There are no good men in this game.
Title: Vicious
Author: Victoria Schwab
Page Count: 366 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: September 24, 2013
Buy It: Chapters Indigo
SYNOPSIS
Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, 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.
Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?
MY THOUGHTS
And so continues my battle with Schwab. ANd I mean battle because although I like the plot and the stories and the darkness of her work I still feel an aversion at certain moments. Especially when characters are killed off almost willy nilly it feels!
Having said all that I did really enjoy Vicious and am going to dive into Vengeful soon. I found this book very unexpected in terms of what I thought it would be about. I was afraid the main character would be the whiny male that seems to be reflected in many fantasy novels. What is it with authors creating exceptionally irritating male characters in their work, ie: The Magicians, Oryx & Crake, even Narnia! Happy to say that although I found them slightly whiny they grew out of it and it felt more revengeful than whiny. Redeemed!
Vicious felt more like a dark x-men more than anything and since that is my favourite superhero world I knew I at least had to give it a try. I also felt some Catherynne Valente vibes, just a feel to the story compared to her Refrigeator Monologues (again, the superhero angle).
Don’t go into this one expecting to like the main characters or even be attached to them. This is a true anti-hero/villian story.
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Heh yeah Vengeful might annoy you xD
Like I said in your Insta post, I already think Xmen is a bit too dark for me, haha. So this might be entirely too dark? But maybe I’m confusing depressing with dark? Hmmmm
So this was love. Awesome. I have this one owned.
It was just so well done and I loved it! And then vengeful happened….grumbles
Do you have to read on with Vengeful or can it just be left at Vicious?
Nope you can read vicious as a standalone!
In fact I’d recommend it because she totally forgot who her characters were going to book 2 🙄