Review: Vicious by V.E. Schwab

Vicious by V.E. Schwab
Publisher: Titan Books
Format: Paperback
Series: No
Pages: 340
Date Finished: 15/04/15
Rating: 5/5
Summary:
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?

Vicious is V.E. Schwab's first adult novel (she's written YA with the name Victoria Schwab) and although it came out a couple of years ago, I only just got round to reading it. I absolutely fell in love with this book. 

It's a web of five POV's, some more important than others and a story that equally takes place over a couple of days and ten years. I'll start off by saying if you don't like anti-heroes, this book is not for you. I don't think there is one character which would stereotypically be described as 'good' and I think that that's the best thing about this book. It makes you ask who the heroes are, and if heroes really exist at all. The characters question this in the book (“If Eli really was a hero, and Victor meant to stop him, did that make him a villain? He took a long sip of his drink, tipped his head back against the couch, and decided he could live with that.”) and I love the way it is delivered.

Let's start with the plot, shall we? I briefly mentioned that it takes place across a wide time frame. Part of it takes place in a matter of a few days. This bit is the main plot of the story. The rest of it is told through a series of flashbacks for five of the characters. This is all interwoven together and it feels so seamless that there isn't really an issue with the flow. The plot itself isn't anything groundbreaking, but I could tell how much research and planning went into it and it just pays off. It isn't the plot that made me love this book--it's the delivery.

Vicious basically gets every cliche and turns it on its head. Superheroes and villains? Let's make the reader guess which is which (I still don't have an answer). Sidekicks? Let's make them more powerful than the hero/villain. It feels so fresh and new because of this. It's a wonder how Schwab did it, considering the super hero genre is pretty much full (not that I'm complaining). I simply loved that.

By far the best part of the book was the characters. Victor is probably my favourite, probably because we spent most of the time in his head. Don't get me wrong, he isn't really a nice person, but his thoughts were just so logical and I could see exactly why he made each decision, even those ones involving murder. Ahem.

Whist I just loved Victor, Eli is a character that I just loved to hate, same with Serena (Eli's 'sidekick' for want of a better term). Again, his fucked-up-ness was so incredibly logical and everything just made sense. He had a God complex and I thought that this was done really well, especially when it's another trope which his so common in characters.

The secondary characters were just as magical. Sydney was wonderful to read, and I found myself completely relating to this twelve year old girl. Mitch was just fabulous. He's a giant, tattoo covered, thug looking guy who is a hacker with a preference for chocolate milk. I want a Mitch spin off.

This book was just fabulous. I couldn't put it down. As soon as I started reading, I was immersed in the (slightly disturbing) minds of our characters. Their tales just mattered to me, you know? Equally I loved how thought provoking this was. If you read this, ask yourself who the heroes are and who the villains are. I bet you can't come up with an answer.