Vicious by V.E. Schwab | Villains | 5 Star Book Review
Vicious by V.E. Schwab 5 Star Book Review
Oh my gosh how on earth have I gone this long without reading Vicious? It blew me away. Vicious is amazing, full of anti-heroes, questionable doings and magical powers, what more could you want?
I read this on Kindle, which meant I actually made highlights, which I’m going to share with you all in this review. As always my review is spoiler free!
Vicious by V.E. Schwab, Victoria Schwab Published by Titan Books on January 10th 2014
Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction
Pages: 340
Goodreads
A masterful tale of ambition, jealousy, desire, and superpowers.
Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?
In Vicious, V. E. Schwab brings to life a gritty comic-book-style world in vivid prose: a world where gaining superpowers doesn't automatically lead to heroism, and a time when allegiances are called into question.
“The moments that define lives aren’t always obvious. They don’t always scream LEDGE, and nine times out of ten there’s no rope to duck under, no line to cross, no blood pact, no official letter on fancy paper. They aren’t always protracted, heavy with meaning. Between one sip and the next, Victor made the biggest mistake of his life, and it was made of nothing more than one line. Three small words. “I’ll go first.””
– V.E. Schwab, Vicious
I didn’t read the synopsis before I started Vicious, which I often do, and so I had no clue what this book was going to be about. I think that added to my love of this book. If you like fantasy with elements of science fiction, you should definitely give Vicious a go.
Vicious is a fast paced, devilishly addictive read.
I wanted to know more, no, I NEEDED to know more, which kept me turning the (digital) page late into the night. Victoria created a world which is pretty much the same as ours, with one notable difference: (maybe? Who knows!) The existence of EOs, Extraordinary people. People who have powers beyond explanation, they shouldn’t be able to exist, they shouldn’t exist at all. Or should they? The powers the EOs have are fascinating, and how a person’s power is ‘assigned’ to them is so clever! I’ll speak no more on that as I don’t want to spoil it for you.
Vicious asks the hard questions and begs the question, whose side are you really on?
“The absence of pain led to an absence of fear, and the absence of fear led to a disregard for consequence.”
– V.E. Schwab, Vicious
I really enjoyed how Vicious was structured. It’s split into two parts, Winter, Blood and Thicker things and An Extraordinary Day. Each chapter tells us how long ago it was and where the scene is set. The novel opens to ‘Last Night’ in a Cemetary and from there flits between the distant past and the near past, building up a story that keeps you gripped. When you get to the second part, we are experiencing the events of one day, broken down into chunks.
Vicious is compelling and keeps you reading. You have no idea what’s happening and every glint at the events that lead up to the cemetery you are introduced to at the beginning just begs more questions. Never fear, they do get answered (mostly), which is part of the charm.
“Eli had as many different smiles as ice cream shops had flavors, and this one said he had a secret.”
– V. E. Schwab, Vicious
Victoria created a whole cast of characters which really made Vicious the compelling masterpiece it is.
Victor Vale is our anti-hero, we are told the story mostly through his eyes. We get to know him when he was still at college, and 10 years later after he’s been in prison. Two things are clear, he is wickedly clever, and he knows it. He is the son of the authors of self help books, which drives him mad, to the point where he has a quirk of blacking out the novels of his parent’s books to create other meaningful sentences etc. I found him to be less of a villain than Eli.
Eli is just as smart, if not more so, as Victor, with a dark past that we don’t get to discover the full extent of (at least not until Vengeful!). He is convinced of his own righteousness and goes to great lengths. Eli was honestly terrifying, and definitely bordering on a sociopath (if not just fully sociopathic). His convictions were terrifying.
Sydney and Serena Clarke. I don’t know why, buy when we first get introduced to the sisters, I didn’t think they’d be as important as they are? Where did I get that from? I absolutely ADORED Syd, she was just so innocent but completely robbed of that innocence. Serena was another thing entirely. Sydney’s big sister and absolutely formidable. Her and Eli definitely had a surprising amount in common.
I loved Mitch. I wish he’d gotten more of a spotlight in this novel, as well as Dominic. I won’t go much more into detail on that.
Overall I loved this book, and have given it a solid 5 Stars! Have you read Vicious? What did you think?
Keep an eye out, my review of Vengeful will be up in a couple of days!
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21 Comments
I’m excited to read this!!
It’s so good!
I just finished reading this book, and it was AMAZING! Great review!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it too! Xx
Great review! I am hoping to read this by the end of the month, fingers crossed!
I hope you do too! Thank you 💕
This book is still on my TBR but all the high praise is definitely making me want to read it asap!
You must it’s wonderful!
I’m reading it now and my heart is breaking. I’m firmly Team Victor. I feel like Eli is too self-righteous and not in a way that’s “acceptable”. It’s a dangerous way that’s clearly a problem for those around him, as you know. o.o I think that Vengeful, when we learn about his background, may make him sympathetic, but with the actions that have taken place in this book, that might just make things more confusing!
The character I’m most angry with right now is Serena. I’m about 30% of the way through and I’m making guesses about things, which my SO (who has read the book) confirmed. Let’s just say, she is NOT on my nice list.
Ah yes I don’t like Serena at all!!! Also I never feel that sympathetic to Eli but you do learn a lot more about him in Vengeful! I can’t wait to hear what you think when you finish them both!
Aww yesssss! I’m so happy you loved this Jenn, and thrilled to see you gave it 5 stars! Have you finished Vengeful yet or are you still reading? I’m on around page 130 and it’s EVERYTHING. I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next. Great review!
I finished it! Ahhhhhh let me know when you have Cos I have thoughts and questions?!
Omg YES I’ll let you know once I’m done! I’ll probably also be tweeting from a puddle of my tears on the floor 😛
Yes – I loved this one too! I’ve been excited about Vengeful for awhile now…and it’s so soon!
It’s here ahhhhh
I also did not read the synopsis and went into knowing as little as possible. I’m so glad I did! Vicious surprised me! I can’t wait for Vengeful 🙂
I love being happy surprised by books!
I’m so disappointed that my library doesn’t actually have this (HOW?!) so now I’m stuck waiting behind 17 more people on our Kindle loans. =/ I’m only dying a little bit at this point.
Your review makes it sound SO GOOD. I want to start fangirling about these characters already. Because I guarantee you, I will. I can already tell. I might just have to buy this because I don’t know I can wait. xD You’ve got me so eager to read it now lol
Ahhhh I can’t wait to hear what you think! Let me know when you get it?
Yes! It sounds perfect, from all the reviews I’ve heard, so I’m excited. 😀 The good news: my library finally got a physical copy! The bad news: I was too slow and someone else checked it out, so now I’m on a hold list for that, but that’ll probably come before the e-book. xD And if all that fails … I ordered it from BD, but I have no idea how long it’ll take to get to me.
[…] amazing and I really loved all the villainous characters that Victoria portrayed in these books, I wrote a review on my blog about them where you can read about just how much I loved these […]