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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
totallymaegz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Blood and Death
Moderate: Drug use, Gun violence, Child death, and Violence
Minor: Animal death
bookjunkie630's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Addiction, Suicide attempt, Drug use, Suicide, Gun violence, Murder, Cursing, Death, and Animal death
hel713'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: Drug abuse, Death, Kidnapping, Drug use, Gun violence, and Murder
Moderate: Animal death and Blood
aetherisreading'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? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Violence, Blood, Death, and Drug abuse
Moderate: Alcohol, Drug use, and Gun violence
Minor: Animal death
starsandscarsbookclub's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Toxic friendship, Torture, Animal death, Self harm, Murder, Mental illness, Gore, Gun violence, Confinement, Death, Violence, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, and Blood
heartsallure's review against another edition
- 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
genuinely was in a constant state of stress the entire time but i loooooooved this. will always enjoy a ragtag found family trope God Bless
Graphic: Child death, Suicide attempt, Murder, Death, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Self harm, and Violence
Moderate: Drug use and Gun violence
hmccracken'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
4.0
Graphic: Drug use, Violence, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
on_your_raedar's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
5.0
Fastest summary: this book is about Eli, a college student, that does his thesis on extraordinary (EOs) people and his roommate Victor, the POV you spend majority of the book in, work together to test Eli’s theories into practice to see if they can make EOs. Victor accidentally kills someone with his gift and Eli turns him in and goes on a self righteous kick using religion as his motivator. You spend the whole book waiting for the V and E show down.
I’m not sure if the intent was to make Victor a likeable character but I really liked him. Mitch was easily my favorite character, I really hope the6 make this into a movie or tv show and get his character right because I’d love to see him. Sydney was a solid character, she’s really young so I’m excited to see her growth if she’s in book 2, especially with
Needless to say, I have book 2 ready to start and also another book by the author. I could easily see V.E. creeping into my top 5 authors and I’m ready.
Graphic: Murder, Violence, Suicide, Blood, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Gun violence
Minor: Drug use, Grief, Gaslighting, and Ableism
marywatkines's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Murder, Blood, Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Drug use, and Gun violence