After Reading: VICIOUS by VE Schwab

By: Meradeth Houston on 4:00 AM

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? (Goodreads)

I picked this up because I particularly adored the Shades of Magic series by the same author and was looking for something along those lines. This was quite different, but the same strong characters and wonderful writing follows the author here. Overall, the story is a rather normal superhero tale, but what gives it an edge is Schwab's fantastic characters who leap from the pages. And while the author's scientific explanations made me cringe a few times, I found myself reading far into the night. I also particularly liked how there really was not a lot of cut-and-dry good-guy/bad-guy stereotypes. It was far more of shades of who was better or worse, and as I read, I felt that this made the story far more believable. Overall I very much enjoyed this and am looking forward to snagging the next one in the series!