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egg_apologist's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Fascinating concept, interesting characters to go along with it, but not particularly well executed in my opinion. The book is clearly trying very hard to be a character-driven novel, but I am unconvinced that it succeeded. The chapters are so incredibly short, which has the fun and interesting effect of making the plot feel like a countdown toward the inevitable showdown of the two main characters—Victor and Eli. This made the book very fast-paced and delightfully suspenseful, but it also had the added effect of forcing the narration to cut down severely on both the descriptions of characters/settings AND the amount of dialogue present in each chapter, which resulted in the novel doing a lot of “telling” about the characters, rather than “showing.”
In order to keep the chapters short so that the novel could move the plot along quickly, we (the audience) get very few scenes showcasing what any of the characters (main- or side-) were like before they became ExtraOrdinary individuals (EOs, for short). For example, instead of showing us how close Victor and Eli used to be before their inevitable falling-out (something that would’ve enriched their personalities pre-EO life and fleshed out their characters a lot more), we are given only the shortest glimpse into their lives together in college. We’re shown barely anything at all of their lives before they both decided to become EOs. The flashback scenes pretty much jump straight into showing how those two became EOs, and then their subsequent falling-out in the aftermath. Therefore, we don’t really see much of what they were like together before they fell out with each other; the audience is forced to simply trust that (at least on some level) those two used be friends. Since we don’t get to see much of how close they used to be, their falling out with each other (and therefore their “showdown” that the plot is pushing us towards) doesn’t end up having the same emotional impact that it would’ve had if we’d truly witnessed how close they had been in the past. Not including enough scenes showcasing their backstories also ended up making all of the characters feel just a little bit flat overall.
It is also hinted at (but never outright confirmed) thattransforming into an EO might, perhaps, lessen a character’s empathy towards other humans. This had so much potential to be a fascinating bit of lore, but once again, the audience is given so few glimpses into what Victor, Eli, or any of the other EOs were like before they became EOs, so there simply isn’t enough data for the audience to make a hypothesis one way or another about whether or not this is supposed to be true, or if it’s actually a falsehood that certain characters simply choose to believe. What’s worse, the few-and-far-between glimpses that we are given of their lives before they were all EOs don’t show the characters as necessarily being all that different in their pre-EO lives as they are shown to be in their lives as EOs. Occasionally, certain characters will insist to us that the EOs are behaving differently (i.e., the narrative “tells” us that they are now different), but we are never shown any corroborating evidence (that is, we aren’t shown very many (if any) scenes of what they were like before), so we just have to choose whether or not we want to take those particular characters’ word for it. It could very well be the case that this lack of evidence to corroborate those claims was actually intentional—maybe it was a sort of way to entice the audience to read the next book in the series so that they can find out whether that particular bit of speculation is true. But regardless of what the intention was, the effect was that, since the narrative had already done so much telling rather than showing when it came to the characters’ personalities and backstories anyway, this lore-drop just ended up feeling like yet another thing that the narrative chose to tell rather than show.
To be honest, I feel bad giving this book such a low rating because I truly felt like it had so much potential. But I really do think that the choosing to prioritize creating suspense in the plot (i.e., choosing to keep all of the chapters incredibly short and fast-paced) over prioritizing fleshing out the characters’ backstories (i.e, writing longer chapters in order to “show” the audience more about the characters rather than just “telling”) is a HUGE mistake if the aim is to write a character-driven story. It would’ve been a genius move for a plot-driven narrative, but in a character-driven narrative, that decision only served to undermine the amount of time needed to write characters that are truly three-dimensional. This book was overall a little disappointing, but since it is the first in a series, I’m still willing to give the series as a whole the benefit of the doubt. Hopefully, this issue of writing a character driven story that doesn’t actually quite succeed in fleshing out characters enough gets improved upon as the series continues.
In order to keep the chapters short so that the novel could move the plot along quickly, we (the audience) get very few scenes showcasing what any of the characters (main- or side-) were like before they became ExtraOrdinary individuals (EOs, for short). For example, instead of showing us how close Victor and Eli used to be before their inevitable falling-out (something that would’ve enriched their personalities pre-EO life and fleshed out their characters a lot more), we are given only the shortest glimpse into their lives together in college. We’re shown barely anything at all of their lives before they both decided to become EOs. The flashback scenes pretty much jump straight into showing how those two became EOs, and then their subsequent falling-out in the aftermath. Therefore, we don’t really see much of what they were like together before they fell out with each other; the audience is forced to simply trust that (at least on some level) those two used be friends. Since we don’t get to see much of how close they used to be, their falling out with each other (and therefore their “showdown” that the plot is pushing us towards) doesn’t end up having the same emotional impact that it would’ve had if we’d truly witnessed how close they had been in the past. Not including enough scenes showcasing their backstories also ended up making all of the characters feel just a little bit flat overall.
It is also hinted at (but never outright confirmed) that
To be honest, I feel bad giving this book such a low rating because I truly felt like it had so much potential. But I really do think that the choosing to prioritize creating suspense in the plot (i.e., choosing to keep all of the chapters incredibly short and fast-paced) over prioritizing fleshing out the characters’ backstories (i.e, writing longer chapters in order to “show” the audience more about the characters rather than just “telling”) is a HUGE mistake if the aim is to write a character-driven story. It would’ve been a genius move for a plot-driven narrative, but in a character-driven narrative, that decision only served to undermine the amount of time needed to write characters that are truly three-dimensional. This book was overall a little disappointing, but since it is the first in a series, I’m still willing to give the series as a whole the benefit of the doubt. Hopefully, this issue of writing a character driven story that doesn’t actually quite succeed in fleshing out characters enough gets improved upon as the series continues.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Murder, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Addiction
Minor: Police brutality and War
obfuscatress's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
To be honest, this book did not live up to my expectations based on some of the reviews I had heard of it prior to reading it. Until about 75% into it, I was looking at rating it just about (if not less than) three stars. My main issue lies with the fact that one of the main characters seems to suddenly acquire very strong motivations for their actions that are not foreshadowed nor are they ever explained or explored in any detail. To me personally, this change made no sense and made it difficult to connect with the story. That being said, there are several clever little twists added to the plot in this final quarter of the book, that I felt it ultimately deserved a better rating. In addition to that, virtually every other character is interesting and fairly complex considering the limited time we get to explore each individual and relationship within such a fast-paced plot.
While I can't say I regret reading this book, I could not in all honesty recommend it to someone else. However, now having read the book and found so much of the later plot and character development interesting, I will probably read the sequel too. If you're happy to be infuriated with the way one of the central characters is written for most of a book, maybe this one is for you too.
While I can't say I regret reading this book, I could not in all honesty recommend it to someone else. However, now having read the book and found so much of the later plot and character development interesting, I will probably read the sequel too. If you're happy to be infuriated with the way one of the central characters is written for most of a book, maybe this one is for you too.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Murder
Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Child death, Blood, and Abandonment
Minor: War
cleot's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Schwab weaves a fascinating and engaging narrative. It's not my favorite of her work because I struggle with getting as invested when most the characters are in their own ways unlikable but the plot is worth it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Murder
Moderate: Animal death, Genocide, Gore, Self harm, Torture, and Xenophobia
Minor: War
lindseyhall44's review against another edition
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
In an Instagram post last month,
V.E Schwab publicized an editors comment, which read “you’re readers will follow you anywhere.” Out of all the authors I have read over the years, I cannot think of one more fitting of this than Schwab, and Vicious is just the latest example.
Vicious follows two best friends, Victor and Eli, and the dark path that awaits them as a science thesis goes horribly wrong. The experiment in question: what is the essence behind an ExtraOrdinary person….and is it possible to create one?
I love the philosophical questions intertwined with the dark academia setting and more gruesome plot progressions, since it rounds into a more complex story. Even though Victor is a morally gray character, I still found myself rooting for him, in spite of his numerous faults. I think this goes to show the significance of character development in Schwab’s work (even the side characters), something I am exciting to read more of in the future. I have a feeling that the sequel (vengeful) will be a five star read for me, since there is less “magic system” development:)
V.E Schwab publicized an editors comment, which read “you’re readers will follow you anywhere.” Out of all the authors I have read over the years, I cannot think of one more fitting of this than Schwab, and Vicious is just the latest example.
Vicious follows two best friends, Victor and Eli, and the dark path that awaits them as a science thesis goes horribly wrong. The experiment in question: what is the essence behind an ExtraOrdinary person….and is it possible to create one?
I love the philosophical questions intertwined with the dark academia setting and more gruesome plot progressions, since it rounds into a more complex story. Even though Victor is a morally gray character, I still found myself rooting for him, in spite of his numerous faults. I think this goes to show the significance of character development in Schwab’s work (even the side characters), something I am exciting to read more of in the future. I have a feeling that the sequel (vengeful) will be a five star read for me, since there is less “magic system” development:)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Drug use, Medical content, and Abandonment
Minor: War
jehansflowers's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
GOOD SHIT
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Murder
Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail
the suicide is for Science Reasons, but is still relatively graphic. animal death is a dog, & isnt permanent
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