I actually made this list a long while back, but I decided to save the idea for an October post, since villains and Halloween go so well together. Then The Broke and the Bookish published a TTT villain-themed prompt for this week—too perfect!
As I put this list together, it got me thinking about the difference between true villains and plain old antagonists. I realized I kinda have a “type” when it comes to my favorite baddies. I love reading about intelligent villains who lie, manipulate, and cheat to get what they want (probably because I consider this kind of villainy to be particularly difficult to overcome). So you’ll probably notice lots of characters on my list who fall into that category.
I also realized that, to me, a character doesn’t have to engage in grand, world-altering schemes in order to be a true villain. I base my judgement on the extent of the damage inflicted on the innocent, rather than the societal/global scope of the villain’s plans. So a character that devotes themselves to personally devastating a single innocent character might be more evil to me than a cold-hearted megalomaniac.
One final note before we get started: This is by no means a definitive list. I had to leave off some pretty famous names since I haven’t read the books that go with them. For example, almost every list of literary villainesses I’ve seen includes Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Next, but I can’t include her here since I haven’t read the book.