Rave Review: Vicious

Vicious

VE Schwab

The Villains, Book #1

I Love This Book. It is, in fact, one of the best books I've ever read and I have a feeling I will always rate it highly. Reading this book feels like keeping a secret close to your heart (although it's not a secret since everyone's pretty much already read this one, and also I alone have told about two dozen people they need to get on it). It's somewhat frightening, somewhat enchanting, and definitely extraordinary.

What makes this book amazing is the characters, particularly Victor and Eli. They're complicated, which is the first attractive (not that I necessarily mean this in the romantic way, but also...) thing about them. I'm incredibly impressed that neither of them was really a good guy but depending on what part of the story I was reading I definitely found myself understanding their mindsets and why they did what they did. Like, I adore Victor, don't get me wrong, but should I? His reasons aren't exactly pure, he's just an amazing villain. Eli, too, is wonderful, though, again, should he be?

Going into the next book I need, need, NEED more of Sydney. I love her: she was the breath of fresh air in the book and she has so much potential moving forward. I'm also really, really hoping for more of Mitch, who's great, and if anything happens to him y'all are gonna have to hold me back from taking it out on someone.

I also want to point out that my first thought upon finishing this book was "Thank god the sequel comes out in a few months" because I cannot for the life of me imagine having read this and not known that there would be a sequel. The ending wraps everything up-- which, by the way, the finale is absolutely amazing and worth every second-- but it also has a terrible, terrible cliffhanger that probably would have led to my early death.

TL;DR The characters and their relationships make this book and, honestly, it's okay if you fall in love with the villain in this one. In fact, it's encouraged.

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?

Victoria is the product of a British mother, a Beverly Hills father, and a southern upbringing. Because of this, she has been known to say "tom-ah-toes," "like," and "y'all."
She also tells stories.
She loves fairy tales, and folklore, and stories that make her wonder if the world is really as it seems.