Would you protect the villain?

It could be your BFF, parent, child or someone you care about...

Hi Bookish Friends! 📚🕵️‍♀️

Thrillers love a villain.

The suspicious classmate.

The creepy neighbor.

The person everyone whispers about.

The one character who walks into the room and immediately makes you think:

Yep. Definitely them.

And then, somewhere around chapter twenty-seven, the author ruins everything by asking:

What if you’re wrong?

Honestly, rude.

Photo by Aleksas Stan on Unsplash

So today’s question is:

Would you protect the villain?

Here’s the setup:

Something terrible has happened at school.

Everyone thinks they know who did it.

There were arguments.

Threatening messages.

A witness who swears they saw something.

Even the police seem convinced.

And the person everyone blames?

They’re not exactly helping themselves.

They’re secretive.

Angry.

They’ve lied before.

They have every reason to hate the victim.

Case closed.

Right?

Then one afternoon, they find you alone.

And they say:

“I didn’t do it.”

You tell them everyone says otherwise.

They hand you something.

A photo.

A message.

A piece of evidence no one else has seen.

And suddenly...

The story doesn’t quite fit anymore.

Then they say:

“You’re the only person who can help me.”

Wonderful.

You have officially entered the plot.

So… what do you do?

A) Help them because the evidence changes everything.

B) Walk away. If everyone thinks they’re guilty, there’s probably a reason.

C) Take the evidence to someone you trust before making any decisions.

D) Secretly investigate because apparently you’ve decided sleep is optional.

Kim’s Very Scientific Thriller Verdict

If you picked A, you have a good heart.

Possibly too good.

Because “I’m innocent, please help me” has launched approximately nine million terrible fictional decisions.

If you picked B, understandable.

Self-preservation is an underrated thriller skill.

Unfortunately, you’re probably going to discover three chapters later that you abandoned the only innocent person in town.

If you picked C, look at you making sensible choices!

Save the evidence.

Tell someone.

Do not meet a suspected murderer alone in an abandoned warehouse.

Growth.

If you picked D, congratulations.

You are now the amateur detective.

Please charge your phone and wear shoes you can run in.

Why This Setup Works So Well

One of my favorite things about thrillers is when the story makes me question who the villain actually is.

Because sometimes the obvious villain isn’t guilty.

Sometimes the “good” character has been lying.

Sometimes everyone has decided who someone is long before they know the whole story.

And sometimes the truth is much messier:

Maybe this person did something terrible.

Just not the terrible thing.

That’s where unreliable narrators, revenge stories, and morally gray characters get so interesting.

A strong thriller can make you suspicious of someone...

Then sympathetic toward them...

Then suspicious again...

Then suddenly you’re staring at the ceiling at midnight wondering why you trusted anyone.

Exactly how I like my mysteries.

Writer Aha: Let the Reader Get It Wrong ✍️

For thriller writers, one great way to create a twist is to let your readers build the wrong story from completely accurate information.

Maybe the suspected villain:

lied about where they were.

Hated the victim.

Deleted a message.

Had blood on their clothes.

Every clue can be true.

But the conclusion can still be wrong.

That’s much more satisfying than simply hiding everything from the reader.

The fun comes from letting us think:

Obviously, they did it.

And then showing us how quickly assumptions can become “facts.”

A good villain twist isn’t just:

Surprise! Wrong person!

It’s:

The clues were there. You just interpreted them the wrong way.

That’s the kind of reveal that makes me want to flip backward through the book and check everything again.

The Brave Conversation 💛

This setup also opens up a bigger question:

What happens when everyone has already decided who someone is?

The troublemaker.

The weird kid.

The bully.

The liar.

The angry girl.

Once someone gets a label, everything they do can start looking like proof.

But people are complicated.

Trauma doesn’t automatically make someone dangerous.

Being angry doesn’t automatically make someone guilty.

And having made bad choices before doesn’t mean someone made this one.

Books give us a safe way to explore that gray area.

Can someone hurt people and still deserve help?

Can someone be both victim and villain?

When does understanding someone become excusing them?

And what happens when justice is based more on reputation than evidence?

Those are exactly the kinds of messy questions thrillers are so good at asking.

Brave Bookshelf Watch: Halloween Edition 🎃📚

Speaking of things that are a little spooky, strange, and wonderfully bookish...

I’ve also been putting together a new video/podcast episode:

10 Spooky, Silly & Strange Books for Your Kid’s Halloween Bookshelf

I wanted to share some fun books families can add to their shelves for Halloween and spooky season.

Some are silly.

Some are creepy.

Some involve witches, strange creatures, chickens traveling through time...

Because apparently Halloween books can contain anything, and I fully support that.

Here’s what I’m featuring:

🐔 Time-Traveling Chickens: Bawk to the Future by Kaz Windness

🐔 Time-Traveling Chickens: Nugget and Tenders’s Eggcellent Adventure by Kaz Windness

🕸️ The Nest by Kenneth Oppel, illustrated by Susan Kao

🧠 Create Your Craniacs Quest with...: Escape from the Chrome Dome by R.L. Stine, illustrated by Joe Simko

🎃 Halloween Baby! by Karen Katz

👀 I Want Every Thing by Sophy Henn

🦇 Bitsy Bat Snow Star by Kaz Windness

✨ The Tiny Thing by Ellen Tarlow, illustrated by Laren Stringer

🔎 Have You Seen Axel? by Adam Jay Epstein and Ruth Chan

🚀I Need Space by Molly Harris, illustrated by Jon Corby

I love putting together lists like this because Halloween reading doesn’t always have to mean full-on scary.

Sometimes kids want creepy.

Sometimes they want funny.

Sometimes they want interactive.

And sometimes they apparently want time-traveling chickens.

There is room on the bookshelf for all of it. To get any of these books click on the link below to my video post:

https://www.kimbartosch.com/publish/post/221508513

Watch/listen to the full episode here:

And if you’ve read any of these with your kids, students, or library group, I’d love to know which one was the favorite.

Now I Want to Hear From You

Back to our suspected villain...

Would you help someone if everyone else thought they were guilty?

A) Yes — if the evidence gave me reason to doubt.

B) Absolutely not. I have seen how thrillers end.

C) I’d help, but I’d tell someone what was happening first.

D) I’d investigate secretly because I have apparently learned nothing from this newsletter series.

Hit reply and tell me.

And bonus question:

What book villain turned out to be completely different from what you expected?

No spoilers if you can help it.

Some of us have very ambitious TBR piles.

Warmly,
Kim

P.S. Next time, we may have to decide whether we’d delete the evidence that could save someone... if saving them meant exposing someone we love. Nothing complicated there.