Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. She is a famous painter and her husband, Gabriel, is an in-demand fashion photographer. One evening, Gabriel returns home late from work, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face and never speaks another word. Alicia’s refusal to talk turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, and she is hidden away at the Grove, a secure psychiatric unit. Enter Theo Faber, a psychotherapist obsessed with unravelling Alicia’s mystery. Shocking, thought-provoking, and deeply twisted, The Silent Patient is a spellbinding psychological thriller about violence, obsession, and the dark side of passion. Make the biggest bucket of popcorn—I am Jessica Fletcher all-in when there’s a female villain! That’s why we asked you to tell us the best female villains. You know what we mean, the characters that make you catch your breath, or lean forward into the book in shock and sometimes a bit of amazement, at the devious villainy. And you delivered! Here is your list for the best female villains—excuse me while I go book shopping.
Ayoola in My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite Invidia Aquitaine from the Furies of Calderon series Heartsick by Chelsea Cain An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten #FashionVictim by Amina Akhtar Mrs. Coulter from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Amy Dunne from Gone Girl Queen Levana from The Lunar Chronicles Dolores Umbridge (Harry Potter 5 and on) Jadis/The White Witch from C.S. Lewis’s The Magician’s Nephew Zenia in Margaret Atwood’s The Robber Bride Annie Wilkes in Misery by Stephen King Lady Macbeth! Phyllis Dietrichson from Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity Madame Rouge from the DC Universe Serena Clarke or Marcella Riggins from V.E. Schwab’s “Villains” series Irene Adler in Sherlock series Madame De Winter in Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas Kate Trask in John Steinbeck’s East of Eden Cruella de Vil in The Hundred and One Dalmatians Melisande Shahrizai in Kushiel’s Legacy series Rosa Klebb in From Russia With Love Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
