Whether they’re in your closet, under your bed, or just in your imagination, monsters have had a grip on all of our minds since childhood. They fill us with terror and exhilaration. Therefore, it’s no surprise that this week’s spooky Top 5 Wednesday topic is our favorite monsters. Fiction has so many great monsters, it can be hard to choose just five. But I’ve come up with a few that I feel have stuck with me just a little more than the rest. So, gather your wits about you and let’s find out what monsters are at the end of this post:
- Sunai (from Monsters of Verity by Victoria Schwab)
All the monsters in this series are cool— I mean, they’re literally born via violent acts. But the Sunai are my favorite. They reap souls using music! That’s so dark and cool. Even though I don’t love this series and wish it had been about a Sunai that didn’t feel guilt over literally doing what they need to survive, these beasts still rock!
- Azi (from The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco)
The azi is a kind of daeva, the demon-like chimaera creatures bone witches like Tea have to fight. There are a lot of cool daeva, but the azi is my favorite. It’s a three-headed, fire-breathing dragon with vicious spikes! Maybe I’m biased because of Tea’s relationship with her azi, but I just think it’s so awesome.
- Ironteeth Witches (from Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas)
Even though I’ve left this series behind, a part of me will always love the Ironteeth witches. They’ve got these wicked iron claws (and, of course, teeth). They’re vicious and brutal. They’re all women. But the best part? They don’t feel a shred of guilt who doing what they do or being what they are. And that’s a monster I can get behind.
- Dementors (from Harry Potter by JK Rowling)
The wizarding world has a lot of cool monsters, but for some reason I like the dementors the most. Or, I guess I should say, they’re the ones I fear the most. When I first read the series in third grade, I had to quit on Prisoner of Azkaban because the dementors scared me so bad. I still find them unnerving. It’s not just that their very presence inflicts sadness and despair on anyone in their vicinity. These monsters can literally suck out your soul. You don’t die, you just live as a soulless husk, with no feelings or memories. What a terrible, awful existence. No one truly knows what a dementor looks like due to their hoods. We just know they have decaying hands and no eyes. The worst part, however, is that they’re not good or bad. They just exist. They don’t care about what they’re doing (either guilt or joy) because they simply don’t have the capacity. They just… are. Much like the depression they were based off of. I get chills just thinking about them. Can I get a patronus up in this bitch?
- Oshoc (from Shades of Magic by V.E. Schwab)
Yes, I’m using a monster from one of her books again. What can I say? Victoria writes great monsters. And what Osaron the oshoc does in A Conjuring of Light is horrifying. He made reading that book so stressful, the mood so heavy. An oshoc is a demon that manifests from black magic. Osaron decides he wants to be more than a demon— he wants to be a god. And so he uses the Antari to invade Red London and… Jesus. That book was so dark and it’s all Osaron’s fault.
What are some of your favorite monsters? Let me know in the comments!
Strange Storyteller 