A story that combines fantasy, science, revenge, and extraordinary abilities, Vicious is smart, cutthroat, and a thrill to read. V. E. Schwab crafted a novel that examines what it truly means to be good, or to be a villain, and how far one can go to exact revenge. With compelling and complicated characters, told in a way that makes it impossible to put down, Vicious is a story that will not be easily forgotten.
V. E. Schwab is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen novels, including This Savage Song, Vicious, and The Shades of Magic series. When she's not wandering Scottish hills or French streets she can be found in a Nashville coffee shop, dreaming up monsters. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram @veschwab, or on her website veschwab.com. You can find more of my reviews of Schwab's work here.
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.
Most everyone loves a good superhero story—Disney and Marvel have certainly capitalized on that fact. But they always feel just out of reach, because of the insanity of having powers like that. In Schwab's fantasy novel, the hero is within reach. The science of ExtraOrdinaries, and the way Schwab weaves a tale of discovery and manufacturing of a hero is a very compelling storyline. This science is what makes the story utterly believable—there was no doubt in mind that had two ambitious college students researched the cause for extraordinary abilities and found the cause, they would have totally tried it out on themselves and had a falling out so sharp because of it. The way the cause of becoming an EO was also possible for others in the story created an element of reality within this story of fantasy, and which allowed someone like Sydney's character to exist.
And speaking of creating a sense of reality within the fantasy, every single character was developed with care, and was not without their flaws. No one was perfect; no one was good. But no one was bad, either, or at least there was always one other person who didn't think so. The morally ambiguous themes this novel deals with was incredible—I've never read a cast of characters quite this compelling before. Despite being repulsed by some of Victor's actions, I felt like Sydney with my admiration and trust in him. Despite hating Eli for how he brainwashed himself, I was impressed with how Schwab weaved in destructive faith within his development. Sydney and Serena as well were also characters that I was intrigued by; especially Serena, who probably had so much power to use her abilities for something good, and just didn't. I can see why readers would be obsessed with uncovering more about their past and their motivations in the second novel, but I almost appreciate not knowing, and mulling over these complicated characters as they were originally intended to be read.
This novel plays with time, and one of my favorite professors has said that if you read a novel that plays with time, then you know you're reading something good. Schwab moves through time to tell Victor's, Eli's, Sydney's and Serena's stories. Victor's motivations are clearly established with flashbacks, but we are compelled by curiosity and what he's doing in the present day to push us through to get to the flashbacks. Oscillating between these different Victors (past and present) is important to readers in understanding who he is, and why he's motivated the way he is. He becomes a more dynamic character than he would be if the story was just told linearly. When we switch to Eli's point-of-view in the second half of the novel (or at least start to fold him into the story more intimately), Victor has already established him as a villain, and no matter how many "God supports me" speeches he makes, we can't quite believe him—but it's not like we believe Victor's route is the best way to solve everything either. This goes back to how Schwab is able to develop complex character. By messing with time and sticking with Victor during the first half of the novel, we as readers are introduced to each character in such a way that gives us the most complicated understanding of their character.
Lastly, I loved the dark academia vibes from this piece. That was definitely not something I expected out of a book also tagged as a superhero novel, but I enjoyed how dark the entire story was. From their first meeting to Victor's very last moment, this book was gritty and dark. Schwab is a very intentional, and very deliberate storyteller. Each word is chosen with precision, each repetition carefully manipulated to make readers feel or remember specific images. This, to me, is reflective of how Victor is obsessed with blackout and blacking out books. He very deliberately strikes through large portions of text to create the message he wants, to tell the story he wants by which words he leaves behind. Victor is essentially doing that to his own life during the week the story takes place—choosing a specific set of actions that blacks out everything he doesn't want people to see, to leave behind the scene that he does. This book is ripe for analysis, showing that Schwab is a masterful and smart storyteller.
While Vicious can be read as a standalone (and I do believe it was intended when originally published to remain that way), Schwab returned to these characters and this world in Vengeful. You can also find more of my reviews of Schwab's work here.
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
Comments
Post a Comment