Vicious by V. E. Schwab (2013)
A rhythmic read
Book cover blurb
Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. A shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. They become EOs, ExtraOrdinasies, leaving a body in their wake and turning on each other.
Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to get revenge on the one man who put him there, aided by a young girl with the ability to raise the dead. Eli has spent the years hunting down and killing every EO he can find, convinced that they are a crime against God, all except his sidekick, a woman whose power is persuasion and whom he can not defy. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the arch-nemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?
My Review
It seems like it's been a while since I've been able to say this but...Great book!
I loved the slightly side-angled view of superheroes, or more accurately villains. That's something I found quite different about this book, there isn't really a hero, it's actually about two villains and their obsession with revenge and warped sense of duty.
I found myself more drawn to the secondary characters than the primary. They're all tortured, for various reasons and seem to possess a lot more depth than is revealed in this one book. I have to admit I'm a big Mitch fan myself.
The pacing of the story works fantastically. I'm not usually much of a fan when it comes to authors jumping around in the timeline, more often than not it can be a little confusing, but V. E. Schwab handled it brilliantly. Every single chapter is a jump either forward or backwards in time, but it's handled so systematically and even rhythmically that it becomes an enjoyable part of reading, you know what's coming, you expect it and you enjoy it. Even the chapter lengths vary in a regular way. The whole thing is simply rhythmic to read.
And just to emphasise how much I enjoyed this read, I ordered the next book in this duology and the 'Shades of Magic' trilogy before I'd finished reading Vicious.
My copy of this novel
Titan Books hardback edition.
Published in 2018
393 pages
ISBN 9781785658679