AbeBooks, "the world's largest online marketplace for new, used, rare and out-of-print books" recently polled its users, asking them to name the "scariest character in literature." The most popular response wasn't Count Dracula or Frankenstein's creature, but rather Big Brother from George Orwell's 1984. According to the AbeBooks website, "With the increased use of closed circuit TV, phone tapping, GPS tracking from space and online monitoring, booklovers clearly believe Big Brother is more threatening than ever." More corporeal (but still fictional) scary characters making it into AbeBooks' top ten include Annie Wilkes from Stephen King's Misery, Patrick Bateman from Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho, and Bill Sykes from Oliver Twist.