Title: Vicious Publisher: Tor
Source: Bought it
Rating: 5 out 5 stars
Synopsis: A masterful, twisted tale of ambition, jealousy, betrayal, and superpowers, set in a near-future world.
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?
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?
Review: Vicious is crazy amazing. The characters are messed up in the best way. I feel bad saying that I enjoyed a book where the characters were messed up, but I came to care for some of the characters.
V.E. (Victoria) Schwab does an amazing job of building her characters and her world in this book. I didn't want it to end... in fact I took my time reading this book so I could spend as much time as possible in this world and with the characters. The whole concept of ExtraOrdinaries is brilliant and original. I had that "Could this really happen?" feeling while reading the book and that always makes a story more intriguing to me.
Victor and Eli were interesting to say the least. Throw in some rawness, brilliance, arrogance and darkness and you have Victor and Eli. While they are so much alike, they are both different and I found myself bouncing back and forth between liking them. I feel that in the beginning I liked Eli more but as I read more, the more I started to like Victor. They were so real to me and it was a lovely experience reading their story.
While this book flips back and forth between Victor and Eli's college years to their present, I was never confused. It helps that the writing was so beautiful that I was hanging on every word. I was torn between wanting to read and read and read vs. taking my time because I didn't want the book to end.
I can't really rave enough about this book. Please if you haven't read it yet, do yourself a favor and pick it up. I think everyone can get something out of this book and will enjoy it. I've heard some news that it may be turned into a movie...YES. I am crossing my fingers that this is true.
I'm glad you liked this book! I think it was fantastic, as well.
ReplyDeleteI also thought that the concept of the ExtraOrdinaries was one of those: this could really happen, kind of things. There wasn't any crazy sci-fi or fantasy elements involved, and I liked the focus on Schwab's version of science.
I LOVED Victor. I adored him from the moment we were introduced. He is such a complex and intricate character, and his little nuances were so amazingly written and incorporated into the story.
Eli was a tough one for me. I was never a huge fan, but I loved reading about him nonetheless. He was just as interesting (if not a little more so) than Victor, because of what he believed was his 'mission'. It was brilliant.
I don't read adult novels very often! But I am just about to start one - Attachments by Rainbow Rowell. It's my first Rowell book, and I am actually really excited because it seems like everyone loves her.
But as for adult books in general, I wish more of them were like Vicious! I would definitely enjoy the genre more if that was the case.