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🧲 Books like this

Heart of the Villain

Dany Crooks · back to the book

What’s in it

Tap a tag: ❤ = this matters to me · tap again ✕ = don’t care · again to reset. The list below updates each time.

24 books with the same feel

Include books by the same author
❤️

The Rose Society

Marie Lu · 432 pages

Known and feared as the White Wolf, Adelina Amouteru and her sister flee Kenettra to find other Young Elites in the hopes of building her own army of allies. But as Adelina's powers (fed only by fear and hate) start to grow beyond her control, she also distrusts her newfound Elite friends. Teren Santoro, leader of the Inquisition, wants her dead. And her former friends, Raffaele and the Dagger Soc

Villain ProtagonistMorally Gray CharacterRevenge PlotFantasy
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The Silent Wife

A.S.A. Harrison · 331 pages

Todd Gilbert and Jodie Brett are in a bad place in their relationship. They've been together for twenty-eight years, and with no children to worry about there has been little to disrupt their affluent Chicago lifestyle. But there has also been little to hold it together, and beneath the surface lie ever-widening cracks. When it becomes clear that their precarious world could disintegrate at any mo

Villain ProtagonistMorally Gray CharacterRevenge PlotToxic Family Dynamics
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The Shadows Between Us

Tricia Levenseller · 352 pages

Alessandra is tired of being overlooked, but she has a plan to gain power: 1) Woo the Shadow King. 2) Marry him. 3) Kill him and take his kingdom for herself. No one knows the extent of the freshly crowned Shadow King’s power. Some say he can command the shadows that swirl around him to do his bidding. Others say they speak to him, whispering the thoughts of his enemies. Regardless, Alessa

Villain ProtagonistRevenge PlotMorally Gray CharacterFantasy
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The Book Eaters

Sunyi Dean · 319 pages

"I devoured this."—V. E. Schwab, New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue An International Bestseller An NPR Best Sci Fi, Fantasy, & Speculative Fiction Book of 2022 A Book Riot Best Book of 2022 A Vulture Best Fantasy Novel of 2022 A Goodreads Best Fantasy Choice Award Nominee A Library Journal Best Book of 2022 Out on the Yorkshire Moors lives a secret line of peop

Morally Gray CharacterToxic Family DynamicsRevenge PlotLGBTQ+ Protagonist
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Victorious

V.E. Schwab

The third book in the Villains series. Victor Vale and Eli Ever, with teams of allies and rivals, go against each another for a final time.

Villain ProtagonistMorally Gray CharacterRevenge PlotFantasy
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The Oleander Sword

Tasha Suri · 513 pages

Morally Gray CharacterToxic Family DynamicsLGBTQ+ ProtagonistFantasy
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To Kill a Kingdom

Alexandra Christo · 344 pages

Toxic Family DynamicsMorally Gray CharacterRevenge PlotFantasy
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Forest of a Thousand Lanterns

Julie C. Dao · 373 pages

Eighteen-year-old Xifeng is beautiful. The stars say she is destined for greatness, that she is meant to be Empress of Feng Lu. But only if she embraces the darkness within her. Growing up as a peasant in a forgotten village on the edge of the map, Xifeng longs to fulfill the destiny promised to her by her cruel aunt, the witch Guma, who has read the cards and seen glimmers of Xifeng's majestic fu

Villain ProtagonistMorally Gray CharacterFantasyDark
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Black Sun

Rebecca Roanhorse · 454 pages

Morally Gray CharacterRevenge PlotLGBTQ+ ProtagonistDark
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Long Live Evil

Sarah Rees Brennan · 431 pages

Villain ProtagonistMorally Gray CharacterFantasyDark
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The Queen of the Damned

Anne Rice · 491 pages

Akasha, the most powerful living vampire and queen of the undead, is awoken from her statue like existence by the vampire lestat playing his rock music. She immediately sets out on the hunt for both mortal and vampire victims alike. Her ultimate goal to create an earth completely dominated by vampires.

Villain ProtagonistMorally Gray CharacterRevenge PlotFantasy
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King of Thorns

Mark Lawrence · 467 pages

Villain ProtagonistMorally Gray CharacterRevenge PlotFantasy
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Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

V E Schwab · 544 pages

This is a story about hunger. 1532. Santo Domingo de la Calzada. A young girl grows up wild and wily—her beauty is only outmatched by her dreams of escape. But María knows she can only ever be a prize, or a pawn, in the games played by men. When an alluring stranger offers an alternate path, María makes a desperate choice. She vows to have no regrets. This is a story about love. 1827. London

Villain ProtagonistMorally Gray CharacterLGBTQ+ ProtagonistFantasy
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Maledicte

Lane Robins · 464 pages

From a dazzling new voice in fantasy comes a mesmerizing tale of treachery, passion, intrigue, betrayal, and an act of pure vengeance that threatens to bring down a kingdom. Seething with decadent appetites unchecked by law or gods, the court of Antyre is ruled by the last of a dissolute aristocracy. But now to the kingdom comes a handsome, enigmatic nobleman, Maledicte, whose perfect manners, en

Morally Gray CharacterRevenge PlotLGBTQ+ ProtagonistFantasy
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The Book of Azrael

Amber V. Nicole · 608 pages

Villain ProtagonistMorally Gray CharacterRevenge PlotDark
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The Unwilling

Kelly Braffet · 576 pages

Toxic Family DynamicsMorally Gray CharacterEmotional AbuseFantasy
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The Bone Shard Daughter

Andrea Stewart · 435 pages

Toxic Family DynamicsMorally Gray CharacterLGBTQ+ ProtagonistFantasy
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Vicious

V.E. Schwab, Victoria Schwab · 367 pages

**A masterful tale of ambition, jealousy, desire, and superpowers.** Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditi

Villain ProtagonistMorally Gray CharacterRevenge PlotFantasy
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Malekith

Gav Thorpe

Villain ProtagonistMorally Gray CharacterFantasyDark
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Fairest

Marissa Meyer · 384 pages

In this stunning bridge book between Cress and Winter in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles, Queen Levana’s story is finally told. Mirror, mirror on the wall, Who is the fairest of them all? Fans of the Lunar Chronicles know Queen Levana as a ruler who uses her “glamour” to gain power. But long before she crossed paths with Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress, Levana lived a very different story – a s

Villain ProtagonistMorally Gray CharacterDarkFantasy
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Godsgrave

Jay Kristoff · 441 pages

Morally Gray CharacterLGBTQ+ ProtagonistRevenge PlotFantasy
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Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Gregory Maguire · 448 pages

When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil? Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a

Villain ProtagonistToxic Family DynamicsFantasyDark
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How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying

Django Wexler · 392 pages

Villain ProtagonistMorally Gray CharacterLGBTQ+ ProtagonistFantasy
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Paradise Lost

John Milton · 336 pages

John Milton's Paradise Lost is one of the greatest epic poems in the English language. It tells the story of the Fall of Man, a tale of immense drama and excitement, of rebellion and treachery, of innocence pitted against corruption, in which God and Satan fight a bitter battle for control of mankind's destiny. The struggle rages across three worlds - heaven, hell, and earth - as Satan and his ban

Villain ProtagonistRevenge PlotDarkFantasy

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