TOP TEN TUESDAY

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This is one meme I can get on board with - I LOVE lists! I'll show you mine if you show me yours!

This week is all about the villains. 

Now, before I get started, can I get a quick poll of how many blogs you think Voldemort will show up on? My vote is for eleventy-billion. So, let's all agree that he is definitely the worst of the worst and that no other villain will ever compare to his awfulness. This list will include my top 10 most hated villains in my bookish history - after He Who Shall Not Be Named. 

Top 10 Most Hated Villains

1. The Fae Prince from Jennifer L. Armentrout's Wicked series

When you read book two in this series - Torn - you'll understand why this dude takes the cake. The things he does, all without any remorse or emotion of any kind, fueled a hate fire in me never before matched. I really hope that Jen plans for a horrific end to this guy, and I intend to read that scene with a big smile on my face. 

2. Caym and Corbin from Carrie Ann Ryan's Redwood Pack series

These two - Caym the demon and Corbin the psychopathic wolf shifter - wreaked their horror in lots of different ways on the Jamenson family. They raped, killed and tortured men, women and even small children, and we had lots of time for our hatred of them to grow. For seven books and a bunch of novellas, we had to endure these awful creatures. It made their end that much more satisfying at the end of the series.

3. Nan Dillon from Abbi Glines' Rosemary Beach series

Despite Abbi Glines' efforts in the twelfth and final Rosemary Beach series book to put a bit of a rosy glow on Nan's actions over the course of the series, I have to admit. I'm still a #NanHater. This chick is a psycho drama queen who caused so much hurt and pain to the people around her, it's impossible to forget it. So, I will wear my badge with pride. 

4. President Snow from Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games series

I mean, DUH. This is a dude who perpetuated a society in which teens were forced to fight to the death every year in order to maintain their already pathetic existence, while he lived in extravagance and safety. The line might start behind Voldemort, but Snow is riding his coattails. 

5. Hiram Westfall from Rae Carson's The Gold Seer Trilogy

You get a hint at Hiram's true colors in Walk on Earth a Stranger, but he doesn't let his freak flag fly completely until Like a River Glorious. What he does, not only to Leah, but to all the people who work for him enraged me and frustrated me, because he was getting away with it. I know we've not seen the last of him.

6. Queen Levana from Marissa Meyer's The Lunar Chronicles 

Of all the stories where people in power plot, scheme and murder in order to get more of it, The Lunar Chronicles is probably the most compelling. Queen Levana murdered MILLIONS - including her own family - in an effort to literally rule the world. And, in the end, it came down to the efforts one one 16-year-old girl and a few of her friends to take her down.

7. Black Jack Randall from Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series

I hated Jack Randall with a blinding passion when I first read the Outlander books. But, seeing him on the small screen carry out the acts I'd only read about in living color possibly made me hate him even more (mad props to Tobias Menzies for his outstanding acting). I wish his death had hurt more. 

8. The Demon Dads from Wendy Higgins' Sweet Evil series

None of these dads, save perhaps Belial, will ever win the Father of the Year award. They forced their children to do unspeakable acts, and failure to do so meant death. Not only that, but they stood in the way of true love, which is the absolute worst. 

9. Warner from Tahereh Mafi's Shatter Me series

I admit - I put this one in here mostly as a show of protest. Warner might not be as bad as the others on this list, but let it be known that I do now, and forever will, consider him A VILLAIN. He is not a hero. He's not even an anti-hero. He's a bully and a petulant child who acted out when he didn't get what (who) he wanted. He used fear and influence to rule, and despite Mafi's efforts to make me like him and hate the REAL hero, I was not cowed. (I'm still bitter about this series - can you tell?)

10. The Strigoi from Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy series

The baddest vamps ever come from the VA series. They were creepy and vicious and mean. But, as Dimitri proved, they also could be enticing and alluring and calculating - which is SO much worse. They kill innocents without thought, and if they have to use your emotions against you in order to do it, so what? Victor from this series could also be a good runner-up. Although he wasn't a Strigoi, all those adjectives I used earlier could also apply to him.