Vicious Review

I am kicking myself for not having picked up Vicious sooner.  I knew it was well-received, but for some reason I thought the book would be boring.  I'm not sure why I got that impression, but I was wrong, wrong, WRONG! Vicious was a complete and total page-whipper!

The book opens with a man, Victor, and a young girl, Sydney, digging up a grave.  Quickly, we learn that this grisly task is all part of a mad scheme for revenge, years in the making.  Victor has just broken out of jail.  And he has one hell of a grudge against his old college roommate, Eli.

This decision to pit two former college roommates against each other is just inspired.  In my experience, your relationship with your college roommate is one of the most intense and bizarre relationships you ever have.  You're both "young adults," living in an oxymoronic state, under the influence of higher education, sleep deprivation, intoxication, and whatever the hell else you put into your system.  Your roommate becomes in turn, your friend, your ally, your enemy, your obsession, your nightmare. V. E. Schwab deftly captures all of these dynamics that bounce between Victor and Eli.

Eli and Victor's vortex of envy and murderous loathing begins ten years before the current events of the novel, when they choose their college thesis topics.  Victor chooses to study [spoiler]adrenaline.[/spoiler]  Eli chooses to research [spoiler]ExtraOrdinary abilities.[/spoiler]  The events that follow, during their spring semester of their senior year, are shocking.

Of course, Eli and Victor have back-up personnel to aid them.  Two talented sisters, Sydney and Serena, find themselves on separate sides of the vendetta.  And of course, Victor has his cell-mate and break-out buddy, Mitch.  And there's the dog, Dol.  All of these labels — hero, villain, sidekick, mascot — get tossed around and mixed up.  Who is who?

These characters were all fantastic.  I especially appreciated Victor.  He was a highly complex character, but Schwab still managed to keep him consistent.  I was at times, horrified by Victor's decisions, but somehow kept rooting for the man.  I loved hating the self-righteous Eli. Sydney and Serena were used as effective foils to Victor and Eli's twisted brotherhood.  I appreciated what it said about the nature of conflict that these two mirror-image sisters wound up on opposite sides of someone else's fight.  And Mitch was a steady column of normalcy and reason that balanced the other characters out. These were fabulous players in a fabulous plot.

The pacing was also a strong point in Schwab's novel.  The narrative flipped around in time, but this hardly phased me.  At first, I had a preference for the present events over the past, but very soon I was fully engaged in the entire story, past and present.  I was so absorbed in the book that at times I forgot that I was flipping paper pages and reading symbols made of dried ink.  I was inside the story.  What a  rare and wonderful experience!

So, in short, I HIGHLY recommend this book.  Five north stars out of five!