The Cruel Prince (he later becomes a crucial character in the next installment). He bullies Jude and her sister. He threatens them, which shows you his cruel personality and his care for nobody. His whole life he has been mistreated by his mother and father. Being the sixth son and someone with not a bright future, he was ignored his whole life. Jude Duarte from The Cruel PrinceDid you think the villain was the whale? The villain is not the whale—it’s the megalomaniac at the helm. I grew up in a tall Victorian London house with my parents, grandmother, aunt, uncle, younger sister Mary and cat Geoffrey (who was really a prince in disguise. Mary and I would argue about which of us would marry him). Isn’t it awesome? We can just make dinosaurs! There is no foreseeable problem with this. We can totally handle it. The curse made Khalid a monster. Because of it, Khalid killed all his previous wives to save his kingdom. All he has wanted is for his people and his kingdom to be okay. He has committed some mistakes along the way, but before anything else, his kingdom is first. He is a man with a lot of secrets. Secrets that Shahrzad has vowed to find out. Book Villains in Adult Fiction The Wood from Uprooted Funnily enough, I find it harder to write not in verse, though I feel I am now getting the hang of it! My novel THE GIANTS AND THE JONESES is going to be made into a film by the same team who made the Harry Potter movies, and I have written three books of stories about the anarchic PRINCESS MIRROR-BELLE who appears from the mirror and disrupts the life of an otherwise ordinary eight-year-old. I have just finished writing a novel for teenagers.

One of my television songs, A Squash and a Squeeze, was made into a book in 1993, with illustrations by the wonderful Axel Scheffler. It was great to hold the book in my hand without it vanishing in the air the way the songs did. This prompted me to unearth some plays I’d written for a school reading group, and since then I’ve had 20 plays published. Oh boy. Lada Dragwlya is a brutal princess who wants the best for her people. But she doesn’t care to spill blood to achieve that. She is a really bloodthirsty royal and has a lot of enemies. But quite honestly, Lada loves being that way. It’s what is so appealing about her and about villains in general. They know how they are and what they want and how they will do it. And if something or someone is in their way, they will be sure to destroy them. That’s Lada Dragwlya, our very own Vlad the Impaler. Strigoi from Vampire Academy The Big Bad Wolf, the Evil Queen, the Stepsisters, Joker, Darth Vader – these iconic villains have stayed with us for a very long time. We read about them, we see them in movies, in the originals and remakes. What makes a villain iconic? What makes them timeless? For you to remember them years and years later and still know what the story is about and what the villain did so the hero couldn’t achieve their destiny. These book villains tell their story, you might even relate to them a bit, but the way they do things might not be the right one. Forest of a Thousand Lanterns shows us the rise of the Evil Queen. I always find fascinating the books that makes us wonder how these iconic villains rose to power. Xifeng knows she is destined for greatness. With darkness and light battling inside of her, Xifeng has to decide if she wants to become empress even though that path is filled with dark magic. Her journey is hard and good thing try to tempt her but she has a goal set in her mind, and she knows what the outcome will be. The Cohort from Lady Midnight But let me talk to you about Jude Duarte. This is where things get interesting. Because yeah, Cardan is sort of evil and mean and does a lot of questionable things throughout the books. But Jude? Jude is our main protagonist. But she loves lying and bloodshed. Jude is our manipulative queen. She is the master of lies and creator of the outcome of everything happening in this series. She is the one behind the scenes, making it happen. You don’t want to make her angry. Xifeng from Forest of a Thousand LanternsEvery villain is very controversial. Do you love them or do you hate them? I’ve never seen a thing like the emotions the Darkling causes. He is the creator of the Shadow Fold, a space of darkness that houses horrifying creatures. He is in need of a Sun Summoner, and when he finds Alina he uses everything in his arsenal to have her. The Bonner Sisters from When the Moon Was Ours

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?

Books Multibuys

The book was widely read as an antisuburban novel, and that disappointed me,” Yates said in a 1972 interview. Axel has achieved worldwide acclaim for his humorous illustrations, and his books have been translated into over 29 languages. He has enjoyed particular success in his award-winning picture book collaborations with Julia Donaldson, but is also the best-selling illustrator of novelty books such as The Bedtime Bear. In 2006 he was been called upon to design Gordon Brown’s annual Christmas card! Their next book, The Gruffalo, was published in March 1999 and has already become a modern classic, selling more than 2 million copies worldwide and translated into over 20 languages. Axel also continues to illustrate for other authors as well, including Ian Whybrow and David Henry Wilson. Our goal is to introduce readers to new authors, to cultivate fandom for our included authors, and to provide exclusive cover editions for readers to add to their collections. The patriarchy is the very villain of this story. It forces women into fighting and competing between themselves. As we know, the government is led by it and women in this society don’t benefit from anything. They are mistreated and put into boxes of how they should live their lives. So who doesn’t want a book that smashes the patriarchy with Latinx leads and a queer romance? Because I do. Lada Dracul from And I Darken

Axel went on from school to study History of Art at the University of Hamburg – but he didn’t like the course and decided to leave. Knowing that he wanted to live in another country and learn a second language, he moved to England to study illustration at the Bath Academy of Art.

Christmas Gifts

I also continued to write “grown-up” songs and perform them in folk clubs and on the radio, and have recently released two CDs of these songs. 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. 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. One of the greatest book villains. He hates Christmas and wants everyone to be completely miserable like him? So he decides to steal Christmas from the Whos. How does he do it? He dresses up as Santa, puts some antlers on top of Max’s (his dog) head, and call it a day. It’s wonderful. Smaug from The Hobbit