YA Indie Carnival: Villains Worth a Vote

From the side show barker to the ring master, all the carnies are casting their ballots this week. The vote? It’s whatever we choose.

Here in the U.S., we’ve spent a great deal of time lately trying to determine who’s really a good guy/gal so that we could bestow upon them our trust to run our great country. Well, that’s left me a little burnt out. I’m sick of trying to figure out who’s the good guy. I’m ready for a deliciously evil distraction!

So here they are, my nominees for BEST VILLAIN in a YA novel…

MAGNUS, leader of the Draug from The Morganville Vampire series

What could be scarier than things that hunt and eat vampires? Hmmm, let’s make them invisible and give them a siren-like ability to call in their prey. Yikes! I can remember reading Black Dawn and actually feeling physically cold.

VALENTINE from the Mortal Instruments series

I’ve just begun the first in this series, City of Bones, and I can already tell that the big bad is going to take me for a wild ride.

JEANINE MATTHEWS from Divergent/Insurgent

So it’s totally cool that a chick can be in the running for Best Villain too. She’s smart (at least she thinks so) and bent on taking over. Even though she’s a rather complex villain, her complete disregard for Tris’s life hits the reader at a very primary level.

JANE from the Twilight series

With the final movie next week, I couldn’t forget about the red-eyed school girl with a talent for causing excruciating pain. She gives me the heeby jeebies. I call it the “Wednesday Addams Effect”.

PRESIDENT SNOW from The Hunger Games trilogy

Forcing kids to kill each other for entertainment is just not something that a happy person does. In the books, he’s creepy and he seems to revel in it. He’s this generation’s Darth Vader.

There were a couple of others that I would have nominated, but couldn’t figure out how to do it without spoilers. I’m also intentionally leaving out Voldemort because, of course, he must not be named — oops. So, here’s the list. If you have additions, leave me a comment. I’d love to hear them.

Looking for more Election Booth fun? Check out these other YA Indie Carnival contributors…

1.	Laura A. H. Elliott	2.	Bryna Butler, author Midnight Guardian series
3.	T. R. Graves, Author of The Warrior Series	4.	Suzy Turner, author of The Raven Saga
5.	Rachel Coles, author of Into The Ruins, geek mom blog	6.	K. C. Blake, author of Vampires Rule and Crushed
7.	Gwenn Wright, author of Filter	8.	Liz Long | Just another writer on the loose.
9.	Ella James	10.	Maureen Murrish
11.	YA Sci Fi Author’s Ramblings	12.	A Little Bit of R&R
13.	Melissa Pearl	14.	Terah Edun – YA Fantasy