Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week there is a new topic for bloggers to choose and list their top ten. This week’s theme is Top Ten Books that Feature … Characters.
The Best Villainous/Morally Grey
Everyone loves villains, there’s a whole anthology devoted to them now. When I saw this week’s open prompt the first thing that came to mind was villainous characters, or more specifically morally grey characters who could never be called heroes but are just out for themselves and make no apologies for what they need to do to achieve their goal. There are some brilliant ones in the books I’ve read, and this is my chance to feature my top ten.
AIDAN
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
It’s hard to say where AIDAN fits into this list. As an artificial intelligence program on the Alexander AIDAN did some horrific things to the few to keep the majority safe. All it’s scenes in Illuminae were favourites of mine, and I loved the glimpses of it we got in Gemina as well.
Mia
Nevernight by Jay Kristoff
Mia wants revenge, and she is willing to do horrific things to achieve her end goal. She knows what she needs to do to succeeded at the Red Church and she isn’t going to let anything stand in her way. She is confident and cocky at times, determined, and powerful thanks to her Darkin abilities.
Khalid
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
Although Khalid is the hero of this story it’s hard to fully side with someone who killed hundreds of his wives before Shazi came into his life. Eventually we discover the reason for the deaths, but does that make the things Khalid did better?
Kaz and the Dregs
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Kaz and his crew are my favourite characters on this list. I don’t think they could ever be called ‘heroes’, they’re too far on the wrong side of the law and they’re all in the heist for whatever promised reward awaits them at the end, but they’re all incredibly developed characters.
Jaxon
The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
I was never sure where Paige stood with Jaxon. He always seems to have something up his sleeve, and never seemed to trust anyone with his plans. Of course after the ending to The Mime Order we got more information on Jaxon’s past, but still no idea where his future plans are going.
Lada
And I Darken by Kiersten White
Like Mia Lada is a character with her end goal in sight, who isn’t going to let anything or anyone stand in the way of what she wants. Her actions are dark, brutal and unapologetic, but she isn’t afraid of what she has to do to claim Wallachia once again.
Holland
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
The development Holland went through throughout the whole series was incredible, he ended up being one of my favourite characters by the middle of A Conjuring of Light. Holland is not a hero, but in the end everything he did he did for White London, and to survive.
Victor
Vicious by V.E. Schwab
The fact that I’m sneaking two V.E. Schwab books in this list this week just goes to show how much I love her books. Victor is the very definition of what I was going for in this list. His whole plot is about revenge and it’s only in seeing the story from his eyes we cast him in a different role.
The Woods
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Can a villain like the Woods be classed as a morally grey character? The way Novik wrote the Woods in Uprooted make them feel more like a character than simply a setting . There’s so much fear and power surrounding the Woods, it’s so easily to be corrupted by it, but how can you defeat a forest?
The Zeroes
Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti
I’ve seen Zeroes likened to Misfits, and in my mind it’s an accurate comparison. Scam and his friends are never going to be heroes; they have these powers and they use them for their own benefit, they study what they can do but they usually end up causing more harm than good.
So what do you think? Did you take part in this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, if so let me know what you picked for this week’s themed free-for-all, or who your favourite villainous/morally grey characters are.
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