Having been ill for a week and suffering a fever during some of it, I needed a lighter read than usual. This book was found amidst a pile of books belonging to a roommate. Being a series of short, sensationalistic biographies it seemed to fit the bill.

It did, but it wasn't very good. A glance at what passes for a bibliography indicates that its author read a few books on each subject--and usually not scholarly or definitive ones--and hashed out her stories from them. Not only are a lot of unsubs More...

A friend of mine bought this at an airport before a flight and I borrowed it from him. It's about maybe around 15 different "evil" people in history. And they spend about 15-20 pages on each person. So what do you expect for 15 pages on the life of Adolf Hitler? You get the basic overview.

But if you take a step back and think about it, this is actually a really good book. Many of these people I knew nothing or very little about. So getting the 15 page overview/highlights gave me a good introduct More...

This book was an engaging and fast read. Though Twiss is not an incredible writer and I wonder what her editor was smoking; I enjoyed the stories and information she gave. If you are looking for a basic history of some of WESTERN cultures most evil people then this is a fun fast paced read. However, if you are hoping for a discussion on evil or even an argument about why some of he3r choices were evil people (I personally am unconvinced that King John or Bloody Mary belong on her list) you will More...

Captivating reading that depicts how these monsters came to power, their depth of their depravity, how they stayed in power, and ultimately their end. Good reading because it dramatically portrays the depths of evil human beings are capable of when educated vigilance by the many is not maintained. I was surprised Stalin emerges as the most "successful" evil leaders having taken actions that directly led to the deaths of at least 30 million people. However, even though his reign of terror was sho More...

A catalog of horrific evil, from the 1st century AD to the present day evil is a fact of life. We can see it, not only in the reigns of Stalin & Hitler, but also in everyday crimes like murder, rape & assault--quite apart from the millions of lives brutalized by political or religious oppression, poverty, disease & starvation. One factor unites the 16 featured in this book & the evil acts they committed: they all had unlimited power over the people whose lives they controlled. Th More...

Typically I’m not very critical of the books I read but this was probably the most poorly written book I’ve read to date. Some of the facts were inconsistent and there were obvious typos; even grammatical errors! Stalin wasn’t around in 1992 unless he was reincarnated. I even checked for an editor and didn’t see one so that was probably the problem. Most of it read like a text book and I spent most of the first half of the book waiting for her to elaborate on the so called evils of the people sh More...

Avoid this book. It is badly written, full of easy-to-avoid factual errors, and records every popular rumour you heard about these characters as fact. She actually uses "legend has it" occasionally, when what follows is too obviously nonsense. She should say "legend has it" on every page. If you want to really know what these characters were like, read a biography. If you don't have time, reading Wiki-freakin-pedia will tell you more than this book will. I want five hours of my life back.

Extremely interesting to learn about most of the people in this book. Some I had heard of and others I had never heard of. Some of the stories made my jaw drop and eyes pop and others made me want to sleep. None of the stories are boring, it is just that some went on and on to explain the same thing.

Side note: It would be interesting if it was known how some of these individuals viewed their life, because reading this makes you think everyone is crazy.

Attila the Hun , Bad king John ,Caligula ,Francisco Pizarro ,Hitler- IDI Amin ,Ivan the terrible, Joseph Stalin and Nero.
The book is looking at the dark side of history and most evil man and women in the history.

The book explain how these people got power and how they become so brutal.

Week spirit can be easily affected by reading this book. Women should read and say how women also contributed in brutality side by side of men.

"Evil" has always been a subjective term. Some of the men in this book might be painted otherwise by other peoples. Indeed, some of them are national heroes to their own people.

Nevertheless, most of the men in this book were quite brutal, and sometimes cruel and selfish as well. Because everyone loves a dictator -- unless of course they happen to be ruled by one -- many people will enjoy this book.

I found this book fascinating but I do not pretend that it is for light reading. Each one of the characters mentioned could (and probably do) have entire books written about them. This book offers the readers digest version of their lives and conquests. I enjoyed the chance to learn about their earlier lives and then make my own opinion as to where I believe they fall in the "evil" spectrum.

This is a book that I would definately recommend to everyone. It is a histoy book and very interesting. The people dicussed in this book are insane. They don't have any forms of a conscience and have no remorse for the crimes they commit or for the people they kill.

Najgora do sad. Ni po čemu se ne izdvaja kao knjiga, jer sve ovde napisano se može naći i na vikipediji, kao i sajtovima slične namene. Neke činjenice čak nisu ni istinite a autorka ima previše grešaka, od godina do imena, pa čak i događaja.
Ne treba ni na rivju da trošim reči, dovoljna je ocena sama po sebi.

A very fascinating read. Some of the editing was a bit shoddy ("they released their horses go and hid wagon wheels") in several places, but overall the voice of the piece was rather masterful. [return][return]The choice to include Bloody Mary didn't seem deserved from the book's standpoint; she's surrounded by people in the book whom had other's skinned alive, drawn and quartered, bled out, etc. yet her atrocities aren't really elaborated on. The extent of her "evilness" seems to be a (very mino More...

An interesting mix of subjects, my favorite being Rasputin. Nothing new here if you've studied these folks, but a good synopsis of some of the more colorful people of the last 2000 years.

Great teaser on the evil of history, but the book could have used some footnotes as well as a closing statement.

Good for a light read if you need to kill some time. Not much new information for me, but overall entertaining.

Sensationalistic, with limited source citations, but still hard to put down.

Another great short collection featuring men & women.

Some good introductions to histories black past.

Really interesting to read if you like history.

Bush and Cheney should be in this book.

subjective but still interesting

It's exactly what it says it is.

how can people be so evil????????????

The writing was kind of confusing.

Found this on my dad's bookshelf at home.

I got several great ideas for my antagonist in my current work in progress. A terrifying, entertaining read!

My fascination with serial killers began with this book!

Very informative for those who do not know much about the evil dictators and leaders of the past. The book is a main summary of each individual they labeled, so it does not go in to too much detail about each individual but a great place to start learning about some of the World's most deadly and hated people.