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I've loved what seems to be a trend in the last couple of years and seems to be continuing for the next few: books whose protagonists are villains or antiheroes. I see it on television shows as well, such as Rumpelstiltskin on Once Upon a Time: I know he's a bad guy, but because of the way he's been written, I can't help but feeling sorry for him and hoping that things work out in his favor.
This week's Top 10 Tuesday is all about what kind of books your book club might like to read in a certain genre and since I've been so fascinated with villains lately, I thought I'd share some books that I'd enjoyed and some that I want to read that have these morally questionable characters as their leads.
You never quite know who's the villain in this piece. They try to tell you, but can you be sure? You'll have to read, and decide, for yourself in this one.
I loved the film adaptation of this work with Ben Barnes, so I'd like to get to the source material at some point to see what it had in common with the film and vice versa. It's hard to say whether Dorian is truly evil or whether he's corrupted by human instinct. I'm intrigued by what Wilde will have to say on the subject of what I think it one of his better know works.
A thief, a spy, a convict, and those are just three of the Six of Crows. Granted these might be on the lighter side of antiheroes, but generally you wouldn't think of this ragtag group as the hero type, the Chosen Ones, etc. I've started this as an audio book and as it shifts points of view between all six characters, I'm glad they've got a different voice actor for each one. They bring a good balance to the story.
If Six of Crows was on the lighter side on antiheroes, I'm sure this would be right up there with it. Good Omens has angels, demons, and other supernatural creatures getting ready for the end of the world, which will take place next Saturday (apparently). You'd think the angels were good, demons bad, right? Yeah, not so much. Gaiman and Pratchett bring a lot of humor to this story about the warring sides that have, by the way, misplaced their Savior and their Antichrist.
Am I supposed to like the vicious princess that's all stabby? Maybe? Maybe not? Ah, who cares, this book was awesome either way. Lada is a new kind of princess, a reimagining of Vlad the Impaler as a girl. He definitely wasn't a good guy, but he was definitely impressive and Lada carries that torch well in the first book of her series, And I Darken.
Alex is the main character here and she gets away with murder, literally, after the murderer of her sister goes unpunished by the law and she takes matters into her own hands. Automatically, given the circumstances, she's a sympathetic character, but is her nature going to be so sympathetic when events begin to take a turn for the dark?
I've only just gotten this from the library, but it's very interesting reading a novel about a character you know has done something you're supposed to find bad and evil, but you don't because of the circumstances under which the "crime" was committed. That book club discussion is going to be interesting.
I've only just gotten this from the library, but it's very interesting reading a novel about a character you know has done something you're supposed to find bad and evil, but you don't because of the circumstances under which the "crime" was committed. That book club discussion is going to be interesting.
The narrator in this book is literally a stalker. You figure this out really quickly, but the question is, what else has he done? How far does his depravity go? It's a unique form of storytelling to me wherein the book is told strictly from the point of view of a real bad guy. This book is high on my tbr, as is the sequel. I don't think I'd be able to read the first and put that world away, know there was more to Joe (the main character)'s story out there.
The Young Elites by Marie Lu
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
The Young Elites by Marie Lu
Adelina starts out as a prisoner due to her inadvertent role in the death of her father, powerless to help herself. By the end of the book, her power has come alive and it is powered by fear and by anger. She is no longer in the position to be the "good" girl. You do not want to cross her and as the series progresses, it only get darker for her, which is amazing in a literary sense if not so much for her soul.
Celaena's the antihero in this piece, an assassin who was very, very good at what she did until a betrayal got her got and throne into a salt mine and slavery. You think that will stop her? HAH! That badassness is going to keep brewing inside of her and bubble up just when she needs it, especially when she finally escapes Endovier (the salt mine) and enters a championship to become the King's Assassin.
No one is innocent in this story. Each of ten guests invited to the island of an eccentric millionaire has a dark secret and each is in danger of being murdered because of it. If you're looking for someone to feel sorry for, you won't find one in this novel by the Dame of Mystery.
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