Vicious by V. E. Schwab Genre: Fantasy , Supernatural The hero is the courageous and righteous one who saves the world. The villain is the evil and sadistic one committing crimes and all the sins you can name of. It has always been that clear cut, isn't it? But really is it that clear the line to distinguish both. Is it really? |
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?
I never really felt the need to question their roles. Don't get me started on the hero and villain in this book. This is where I would use the punch line: it's complicated.
For me, it's quite difficult to plant my face right into a new book and get invested. I might be 30 pages into the book and I can still pretty much be like MEH. That's when V. E. Schwab proved to me it's possible to already get invested in less than 5 pages.
What can be more intriguing then a grown man with a shovel on his shoulder, humming and strolling through the cemetery with a twelve year old girl, searching for a grave to start digging up?
For me, it's quite difficult to plant my face right into a new book and get invested. I might be 30 pages into the book and I can still pretty much be like MEH. That's when V. E. Schwab proved to me it's possible to already get invested in less than 5 pages.
What can be more intriguing then a grown man with a shovel on his shoulder, humming and strolling through the cemetery with a twelve year old girl, searching for a grave to start digging up?
"Buck up, Syd," he said casually. "It'll be fun." |
Fantasitic huh. We jump back and forth between the years. Before friends, and now foe. Because of the jumping of timelines, I could really tell why they would lead to this day. Two strong-willed college dudes with hunger for success. They are bound to clash and one must fall.
A good vengeance book doesn't need the best of reasons to be great. A good vengeance book could have as absurd the reasons and it can be even better than any other. It just works that way. Insanity and cruelty, it was in everyone's souls. There's no saint, no sympathy. Everyone serves their own purpose. This is probably the most insane book I have read.
Eli, the one murdering the ExtraOrdinary (EO) people.
A good vengeance book doesn't need the best of reasons to be great. A good vengeance book could have as absurd the reasons and it can be even better than any other. It just works that way. Insanity and cruelty, it was in everyone's souls. There's no saint, no sympathy. Everyone serves their own purpose. This is probably the most insane book I have read.
Eli, the one murdering the ExtraOrdinary (EO) people.
He knew in his heart with strange and simple certainty that EOs were wrong. That they shouldn't exist. But he felt with equal certainty that he wasn't wrong, not in the same way. Different, yes, undeniably different, but not wrong. |
Murdered them because they were monsters with abilities they shouldn't have and yet Eli is an EO himself.
The paper called Eli a hero. |
And there's Victor the one with the vengeful heart, who wants nothing more than to watch Eli suffer. Who was the hero?Truthfully, I have no clue. If a hero must be free from guilt and sins, I'm afraid none are heroes at all
And this was the beauty of the story. All this that can drive someone over the edge, everyone just need that little push regardless of background and age. Anyone have the capacity to lose their empathy through the course of vengeance. It basically becomes their goal in life.
Schwab has yet again showed me what was it like for a power struggle among men. The monster that would grow inside of us because of it. Vicious is vicious like that. This is the raw truth of the cruel human nature. I love how Schwab writes her stories, exceptionally unique and beautiful at the same time. She makes us go back and think what really are morals if they can be thrown away in an instant. Could we not be these people one day if circumstances changed?
A hero was not free from guilt as much as a villain was. Schwab's wrote a story with a twist of roles where the hero cannot be identified and the title of the villain belongs to more than one person. In a society like this, you need to be smarter than the rest to survive
And this was the beauty of the story. All this that can drive someone over the edge, everyone just need that little push regardless of background and age. Anyone have the capacity to lose their empathy through the course of vengeance. It basically becomes their goal in life.
Schwab has yet again showed me what was it like for a power struggle among men. The monster that would grow inside of us because of it. Vicious is vicious like that. This is the raw truth of the cruel human nature. I love how Schwab writes her stories, exceptionally unique and beautiful at the same time. She makes us go back and think what really are morals if they can be thrown away in an instant. Could we not be these people one day if circumstances changed?
A hero was not free from guilt as much as a villain was. Schwab's wrote a story with a twist of roles where the hero cannot be identified and the title of the villain belongs to more than one person. In a society like this, you need to be smarter than the rest to survive
Someone could call themselves a hero and still walk around killing dozens. Someone else could be labeled a villain for trying to stop them. Plenty of humans were monstrous, and plenty of monsters knew how to play at being human. |