AAR

[Allyson]

So something has been bugging me lately. It seems like every time I go to read a romantic suspense or fantasy, there needs to be every third chapter or so dedicated to the villainous psycho's evil thoughts. And I'm not talking about grey-area characters who could be redeemed--I definitely get the fascination with anti-heroes and dark characters. I'm talking about serial killers, rapists, demons who want to destroy the world, and so on. Sometimes their identity is obscured to the reader, sometimes know.

I just don't see the *point*. After awhile, it all reads the same, and almost seems like the author going out of her way to show us she can write 'edgy' things. We get it, your villain is evil! But I don't really need to see his/her perspective...I'd rather see the evil deeds through the focus of the characters I actually care about.

Do other people enjoy the villain POV? And if so, why? I am really quite curious as to this phenomenon, as it leaves me totally cold.

[Susan/DC]

Depends. I liked the villain POV in Linda Howard's Dream Man -- it was shockingly perverse yet human, and I remember the him far more vividly than the H/H, who were kind of insipid. I especially remember the scene where a customer apologized to him, and he was kind of annoyed because it meant that, according to his rules (warped as he was, he still had rules) he couldn't kill her. The only thing I remember about the hero is that he had a hard-on the first time he met the heroine.

What I don't like is when the villain is an over-the-top caricature, or if we get his/her POV solely to provide a kinky sex scene that the author wouldn't dare give to the H/H.

[Amanda]

I immediately thought of Dream Man when I read this post. I also really liked the villian's POV when I first read Ward's series. It got old by the end, but was new and different at the beginning. Just like any book, if its well written I think it adds to the story.

[library addict]

[Nicole]

I think I understand your problem. I've noticed a lot of "crazy" bad guys. It seems like to be against the H/H one must be a psycho killer. Why not just a sane person with a semi good reason to make life hard for our main characters. I'm always taken through a trip of their warped and crazy brain. It's all reasoned out perfectly as if the author is writing a thesis profile for a psychology class. I know that motives are the most interesting part of a murder, I'd just like see a little less crazy. I mean how many active serial killers can there be. The number is actually pretty small, but every time I turn around my books and television are filled with them.
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She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain. -Louisa May Alcott

[Linda in sw va]

[PatW]

[Schola]

[Linda in sw va]

[Amanda]

[sssspro]

It 's all in the writing.

Depends upon the author and what they are trying to do and HOW they do it. I don't mind seeing some of the evil POV. I'm in the middle of Nalini Singh's Psy series and she writes from the villain POV quite a bit, but it totally adds to the reading experience.

I HATE HATE HATE HATE when the author uses the villain POV as the Evil in the story (notice the evil with the capital E?), strictly for conflict purposes or to make the hero or heroine do something. Evil so black and white turns into a charactiture and is very flat and boring to read. A book needs conflict, but not such obvious conflict...or at least IMO.

[xina]

.


It's a real turn-off to me as well and I almost always skim over it. JR Ward and her lessors are terrible for this, I could really care less to spend any page time with them. I stopped reading the In Deaths in part because I couldn't stand any more detailed brutal crime scenes combined with so much time spent in a sadistic killer's head. I read very little romantic suspense now due to this.


Linda[/quote]



I agree about Ward's lessors. I haven't been a loyal fan of the series. I sort of stalled out at #4, but her lessors are boring. I skim...quickly. It's almost a waste of space...that is how I was feeling with each lessor entry. She should cut their appearance by half.
I am reading a historical now with a horrible villian...really evil, and he never has a POV. He just appears.... then does his worst. He doesn't have thoughts or lines but he does what he's there for. To terrify the heroine. He makes me shudder, but he is written well.
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"As you wish"
~The Princess Bride

[dick]

But, if a reader were not given the villain's POV at some point in the book, the plot would seem a set-up wouldn't it, something coming out of nowhere?

[Allyson]

Thanks for your replies everyone, this has been something on my mind for awhile and I wondered if others even noticed it.

linda, though I'm still reading JD Robb (one of those series that even though I can see the flaws plain as day, i'm still addicted...I think I have a sickness), I really dislike villain POV in the In Death series, and it's one of the authors I was talking about...Robb/Roberts' villain POV always seem similar to each other, kind of boring honestly. The graphic-ness doesn't bother me for being graphic, it bothers me because it doesn't seem to add anything to the story.

And, I come from mystery novels! Read them and fantasy before I touched a romance (though always preferred the ones with a little love story...)

And dick, I've never found that, actually. I mean, I'm sure there are books out there where villain POV is useful, but it never seems to me there's stuff I need to know for plot that couldn't be got across otherwise. Also, it all seems really similar to one another! Like Nicole says, too much crazy villainy in general!

I would really like more villains who want, say, money. Why not a greedy villain instead of yet another serial-killer-stalks-the-heroine plot. How many murderers have become obsessed with being the one to take down Eve Dallas by now? I know there needs to be drama and all...

[DearEvette]