This is the perfect literary tag for lovers of the creepy, obscure, likable and dreaded villains of all times!

I owe the pleasure of participating and presenting my most vile and endearing villains in this post to Beth from BeforeWeGoBlog. Thank you :)

Dracula:

a book with a charismatic villain:

(Let it be known, that there isn’t a more charismatic villain than Dracula by the way!!!)

Fernard Mondego aka Count de Morcerf is the evil-doer in this novel, the ultimate traitor. His specialty: Lying & Manipulation. His hobbies: Adultery & gambling. His goal is to frame Edmond Dantes for treason. He commits a treacherous crime through a complex series of lies and collusion without a semblance of remorse.

“Moral wounds have this peculiarity - they may be hidden, but they never close; always painful, always ready to bleed when touched, they remain fresh and open in the heart.”

― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

The Invisible Man:

A book that has more going on than meets the eye:

A Shakespeare theater group is tangled up with a murder mystery while dealing with stage fright and other important coming of age situations. The actors become so hung up in the play that theater and reality muddle together in this amazing, multi-faceted murder mystery.

“You can justify anything, if you do it poetically enough.”

-M.L. Rio If We Were Villains

Wolf-Man:

A complicated character:

Lauren Tanter, mother, psycho, human being and complicated character. Tinged with imperfection and dark lore of old folktales, this novel is charismatic and a page-turner. The combination of contemporary fiction with creepy elements was such a suspenseful and interesting read.

“Look at someone every day for long enough and you stop seeing what everyone else sees. You start to see what no one else sees, what is kept hidden from most people.”

― Melanie Golding, Little Darlings

Frankenstein:

A book with a misunderstood character:

Rodger and Dodger are both very misunderstood characters because they are a pair that make a unit. Created by a master mind, the two prodigies have to live apart, half at a loss while also half genius simultaneously. To their surroundings, they are very misunderstood characters, while the two of them complete each other and make sense.

“Words can be whispered bullet-quick when no one's looking, and words don't leave blood or bruises behind. Words disappear without a trace. That's what makes them so powerful. That's what makes them so important.
That's what makes them hurt so much.”

― Seanan McGuire, Middlegame

The Bride of Frankenstein:

A sequel you enjoyed more than the first book

This is book two of the ‘Stalking Jack the Ripper’ series, and I enjoyed how everything revved up a bit in this book. Audrey Rose has to step it up to meet her potential, while she is faced with some peculiar alluring situations. Hidden passages, murders in town and hair raising creepy stuff is happening all around in the halls.

(The next book gets even better!)

“Monsters are only as real as the stories that grant them life. And they only live for as long as we tell those tales.”

― Kerri Maniscalco, Hunting Prince Dracula

Creature from the Black Lagoon:

An incredibly unique book:

Fans of Dracula, don’t miss out on this one. It’s the perfect time to read ‘The Devil Aspect’. Creepy & atmospheric! Steeped in the folklore of Eastern Europe, and set in the shadow of Nazi darkness erupting just beyond the Czech border this book contains ‘The Devil’s Six’ and you will have to get to know them. What’s better than a book about an old stone castle that was built upon the devil's nether “Mouth of Hell”, where the devil still controls his hold?

“It was that - that extinguishing of their very last hope – that I savored more than anything, more even than the extinguishing of their lives…It was then they realized that the Devil is just God in his night attire.”
- “Mr. Hobbs”
(Recorded at Hrad Orlů Asylum for the Criminally Insane)

Craig Russell, The Devil Aspect

The Mummy:

A book that wraps up nicely (see what I did there?

’The Beast's Heart’ is so beautiful. It is the most intricately written retelling full of longing, dreaming, romance and heartache. From the Beast's point of view, this stunning novel reveals the innermost feelings of a man cursed to find true love while trapped in a beast's body. Shallcross has created this tantalizing slow burn retelling, stellar and not to be missed. It's aching, it's wrenching, it's sad, it's happy and more.

“Enchantments and dreams: I suspect they are made of the same stuff. They each beguile the mind and confuse the senses with wonder and strangeness so all that was familiar becomes freakish, and the most bizarre of things intimate and natural. For the longest time after the curse fell, I did not know if I was a beast who dreamed of being a man, or a man who dreamed he was a beast.”

― Leife Shallcross, The Beast's Heart