Scan barcode
luciel101's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Best book of the month if not year I've had such a great time with it, I physically had to stop myself from eating this book.
Im now No1 Victor vale apologist 🫡 Victor is such a father figureðŸ˜ðŸ¤² (Sydney can contact me if she needs a mommy😞💓)
Can't wait to read Vengefu but also kinda scared, what if it ruins Vicious for me😠Vicious will always have a special place in my heart. I feel like this is the best book written by V.E Schwab. Absolutely adore this book
Graphic: Gun violence, Blood, Death, and Murder
sareadings's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Violence, Body horror, Mental illness, Blood, and Gun violence
Minor: Self harm and Animal death
mynameisrebecca's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Blood, Murder, Violence, Toxic friendship, Gore, and Gun violence
Moderate: Ableism, Religious bigotry, and Xenophobia
meheehee's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Blood
i_write_on_occasion's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Murder, Suicide, Violence, Self harm, Blood, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Animal death and Gun violence
maralaene's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I absolutely loved the storytelling in this book and the cast of characters that Victoria has created are absolutely fantastic. Especially since you go into this story, not quite understand who will end up the hero and who will end up the villain, even up until the very end. I absolutely adored the main cast of characters, including our somewhat sociopathic anti-hero Victor, but especially Mitch and Sydney. And who doesn’t love a dutiful pet sidekick
If you are looking for a morally gray story, with a strong cast of characters, and a unique yet logical magic power system, then I highly recommend giving this a try!
Graphic: Death and Animal death
Moderate: Blood
haveyouseencass's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Violence, Toxic friendship, Torture, Body horror, Gaslighting, Gore, Religious bigotry, Gun violence, Murder, Animal death, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Blood, and Death
Minor: Drug use, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, and Addiction
cursed_sapphire's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Our main cast of characters were entertaining and fun, and I really found myself rooting for them even as they did some deplorable things. This should be a case study for how to write likeable villain protagonists. The world was also well fleshed out and the lore made sense. I liked the very simple and limited power sets most characters had, as it made everything feel more like a tense struggle. The writing and tone were also consistently great.
However, my main problem was with the villain. While Eli and Victor's relationship was well defined in the flashbacks, they barely interacted in the present. Perhaps they'll get more time in the sequel, but as it is, this was not the "Superman and Lex Luthor" or "Professor X and Magneto" style rivalry promised. While Victor constantly thought about Eli and craved vengeance, Eli did not have the same level of hatred for Victor. I even felt like Victor's reason to want revenge in the first place was a little anti-climactic.
I actually thought the secondary antagonist, Serena, was more interesting than Eli. Her struggle with her powers and her relationship with her sister were all extremely interesting and paid off in satisfying ways for the most part.
Also, as an Asexual myself, I appreciate that Victor is a canon biromantic asexual, and I just want to say how happy I was to realize that he was ace. Overall I personally approved of the representation.
I definitely recommend this for fans of darker superhero content, like Joker. While it falls a little short of its true potential, the story is still a satisfying ride with characters you hate to love.
Graphic: Death, Murder, Gun violence, Violence, Toxic friendship, Self harm, Drug abuse, Animal death, Torture, and Blood
Moderate: Chronic illness and Child death
Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual content
erebus53's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
The backdrop is clearly superheroic. You have a fictional city called Merit, which is an unremarkable, American town. The main characters have alliterative names, or names or descriptions that have significance to their powers, but from the get-go all the Vs made me feel like this is a lot more like Alan Moore than Stan Lee. For starters the "heros" are sociopathic before they even get started. There is nothing quite normal about these two college room-mates.
The story is tropey enough that it's fairly easy to get a handle on, even though it's told non-chronologically. Entire sections are flashbacks to 10 years ago. There are short memories that are repeated in different chapters.. one of which was long enough that I thought I might have accidentally lost my place and be reading the wrong bit. That was mildly irritating; a phrase can anchor something poetically without an entire callback.. that might work better if it was a movie (montage it, pitch it a little lower, put some echo on or something?) or maybe a graphic novel.. (make it yellowed like old paper.. or throw the colours out like a faded photo with no blue in it..)
The middle part of the story begins to lag a bit. But it picks up a little more as the things start to culminate. I do wish the ending felt a little more planned but it starts to become a little unclear what is going to happen. I do like that the story feels out the edges or limitations of the powers that people have, and explores a little of the synergy you can get when more than one person with a gift is working together. I think it would be marvelous if there were more people with normal strengths rather than uncanny things, but that is still included in the story.
This is a very different story to something like Hench (which is about jobbing for the supervillains), and has some similarity in YA stories like Songbirds and Snakes in which the mindset of the main character is toxic and dangerous. There is some bloody violence and necromancy in this story, so if you don't like dark then this isn't your book.
Clock this one up if you want to do a reading challenge where the hero is a bad guy, and it's set in a City starting with M (yes that's a challenge prompt for the 52 BookClub Chanllenge 2024).
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Blood, Gore, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Violence, Alcohol, Confinement, Death, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Torture, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Addiction, Cursing, Stalking, and Drug use
mollieweitzman's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Torture, Gun violence, Violence, Murder, and Blood