Serena Valentino Books in Order: Disney Villains, Wicked Tales, and the Stories Behind the Monsters
Serena Valentino has built her reputation around a simple but compelling idea: what if the villains we thought we understood had stories of their own? Her Disney Villains novels revisit familiar characters from films such as Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, Tangled, Peter Pan, Hercules, 101 Dalmatians, Cinderella, and Alice in Wonderland, often revealing motives, relationships, curses, and histories that were never shown in the original movies.
The books are more connected than a collection of unrelated villain retellings might suggest. Recurring characters, especially the mysterious Odd Sisters, create a larger mythology that develops from one novel to the next, which is why reading the numbered Villains books in order gives the strongest experience. Penguin Random House specifically recommends the 12 novels in publication order.
Serena Valentino’s Villains Books in Order
The Villains series is Serena Valentino’s signature work. It began in 2009 with Fairest of All and currently contains 12 novels, with Heartbroken as the latest numbered installment.
1. Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen
The series begins by turning the story of Snow White’s Evil Queen inside out. Instead of simply presenting her as an inherently cruel woman, Serena Valentino explores the events, relationships, and dark influences that helped shape the woman behind the famous mirror.
The magic mirror itself becomes much more important than a simple object that tells the Queen who is fairest. The novel establishes the darker mythology that later books expand, making it the natural starting point for readers who want to understand the larger Villains universe.
2. The Beast Within: A Tale of Beauty’s Prince
Before he became the Beast, the prince at the center of Beauty and the Beast was a very different person. Valentino explores his transformation from a privileged young ruler into the cursed figure living alone in an enchanted castle.
The novel also examines the arrogance and choices that make the curse more than a simple fairy-tale punishment. As the second Villains book, it begins expanding the interconnected world established in Fairest of All.
3. Poor Unfortunate Soul: A Tale of the Sea Witch
Ursula is one of Disney’s most recognizable villains, but Poor Unfortunate Soul asks what made the sea witch so bitter, ambitious, and dangerous in the first place. Valentino takes readers beneath the surface of The Little Mermaid and gives Ursula a history involving power, resentment, family, and her complicated relationship with the underwater kingdom.
The book also reframes the familiar conflict between Ursula and Ariel by giving readers a different perspective on the events they thought they already knew. It is one of the clearest examples of Valentino’s central approach: take a villain everyone knows and ask what happened before the movie began.
4. Mistress of All Evil: A Tale of the Dark Fairy
Sleeping Beauty provides the foundation for the fourth book, which turns the spotlight on Maleficent. Valentino explores the woman behind the title “Mistress of All Evil” and the experiences that contributed to her transformation into one of Disney’s most feared villains.
The story adds considerably more depth to Maleficent’s character while continuing the larger mythology of the series. It also strengthens the connections between the villains and the mysterious forces operating behind their stories.
5. Mother Knows Best: A Tale of the Old Witch
This novel takes readers into the history of Mother Gothel from Tangled. The woman who steals Rapunzel and keeps her hidden away in the tower receives a much more complicated history, including her obsession with youth and the lengths she is willing to go to preserve herself.
Valentino uses Gothel’s relationship with Rapunzel to explore manipulation, vanity, loneliness, and the destructive idea that another person’s life can be treated as something you own. The book also continues the growing mythology surrounding the other villains.
6. The Odd Sisters: A Tale of the Three Witches
The Odd Sisters move from mysterious supporting figures to the center of the story in this sixth installment. These strange witches have appeared behind the scenes in earlier books, influencing villains and meddling with events in ways that readers gradually begin to understand.
This novel finally digs into who the sisters are, where they came from, and why they have such an unusual interest in the villains. Because their actions affect several earlier stories, The Odd Sisters becomes an important turning point in the overall Villains mythology.
7. Evil Thing: A Tale of That De Vil Woman
Cruella de Vil gets her own story in Evil Thing, which presents the infamous fashion-obsessed villain from 101 Dalmatians in a very different way. Rather than simply following the familiar version of Cruella, Valentino presents her life as a complicated memoir involving childhood, relationships, ambition, friendship, and obsession.
The book explores how Cruella’s desire for beauty and status gradually becomes destructive. Her voice also gives the novel a distinctive character because readers are effectively hearing Cruella justify her own choices.
8. Cold Hearted: A Tale of the Wicked Stepmother
Cold Hearted travels to the world of Cinderella and focuses on Lady Tremaine, the woman remembered primarily as Cinderella’s cruel stepmother. Valentino looks further back, before the glass slipper and the famous ball, to explore Lady Tremaine’s experiences with love, loss, family, and ambition.
The novel asks how a woman who once had hopes and dreams could become so emotionally cold. Her treatment of Cinderella and the pursuit of wealth and power become part of a much longer personal history.
9. Never Never: A Tale of Captain Hook
Captain Hook takes center stage in the ninth Villains novel, bringing readers into the world of Peter Pan. Valentino explores Hook’s life beyond the familiar image of the pirate captain obsessed with defeating Peter Pan.
The book gives greater attention to Hook’s past, his relationships, and the circumstances that shaped his hatred. It also continues the increasingly important connections between the different Disney worlds within Valentino’s larger mythology.
10. Fire and Fate: A Tale of the Lord of Darkness
Fire and Fate moves into the world of Hercules and tells the story of Hades. The Lord of the Underworld is given a history that explores his relationship with power, the other gods, and the position he occupies within the larger Disney mythology.
As the tenth Villains novel, the story also contributes to the increasingly complicated shared mythology surrounding the Odd Sisters and the different kingdoms. It is one of the books that makes the series feel increasingly like one large fantasy universe rather than twelve completely separate retellings.
11. Kill the Beast: A Tale of Everyone’s Favorite Guy
This novel turns to Gaston, the antagonist of Beauty and the Beast. Instead of focusing on the Beast’s curse, Valentino examines the man who sees himself as the hero of his own story and explores how that self-image influences his choices.
Gaston is an unusual subject for the series because he is not a supernatural villain like Maleficent or Ursula. His story therefore gives Valentino an opportunity to explore vanity, entitlement, jealousy, and the difference between believing you are the hero and actually behaving like one.
12. Heartbroken: A Tale of the Angry Queen
Heartbroken takes readers into Wonderland and tells the story of the Queen of Hearts. Rather than beginning with the familiar events surrounding Alice, the novel explores the Queen’s earlier life and asks why she became so obsessed with rules, order, power, and anger.
The story also introduces the Queen’s relationship with a young white rabbit and explores a Wonderland that has been affected by the fractured worlds created throughout Valentino’s mythology. With Alice eventually entering the picture, the novel brings a familiar Disney setting into the increasingly interconnected Villains universe.
Disney Villains Reading Order at a Glance
If you only want the correct sequence, this is the order recommended by Penguin Random House:
- Fairest of All
- The Beast Within
- Poor Unfortunate Soul
- Mistress of All Evil
- Mother Knows Best
- The Odd Sisters
- Evil Thing
- Cold Hearted
- Never Never
- Fire and Fate
- Kill the Beast
- Heartbroken
Penguin Random House explicitly describes these 12 titles as the recommended reading order for the Villains series.
Serena Valentino Books Outside the Villains Series
Valentino has written other books that are worth separating from the main 12-book Disney Villains sequence. These include a standalone horror-fantasy novel, a werewolf-themed guide, and a holiday Disney Villains title.
How to Be a Werewolf: The Claws-On Guide for the Modern Lycanthrope
Published in 2011, How to Be a Werewolf is very different from the Disney Villains novels. Rather than retelling a Disney story, it takes the form of a playful guide built around the idea of becoming and living as a modern werewolf.
It is best treated as a standalone curiosity for readers interested in Valentino’s broader horror and fantasy work. It does not need to be inserted into the Villains reading order.
Disney Villains: How the Villains Ruined Christmas
This holiday title brings several of Valentino’s villains together for a Christmas-themed story. It was published in 2022 and is separate from the numbered 12-book Villains sequence, so readers do not need it to understand the main storyline.
For readers who enjoy the characters and want an additional seasonal story, however, it makes sense to save this until after becoming familiar with the main Villains books.
Raising the Horseman
Raising the Horseman is a standalone novel inspired by the legend of the Headless Horseman. It moves away from Disney territory and into a darker supernatural story involving the famous figure from Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Because it is independent of the Villains mythology, you can read it at any point. Readers coming to Valentino primarily for her darker fairy-tale style may find it an especially natural book to try after finishing the Villains series.
Serena Valentino Graphic Novels
Valentino’s bibliography also includes graphic novels, but these should not be confused with additional numbered novels in the Villains series.
Evil Thing: A Villains Graphic Novel
This graphic novel revisits Cruella de Vil and adapts the Villains concept into a visual format. It is separate from the original prose novel Evil Thing, so readers do not need to add it as a new numbered installment after Book 7.
Fairest of All: A Villains Graphic Novel
The graphic novel version of Fairest of All revisits the Evil Queen’s story in illustrated form. It is best regarded as a companion adaptation rather than Villains Book 13.
Do You Need to Read Serena Valentino’s Books in Order?
For the Villains novels, yes, reading in order is strongly recommended. Each book focuses on a different villain, but the Odd Sisters, the Many Kingdoms, and other recurring elements create a continuing story underneath the individual fairy-tale retellings.
You can certainly read a favorite villain’s book first if you are only interested in one character. But if your goal is to understand Valentino’s larger mythology, starting with Fairest of All is much better because later books build on events and characters introduced earlier. Penguin Random House itself recommends the 12 books in sequence.
Which Serena Valentino Book Should You Start With?
If you love Snow White
Start with Fairest of All. It is not only the first Villains book but also the novel that establishes many of the ideas that become important later.
If Ursula is your favorite Disney villain
Read Poor Unfortunate Soul. It is Book 3 and gives Ursula a much deeper history than the original The Little Mermaid movie provides.
If you love Maleficent
Start with Mistress of All Evil. It explores Maleficent’s history and is one of the series’ most direct examinations of how a legendary villain came to be.
If you want the full story
Start at Book 1 and read all 12 in order. This is the best option because Valentino’s recurring characters and mythology become increasingly important as the series progresses.
Disney Villains and the Odd Sisters
One of the most interesting aspects of Serena Valentino’s series is that the books gradually stop functioning as simple villain origin stories. The Odd Sisters are introduced as mysterious figures who interfere in the lives of different villains, and their importance grows until they receive their own book in The Odd Sisters.
That recurring mythology is one of the main reasons chronological or random reading is less satisfying. A reader who jumps directly to Evil Thing or Cold Hearted will understand the central villain, but will miss some of the significance behind the characters and forces operating around them.
About Serena Valentino
Serena Valentino is an American author and comic book writer whose career includes both novels and graphic novels. Before becoming widely known for the Disney Villains books, she created comic series including GloomCookie and Nightmares & Fairy Tales, while her later work brought her distinctive dark fairy-tale style to Disney’s famous villains.
Her Villains books have become her best-known work, earning New York Times bestseller recognition and creating a shared world in which familiar Disney antagonists receive considerably more complicated histories. Her storytelling often mixes fairy-tale atmosphere, horror elements, mythology, humor, and psychological motivations.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many Serena Valentino Villains books are there?
There are currently 12 numbered books in Serena Valentino’s Disney Villains series, beginning with Fairest of All and ending with Heartbroken. Penguin Random House’s official series page identifies Heartbroken as Book 12.
What is the first Serena Valentino book?
Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen is the first book in Serena Valentino’s Disney Villains series. It was originally published in 2009 and tells the story of the Evil Queen from Snow White.
What is the latest Serena Valentino Villains book?
The latest numbered Villains novel is Heartbroken: A Tale of the Angry Queen, published in 2025. It is Book 12 and focuses on the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland.
Are Serena Valentino’s Disney Villains books connected?
Yes. Although each novel focuses on a different Disney villain, recurring characters and mythology connect the stories. The Odd Sisters are particularly important because they appear across multiple books and eventually become the focus of The Odd Sisters.
Should I read the Disney Villains books in publication order?
Yes. Publication order is also the reading order recommended by Penguin Random House. Starting with Fairest of All allows the recurring characters and larger mythology to develop naturally.
Is Heartbroken about the Queen of Hearts?
Yes. Heartbroken explores the history of the Queen of Hearts and her life before and around the events associated with Alice’s arrival in Wonderland. The story also connects Wonderland to the wider mythology of Valentino’s Villains universe.
Is Raising the Horseman part of the Disney Villains series?
No. Raising the Horseman is a standalone Serena Valentino novel inspired by the Headless Horseman legend. It should be read separately from the 12-book Disney Villains sequence.
Is How the Villains Ruined Christmas part of the Villains series?
It is a Disney Villains-related holiday book, but it is not one of the 12 numbered Villains novels. Readers can treat it as an extra seasonal story rather than inserting it into the main numbered sequence.
Final Verdict
Serena Valentino’s Villains series is much more than a collection of Disney villain origin stories. Starting with the Evil Queen in Fairest of All, the books gradually build a shared mythology involving curses, kingdoms, mysterious witches, and characters whose actions affect stories far beyond their own individual books.
For the best reading experience, follow the official 12-book order from Fairest of All through Heartbroken. After that, Raising the Horseman is the strongest choice for readers who want another taste of Valentino’s darker fairy-tale style, while the graphic novels and How the Villains Ruined Christmas work well as extras rather than required entries in the main sequence.
Leave a Reply