For some reason, I found it kind of difficult to narrow this one down to specific monsters, so I decided to broaden it a bit to focus on the kinds of monsters/creatures that I like to read about. I’m not a fan of horror, but I do enjoy fantasy books which also tend to have a lot of monsters or supernatural creatures. It’s kind of funny because I wouldn’t necessarily think that I often go for books that involve any kind of supernatural or paranormal creatures, but when I look back at the books I read and even the movies or TV series that I enjoy, I’ve realized that many of them actually do involve monsters of some kind.
Top 5 Wednesday is a meme created by Gingerreadslainey on Youtube, and is now hosted by Sam at ThoughtsOnTomes. The official GoodReads group with the weekly topics can be found here.
1) Witches
In my recent post recommending books about witches, I mentioned how I generally love to read stories about witches, even though I haven’t read too many. It’s kind of tough to actually consider a witch a monster since most of them are otherwise normal people, but I tend to find it fascinating when people are able to do magic. It’s also hard to classify them as monsters when the character has magical powers but is otherwise the hero of the story. I especially love stories about people learning to use their powers, and I think witches can also make very interesting and frightening villains.
2) Vampires
I should clarify that I don’t mean the Twilight kind of vampire, but more along the lines of Buffy the Vampire Slayer vampires. If you had asked me a few years ago, I would have said that I actively avoid stories that involve vampires, and to some degree that is still true. I think a lot of that has to do with the sheer volume of vampire stories, which makes it tough to weed out the kind I like from all the others. If I see the word “vampire” in a synopsis, my gut reaction is often to avoid the book, but I often end up enjoying the stories that I do read or watch that involve vampires. I think part of my interest in vampire stories is because I love reading all about vampire lore and history, and many of these books tend to have a very gothic feel.
3) Demons
I guess “demon” is a fairly generic term for a monster in general, but what I had in mind was everything from the chimaera in Daughter of Smoke and Bone to A Monster Calls to This Savage SongThis Savage Song to (once again) Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There is just such a range of kinds of demons that an author come up with, so there is lots of room for creativity and I tend to find it interesting to see how authors craft the world to explain where the demons came from and what they are able to do. I actually really like the Buffy approach to demons where many of them are a kind of metaphor for real-life problems.
4) Ghosts
This is another one where if you had asked me a few years ago, I would have said that I actively avoid anything to do with ghosts. I’ve always been afraid of stories involving ghosts, even going so far as to hide a book I once had that involved a ghost because it creeped me out too much (I was 8), and always putting another children’s book involving a ghost on the cover upside down so I wouldn’t have to see it. Ghost stories scare me and I don’t read them very often at all, but I was surprised to realize that I’ve really enjoyed every one that I’ve read. I think there is a lot that can be done with ghosts to make a really fascinating story, and they can also range from really creepy (ie. Little Girls by Ronald Malfi) to pretty light (ie. Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol).
5) Monstrous people
Even more creepy than ghosts for me are stories about the more realistic kind of monster — monstrous people. I’m thinking specifically of stories that involve characters who do something truly horrible such as serial killers, stalkers, or psychopaths (ie. We Need to Talk About Kevin or You). These are in some ways much more scary for me because these situations are real and could possibly happen. As much as ghost stories freak me out, I can at least tell myself that they are just stories and it won’t happen. Reading about a psychopath or serial killer, on the other hand, is scary on a completely different level because at the back of my mind is always the idea that this person actually could exist. It completely takes away that level of separation that I tend to have from other supernatural monsters, and makes it horrifying in a completely different way.
This is one of what appears to be the new trend for YA anthologies, and I’m looking forward to it because it contains stories from several authors that I’ve read and enjoyed before (Anna-Marie McLemore, Robin Talley, Brandy Colbert, and Emery Lord) as well as many that I have not yet tried. It is a series of 15 stories featuring diverse characters who are witches. The book has also been tagged as a feminist collection about the strength of women working together, and I think it is important since fear of powerful women seems to be highly linked to stories about witchcraft. This book has only been out since the end of August, but it has already received high reviews from several of the reviewers I follow. I’m always a little hesitant going into an anthology like this because I tend to find the stories pretty hit-or-miss, but considering my strong interest in witch stories, I think this one might interest me more.
This is a very recent release, coming out just a month ago. It first caught my attention because of the beautiful cover, and as soon as I saw that it was about witches, I knew I wanted to add it to my TBR. In this book, there is a legend that says a witch made a pact with a devil, where the village will be protected if one boy is sent into the forest on the night of the Slaughter Moon every seven years. The plot synopsis on Goodreads is vague, and the book is still too new to have very many reviews, but it sounds like such an interesting storyline. I tend to enjoy stories that involve witches or towns that are affected by legends of witchcraft. I’m a little worried about this one because the few reviews I’ve seen so far have been extremely mixed, so I’m curious to give it a try for myself and see whether it will be a book that I really can recommend.
This book has been on my TBR for two years already, and I still haven’t picked it up yet! It is about a girl named Tea who accidentally resurrects her brother, and learns that she is different from other witches in her family. Tea and her brother are taken to another land for training by an older bone witch, where she must learn to wield elemental magic. This is one that I heard a lot about when it first came out, but it now seems to have pretty mixed reviews as well. This book has since become the first in a trilogy, with the second book released in March 2018, and the last one expected in March 2019. I’m always a little hesitant to pick up books when the reviews are so mixed, but I’ve been wanting to read it since I first saw it on Goodreads so I may have to give it a chance for myself. It seems that the biggest complaint is that the book is very slow-paced, which is not necessarily an issue for me if I read when I have enough time to devote to it.
This lengthy book (600 pages!) is another one that has become the start of a series. It was released in May 2017, with the second one out just about a month ago. I’m actually kind of surprised I haven’t seen any hype at all surrounding the second book. This one is about a girl named Elloren Gardner, who is the granddaughter of the last prophesied Black Witch but has none of her grandmother’s power. Elloren gets the opportunity to become an apothecary and travels to Verpax University to start a life for herself, out of the shadow of her family legacy, but soon realizes that the university is much more dangerous than she expected, especially because of her connection to the Black Witch. I’m always up for a good book set in a magic boarding school and this one sounds amazing! I remember seeing quite a bit of controversy about this one because of potentially problematic content, specifically racism, but I have also seen quite a few reviews saying the exact opposite. Honestly, the controversy has just made me more curious to see what the whole debate is about.
I know the intent of this post it to try and avoid Harry Potter villains as much as possible, but I couldn’t possibly make a list of favourite villains without including Umbridge. I was actually browsing through my old blog posts from the year I started blogging, and I came across this 
I wouldn’t necessarily consider Count Olaf the scariest villain I’ve ever read, but he is definitely one of the most memorable. This series is absolutely hilarious because if you think about it, it is so cartoon-ish. Count Olaf spends the entire series coming up with ridiculously elaborate plots in attempt to steal the Baudelaire’s orphans’ fortune, but he is just creepy enough to be genuinely scary. This is a man who stalks the children everywhere they go, and they are constantly looking over their shoulders to figure out where he will turn up next, especially since the adults in their lives are intent on turning a blind eye to it. The children are left completely on their own to fend for themselves and keep themselves safe, while trying to make a new life for themselves. The series somehow manages to strike a very compelling balance between humour and real danger. It is the kind of story that seems both completely ludicrous, but there is also the slight underlying layer of doubt that this could actually happen. Count Olaf, realistically, is a regular person with no particular special powers, and that’s what makes him so creepy. He uses disguises and persuasion to get what he wants, and is somehow very effective at it. He was one of the first book villains that really caught my attention, and he remains one of the most memorable.
Elara is not necessarily a villain I would have thought of if I hadn’t read the last three books in this series very recently. Elara is a power-hungry woman with the power to read and control other people’s minds. It is this ability which makes her so scary, since she uses it to her advantage to win over the King’s heart and position herself as Queen. Elara is cruel, using her powers to force other people to do horrific things to themselves (ie. Sara Skonos) and others (Cal), and controlling and even haunting her son Maven to the point where he can’t separate which thoughts are his own, and which come from her. She orchestrates an elaborate plot to hide Mare’s abilities by disguising her as a lost Silver princess, which was done to suit her own goals. The ability to force others to do what she wants is enough to be scary on its own, and there is good reason why people with this skill are treated with suspicion at least in the various territories in the series. It is not so much the ability itself that makes Elara so dangerous, but the fact that she chooses to use it to hurt others, and especially to control the mind of her own son.
You know a villain is bad when they have a lasting impact on the entire series, even when they are not physically present. Amarantha is a High Fae general who developed a hatred for mortals, and is known for cruelly torturing anyone who crosses her. Like Elara, she will stop at nothing to get what she wants and is not above tricking people into giving her the power she desires. Her cruelness is seen in her treatment of Lucien, Tamlin, and especially of Rhysand. It was Amarantha who cursed Tamlin and his court in the first place, forcing him to need to find a mortal with a hatred of faeries and earn her love to break the spell, otherwise he will be imprisoned along with all of his subjects. Amarantha is cruel and vengeful, and seems to enjoy ruthlessly torturing people. She also had very powerful magic that she used against enemies, along with the abilities that all High Fae have. She is a character whose impact on those around her resonates throughout the entire series, whether she is on the page or not. You can see her effects most strongly on Rhysand, and his explanation to Feyre about his life is absolutely heartbreaking.
It’s not very often where a book lets us fully get into the villain’s head, so this one was particularly creepy to read. You is narrated in second-person perspective by a man named Joe Goldberg, who becomes obsessed with Beck, a woman he meets at the bookstore where he works. Joe decides to look her up on social media, and learning that she has left her accounts public, begins to stalk her and slips his way into her life as a boyfriend, using what he discovers online as a way to ensure he can present himself as the perfect match for her. What makes this book so creepy is that we are reading it entirely from the villain’s perspective, along the same lines as something like Lolita. Joe is not a good person. He obsessively stalks Beck and will stop at nothing to remove any obstacles that might be in his way. It is also especially creepy because of the way it shows the dangers of social media. Joe Goldberg is another one of those villains who are so creepy because they are so realistic and possible. As much as no one likes to think that these kind of people exist, there is still that slight chance of someone like Joe could be real.
I’m immediately cheating by picking something that isn’t a book, but the more I think about the magic system in the Buffy universe, the more I realize it is one of my favourites. What I love most about this system is the idea that magic always has consequences, and magic as power. We see this primarily through Willow and her abuse of magic in Season 6, and also through Giles. I’m one of the few Buffy fans who actually really enjoyed Season 6 in general, and I didn’t see Willow’s “magic = drug addiction” metaphor as such a shock, since it had been slowly building since Season 2. We see Willow early on in the show as a very mousy, nerdy character whose confidence only really starts to grow once she starts experimenting with magic. By Season 4, she’s complaining that she’s plateaued and wants to branch out a bit more, and by Season 5 she is heavily relied on as one of the most powerful members of the team because of her magic. It is no surprised to me that she got addicted to that feeling of being powerful, and associated that power with her self-worth. She even comments later on in the series that part of her reason for using magic was that it took her away from herself, and she didn’t know who she was without it. It was a similar storyline with Giles, although we see that more through his caution now and his stories about his wild teenage years where he and his friends got in way over their heads with magic, and unleashed things they had no control over. What I took away from the magic system in Buffy is that magic itself was neither good nor bad, but it was all in how the individual chose to use it and how much control they had over it. We see Willow fully lose control and give herself over to the power in response to Tara’s death, in a way that had been hinted at a couple of times before, yet it is not because Willow herself is an evil person, nor was Giles when he and his friends played around with summoning demons. Magic in Buffy always comes with a price — whether that’s in Willow losing Tara and later her friend’s trust, or Xander’s demon summoned to make everyone express themselves (in song and dance!) trying to take Dawn as a bride in exchange…not to mention the spontaneous combustion. Power is an on-going theme throughout the show, and I think the magic system played a huge role in that.
This is a very obvious choice, but this was one of my first experiences with a series that had an internal magic system, and I absolutely adored it. In Harry Potter, we got a magical world that felt so realistic and possible that it was easy to believe that it really existed. I loved how J.K. Rowling developed a wizarding world that runs parallel to the Muggle world, that was similar enough to it to still seem feasbile while still having that fantasy element that made it so intriguing. I loved how young wizards and witches had to go to school to learn how to use magic and to use it responsibly, and that there was a law enforcement system in place to make sure that people weren’t crossing the line. They have Unforgivable Curses because even in a world where people are literally able to teleport and conjure things out of thin air, there are still standards of how people should treat each other. I also liked how all wizards and witches seemed to start out on equal footing. Harry and Hermione who grew up in Muggle households weren’t at much of a disadvantage to Ron or Neville who grew up in wizarding homes. What I loved most about the magic system is that the whole process of learning magic is presented in a way that feels so realistic and possible. I also loved how it was so broad and included so many different branches, with many different options available in terms of what adult wizards can do after leaving school. This series always gave the impression that there really could be a secret wizarding world alongside our real one, and I think the way the magic system was written was a big part of that.
I feel like I’ve been bringing this one up a lot lately since it is a series I finished fairly recently, but the magic system in this one was very interesting. This series is set in a world where there is an ongoing war between Seraphim and Chimaera. The majority of the magic in this series is around the chimaera’s abilities to use wishes and to resurrect others. What interested me most about this magic system is that all magic required some kind of cost, and that cost was proportional to what the magic was doing. All magic in this world requires a tithe of pain in order to work, including the wishes. We see wishes being used early on when Karou is allowed some very low-level wishes that require very little pain, but also are not very powerful. The more powerful a wish, the more is required to use them. Wishes in this world are bought through trading teeth, and take a physical form (ie. metal coins) that disappears when a wish is made, or can be combined to make stronger wishes. The other major kind of magic used is that some chimaera have the ability to resurrect others or move souls into a new body. Resurrecting someone in the same body requires teeth, but creating a new body require a tithe of pain and the soul must be stored in a thurible to preserve it until it can be put into the body. I tend to like magic systems where the magic has a logical consequence, and this one worked well for me since the idea of using pain as a cost made sense to me since it would naturally limit people’s abilities so they can’t just freely use magic carelessly. This was an incredible series!
Uprooted is one of my new favourite books, ever since I read it last summer. If I’m completely honest, I don’t remember the details of it so well at this point since it has been over a year since I read it, but I remember being very intrigued by the magic system at the time. I liked that the magic was something that Agnieszka had to learn, even though the Dragon recognized that she had an inherent talent for it. The magic system was based on language and putting together syllables to create the spells. I also thought it was interesting how despite Agnieskza’s abilities, she had very little interest at first in doing magic at all and really struggled with it, although she later was able to learn a lot very quickly (some might argue too quickly). What I found especially interesting about this book is that the two characters actually used two completely different approaches to the same magic system. The Dragon uses a more categorical approach, where he separates magic into different types and memorizes the exact way to do each spell. On the other hand, Agnieszka struggles with this and prefers to use a more intuitive approach where she uses whatever “feels” right at the time, and was more likely to think outside the box instead of getting stuck on the way things were always done. It was interesting to see these contrasting approaches and how they could work together and learn from each other.
I wasn’t originally intending to read this trilogy this year, but I’d heard it was a good idea (although not essential) to read it before Six of Crows, which I was planning to read, so I decided to squeeze it in. found the magic system in this one a little confusing at first since it is quite intricate, but once I got used to it, it was fascinating. The magic in this universe is known as Small Science, which is practiced by people known as Grisha. Among the Grisha, there are three orders: Corporalki (the Order of the Living and the Dead), Etherealki (the Order of Summoners), and Materalki (the Order of Fabrikators). Each of these orders are also subdivided based on specialization, and the abilities they have show quite the variety. Grisha can manipulate the body by damaging internal organs or taking air from their lungs or heal others; change people’s appearances; manipulate the elements such as air, water or fire; or cause physical or chemical changes. The central tenet of the system is “like calls to like” and they actually don’t see their abilities as magic at all. Instead, they view it as extensions of the natural world. I thought this magic system was very interesting because it was so different from others that I’ve read and I like how it explained where the abilities came from since it connects them to the natural world. Grisha can’t just create things out of thin air, but can alter or use things around them. It was a complicated but very interesting system, although it took quite a while to keep all the classifications straight.