6 books about the world through the eyes of villains

“Every villain is a hero in his own mind.” quoted by Tom Hiddleston will be my all-time favorite. A villain is just someone who never got the chance to tell the story from their side or was never given the chance to be heard. Villains are people who take charge of their fate, the ones who couldn’t care less about what everyone speaks of them because they have learned it all the hard way that no matter what you do or how much you accomplish, people always have the harshest things to say. Personally, as a kid, I thought among Tom & Jerry, Tom was the bad guy, but apparently, all he did was protect Jerry. In Peter Pan, we thought Captain Hook was the Villain, but really, it was Pan all along. Not to forget my favorite Villain of all time, Loki from the Marvel universe. All he ever wanted was Odin’s love and appreciation, but soon he realized he would never be a son like Thor to Odin. He’d always be the outsider everyone tip-toed around, waiting to catch a flaw, a moment of disloyalty or to phrase it correctly, the smirk of villainy. Well, he did a magnificent job manifesting all their assumptions into reality, but this isn’t just about Loki. There is right and wrong, white and black, darkness and light, but we each have our own morals, values, and our very own justice system. Some of us may seem like heroes for it and some villains but who are we to judge what’s right and what’s wrong? Here’s a selection of books from the forbidden well of the fiction world, the villain’s Pov.

1. The Midnight Star by Marie Lu
The third book of The Young Elite series, tells the story of Adelina Amouteru in her villain era. After all the betrayal and pain she has been through, she is completely drained of every last bit of innocence, mercy and lenience. Suffering was not hers any longer, but it most certainly was her time to shower it like doomsday. She began to reign as the queen of darkness, head held high and blood boiling with power no one has ever witnessed before. Her rule as the White Wolf was victorious, but every triumph of hers only twisted her cruelty into something much darker, inflicting nothing but pain and suffering on anyone who chose to come in her way. The darkness was no longer within her control. She was reckless and starting to become a threat to everything she had built. When a new danger is afoot, Adelina has no choice but to revisit the demons of her past. She must persevere through, even if her life is at stake. She must persevere for her empire, to avenge her past and to have a future where she still remains the Queen. Tag along with her grace, Adelina Amouteru, a sagacious queen whose darkened gaze can never be met without trembling, alongside her Roses on a quest to preserve her glorious empire, an incredible story authored by Marie Lu.

2. Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
At the tender age of ten, Jorg Ancarth, a privileged boy of royalty, has his world torn to shreds before his eyes. The assassination of his mother and his brother sucks all the light from his soul. He becomes an empty shell of a boy, driven by madness to avenge the murder of his mother and his younger brother. On his journey of vengeance, he releases a band of brigands from the dungeons and tags along with them as they loot many cities and wreaking havoc anywhere they set foot. Jorg found brotherhood with bandits, where violence was rife and wickedness churned in their hearts and minds. Even though Jorg may have found haven, in the grim darkness of his companions, he must revisit the horrors of his past when he returns to his father’s kingdom. He now has a chance to pave the path for a better future for himself, but not without obstacles that hold their swords to his throat. Dive into Jorg’s merciless world where when the night falls, a thicker darkness cloaks the monsters that peer at you, waiting for the right moment. A blood-curdling, yet a beautiful debut novel, written by Mark Lawrence.

3. And I Darken by Kiersten White
Lada was a princess by title, and only by title. She was feral, ruthless, and absolutely untamed, but only because she and her gentle younger brother, Radu were cast away from their homeland, Wallachia abandoned by their father. They were forced to be raised in the Ottoman courts, where she wouldn’t have survived if not for her recklessness. Lada and Radu know that they’re mere pawns in a vicious game with concealed blades pointing their way at all times because they were both, special and targets. While Lada bides her time plotting revenge on the Ottomans, Radu simply yearns for a safe place to feel at home, until the siblings are met with Mehmed, the lonely and rebellious son of the sultan. Just when the three of them become such close friends, the fates begin to work on their twists. When the sultan dies, Mehmed sits on the throne his father once sat, the same throne, Lada vowed to fight against and a regime Radu looks forward to because he seems to have found his home. Immerse yourself into a tale of entangled complexities of love, loyalty, and vengeance authored by Kiersten White.

4. And I Darken by Kiersten White
We have all heard the story through the eyes and ears of Dorothy. We know that the wicked witch of the west needed to be defeated and we knew that she was in fact the Villain of the tale. But, in this absolutely sweeping story of Gregory Maguire, we are introduced to a little green girl who goes by the name Elphaba, who lives in a land where all the animals can talk and strive to be treated like the first class citizens, whereas the Munchkinlanders seek the stability of the middle class and the tin man becomes a victim of domestic violence. Elphaba is peevish but really smart and highly misunderstood. After all these years knowing the witch of the west to be wicked than ever, Maguire swifts us off to time when she wasn’t the most sinister being to exist.

5. Hooked by A.C.Wise
Killed and resurrected time after time by the sinister imagination of a boy, Captain James Hook, escaped the Mystic world of Neverland through a door in the sky. He was now an old and withering man who walks around with a limp and a cane and his hook is now replaced by a wooden prosthesis. Set in the 1930s London, James, bides his days by living off in poor conditions and dealing with his trauma with drugs. He may have escaped Neverland, but his mind never did because he knew he was never the Villain he was made to be. When corpses start to pile up across London, James find himself being stalked by a monster that has escaped Neverland. One of the victims of this monster turns out to be a roommate of Jane’s, daughter of Wendy Darling. Wendy knows the scars and the burns of being a survivor of Neverland and when both, mother and daughter stumble into Captain James Hook, they know they have to team up to put an end to this chaos. Dive into a story where Pan’s true colors are displayed and where Hook intends to play a heinous Villain one last time, a gripping novel written by A.C. Wise.

6. You by Caroline Kepnes
I would like to start off with two words. Abandonment issues. Joe Goldberg whose upbringing comprises of lots of abuse and abandoning, grew up to be a well concealed psychopath who is determined to find the love of his life. When Guinevere Beck comes waltzing into Joe’s life or to be accurate, as she comes through the doors of the East Village bookstore where Joe works, he convinces himself that she’s the one! Joe becomes her very personal stalker and Beck only makes it that much easy for him with her endless posts on her public Facebook account and her ceaseless tweets with every little detail of her life. Joe finds everything he needs to know in order to make his way into her life. He is willing to go to any extent to remove anyone standing between him and Beck, even if it means murdering. Venture off on a journey of manipulation, pain and a messed up concept of love, a crazy and exciting novel authored by Caroline Kepnes.