Vicious

the premise of the story is really good and interesting, but i think what didn't work so well for me was how the story was told. like how the narrative kept jumping between past and present, and not just one linear timeline in the past but multiple points in time in the past. it was really confusing and kept making me lose interest and momentum in the first half of the book. this was especially confusing before i could piece together what exactly was even going on and what was the central mystery of the whole story, which i was only able to do around the halfway mark. once you got a grip on the story though, that's where it gets interesting and hooks you in, so the second half was a lot easier to read than the first.

the premise was very original and refreshing. i liked the idea about ExtraOrdinary people who gained superpowers after experiencing a Near-Death Experience, and their powers being strongly influenced by the kind of last thoughts they had before they “died”. i also liked that these EOs lose some part of their humanity after coming back from near-death, and they are all more than a little inhuman in some aspect or other. i liked the character dynamics between Serena and Eli running circles around each other, each trying to assert control over the other, Eli becoming some kind of religious megalomaniac going around self-righteously killing other EOs, Victor hell-bent on causing Eli as much pain as possible even when he knows he can't kill him, and Sydney being a huge wildcard in terms of how much humanity she really has in her, considering she seemed to be able to manipulate Dominic in the end in going back to save Dol her dog, although her power isn't like that of Serena's. so all in all, i'm a fan of the premise, it's just the narrative structure that really turned me off and would make me hesitate to pick up the sequel.

It's actually a 3.5. I'm really missing the half stars now 😒😒

I try and try to keep my expectations reasonable for hyped books, especially non-fantasy, and I fail all the time. This book is another one in the list of those which had a lot of potential, I enjoyed reading it but it somehow still fell short.

Victor and Eli are both brilliant and ambitious college students who use their skills to turn themselves into EOs or ExtraOrdinary humans (X-men type mutants), but their hubris leads to the death of someone and Victor ends up in prison for a decade. He spends all this time plotting his revenge, whereas Eli turns into a self-righteous fanatic who kills EOs because he believes they are unnatural and dangerous. It's very difficult to connect or sympathize with either of them, because most of their motivations and actions fall between morally gray and downright evil and it's hard to find any redeemable qualities.

The side characters are also very fascinating with their own backstories and narratives. Mitch, the hacker, is a gentle giant whose circumstances beyond his control, condemned him to the prison system. Sydney is a thirteen year old who has suffered a lot already at such a young age, but still innocent enough to not understand the true implications of her power. It's only with these two characters that we see Victor show his humanity, and why I probably ended up rooting for him, even though I didn't like him much. On the other hand, Sydney's elder sister Serena gets caught up in Eli's mad crusade. She is not too happy with her powers because she feels she is broken, but that doesn't stop her from using her abilities for extreme manipulation of other innocent people.

The writing in the book can feel a little confusing initially due to multiple POVs and timelines, but I got the hang of it pretty quick. The author also uses the story as a vehicle to ask us a lot of questions – who decides who is a hero or a villain? where is the line between good and evil? If we ever do get supernatural abilities, how many of us will actually use them for good? And who gets to oversee all the EOs? It's this philosophical tone of the writing that impressed me despite not liking both the main characters.

If you love your antiheroes and villains, then this book is tailor made for you. The pacing is on the slower side, so be prepared for that. Overall, I found this an enjoyable story which explores the extremes to which people will go to for their own selfish beliefs and where such arrogance leads to.

Review first written: 6.19.16 Review last edited: 9.13.16 First read 7.27.15-8.04.15Second read: via audiobook in 9.25.16-10.16.16Third read: 2.17.17 infinity/5 stars“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 at being human. The difference between Victor and Eli, he suspected, wasn't their opinion on EOs. It was their reaction to them...EOs were weapons, yes, but weapons with minds and wills and bodies, things that could be bent and twisted and broken and used. ”

Once in a rare blue moon, a book comes around that changes your life forever. It grabs onto your heart, and every book you read from thereon out you compare to it. Somedays, you wake up and you crave the story. It's a drug, almost, taking over your life so slowly that you don't realize it controls you until you're so past too late it's just a speck in the distance.

For me, that book is Vicious.

My original review, written right after I finished it in July of 2015, read, “Absolute amazingly written book, with very real, dark & flawed characters. I enjoyed every minute I spent reading it.” but that just doesn't give it justice. Now that I'm slowly getting better at writing reviews, I think I might be able to write something about Vicious that can truly show my love for this book. I think I've had more than enough time to gather my thoughts, a year almost, but we'll see. I'm sure that I'll be editing this review for months to come. I don't think any 5 star review is capable of giving this book the praise it deserves.

I usually have a hard time choosing favorites. Whenever I try, I spill lists of items all connected by the word “or.” It's this or that or this. It's that or this or that. Yet, when it comes to books, Vicious is my favorite. Vicious may always be my favorite. It's everything I ever want in a book, with a touch of things I never knew I needed. Vicious is a story of revenge, friendship, betrayal, superheroes, antiheroes.

This book is a phoenix. It rises from the ashes of the expectations it burnt.

“The absence of pain led to an absence of fear, and the absence of fear led to a disregard for consequence.”

How to describe Victoria's writing? It's lemonade on a hot summer day. It's the feel of water and sand between your toes. It's Christmas morning. It's the way your stomach tumbles as you jump off a swing. It's riding a bike for the first time without training wheels. It just is, and it always will be, beautiful.

If you have read any of her other books, you'd understand.

I read a chapter of Vicious to a creative writing class months ago. A short chapter of Victor and Sydney in the graveyard, and just with Victoria's words, I had people coming up to me after class wanting more, asking me where they could get their hands on a copy of the book. I'll told them instantly, as I'll always gladly endorse this book as much as I can. In fact, the day my friend came up to me and proudly proclaimed she had finally read it (and she didn't know what took her so long), was truly a great day. It was the first time, after constant nagging, someone finally listened to me and realized I was right all along. This book truly is something amazing.

“Victor Vale was not a fucking sidekick .”

The characters are thunderstorms. It's impossible to know if you should stare in fascination, or hide in fear. You can't guess when the thunder they create is going to rock the world.

You hate the main character, Victor Vale. It's easy to hate him. Being in his head is a roller coaster, one that takes you for loop after loop. You disagree with everything he says and does. He takes a 12 year old girl to dig up a dead body. He tortures without second thought. He seeks revenge on a person who used to be his best friend. Yet, after all the despicable things he does, part of you loves him. You root for him. You want to see him succeed.

There is so many things about Vicious that I love. I had the oppurtunity to meet Victoria Schwab, my idol, and have this book autographed. If I ever had to rescue a book from a fire, I would instantly choose this one.

Vicious is worth the read. It's worth the reread. It's worth taking the risk and loaning it to a friend.

Vicious is just worth it.

“Killing something was easy. Bring it back to live took more than measurement and medicine. It was like cooking, not baking. Baking took a sense of order. Cooking took a flare, a little art, a little luck. This kind of cooking took a lot of luck.”

This book was fantastic. The writing and the storytelling were extremely well done. The only other Victoria Schwab book I have read so far is The Archived and while I enjoyed it, I absolutely loved Vicious. There was just something about reading about these “evil” characters that pulled me right in.

Victor and Eli are not your typical main characters. These two have made some very questionable choices in their lives that have led them from being friends in College working on their theses to being nemeses striving to kill each other. The way this story is told from both of the their perspectives, both 10 years in the past during their college years and the present as they hunt for each other is really well done. I do not typically enjoy books that flip timelines like this because it can be confusing, but Schwab did an amazing job.

From the first page, I was hooked on this book. There is so much mystery and intrigue between the ExtraOrdinaries, Victor and Eli's past, and their thirst for vengeance. I loved how Schwab wove their stories together into this epic showdown at the end. So many aspects of this book were so complex between the story being told and the characters themselves, there was always something to be thinking about. This book made you question the lengths people would go to gain these powers and become ExtraOrdinary. It also made you think about the consequences of this thirst for knowledge and power.

On top of the fantastic main characters, Schwab also created lovable side characters including Sydney, Mitch, Dol, and even Serena. Each character had a role to play in this battle between Victor and Eli. I really felt for Sydney throughout this entire book. She is basically left to die at age 13 and finds Victor who takes her under his wing. Sydney also does a good job of adding more complexity to Victor since he seems to really care for Sydney.

Overall, this book was beyond fantastic and I cannot wait to read more of Victoria Schwab's books. This is a must read for anyone looking for an exciting and truly remarkable book that blurs what it means to be good. This book makes you love the villain and I loved that about it.

You'd think that after DNFing a book for being focused on yet another milquetoast socipath, I would make an effort to steer clear. Unfortunately, I didn't realize until maybe 50 pages in that I made the same mistake all over again with Vicious. But I mean, it's a subversion of the superhero narrative! Morally ambiguous arch nemeses! Superpowers! And all everyone seems to be talking about is how awesome it is. Gotta be good, right? headdesk

Vicious was boring as hell. Neither Eli or Victor are particularly interesting or clever. Victor's rage and wily nature are good hooks at the beginning. The first chapter is fantastic. You meet this grinning man who whistles while he digs up a grave and you can't wait to see what he'll do next. Mostly brooding and pacing, as it turns out. You could feel Schwab fumbling around for a plot while Victor tries to come up with a plan. A good chunk of the book is instead spent detailing Victor and Eli's history together, which could have been simplified significantly, as you can get the gist of the vendetta pretty quickly. The story is devoid of interesting plot points, instead there a lot anticlimactic misfires. A bit like rolling over in bed and thinking, “Was that it?”

Eli is not much better, and while there is slightly more depth to his mission - he believes he's chosen by God - he's for the most part pretty one note. The interesting characters are Victor and Eli's respective partners, two sisters, Sydney and Serena, and Sydney not until the very very end. Serena, we sadly do not get to see the perspective of until over 200 pages in. Referred to as the siren, who can make anyone do anything she tells them, she struggles with the emptiness inside her after her “death” in a far more complex way than either of our leading men. But still, there's a lot left hanging about her, like why she even bothered with Eli in the first place and let him try to kill her sister. I wasn't suprised when Victor killed her, because there was no way he could win with her alive and fighting against him, but I was pretty disappointed. This is a character who could have the world at her feet and she was brought down because she got in the middle of some stupid grudge. This should have ended with Sydney and Serena getting the drop on both of them and walking away hand in hand and whistling. To waste such a character is bullshit, in my humble opinion.

I was thinking of giving this two stars for the cool concept and the somewhat exciting ending, but honestly that just pisses me off more. There was so much more that could be done with this.

A totally addictive story. It's a bit of a long book, but it doesn't feel like it - I flew through this, eager to find out what would happen next (or what had happened to get us here - brilliant structure).

I did feel like there were some flaws, like the decision Eli & Victor make seems underwritten and far too cavalier/immediate. Plus on occasion, there would be a strange sentence structure or a misused word that would snag my momentum a bit. But overall, this was just entrancing.

I'm dying to learn more about the personality changes EOs experience - what is real, and what is mistaken interpretation? Are people just feeling their pre-existing traits in a more powerful way when social consequences don't control them anymore? It's left ambiguous here, though of course characters' actions speak to the issue. Still, lots to be delved into in the sequel. (Which needs to be published now, please!)

This book was amazing. I had previously read all of the Shades of Magic trilogy and heard about the release of Vengeful and decided to give this one a shot. Wow. I loved the characters and the sinister darkness hovering around them. There was such well played brutality and tension. I loved how it all wrapped up. I do have some lingering questions, but those will probably be answered in Vengeful.

Great work by Victoria once again!

i'm a real sucker for morally grey/villain characters, so i really liked this book

the only bad thing was it got a little slow in the middle, and some of the character motives didn't make sense to me. that's the only negatives tho, overall i really loved it

i know i give 5 stars to a lot of books but i REALLY mean it for this one.

(btw, the second book in the series was over a 6 week wait at my library

Nothing much to say, neither does the book.

A guy is envious of another guy, yet he is his best friend. He is constantly feeling like he has it all, and that he is the one that deserves that. Girlfriend, family, money, better ideas.

Something happened between them, and the other guy imprisioned the main character, and now he wants to kill him.

Oh, and they found out that you get superpowers when experiencing near death experiences.

Read 1:05 / 9:54 11%

Had I read this sooner and in different circumstances, I would've liked it better. And also, more Sydney would've been nice. Victor was so annoying in the first part because he didn't just wanna be a sidekick. And God, Eli was an ass through and through.

Also, the whole Eli and Serena dynamic was like Greenmantle and Piper from The Raven Cycle and I was like

It's rare to read a story with so many shades of grey. The main characters of Vicious – Victor and Eli – are far from typical protagonists. They are both friends and college roommates who discover a way to become EOs - Extra Ordinary people. Think superheroes.

Rather than being a typical superhero story where the focus is on these two interacting with the world, the story draws these to together as conflict builds.

As the first book in a series, this was a near-perfect introduction to the world. It can be read on its own, or as part of the series. I'll be continuing it without a doubt.

I loved that their isn't really a good guy. Like its clear that Eli is the evil one. But that doesn't make Victor the hero and I really like that. The ending is perfect in my opinion, thats exactly how it needed to happen, in my mind there really was no other way. 

I also really just love all the chracters. I rarely like all the characters but it happened in this one. Every single one was super interesting. Not that I wasn't happy when some died though. 

A smart person would stop doing something after understanding that it's not her cup of tea. Well, I am not that person. Let's pretend, that I just don't like to give up so easily.

After watching a couple of comic book movies, TV shows and even reading one or two comics, I had to make my peace with the fact, that superheroes never be my favourite. Except for V from V for Vendetta, but I had to find at least one to my liking, right?

However, I wanted to give a chance to Vicious. My reasoning was pretty adequate - if so many people like it then maybe I will too. But, spoiler, nope.

My main problem with the story was with the way it was told. The first half of the book I was just jumping from present to character's past and back again before it made any sense. Maybe I am getting old, but I do appreciate when the storytelling is consistent.

The second thing that bugged me was a slow way of things happening. If we look at the first half of the book and exclude flashbacks, it was only about digging grave. Sorry, but not good enough for me.

Overall, it had too many moments of facepalm for me.