Vicious by V E Schwab

Vicious (The Villains, #1)

by V.E. Schwab

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 arch nemeses have set a course for revenge-but who will be left alive at the end?

Reviewed by Renee on

3 of 5 stars

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This book was very interesting, but somehow it did not grip me. I think I expected too much of it because of the hype. At the same time, I did not want to put the book down, all the characters were very complex, and the time jumping made it even better. At first, I was hesitant if going back and forth in the story would not hinder me, but it did not, surprisingly! It was very well done and I can only have the respect for Victoria Schwab, it was a risk and she mastered it.

This book builds up to Eli and Victor meeting, but since I did not care about Victor, I was kinda bored reading about him. The POV switches often, but I feel like most of the book is written from Victor's POV. I really enjoyed every other character, Eli, Serena, Mitch, Sydney, everyone was complex and interesting. Every character was morally grey and did a lot of bad things to be honest, which is also the point of the book.

Even though there was a lot of action in this book, I think I missed the parts where people came to understand why Victor did what he did. Maybe I have misread something or missed a page somehow, but I only hated him and was secretly rooting for the other bad guys instead of being torn between both are bad and evil but also a bit understandable, which I thought was the main thing I would feel throughout this book.

Also, the abilities of the EOs suited them perfectly, and I understand why they are the way they are, but it was just so necessary for the story that it felt a bit 'yeah, of course, he can do this' because we need it in the story. I would have liked to see just a complex character without a gift that suits their problem perfectly.

Don't get me wrong, VE Schwab did a wonderful job and this book is very good. My expectations were too high for this book and I was a bit disappointed. I liked it, but I did not like it enough for four stars because it was just entertaining. It did not grip me as some other books did. I am really excited to read the next book in this series, Vengeful, and see how the story and characters develop.

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  • Started reading
  • 22 May, 2019: Finished reading
  • 22 May, 2019: Reviewed