Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Vicious by V.E. Schwab

41 reviews

ashley_turch's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Animal death, Blood, Death, Gun violence, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Abandonment and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Alcoholism and Addiction

Animal Death warning info:

The dog dies and comes back to life twice, ultimately living in the end. The deaths are described, which I personally had to skip over. Luckily he ended up being ok.

claireisagrisha's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

OMG!!! Wow… so these have been on my physical shelf since 2022 and I finally read them!!! Thank you thank you I’m proud of it too. 

Did I love Vicious? Yes. Was Vengeful better? Yeah. To me. Hehehehehehe 

I think the usage of multiple POVs in both novels really contributes to my enjoyment of them because you get to hear everyone’s backstory through their perspective and you get a glimpse in how they think/view the world. 

If you want a fantasy book about superpowers and supervillains ~ read this!!! It also has strong friendships, betrayals, and   your jaw will be dropped. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Violence

Moderate: Addiction

kspag206's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

5.0

This book is amazing. I’ve never read a book quite like it. The writing is fantastic, the characters are so complicated. And the fact that there are so many and each have their one well developed voice is amazing. This book really makes you think about morals whilst also feeling like a spin off of DC’s Jessica Jones. Fantastic. And the way this story comes full circle is just….chef’s kiss. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Body horror, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Addiction

ceruleanheather's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• 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

5.0

This was a deliciously dark, twisted tale of what can happen when people get super powers. Sometimes it is difficult to tell who the villains and heroes are. 

The story goes back and forth between the present (ish), and ten years ago. Ten years ago Victor and Eli were friends in med school with a crazy theory about people gaining super powers called EOs (ExtraOrdinaries). Their bond is already an odd one in this time, but it works somehow. There is much jealousy though, and inevitable betrayal.

In the present, Eli and Victor are anything but friends. One has a god complex, and one seems self aware yet not quite caring. The betrayals have been festering and everything is heading to a climax at midnight.

Along the way we meet Mitch, Sydney, Serena, and a host of other characters. Each one being drawn into the epic conflict. Through each perspective we get to explore that fine line between what makes a person a hero or a villain, and so many gray areas. I love that there are no true background characters, as each one has their own demons to wrestle and their own role.

The two main characters are a psychopath and a sociopath, so fair warning. I was utterly fascinated by the way their minds worked though.

*TW* animal death (but keep reading)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Violence, Mental illness, Death, Addiction, Torture, Toxic friendship, Blood, Drug use, Medical content, Murder, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Gun violence, and Alcohol

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Gun violence, Torture, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Abandonment, Child death, Addiction, Blood, and Animal death

Minor: War

foggyoblio's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Blood, Animal death, Gore, Addiction, Alcohol, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Medical content, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Medical trauma, Suicide, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, Death, Alcoholism, Child death, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Stalking, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Confinement

strawberrytheauthor's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This book was so good! Go into it knowing nothing! Just go read it! I’m literalLu screamed at the last line and at least 12 others in the book. It’s just so so so so so so good!!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Alcohol, Grief, Mental illness, Addiction, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Animal cruelty, Child death, Toxic friendship, Torture, Blood, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Drug abuse, Murder, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Alcoholism, Self harm, and Suicide

Moderate: Cursing

haveyouseencass's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

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

erebus53's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• 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

This is an origin story of supervillains. It tells the story of a couple of guys who were in premed when they started experiments to learn more about near death experiences. I got a vibe like the movie Flatliners(1990) with the level of obsession., and in with that, one of the main characters is called Victor, which is the name of another obsessed young student who fascinated himself with reanimation in a completely different classic novel... I doubt that is more than coincidence. The strangely gifted people are called EOs (extra-ordinaries) and much like Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, or X-Men, Spider-Man, and the NBC series Heroes the book explores what happens when people have impossible powers, and includes the argument about whether this is a physical or spiritual gift; whether it is deliberate and divine, or just a fluke.

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).

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Content Warnings

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

bookjunkie630's review against another edition

dark reflective tense fast-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Addiction, Suicide attempt, Drug use, Suicide, Gun violence, Murder, Cursing, Death, and Animal death