| BOOK REVIEW | VICIOUS BY V.E. SCHWAB

Vicious
Author : V.E. Schwab
Genres : Adult, science-fiction

If Eli really was a hero, and Victor meant to stop him, did that make him a villain ?

I have so many things to say about this book. This is an incredible read, a gripping and an epic story.
This is the first adult book from this author that I read.

This is the kind of story where you can’t decide who is the hero and who is the villain. This is a story about friendship, betrayal, and broken people.
It’s about Victor and Eli. They both studied to Merit College and quickly become friends. They share the same fierceness, arrogance and they’re both brilliant.
Elis’ thesis was about EOs as EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE. Together they managed to discover  the trigger to developping some abilities. And they decided to test it. They both succeeded and in that moment they became vicious enemies.

10 years later. Victor escaped from prison ans is determined to get his revenge. He learnt to control his ability while Eli was on a mission to eradicate all the EOs, because he thinks that’s what God wants.

In this story, the so called hero, Eli is doing wrong actions, by killing people who don’t deserve to die. He is also manipulated by Serena, another Vicious character. Serena cannot be resisted. What she asks she obtains.
Also, the supposed villain, Victor can be considered doing things that could be considered as right but he is doing them for wrong reasons. Victor has gathered a “team” : Mitch his former cellmate who escaped with him. he is a mountain, but with a brain. Sydney, a 12 years old girl, who happened to be in Victor’s journey. These two characters are a proof that Victor can also be human, that he has “feelings”.
There are strong sidekicks.
Also, Sydney has a story going on with Serena, since she’s her big sister and she tried to kill her when teaming up with Eli.

The story was so well built. The alternation between nowadays and 10 years ago was great. I was craving to know what lead these 2 friends to become mortal enemies.
I loved to see how two stories ended in the same place. I loved trying to figure out who was the worst character, what would happen next and then discover another exciting event, another variable.
I totally would have binge read this book but you know… life got in the middle.
I read The archived and The Unbound by V.E. Schwab, so I know she is amazing at creating well built world, plot and is even more amazing at creating interesting characters. There is nothing off key in this book.

So this is the first review that I wrote “officially” for this blog. Obviously, I’m still posting reviews on goodreads (but with spoilers). I hope to write better reviews; I’m setting down all my thoughts during my read in this purpose.