Vicious
by Victoria Schwab
Series: The Villains #1
Published on September 24th 2013
by Tor Books
Genres: Fantasy, Superheroes
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
Amazon | B&N | Goodreads
Also by this author: The Archived, A Darker Shade of Magic, A Gathering of Shadows, This Savage Song (Monsters of Verity, #1), Our Dark Duet (Monsters of Verity, #2)
A masterful, twisted tale of ambition, jealousy, desire, and superpowers.
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?
Now this was a cool superhero/villain book! I loved the comic book style and the writing was awesome and the characters and the powers were even more so. I love you, Victoria Schwab, you rock my world and you blow my booknerd mind!
Eli and Victor are roommates and best friends in college. When the time arrives for them to do a thesis, Eli chooses EO’s as subject. ExtraOrdinary’s. People that nearly died and now have powers. But that thesis changes into an experiment and it goes horribly wrong. Betrayal, jealousy, ambition. Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison and stumbles upon a little girl with an amazing power. Eli is on a mission. He kills all the other super-powered people he can find. Two old friends are about to meet again, but who will win? And what exactly makes someone a hero or a villain?
That’s what I was asking myself the whole time. In the end I would say there is no real hero in this book. But I was rooting for Victor. The writing was so amazing. Af first a bit confusing because one chapter it was the present time and Victor had broken out of prison and the next chapter it’s Ten Years Ago. The time a bit before, during and shortly after the boys get their powers. And it’s really fascinating because I constantly want to know more. How it happened, what will happen and what caused Eli and Victor to become enemies. I couldn’t put it down! It’s so good!
Victor was my favorite character. And though he seems to be the obvious villain in this book and Eli the hero, he wasn’t really a villain. For me, Eli was the bad guy and Victor the good guy that just had bad luck. In prison he meets Mitch, a huge but smart guy and together they break out of prison and they meet Sydney, a twelve year old girl with an awesome power. And she’s so adorable! And on the other side you have Eli. He’s killing all the other EO’s because they are wrong because they can hurt people. He can’t and his power is a gift from God to help the world get rid of those other EO’s. He’s a bit grazy to be honest. He works with Serena, Sydney’s sister, who has a very VERY strong will (she’s an EO, duh). She wasn’t a very good sister to be honest.
I love Victoria Schwab. The Archived was awesome, this book is awesome. The Unbound will be awesome when I read it and please tell me there’s a sequel to this book because OH MY GOD that ending! I highly recommend this book to fans of superheroes or just people with superpowers or fantasy, or the comic-book style or fans of Victoria Schwab. Oh who am I kidding. EVERYONE HAS TO READ THIS BOOK!!
About Victoria Schwab
I am the product of a British mother, a Beverly Hills father, and a southern upbringing. Because of this, I have been known to say “tom-ah-toes”, “like”, and “y’all”. I also suffer from a wicked case of wanderlust, made worse by the fact that wandering is a good way to stir up stories. When I’m not haunting Paris streets or trudging up English hillsides, I’m usually tucked in the corner of a coffee shop, dreaming up monsters.
My first YA novel, THE NEAR WITCH, a dark original fairy tale, debuted with Disney*Hyperion in August 2011, and is now out in paperback.
My next YA novel, THE ARCHIVED, is the first book in a new supernatural series about a world where the dead are shelved like books, and it hits stores January 2013, also with Disney*Hyperion.
My first adult novel, VICIOUS, about two brilliant and highly disturbed pre-med students who set out to generate their own superpowers and end up mortal enemies, is out in hardcover from Tor September 2013.
I have more books coming out in 2014, but I’ll get to those later.
These days, when someone asks me what I do when I’m NOT writing, I just kind of laugh nervously. But in truth, on the odd occasion I’m not typing away, I’m probably baking cookies, or watching BBC shows, or wandering. (See how we came full circle, there?)
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Yay this sounds like such a fun and awesome read! I love comic books so I think I’ll enjoy reading this one a lot. Great review and thanks for sharing 🙂
-Kimi at Geeky Chiquitas
Still need to read this. Can you believe it. 🙁 Everyone raves about Victoria Shwab. I think I’m going to be at the end of the hype but hopefully I’ll be able to read it soon!