It's rarely ever a good idea to piss off Esmerelda Weatherwax.
- Angela Nicely:
- In “Cupcake Wars!”, Angela “looks daggers” at Tiffany for stealing her idea for a cake stall at the Spring Fair.
- In “Miss Skinner’s Wig!”, Maisie glares at Angela for getting them both in trouble.
- In “Supermodel!”, Mrs. Nicely shoots Mr. Nicely “a look” for complimenting Tiffany on being a model, since Mrs. Nicely and Mrs. Charmers (Tiffany’s mother) are rivals. Then, she glares at him again when he thinks Angela is too young to be a model, then Angela glares at Tiffany for claiming it’s “sweet” that she wants to be a model.
- She glares at Tiffany again in “Starstruck!” for boasting about being able to sit close to the boy band at the concert.
- In “The Big Bike Ride!”, Angela shoots Maisie a “sharp look” for claiming she and Laura did most of the work on the lemonade stand.
- In “The Ugly Sisters!”, Suzy glares at the Payne twins for picking on Angela.
- Kristy's "Look" in The Baby-Sitters Club.
- Detective Falconer in This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch It.David: He gave me a look that would have made cancer apologize, then ran like hell.
- The Count of Monte Cristo. This, along with the occasional Psychotic Smirk, has various characters outright terrified of him.
- A Court of Thorns and Roses: Nesta is very adept at these.
- Darcy And Gran Dont Like Babies: Darcy is illustrated glaring after the neighbour claims she does like the baby.
- Discworld:
- Lord Havelock Vetinari. Just him looking at you may count as a Death Glare. Not to mention when he raises his eyebrow. Ooh, you don't wanna be in the same room when he does that...
- Sam Vimes freezes. Not for nothing is he known as "Old Stoneface".The chill radiated off him. The lines of his face locked like a statue.
- In The Fifth Elephant, after Vimes frightens the ambassador of a hostile state into pulling his/their armies back till they're practically in the next country:Vetinari: Apparently you also looked at the ambassador in a very threatening way.
Vimes: It was only the way I usually look.
Vetinari: To be sure. - Granny Weatherwax is fond of these Death Glares, and may use magic to augment them. (One usage in Wyrd Sisters is described explicitly as a "thousand-kilowatt diamond blue stare." She stares down a theatre patron all the way to the ground.) At one point she and another witch get into a duel that consists of them both performing a Death Glare on the sun. And when someone came close, he got instantly sunburned. Granny lights fires by tossing some logs into the fireplace and staring at them until they burst into flames. You do not get much more deadly than that.
- Mr. Slant, a zombie lawyer, manages to pull one these off on opposing lawyers in Making Money. Knowing 200 years worth of law and precedent because you were there to make it can be quite intimidating.
- A favourite weapon of Keldas to keep the Nac Mac Feegle in line, to the point where the mere thought of it can terrify them.
- Dios of Pyramids has one that's so effective people are honestly surprised that he doesn't have Eye Beams. When looking for an escaped prisoner, one finds oneself looking for lines of molten rock as he scans the room and walls.
- In Small Gods, when Brutha first runs into Simony the man shoots him a look of raw, unfiltered hatred.
- The Dresden Files:
- In Changes, Harry meets Agent Tilly. One word and a look from Tilly is able to send Smug Snake Rudolph running from the room. Quite impressive, as the only other things that have been able to accomplish this were a loup-garou and a scourge of Red Court Vamps. Harry's narration mentions that some people have one hell of a glare, that just the way they look at you gives you a little glimpse into the eyes of Death himself. Tilly is one of those people.
- Harry himself probably posseses a seriously deadly glare, which he wouldn't know being behind it. But when he looks at Cowl and Kumori in Dead Beat they visibly sway backward (Or maybe that was just the wind).
- Charity Carpenter, as a mother of a large family, has an impressive glare. Molly has inherited it.
- Egil's Saga has the Norwegian king Eirik Bloodaxe whose baleful gaze even terrifies the otherwise recklessly brave Egil. He describes the king like this in a poem:You weren't safe looking him straight
In the eye. No kindness there!
It glittered like a snake's, grew
Ever more snake-like the more you stared. - Late in Dr. Franklin's Island Semi tries to give one of these to Doctor Skinner, to enhance the She Was Once A Girl effect that seeing her has on him.I stayed where I was, staring up at him as meanly as I could. Manta rays are not very mean by nature, but I did my best to look nasty and accusing.
- In the Everworld series, the witch Senna Wales often uses these, to good effect; no outburst ever intimidates the others the way a flat stare from her gray eyes does. Her confrontations with her half-sister (the two hate each other) often consist of April being passionately, furiously angry, and Senna staring back all cold and contemptuously. Christopher states that Senna's glare says, "I'll crush you in my own good time."
- Britomart from The Faerie Queene rejects a pervert's advances with but a look, which the author spends a verse describing as a fiery arrow piercing the man's black heart.
- In the novelization of The Fugitive, it's mentioned repeatedly that Gerard has cultivated one of these, known as The Look. So much so that he can't get rid of it, leaving him unable to play "Good Cop". It also leaves him genuinely impressed with those who aren't intimidated by it.[from the novel] "Dr. Anne Eastman was young, overworked, and completely uncowed by The Look. Gerard liked her immediately."
- At the start of Galaxy of Fear, Uncle Hoole is a Resentful Guardian to the point where when one of his charges comes into his room after knocking, he scares the kid with shapeshifting, tells him off in a threatening way, and turns a "gaze like a blaster bolt" on him. ...He warms to the kids, but it takes a while.
- Later in the series, Tash has her body taken over by a thug. Her brother, unaware, talks to her, but "Tash's glare was like the blast of a turbolaser."
- Goblins in the Castle: In Goblins on the Prowl, when Bwoonhiwda says that Queen Wilhelmina's court wizard had predicted a problem with the giant stone toad, the Queen sent her to investigate. When Karl in turn asks why the Queen would send a woman to do so, Bwoonhiwda gives him such a nasty look that Fauna's surprised his hair doesn't burst into flames. Bwoonhiwda later gives Igor a similar look when he makes a joke that sounds like he's making fun of her speech impediment, to his distress.
- In Good Omens, Crowley is described as having one. As he's a not quite Fallen Angelnote , reality tends to realign itself accordingly when he deploys his glare.
- Harry Potter:
- Molly Weasley has been described as a short, plump, motherly woman, and generally doesn't look very threatening, but if you piss her off, you will know about it. Her glare is capable of terrifying even her twin sons Fred and George (both of whom have otherwise never shown any signs of cowardice), and scares innocent bystanders (such as Harry himself in book 2). Even her own husband, also a brave and courageous individual, is reduced to nervous mumbling under her glare.
- Snape is described as narrowing his eyes malevolently at Harry in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix while saying "This may not be an ordinary class, Potter, but I am still your teacher and you will therefore call me 'sir' or 'Professor' at all times." when Harry addresses him casually and then keeping the glare for a while afterwards.
- Professor Minerva McGonagall is also capable of giving students "the sort of look that scorches."
- Hermione Granger can do it too — when Ron teased her in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire about her self-enforced fast in protest of Hogwarts's employment of house-elves, she "gave him a look so reminiscent of Professor McGonagall that he gave up."
- Harry too. After he suffers another horrible vision in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Hermione berates him for not learning to block it and then makes the mistake of asking if he liked it. The glare he gives her for that makes her apologize quickly.
- Dumbledore may be a kindly Eccentric Mentor, but when Barty Crouch, Jr. tries to kill Harry while disguised as Mad-Eye Moody, the look on his face shows exactly why he's the only wizard that Voldemort ever feared.
- In The Heroes of Olympus series, it is used by Percy in Son of Neptune.He'd perfected his wolf stare over the last few months — a look that said: However bad you think you are, I'm worse.
- In Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld, Ereshkigal uses a Death Glare on her sister Inanna that causes Inanna to die. Later, when she comes Back from the Dead and needs to find someone to take her place, and sees her husband Dumuzi living it up instead of mourning, she uses it on him.
- In Joe's World books by Eric Flint, Greyboar's glare is referred by several names, such as "The Mirror of Imminent Mortality," "Basilisk," or "Time to reconsider."
- Journey to Chaos: Retina Corison is said to have a glare potent enough that it can be sensed through his blindfold. When his wife tells him that Nolien is the one "taking care of our Tiza", the glare makes Nolien shiver.
- In Lord of Light, Yama's eyes can cause attacking men to drop their weapons and run. Being a Master Swordsman and the god of death could have something to do with it, though. Except that Yama does in fact have Eye Beams, too, which is why he's the god of death.
- The Lord of the Rings
- In The Return of the King, Aragorn and army meet up with Sauron's "ambassador" at the Black Gate. While the "ambassador" rants on and on, Aragorn just glares at him, never saying a word, never moving a muscle. He is so taken aback by Aragorn's spiteful gaze that he eventually shudders and exclaims that he has been practically assaulted at parley (a BIG no-no) before riding off. In the novel continuity sufficiently pure-blooded Númenóreans have psychic powers, so it could have been more than just staring. In the extended cut of the film, a death glare wasn't deemed quite enough, and Aragorn does indeed assault the ambassador at parley, hacking his head off. Gimli tersely observes "I guess that concludes negotiations."
- When Éowyn kills the Witch-King's flying beast and sends it falling to the ground with him still on the saddle, he stands back up and gives her an epic death glare without even having a face or eyes. He was about to kill her anyway, but now it's personal!
- The most impressive one comes from Gandalf, however. When he did it to Bilbo, it was accompanied by special effects going for the more than ordinary effect described in the book.
- Every member of The Flock in Maximum Ride has one, with Max's being particularly powerful, at times even working on Fang, Erasers and grown men.
- The One Who Eats Monsters: Our protagonist, Ryn, is particularity adept at glaring due to having eyes with black sclera and glowing blue irises, that when seen cause a person to panic, partially from Ryn's divine power, partially from the fact that she's so old the human brain evolved to instinctively fear her gaze.
- Paddington Bear is, for the most part, a friendly, mild and pleasant sort of bear, but if you really annoy him — usually by forgetting your manners — you will find yourself the recipient of one of his infamous "hard stares", a glare that makes whoever is on the receiving end noticeably uncomfortable and disconcerted.
- In The Queen's Thief, the Queen of Attolia has a gaze that can slice down a crowd like a scythe. At one point, Costis is terrified of meeting her eye because her anger was so potent that he felt just being looked at could kill him.
- In the Redwall series, the ability to intimidate a foe with only a look is a common mark of badassery. Living Legend Martin the Warrior pulled off an unflinching glare against a slavedriver while said slavedriver was beating him, scaring him so bad that he stopped whipping him and went looking for an easier target. Ranguvar Foeseeker pulled off a similar feat while she was an oarslave of Vilu Daskar. There are even non-warrior examples; Sister Alkanet from Taggerung ran the Abbey Infirmary and used her own glare to make her patients take their medicine.
- Galadriel Higgins from The Scholomance has the sort of stature and habitually forbidding expression that would lend themselves to these alone. When combined with how something not readily distinguished from ALL THE POWERS OF HELL shines metaphorically from her dark eyes when she is in a temper; it requires great courage, vast confidence in one's own relative magical power, and/or absolute certainty in El's fundamantal benevolence to do much more than shut up and back off when she is staring anyone down in earnest.
- In Shadow of the Conqueror, Lyrah gives Cueseg and Daylen a ton of these, including an exceptionally vicious one when she confronts Daylen after finding out that he's really Dayless the Conqueror.
- In Shaman Blues, this is the default expression of Gardiasz when dealing with Witkacy.
- A Song of Ice and Fire:
- Tywin Lannister has perfected the glare into a downright artform. At one point a story is recounted in which a lord repeated an old joke about how Tywin was so rich he "must shit gold." Tywin's only response was to look at the man. Long after the laughter had died down, and throughout the rest of the feast, Tywin didn't look away. Eventually the lord had to flee the room to escape his gaze.
- Aeron Greyjoy is also well-known for his death glare, which has an in-universe reputation for souring wells and rendering women infertile.
- Ned Stark is said to have a powerful one, and almost without trying. For example, when he arrived to the throne room to see Jaime Lannister had killed Aerys the Mad (thus (a) slaying the man he was sworn to protect and (b) robbing Ned of his vengeance) he glared at Jaime. A decade and a half later, Jaime Lannister still sees that terrifying glare in the eyes of anyone that looks down at him.
- Spice and Wolf: While he probably didn't intend to kill the stranger he rudely bumped into, Lawrence gave the stranger a glare that made the much taller and tougher-looking guy back off instantly.
- Richard from The Sword of Truth throws these around fairly frequently. It's apparently a trait common to the Rahl family. The novel Blood of the Fold has a scene where Richard silences a near-riotous crowd by glaring at them.
- Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird, in true So-Called Coward fashion, deploys a death glare now and then.Atticus turned his head and pinned me to the wall with his good eye.
- Stephanie Plum manages one in To The Nines as she's repeatedly being pulled aside for random security checks at an airport, calmly imagining murdering every annoying person around her in a particularly violent way. She doesn't let on what she's thinking, but Lula comments on how creepy Stephanie's suddenly gotten.
- Vorkosigan Saga: Miles Vorkosigan has, through a combination of osmosis and deliberate study of his near legendary grandfather and parents (as well as interactions with several veteran military personnel and senior government officials), learned to project quite an intimidating glare of his own, as his cousin Ivan discovers in A Civil Campaign.
- In the Warrior Cats graphic novel After the Flood, Leafstar proves herself very capable of giving death glares. One of them is enough to make her mate drop the prey he's carrying.
- Who Goes There?. Even though frozen in a block of ice for millennia, the alien creature's face has such an expression of inhuman, cosmic hatred and malice, that the most steel-nerved of the crew run out of the room terrified after just looking at it briefly.
- Charles Morgan from Witch Week, while not always meaning to glare at anyone, is described as having a "blank and nasty" look which is generally magnified by his thick glasses.
- In Wolf Hall, Thomas Cromwell can knock men back with just a look when he's pissed off. It helps that he has a Face of a Thug, everyone knows his mysterious past includes mercenary work, and that he's fully capable of knocking them back in a more physical way if he chooses to do it.
