Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Vicious by V.E. Schwab

432 reviews

megw27's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Murder

tamzy6's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

What a ride! This book read like a graphic novel without it actually being a graphic novel, and that's a testament to Schwab's writing skills. It's fast paced with sociopathic characters and everyone operates in a very morally grey area - just my kind of thing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Torture, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal death, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Murder, and Toxic friendship

outlast0002's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gun violence, Self harm, Torture, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Addiction

capsandclauses's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 “Plenty of humans were monstrous, and plenty of monsters knew how to play at being human.”

Wow. I think anti-heroes might just be my jam. If you haven't read Vicious already (which you probably have because it was released over a decade ago and is really popular), Vicious is the vigilante origin story of Victor Vale, a prison escapee with the power to stop pain. Years ago in college, Victor and his sociopathic best friend Eli Cardale (now Ever), experimented on themselves to turn themselves into superpowers, until one night where it all went wrong. Victor ended up in jail and Eli ended up a superhero (but really not at all).

Now, Victor has broken out of jail and along with a young girl and his soft-hearted giant of a fellow escapee, is out for revenge.

I loved the reluctant found family vibes. The powers were cool. And the characters were absolutely ruthless.

“But these words people threw around - humans, monsters, heroes, villains - to Victor it was all just a matter of semantics. Someone could call themselves a hero and still walk around killing dozens. Someone else could be labeled a villain for trying to stop them. Plenty of humans were monstrous, and plenty of monsters knew how to play at being human.” 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Torture

katebella's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Gun violence, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Addiction and Drug use

sarah_hutchins's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death

lyndle's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Pretty dark and bloody but very cool plot structure. The first half walks you through multiple timelines to explain where the characters are and how they got there; then we watch each character progress and make decisions from there. Very character driven and introspective, but good characters and cool story beats. Somehow missed that this was basically a dark superhero book when I picked it up. Lots of trigger warnings below but none of them felt super triggering or were intended to be. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness, Grief, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, and Alcohol

While lots of characters die, you don't necessarily need to worry about all of them staying dead. And several of these warnings are either quick, nonpermanent, or done with an analytical purpose instead of an emotionally or mentally unstable one.

eleasofia's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

i started to read this basically without knowing what the book is about i was drawn in immediately. i thought the premise was interesting, fascinating. i loved the characters and their design. they were all unique and intriguing and even if i didn't like them, i still loved their concepts. i loved the writing - clever, often funny, sometimes really beautiful. i loved the relatively short chapters with the time skips and pov switches. i often hate those because it quickly gets confusing if not perfectly executed, but i was never really confused. i loved trying to guess how the puzzle fit together by getting fed these bits and pieces of information. i loved how it all came together very nicely in the end. not once did i feel like the pacing was off. i really have nothing bad to say about it. it's a really, really good book. the only thing it was "missing" for me is that i didn't get crazy obsessed with it. that's the only thing separating it from a true 5-star-read for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, and Murder

luxxltyd's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death and Self harm

Minor: Drug abuse, Medical content, and Stalking

karissahodge's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

GREAT book! Kept me on my toes the whole time, and the predictable ending was made interesting by all the pieces that needed to fit before I got there. My only critique is that the different POVs all seemed to have the same voice. As I listened to the audiobook, I sometimes had to rewind to remember who was narrating that part of the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Medical content, Religious bigotry, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis