By V. E. Schwab Vicious (1St Edition)

I am probably the worst when it comes to starting books but not finishing them. This book was not like that. It kept me reading from start to finish. Schwab really did something unique and exciting with this book. I absolutely loved it.

Brilliant!

“There are no good men in this game.”

I love everything about this book. The plot, the characters, Schwab’s writing style. I love how she weaves the story, how she moves from the past to the present. It was captivating! I couldn’t put the book down. And by the end, I couldn’t believe I was rooting for a character as evil as Victor.

Highly recommended!

Vicious was an interesting science fiction story that was driven by very strong characters. I’d read a TON of 5-star raving reviews about this novel, and was honestly a bit let down.

Although I certainly think the writing is top notch and the storytelling is engaging, it didn’t leave me with the “OMG, I must tell everyone I know about how awesome this book is!!!”

But, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t good.

What I enjoyed about Vicious was the lead up to a big showdown between Victor and Eli, two college frenemies who turn hardcore nemeses. The story is told in a day by day then hour by hour lead up to when these two men meet again after 10 years and is interspersed with their history and backstory from years past.

The countdown added a lot of suspense and movement to the book. I didn’t necessarily feeling “pulled” through the story as with other books, but I liked the drama of knowing everything was leading up to ONE BIG MOMENT.

Because so many of my blogger friends loved and reviewed this book, I didn’t realize it wasn’t YA for the first 100 pages or so. Then all the f-words tipped me off.

Vicious is a very dark story, but one that hasn’t been told before. Victor and Eli live in what I would say is a contemporary time (they have smartphones and the Internet), and they are experimenting with idea that EO’s (ExtraOrdinaries) live among us.

Victor is the narrator for the first half of the book, and his story is filled with sadness and bitterness. It makes him an even more interesting character though. There is a lack of pretension about him that I really appreciated.

It could have been the lack of a romance (love and feelings are mentioned but not highlighted) or it could have been the more battle/fight driven plot, but Vicious felt quite dry at times. It seemed like something was missing.

What I pushed through the book to read (and not DNF instead) was the super complicated relationships. Victor and Eli both love and hate and respect and loathe each other. Their relationship changes over time, and the definition of “good guy” and “bad guy” is in question (<-- the best).

Plus, larger issues of faith and law are deftly woven in as well.

OVERALL:

If you are a sci-fi lover, this book will delight and fascinate. You MUST be ok with no romance and difficult-to-like characters. Although neither of those things are my exact cup of tea, I definitely appreciated the great writing and the complication relationships in the novel. Vicious is definitely a strong read overall.

Schwab's writing is taut, her tales riveting, and twists clever, even when you piece them out before their culmination. At first the story seemed derivative of "Heroes" but Schwab deftly imbues her fast-paced plot with a rich tableau of moral chiaroscuro, obliterating any doubts to her talent.

I cannot wait to read her next novel.

I thought this was a great book, a combination of the 80's movie "Flatliners" and the X-Men. It was entertaining and fresh twist on superheroes. Parts of it were predictable but I liked that no one was really a "good guy" there were just shades of bad, which made the characters more realistic. Fun read for anyone who is a fan of superheroes and super powers.

One of the best books I have ever read! Gripping! The story is fascinating, interesting, refreshing in its perspective. I loved how the fight was not between good and evil... The characters are deep, conflicted, real and unreal. Not since Brent Weeks or Brandon Sanderson have I been this involved in a story. I want more!

I bought Vicious just for the simple fact that people were raving about it. Before I got it in the mail, I wanted to have a taste of Victoria's writing, so I read her YA book The Archived, and I felt in love with her writing style. Victoria's writing is borderline overwhelming, but it never gets to that point. It keeps you on your toes. It makes you think and feel. I expected to get lost at some point in Vicious, and it never happened. It was beautifully written. One word that comes to my mind when I think about Vicious is organized. The book jumps timelines, and I usually don't do well with these kinds of books, but wow, I'm so impressed that she pulled it off. Like, I'm blown away. Seriously.

The characters in Vicious are so complicated and dark. Some of them are neither good nor bad, well, they are mostly bad with some good in them I guess. But with all their flaws you can't help but to love them. My heart broke for them. I see where they went wrong, and because of those mistakes they are what they are in the present. Even though they are not real, Victoria gave them quirks that made them human like. Just little things here and there that made a difference. Little things that were big enough to make me feel a connection towards them.

Sometimes when I'm reading a book, I think about ways to make them, in a way, better. I know I'm not an author, but sometimes I can't help but nitpick books (I know that's a bad habit and I'm not proud of it). But Vicious was meant to be written by Victoria just they way she wrote it. That's it. I totally enjoyed this book. I lost sleep because I could not pry myself away from its pages. I know this review doesn't do Vicious any justice but trust me you need this book in your life.

This book is excellent. The plot is exciting and compelling, and it handles some heavy questions about moral perspective and how we define heroes and villains. Throw in a little bit of science fiction and dark, morbid humor, and you've got a great book.

Good story. Interesting balance of emotional and logical. Many books have people totally locked into their emotional crises as they plow through trials of spirt, will, and conscience without a thought to logic along the way. This one keeps the action coming but allows characters to reason even with their world in flux.

Good story. Interesting balance of emotional and logical. Many books have people totally locked into their emotional crises as they plow through trials of spirt, will, and conscience without a thought to logic along the way. This one keeps the action coming but allows characters to reason even with their world in flux.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The evolution of the relationship between Victor and Eli is magnificently tragic. And to think that it all started when two brilliant college kids allowed their self interests to get their best of them.

Schwab's take on how one becomes an EO and the deciding factor to the ability they obtain is original and interesting due to people obtaining abilities not necessarily desirable.

I highly recommend picking this one up. A great story of two friends becoming foes bound by fate to finish what they started.

The idea of creating an extraordinary human is a fun idea to play with. The abilities were interesting. However, i dont think there was much character dévelopement where i had hoped and parts of the plot were easy guessed

I love this book.

Some people say that words like "love" and "hate" are too strong to use as often as they are.

Allow me to say it again, I love this book.

As a person who loves comics, I can personally tell you that other reviewers who mention that this book is like a graphic novel without the panels is correct! As a very physically active person, sitting down and flipping pages in a book is hard for me. Eventually, I'll need - or have the strong urge - to do something physical for a short while. However, reading Vicious was like watching a great weekly TV series: I wanted to get back to it every time I put it down.

I haven't read many books, but trust me when I say the writing is sharp. Not a single word is wasted. The pacing is absolutely excellent. There was not one time where I was reading this and thought "it's moving too fast" or "this is boring." The characters are a multifaceted delight. Experiencing them interact with each other reminds me of watching the characters from Joss Whedon's "Firefly."

This book was very different from the sort of fantasy i usually read but it was still a great read. Set in a modern world where superheroes and villains really do exist.. I wish Schwab would write more stories in this world.

I recommend to all

This was a very promising book. 5 star reviews left and right, what seems to be a unique take on the superhero agenda, the ultimate rival between two ex best friends...I was so excited to dive into this story.

However after a few "chapters", I realized this novel was not going to draw me in as I had expected. I found myself putting the book down constantly, wanting to finish until I reached the climax hoping to be rewarded for the patience and faith I invested in the authors story telling.

Sadly after finally coming to a conclusion that this will not be added to my list of favorite reads for the year, I realized that this just wasn't my kind of book.

Like other reviewers on here, I was not aware this was a young adult novel. However I've read my fair share of YA stories that I fell in love with. That is not an excuse for the mediocre writing that most of the reviews were boasting about. Don't get me wrong, I know that writing is not an easy task and telling a perfect story with flair is rare, and I appreciate the ideas behind the authors final product. She is a promising author however I don't believe this is the best she can do.

There are many cliches in this book, and I found that we only got to scratch the surface, "literally" as the author would say, of Victor and Eli. The disconnect that these protagonists (or should I say antagonists?) feel from their emotions after they've been resurrected end up leaving the reader feeling a lack of sympathy for them, which equates to the reader not caring what happens to them. Through flashbacks, the beginning of their rivalry is explained, the tension created by their mutual love interest Angie. However their feelings for her are never really explained or seem to run very deep, and the foundation of their rivalry ends up being incredibly shallow. To be honest I almost forgot how the whole conflict began and didn't give another thought to Angie.

The main characters I tried to invest in were Serena and Mitch. I felt like Serena's character was the most developed, starting out as a young naive teenager who looked up to her older sister only to change into the one EO (ExtraOrdinary being) who seemed to retain any emotion or empathy for those around her and come out stronger in the end. And Mitch, well he was the bodyguard who Schwab made clear was not your stereotypical meat head. Smart, sensitive, and funny. Your typical sidekick with traits opposite of his leader.

Although I didn't love this book, it did leave me wanting more, and I think I'll give V.E. Schwab another chance. There were things I enjoyed, certain scenes were depicted well and I enjoyed the small bits of humor here and there. I also purchased A Darker Shade of Magic and I'm hoping I'll enjoy the series more then I did this standalone novel.

3.5 Stars

The great thing about Vicious is that is isn’t your standard superhero story. The guys with the power aren’t altruistic, nice and brooding. Nope in this they are slightly homicidal and missing a little thing I like to call humanity. Still for me there was clearly a good guy and a bad guy, or at least a guy I was rooting for and one I wasn’t.

“You can’t kill me, Victor,” said Eli. “You know that.”
Victor’s smile widened as he buried his knife between Eli’s ribs. “I know,” he said loudly. He had to speak up over the screams. “But you’ll have to indulge me. I’ve waited so long to try.”

Surprisingly the only really likable characters are the side characters Sydney and Mitch. I enjoyed their interaction with the main character Victor and they made him seems a little more on the human side, or at least likable like Dexter is.

“Look, Sydney, there’s something you need to understand about Victor—”
“He’s not a bad man,” she said.
“There are no good men in this game,” said Mitch.
But Sydney didn’t care about good. She wasn’t sure she believed in it. “I’m not afraid of Victor.”
“I know.” He sounded sad when he said it.

There are things in this book that really worked for me and a few that missed the mark just a little bit. But all in all I enjoyed the story. It takes a little time to get used to as it jumps from past to present and is told from multiple PoVs. The problem that I almost always have with this type of format is that I’m more interested and invested in one or two PoVs and don’t care about the others as much. I struggled when it was Eli’s PoV since I really didn’t care about him. Even Eli and Victor together in the past was at times difficult to care a lot about since I didn’t like either character.

However, that said, I love the little band of roving misfits Victor, Mitch, Sydney and there trusty canine companion Dol. The present tense involving them was really my favorite part of the story. Each had something that made the team that much better and stronger, I would definitely read another story involving them.

Eli and Victor both play the role of the mad scientists very well. Their discovery of how to make Extra Ordinaries or EOs involving near death experiences and the subsequent events of trying to create their own was a good part of the story.

Killing something was easy. Bringing it back to life 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.

It really showcased how emotionally/mentally unstable both were and how together they made each other worse people. Each man competing for the others attention in the worst ways. I like that we see them ten years later and the men they become without the other, even though they seem very drawn to each other like magnets.

I did like the wrap up to the story, I saw a few of the ending points coming but still it was all very enjoyable and had just enough flare to push up my rating of this just a little bit. I agree with my friend Eon’s assessment that I totally could have done with some even darker more fleshed out characters and a little less predictable ending but the book flies by and is a lot of fun.

I happened upon this book after a glowing recommendation from a friend of mine. After reading a synopsis I knew that it was something I was interested in reading. Let me tell you, I was hooked right away. I love the way the story is told, unfolding layers one by one. Just when you think you really know a character and their motivations, you learn something new about them and everything can change. This is such a interesting, well told story and one that's definitely not to be missed!

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.

I finished this book at midnight, it seems oddly appropriate. What a fabulous ride through the land of macabre. The characters are engaging and the writing is hypnotic. I would look up and realize that an hour had gone by in a minute. I love when a book does that.

A greatly well-paced story that felt nearly impossible to put down. Even after finishing the book, I felt compelled to read it again. A splendid cast of characters with depth and cunning. A plot questioning morality and villainy featuring a lovely splash of revenge. Highly recommended!