Book 49
Vicious by V.E. Schwab
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I'm sorry it took me so long to get to this. I loved it. To capture it in a nutshell, Vicious is a mix of Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo, Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, and all of DC/Marvel with a soupcon of real life killers Nathan Leopold, and Richard Loeb. Honestly Leopold and Loeb were first to mind when I met Victor Vale and Eli "Ever" Cardale.
The story is convolutedly non-linear without ever being confusing (well Schwab makes it easy on you. The chapter headers are very precise as to when and where) but it all starts ten years ago at Lockdale University with Victor and Eli's senior thesis. Victor wants to study the effect of the adrenal glands but Eli takes a wild approach that should have guaranteed a failing grade, the creation of EOs, extraordinary beings.
Without spoiling things, let's leave it as they are smart and for my money sociopathic from the start (this becomes a point for Eli down the road that EOs are broken and should be removed without him seeming to realize that maybe, just maybe, he's looking at things through the filter of his own dysfunction.) They succeed and in their experiments become EOs themselves. However, Eli has issues that run deep thanks to a highly religious abusive father, mentioned only briefly but his effects linger. Long (great) story short, thanks to Eli Victor spends a decade in prison, half of it in isolation.
The story begins after he breaks out with a prison friend, Mitch and a chance meeting with a young girl, Sydney starts Victor down his long-planned vengeance on Eli. It is very much Victor and Eli's story. However, Sydney, and her older sister, Serena, who is allied with Eli and his religious mania are instrumental in this. In fact, I doubt it would have worked as Victor wanted without them, especially young Sydney. However, I don't want to say more because I would hate to spoil anything especially their EO abilities.
All the characters are very well drawn. As is said in the story, none of them are good men (with the exception of Sydney). This is a story of anti-heroes (or heroes because who isn't the hero of their own story and Eli absolutely believes he is. He is legally insane because he doesn't seem to see right from wrong as he justifies what he does to EOs as God's will). It's a believable, engaging story and I can't wait to go read the next one.
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