Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Vicious

I have truly never had so much fun absolutely hating the guts of book characters in my life. V.E Shwab writes a fascinating novel about two people who are pretty horrible in two very different ways, and sprinkles in some classic superhero science for spice. The story is told in a way that made me feel like I was reading the script for a movie I wish was actually made. I enjoyed the age diversity in the main cast and how it highlighted what a common goal can do to bring people together. If you’re interested in the lengths two college kids too smart for their own good will go to in order to be special, I recommend this book wholeheartedly.

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corvidkings's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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rebeltheflow's review

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slow-paced

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

2.75

2/5

⭐️⭐️

Boring & poorly written. I wanted to love this so much & have mixed feelings on the book but the more I think about it the more I have to admit that I didn’t like it. It’s the most disappointing experience I’ve had reading in a while.

First of all, I love superhero/villain/comic-book vibes so the premise had me sold. I love unique narrative styles so I was sold on the time shifts, & I like a fast-paced book so quick chapters got my interest. Until almost every aspect of this book fell flat and failed to do anything for me.

The characters were so one dimensional and flat. This was highlighted by how similarly they were described: “Victor had a charming but unsettling smile to him” followed by “Eli had a smile that was unsettling but charming.” (Not direct quotes but paraphrased examples). Like so they have the exact same features and personality. That’s an odd choice.

Back to the chapters being short. Don’t let that fool you into thinking this a fast paced novel. It is very slow. The chapters were quick, yes, but had zero substanance to them. Whole chapters existed just to say “Victor drove from here to there.” “Victor paced back and forth.” “Victor ordered Chinese food.” Just because those chapters are 3-6 pages long doesn’t make the book any faster!!!!

Also, other than the expository background stories that got dull, the entire story

takes place in a time span of like 3 days. At half way I was reading “Two hours from midnight” & it took 130 pages to reach “One hour from midnight.”

So yeah, I consider that slow.

Next, the narrative jumps that were meant to foreshadow future reveals failed for me. Instead of foreshadow they just spoiled because I knew every reveal before it was announced.

I knew Victor’s, Eli’s Serenas’s, & Sydney’s powers like a thousand pages before VE Schwab thought she was clever in finally saying what it is.

And because I found out all these things before the plot directly said it, it also made all the characters appear as very very dumb for not catching onto to obvious plans and powers sooner.

The plot twists. There was none. Well there kind of was but none of them were good. All the “plot twists” are better described as cop outs. “And then he died” “jk no he didn’t” “and then he died” “jk no he didn’t” “and then he walks by his enemy but they didn’t look up at each other” LAME!!!!

The plot moved almost strictly on coincidental moments, which in my opinion is incredibly LAZY WRITING.

“Victor breaks out of prison after plotting revenge on Eli for 10 years….Eli is in the same city.” “Victor moves into the Esquire Hotel….Eli is staying in the Esquire Hotel too.” “Victor needed an escape plan….he instantly meets someone who can teleport.”

This book started good, and I was expecting a 4/5 star read, but it slowly dragged into a 3 star & finally a 2.

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ashley_turch's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Minus one star for sad dog content

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radwritingdesk's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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katbotelho's review against another edition

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adventurous tense fast-paced

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

4.75

theres a lot going on in this book but i really enjoyed it,, there were times where i had to put the book down bc it was just straight up overwhelming how much was going on, but i will be reading the next one anyway. also i think this book wrote the definition for morally grey characters.

also couldve done without so much self harm tho but alas

anyway im taking away .25 star simply for serenas annoying ass

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strawberrytops's review

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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? It's complicated

5.0

I could not put this down. I wanted to read it in one sitting, and had to actively stop myself from doing so knowing it would give me nightmares if I did. It’s haunting. Addictive. I highly recommend, but not for the faint of heart.

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acogna's review

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

3.5

By far Schwab's best book I've read. Great premise and excellent pacing, but lack of POC characters is very obvious and her female characters continue to be flat and uninteresting.

Like, we're really naming the seductress with persuasion and coercion powers Serena? And we're just going to blatantly reference the fact she's a siren? Wow, everything needs to be spelled out for me, huh.

That aside, the toxic doomed yaoi was, in fact, so extremely good I could almost forgive this book's crimes. Almost.

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