Vicious by Victoria Schwab
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Summary from GoodReads

A masterful, twisted tale of ambition, jealousy, betrayal, and superpowers, set in a near-future world.

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?

In Vicious, V. E. Schwab brings to life a gritty comic-book-style world in vivid prose: a world where gaining superpowers doesn’t automatically lead to heroism, and a time when allegiances are called into question.' 

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Audiobook                          Hardcover copy
     


REVIEW

I stumbled upon this book when I learnt about Victoriea's laters release, "A Darker Shade of Magic." I found thw audiobook and then I got lost in a wide moral battle between a bad and a half bad character.

Victor and Eli; two young men who wanted to change the world and instead they changed themselves into something EXTRA-Ordinary. I liked the flashbacks between now and ten years ago on the book and the narrator's voice did a great job.
There wasn't enough romance in it which i thought it would lack, but the action and the mystery stabilized that for me. ;)
This is the debut novel by Victoria and she knows how to thread moral issues with the super powers. She really shocked me; having super powers, doesn't automatically makes you defender of justise, like Superman for example.



The ending was unexpected but with the sense that good prevailed and life will go on, having a second chance, literally (you'll understand what i mean when you read the book!)



About the author:

Victoria is the product of a British mother, a Beverly Hills father, and a southern upbringing. Because of this, she has been known to say "tom-ah-toes," "like," and "y'all."

She also tells stories.

She loves fairy tales, and folklore, and stories that make her wonder if the world is really as it seems.