Vicious: By V.E. Schwab

VICIOUS

SUMMARY

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?

REVIEW

“But these words people threw around—humans, monsters, heroes, villains—to Victor it was all just a matter of semantics. Someone could call themselves a hero and still walk around killing dozens. Someone else could be labeled a villain for trying to stop them. Plenty of humans were monstrous, and plenty of monsters knew how to play be being human.”

In my opinion this small excerpt from the Vicious is the core of the book. If this intrigues you then continue on, if not then this will not be your cup of tea (but to be honest if you like amazing books then you should continue on.)

Vicious is utterly fantastic. V.E. Schwab not only has written a captivating story that will entrance readers to the last page of the book (at which point they will be distraught to learn the book is over), but she has written a book that has the readers questioning the basics of the superhero/super villain classic situation. Often readers are presented with a clear cut hero who does right, or a hero who does right even when he appears to be doing wrong, in either situation you know who you should be cheering for. In Vicious we are presented with a murderer and a man out for revenge. One believes he is a hero, destined from above to eliminate EOs, and the other just wants revenge and sees the ends justifying the means, he’d prefer not to kill innocents, but if he has to then he will.

This may not sound like a lot, but to be honest Vicious is amazing. The action is fun, the pacing exhilarating, and the story intriguing. But it is the characters that take this book to the next level. I loved reading about Victor and Eli and thought that Schwab did an outstanding job creating such dynamic characters. I highly recommend this book, and if you’re looking for something to help stem the loss from Braking Bad ending then look no further.

INFO

Publisher: Tor Books

Published: September 24, 2013

Price: $24.99

Link to Buy: http://www.amazon.com/Vicious-ebook/dp/B00CQY7WBI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380561128&sr=8-1&keywords=vicious