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I’m combining today’s Top Ten Tuesday post with Wyrd and Wonder’s Spooktastic Reads because it works really well.  Today’s topic is ‘Villains’.

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme where every Tuesday we look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) bookish examples to demonstrate that particular topic.  Top Ten Tuesday (created and hosted by  The Broke and Bookish) is now being hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and future week’s topics can be found here.

1. The White Witch from CS Lewis The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe.  I actually just do not understand the White Witch.  Why on earth does she want to create a place that lives in permanent winter.  I actually quite like all the seasons to be honest so I just have a problem with her reasoning.  Plus, turning all the little critters into statues!  Okay, it’s probably a lot cheaper, not to mention more realistic looking than purchasing statues but even so.  I just can’t be friends with someone who turns Mr Tumnus to stone.
2. Dolores Umbridge from JK Rowling’s Harry Potter.  Pink cardigans, lots of fluffy pictures of kittens and cats, an array of tea cups and saucers.  Come on, how bad can she really be.  Pretty bad.  She turns into a little dictator, taking over Hogwarts and coming up with a whole wall of ridiculous decrees, punishing students and just generally being a bad egg.
3. Mr Croup and Mr Vandermeer from Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere.  These two are perfect villains.  Assassins actually – creepy as you could wish for if you were crazy enough to waste your wishes.  If they knock on your door you’re in serious trouble.  That is all.
4. Joffrey Baratheon.  Oh my lordy, how I love to dislike this character.  I probably shouldn’t get started but, well, he’s cruel, he’s despicable and a total sadist.  He caused a LOT of trouble for many characters.  He’s perfectly horrible.  You really can’t find a single redeeming thing about him.  I applaud you Mr Martin.
5. Saruman, JRRTolkien’s Lord of the Rings – yes, I will use every opportunity to include this book.  Saruman – dirty turncoat, destroyer of trees, conspires with The One.  Saruman the White needs a new name.
6. Kevin from We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver.  This is a chilling book indeed.  It did take me a little while to get into the story because to be honest it’s very bleak – but then the subject matter really isn’t all about rainbows and unicorns so there is that.  OMG Kevin really is a terrible character.  He’s the sort of character you read about with a mounting sense of dread and horror, you can’t tear your eyes away from the page even though you know it’s all going to go to hell in a handcart and really you want to stop reading and go hug a cushion.  I’m surprised his mother didn’t check the back of his head for the sign of the beast!
7. Professor Moriarty from Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.  Sherlock Holmes’ famous adversary and a villain you can just love to read about.  He’s clever and cunning, machiavellian and an absolute criminal mastermind.  He’s a wonderful antagonist. the sort who enjoys trying to best Sherlock and sees any defeats as small hurdles – you can imagine him twirling a moustache and saying “I’ll be back” before disappearing through an open window, his long dark cape snapping behind him.
8. Mr Dark, Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.  I love this book.  Supernatural fantasy.  Mr Dark is the ringmaster of a very unusual carnival.  He’s very long lived and quite diabolical – someone who enjoys his villainous role.
9. Posy (also known as Not Posy) from GX Todd’s Hunted.  I don’t want to give too much away about Posy because Hunted is the second book in series.  I will say though that he is a great villain of the piece.  Sorry that I can’t say more for the sake of spoilers.  The Voices series is set in a world gone crazy.  People started hearing voices in their heads and they weren’t always whispering nice thoughts.  I’m loving this series so far.
10. Melisande Shahrizai from Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey.  Melisande has got to be one of my favourite villains of all time. Brilliant, beautiful and driven by wild ambition.  She knows no bounds.