vicious review

this week i read a really hyped book called "vicious" and let me tell you: i want to give this book to everyone i meet. 

*sees mailman*

"hi, have you read vicious?"

*tells 6 yo sister*

"hey, read vicious by v.e. shwab?" 

*calls grandmother*

"hello! wanna read vicious?"

*sees my cat*

"khaleesi! you need to read vicious!"

she totally read it, and she loves it!!

"He's not a bad man," she said. 

"There are no good men in this game," said Mitch.

see, when i started reading vicious, i just knew this book was going to be good. the story is told through a series of flashbacks, ten years ago and the present, making the story enticing. but i think the true captivation of this book is in its protagonist: victor and eli. 

my god. those two are certainly something. they are by far the most fucked up characters i have ever read about. and i say that in a completely positive manner. they are something else, and i loved them.

we start off with victor having recently escaped prison. [how did he get there, you ask? well i won't tell you the specifics because i don't want to spoil you. but his jail-time has to do with a eo thesis eli was working on.] and he is out for revenge! all he wants is his revenge on eli. 

oh, eli, eli, eli. *sighs sadly* he was victor's best friend in college. they were roommates and really hit it off. in the common way most bffs do you know like finding something similar of them in the other. except for these two it was a lack of morality.

"It had taken nearly two years of friendship to crack through the charming, candy shell and find the thing Victor had always known lurked within."

there's something messed up with him, just as there's something messed up with victor. and he's right, because they are both sociopaths! they're intelligent, sharp, ambitious, and cunning. oh so cunning. victor likes eli. to the point where he is infatuated with how well eli can hide the sociopath side of himself. it doesn't help that since they are both so smart, they are constantly competing but not competing. not really. they aren't enemies. [not yet] i think that eli was that one person who victor wanted to be. he was better at hiding what was wrong with him. he was a better charmer and popular. and sadly, he had the girl that victor liked.  

“All Eli had to do was smile. All Victor had to do was lie. Both proved frighteningly effective.” 

so we have sociopaths, ambitious ones. they, of course, have the brilliant bravery of trying out eli's thesis about eos [ExtraOrdinary people] which includes dying but coming back to life. er, what? yes. they decide that they are going to commit suicide in order to test the theory out and not just resurrect [oh no!] they want to return with superpowers! that's bat-shit crazy. but these two actually succeed! except that as victor resurrected, he messed up horribly and went to jail. eli was free. victor was not. to make matters worst, eli helped put victor in jail.

"And now, just as then, when he closed his eyes and searched for a silence, a word rose up to meet him, a reminder of why he couldn't afford to break, a challenge, a name. Eli."

ten years later, victor breaks out. he's set on killing his former friend. eli has also been struggling with the consequences of that awful night ten years ago. he goes about his new gift in a different way. the thing that victor always believed to live inside him has obviously come out. eli is on a quest to do good.

“If Eli really was a hero, and Victor meant to stop him, did that make him a villain?

He took a long sip of his drink, tipped his head back against the couch, and decided he could live with that.” 

but just know: there are no good guys! none! no one in this book was a good person. everyone was fucked up. the main protagonist, the sidekicks! [my god, those sidekicks? one was obviously worst than the other but seriously? she was a total psychopath!] we may think victor had his reasons . . . and he did. but so did eli! were they good? not to most people but you can see where he was coming from. it made sense. but they all killed. so they were bad? i guess. the fact is that once you read this book, you'll realize that the line between good and evil is blurred. hell i think it's missing!

read this book if you haven't! you wont regret it! 

disclaimer: my cat can't really read. she's not that talented :( but she can fetch! she totally can!