A review by spearly
Vicious by V.E. Schwab

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

4.0

Victor was out. Victor was free.
And Victor was coming for Eli—just as he’d promised he would.


This might surprise you, but Vicious is my first V.E. Schwab book. I never hopped on the Addie LaRue train, and honestly, I'm glad, because this was an excellent introduction into the lyrical writing, world building, and complexities of Victoria Schwab.

10 years ago, college roommates Eli and Victor decide to put a theory to the test - under the right conditions, with enough pain and willpower to live, you can make an ExtraOrdinary person, or EO; regular people who survive a near-death experience and develop incredible powers. But the night Victor comes back from the brink of death is the night everything changed.

I won't lie and say that I love love loved this as much as some of my mutuals. Am I crushing on a verifiable sociopath with powers and a hunger for revenge? No.

Victor Vale and Eli Ever are two very complicated, nuanced, and morally ambiguous characters. Their sense of right and wrong is almost completely manufactured, especially when the both come back after their NDE with that vital part of themselves missing: Eli calls it a soul. I call it humanity. But even before their accidents, there was something dark beneath the surface.

I'm torn, because I love complex characters but when it comes to moral ambiguity.... it's tough. I HATE hypocrites, and I hate hypocritical characters. But like... I know that's the POINT.

There are no good men in this game.

And it's true. Victor Vale is not a good man. Eli Ever is not a good man. They both skew their realities to give themselves some moral superiority where there is none. Eli uses God and faith to justify his work, and Victor uses, tortures, and forces anyone who serves him a purpose. But again... I KNOW THAT'S THE POINT.

That aside though, I appreciated Victor's struggle to fabricate his old, human feelings, his need to do right, even when it didn't come naturally to him. How, in his own way, he did still have people he cared about. I could even see how Eli came to be as Eli was: a man who thought he was touched by God. A man who thought it was his divine purpose to eradicate the world of other EOs. His chapters helped with that. I didn't like them, but they helped.

The world building though was *chef's kiss*. I loved how uncanny if felt. It teeters on the edge of possibility, which I suppose is the marking of a good sci-fi. Atmospheric. A fantasy noir. I could picture the rain and the sizzle of power and the darkness that loomed over a world so similar to our. Juts unknown.

I need a breather I think before I pick up Vengeful, but i will come back to it. I loved Sydney. I loved Mitch. I loved Dol. Justice for Angie.

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