Riot Recommendation

Riot Recommendation: Tell Us The Best Female Villains!

Jamie Canaves

Contributing Editor

Jamie Canavés is the Tailored Book Recommendations coordinator and Unusual Suspects mystery newsletter writer–in case you’re wondering what you do with a Liberal Arts degree. She’s never met a beach she didn’t like, always says yes to dessert, loves ‘80s nostalgia, all forms of entertainment, and can hold a conversation using only gifs. You can definitely talk books with her on Litsy and Goodreads. Depending on social media’s stability maybe also Twitter and Bluesky.

This Riot Recommendation asking for the best female villains is sponsored byThe Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides (Celadon Books).

The Silent Patient cover imageAlicia 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’re asking 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. So please fill our little black hearts with more books to read by popping down into the comments section and telling us your favorite female villains. Next week we’ll be back with the evilest list.