Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Literary Monsters

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is a Halloween freebie — we decided to talk about our favorite monsters from fiction. Thanks to That Artsy Reader Girl for another great Top Ten Tuesday! 

Indiana’s five

The Pale Man from Pan’s Labyrinth (from the film and from the recent book by Guillermo del Toro and Cornelia Funke)

The storyline of Pan’s Labyrinth is creepy, though I found the humans to be more terrible in some ways than the monsters. However, of all the creatures in the book, The Pale Man is the most terrifying. He eats children and his eyes were so disgusted with how much he tortured people that they abandoned his head and instead he must wear them on his hands. 

Silas from The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman 

He looks out for Bod, the main character and acts as his idol. Even though he’s a very mysterious person, there are hints throughout the story that he’s a vampire. 

The Nightbringer from A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir

This monster has a complicated past and I found him to be one of the most surprising villains. This jinn lord inhabits people in its search for pieces of the star, though it can only take the pieces that are given willingly and out of love. 

Stymphs from The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani 

These are large skeletal creatures that fly around the school and are controlled by the school master. They usually only attack Nevers and they look like flying dinosaurs. 

Patronuses from Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling 

I’ve always loved the idea behind these creatures, as well as their whimsical look and the fact that they reflect the personalities of the people who cast them. 

Pete’s five

The slake moths from Perdido Street Station by China Miéville

These creatures immediately gave me the creeps. From their hypnotic wings to their brain-sucking tongues… the most disturbing creature I’ve come across in any book! 

The Beast from The Magicians by Lev Grossman 

The ability to paralyze people—combined with the way his face is constantly obscured by a branch—makes this strange and complex monster deeply disturbing.

Woland (or Satan) from The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov 

Even though I don’t believe in the Devil, I found this depiction of Satan and his methods of driving people to madness quite terrifying. 

The chicken that is not a chicken from The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind

I’m afraid to reread this massive epic fantasy series—I disagree quite a bit with the author’s ideas, and I might have trouble enjoying them like I did in high school. But I do remember a certain demon-possessed chicken fondly. 

The Cthaeh from The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

An omniscient being who means harm and doles out ominous warnings—certainly one of the more frightening beings I’ve come across in fantasy. It’s also a big old tree, which is cool.