Out Tuesday from Bloomsbury USA Children's, Because You Love to Hate Me is a young-adult fiction anthology that contains 13 stories about your favorite villains, told through collaboration between BookTubers and YA authors. Seven of the Because You Love to Hate Me authors have shared their favorite villains of all time with Bustle, and you can read all about whom they love to hate and why below.
Bloomsbury USA assembled an all-star lineup for Because You Love to Hate Me. Bestselling authors of YA fantasy teamed up with your favorite BookTubers to tell the compelling stories of classic villains, from Medusa to Moriarty. Tales with villain protagonists aren't new, by any means, but it's fun to see the digital and print sides of the book community coming together to create something magical.
If you read a lot of YA, or watch a lot of BookTube videos, your faves are almost certainly included in Because You Love to Hate Me. The BookTubers provided their paired authors with brief writing prompts, which then blossomed into fully-realized stories of betrayal, deceit, and angst.
Check out the full list of authors and BookTubers below, and read on to find out which villains your favorite YA writers love the most.
Because You Love to Hate Me includes stories written by:
- Renée Ahdieh (The Wrath and the Dawn)
- Ameriie (BooksBeautyAmeriie on YouTube)
- Soman Chainani (The School for Good and Evil)
- Susan Dennard (Truthwitch)
- Sarah Enni (First Draft podcast host)
- Marissa Meyer (Cinder)
- Cindy Pon (Serpentine)
- Victoria Schwab (A Darker Shade of Magic)
- Samantha Shannon (The Bone Season)
- Adam Silvera (More Happy Than Not)
- Andrew Smith (Winger)
- April Genevieve Tucholke (Wink Poppy Midnight)
- Nicola Yoon (Everything, Everything)
Writing prompts were provided by the following BookTubers:
- Benjamin Alderson (Benjaminoftomes)
- Sasha Alsberg (abookutopia)
- Whitney Atkinson (WhittyNovels)
- Tina Burke (ChristinaReadsYA and TheLushables)
- Catriona Feeney (LittleBookOwl)
- Jesse George (JessetheReader)
- Zoë Herdt (readbyzoe)
- Samantha Lane (Thoughts on Tomes)
- Sophia Lee (thebookbasement)
- Raeleen Lemay (padfootandprongs07)
- Regan Perusse (PeruseProject)
- Christine Riccio (polandbananasBOOKS)
- Steph Sinclair and Kat Kennedy (Cuddlebuggery)
1Ameriie, host of "Books Beauty Ameriie"
"Tony Montana. Earnest and idealistic even in his bloody pursuit of the American Dream."
2Susan Dennard, author of "Truthwitch"
"I love Jim Moriarty from the BBC Sherlock series. He's unpredictable and has zero remorse, which is the most terrifying combination out there. What will he do next? I don't know, but it'll definitely be evil! Plus, let's be honest: Andrew Scott plays that character to perfection."
3Sarah Enni, host of "First Draft Podcast"
"My favorite villain has to be Dolores Umbridge. I don't even love to hate her; I hate her, and I'm genuinely scared of her. Her type of villainy — a blind and self-righteous allegiance to an ideology — is all too real. Voldemort is bad and all, but it's Umbridge who really haunts me."
4Cindy Pon, author of "Want"
"I'll have to go with the sea witch from The Little Mermaid. I was fascinated by the original fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson, and in the story, not only did the sea witch take the Little Mermaid's voice but her tongue as well, and the exchange for human legs meant the little mermaid's every step would feel as if she were walking on sharp knives. The original story is much darker and sadder than what Disney has given us. But the sea witch never tricked the Little Mermaid, she was true to her word in every deal. The sea witch was fascinating enough that I wondered over her own story and motivations. I think those are the best sorts of villains!"
5Victoria Schwab, author of "A Darker Shade of Magic"
"Definitely Magneto from X-Men. I absolutely love a villain who is hindered by their own self-image as a hero, and Magneto is full of righteous purpose."
6Andrew Smith, author of "Winger"
"My favorite villain of all time would have to be Judge Holden, from Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. Here's why: he knows absolutely everything about everything in the universe (he might consequentially be the Devil himself), and he is so deliciously evil and completely lacking in conscience that even the most shockingly vile things he does have an elegant, poetic beauty to them. Other than Judge Holden, probably Margaret, from Dennis the Menace."
7Nicola Yoon, author of "Everything, Everything"
"Agent Smith from The Matrix because he was badass, relentless and his motivation was hilariously unexpected."
