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A review by toggle_fow
Vicious by V.E. Schwab
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Okay, this is my favorite Schwab yet.
It's the story of two college roommates who give themselves superpowers, and then everything goes wrong from there. Both of them are either psychopaths or sociopaths, not sure. Both of them are fixated on each other, first in a way that was like an intense uncomfortable bromance and then later with an intense uncomfortable desire to murder each other.
Victor is cool, and evil. Aside from the superpowers, Eli is your average "has a traumatic relationship with religion, guilt and sin because of his abusive hypocritical dad" serial killer. With the addition of Sydney and her sister, everything becomes very interesting.
I have to praise this story's balance specifically. I doubted whether I would like it, because it was billed as a story with no good guys and I do need someone to root for. But Victor walks the line very well between actually evil and easily woobified, and Sydney is completely sympathetic. Also, the story was brought to a satisfying enough full circle, but there's also a lot left here that makes me want to read the next installment.
Overall, this book is compulsively readable, broken into easy chunks that practically fly by. I enjoyed it a lot, and it only took me so long to read because Return of the Thief came out this week and I have priorities.
It's the story of two college roommates who give themselves superpowers, and then everything goes wrong from there. Both of them are either psychopaths or sociopaths, not sure. Both of them are fixated on each other, first in a way that was like an intense uncomfortable bromance and then later with an intense uncomfortable desire to murder each other.
Victor is cool, and evil. Aside from the superpowers, Eli is your average "has a traumatic relationship with religion, guilt and sin because of his abusive hypocritical dad" serial killer. With the addition of Sydney and her sister, everything becomes very interesting.
I have to praise this story's balance specifically. I doubted whether I would like it, because it was billed as a story with no good guys and I do need someone to root for. But Victor walks the line very well between actually evil and easily woobified, and Sydney is completely sympathetic. Also, the story was brought to a satisfying enough full circle, but there's also a lot left here that makes me want to read the next installment.
Overall, this book is compulsively readable, broken into easy chunks that practically fly by. I enjoyed it a lot, and it only took me so long to read because Return of the Thief came out this week and I have priorities.