Vicious by V. E. Schwab

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same ambition in each other. A shared 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 with 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 arch-nemeses have set a course for revenge but who will be left alive at the end?

I have been meaning to read Vicious for years but with the release of the second book in the series being released in a couple of weeks I thought it was the perfect time to actually pick the book off my shelf and finally start reading it. To say I was going into this book with very high expectations is an understatement. I have loved every other V. E. Schwab book I’ve ever read, and with the high praise I have been hearing about this book, I had nothing but high expectations. Sometimes this can ruin the reading experience because you are always looking for something to make the book stand out and live up to all the hype. I am happy to say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading Vicious and I am all for all the hype because this book is amazing.

I don’t want to give too much of the story away but for me this is a an X-men story with a V. E. Schwab villainy twist. Two boys find out how to gain powers to make them Extra Ordinary, but after a tragic turn of events, one of them ends up in prison while the other one is using his powers as an anti superhero. The two main characters, Victor and Eli,  are not very likeable but very intriguing. They are the sort of characters who you are not quite sort on who to root for, but you have to carry on reading the book just find to find out who ends up on top.

As with V. E. Schwab’s other books she manages to create a world with such detail and depth thats its hard not to fall instantly in love with the story. I am not going to lie, it did take me a little longer than the other books to get into the story, but once I did then I fell in love hard. I think all the hype and expectations were some of the reason why I didn’t immediately feel for the characters and the story. Another reason why I found it a little difficult to fall in love with first was because the story kept flipping from the past to the present. I haven’t read much about the story itself because I like to read books like this knowing very little of the storyline, so I didn’t know about the story being told from different timelines. But after fifty pages I got used to the storytelling and started to become intrigued by the story and its two main characters.

As I said Vicious is told from different timelines, and with the chapters being relatively short its so easy to fly through the pages because you are wanting to continue reading the story from your favourite timeline. I managed to read this is just a couple sittings because when the story starts to pick up its hard to even put this book down for a few minutes. I am so glad that I have the sequel in my hands already because if I read this when it was first released, I would have been devastated to have to wait five years to read the second book.

If you have read any of V. E. Schwab’s other books and have really enjoyed them then Vicious is a book that you need to pick up and read really soon because you will not be disappointed. Or if you have never read a book by her before then I think Vicious is a perfect starting point because it has every trademark of a brilliant V. E. Schwab book. Vicious has everything you want for a perfect read it has wonderful writing, suspenseful storytelling, and captivating characters. There is not very much to dislike about this book so I would definitely recommend reading Vicious as soon as you can.

I rate this book 5/5 stars