Villains #1 Vicious by V.E. Schwab 4/5 Award: Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Best Fantasy (2013) Français: Aucune traduction française n’a été annoncée. Hey guys! Before starting, I would like to apologize for not posting in a while. Things have just been a little crazy with my recent trip to NYC with school (more on that soon), then I lost my phone so I couldn't do advertising for coming posts, and then I had multiple other writing deadlines to hit. However, everything is now under control, and I have many exciting articles for you all coming up soon! Thank you for your patience. Summary 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? My thoughts To say that I had high expectations for Vicious would be an understatement. Since it came out a few years ago, I have heard nothing but raving reviews of the first novel in a recently announced series (it used to be a stand-alone). I think it came as a surprise to everyone that this book did so insanely well considering Schwab was not sure if she would get the deal for a second installment. Vicious is a very niche novel. It is part science-fiction and part fantasy with a dash of romance. If you are a fan of the X-Men franchise, you are sure to love it. Unfortunately, it would be surprising if Vicioushits my top picks of the year. It is by no means a bad book, but I think I set the bar too high. Vicious pretty much revolves around the characters’ intertwined storylines. Against popular opinion, I loved Eli the most. His twisted ways and his egotistical madness was so fun to read. He lacked any sense of morals and was probably one of the best literary villain I have ever encountered. I will agree with the crowd and say that his religious fanaticism came out of nowhere, but it was so well-written that I did not care. Victor, the main character, is the villain you love to love/hate. He is a very polarizing figure, it is now a couple weeks later, and I still haven’t decided what I think about him. His only aspiration is getting recognition from Eli, the poor kid just wants a friend. Yet, he goes to such despicable lengths to achieve this that it makes him hard to empathize with. Vicious proves that you don’t have to relate to a character to find him absolutely fantastic. Call me Manichean, but I don’t like when authors try to humanize villains particularly in this case. The novel presents itself as the ultimate antihero story, but, to me, Victor was more hero than villain. The side-characters, particularly Serena, were fantastic. They were so intricate and psychologically interesting that I kind of want a spin-off of all of them (the world always needs more spin-offs anyways). The plot follows a strong flashback structure with multiple points of view which is not an easy thing to master but Schwab did it magnificently! It made the novel ultra-addictive. There we some cliché moments, but I think that was to be expected considering the novel is about ExtraOrdinaries, basically superheroes. Personally, I have had enough of superhero movies whom are just repeating the same storyline with different special abilities. Vicious distances itself from the crowd by the nature of the good and evil dilemma that is not usually present amongst Young Adult lit or in Marvel/DC movies and comic books. Would I recommend Vicious? Probably, but I would be carefully how I pitch it. It is a solid novel, but nothing absolutely extraordinary (pun!) I think if you are into the whole “superhero” subgenre then you will enjoy it immensely, but for the rest of us, the literary flaws seem more prominent. I definitely want to read the sequel (Vengeful, coming out September 25th, 2018) because regardless of all the flaws, it remains an addicting story and I want to know how it wraps up. If you liked Vicious, you will love… Ready Player One by Ernest Cline The Night Circusby Erin Morgenstern Chaos Walking Trilogy #1 The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
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