Victor Vale has waited ten years to elicit his revenge on his old college friend Eli Ever; and he is going to savor every minute of it. Once, they had been inseparable friends, both startlingly intelligent in school and filled with passion for the study of adrenaline research. When Eli begins his thesis on methods of obtaining extraordinary powers, both him and Victor work to discover the recipe to become extraordinary. As an experiment for their research, Victor and Eli endure traumatic near-death experiences that leave them very different than who they were before, with two completely different views on their new powers.
Victor has been in prison for ten years because of Eli, and now, with a rag-tag team of misfits, he will take down his old friend, even if it costs him his life.
I absolutely adore this book, but then again, what has Schwab written that I haven’t absolutely loved. Vicious is a great twist on superheros and supervillians, and raises the great question of “can you really only be either, or”. Victor is sardonic and sensual, a sharp character with multiple dimensions to him. I spent many moments cheering for him while I whispered internally to myself, “I don’t think that is a very ‘heroic’ thing to be doing Victor”. But that is what made his character so real and cool. In fact, the whole cast in this book are perfect; sitting on the fence of hero and villain.
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