Breakaway Books

Authored by V.E. Schwab; Published 2013; Science Fiction

⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️🏖️🏖️

Vicious is, predictably, quite dark. In the age of Marvel movies, it’s easy to minimize the impact that extraordinarily powered individuals can have. But this novel doesn’t shy away from those impacts, and in turn, it becomes quite dark.

Vicious follows Eli and Victor, two college friends who stumble on to a method of creating EOs, extraordinary individuals. Both boys gain their own powers, but Eli’s gifted girlfriend becomes a victim of the process, and Eli becomes maniacally obsessed with the evil that EOs embody. Years later, when Victor escapes from prison for the death of Eli’s girlfriend, he too becomes singlemindedly devoted—to taking revenge on Eli.

The thing that I struggle with in books like these is I don’t know who, if anyone, to root for. Put simply, neither Eli nor Victor is truly good, and though some of their allies come closer, there really are no heroes. Revenge has always seemed so, well, vicious, to me, and so I wasn’t particularly attracted by the characters’ motivation. It certainly poses an interesting ethical dilemma, in terms of how a society should treat EOs—are they too dangerous to live? But Eli’s religion was turned too easily into violent, villainous obsession for my liking. He was almost too one-dimensional in his mania.

The total absence of parents for boys and girls who were, at oldest, college age, gave this novel some moments of feeling like an extremely dark Disney film. Where were the adults to step in? (Answer: Dead, absent, or neglectful) At the same time, the novel fell into a category of which I’ve perhaps read too many lately: two messed up boys, trying to be friends, but inevitably hurting each other because they don’t know how to relate outside of competition. (See: And He Shall Appear, Playground). It’s enough to make me question what a healthy male friendship looks like.

If you’re looking for a gritty take on what it would actually look like to have individuals with special abilities around, Vicious is an interesting one to read. But if you’re already feeling pessimistic about human nature, it might be best to skip this one.