When Victor Vale and his roommate Eli Cardale propose the idea of “E.O’s” - ExtraOrdinaries,
people who possess powers seemingly from birth. However, the two boys are determined to
prove that EO’s are made from near death experiences, by having near death experiences
themselves. Consequently, a research project soon results in one man in jail for unjust causes and
the other free, with a thirst for killing EO’s as they were seen as unnatural in his eyes. Ten years
later, Victor, with a band of a 13-year old injured girl and his old cellmate, sets out to take
revenge on what was once his roommate. However, Eli is just as determined to take Victor down
in order to preserve his name and go down as a hero in history.
Wow. This book was really good. I don’t know how V.E. Schwab does it, but she always
manages to make her writing style a mix of the old times and the modern era. Basically, it sounds
British. But I really did enjoy this! Vicious displays an ongoing theme of “Hero vs. Villain”, and
as the story progresses, you understand that one of the main characters does terrible things for a
reason that he believes is good, while the other does good things for the sake of taking revenge.
The characterization was realistic and the plot was expertly created. Everything in this novel just
made sense and the details were amazing. I have to admit, as I was starting this novel, my
thought process was: “???” because of the revolving time periods. For a book that talks about
forgetting the past, it sure did spend a lot of time in it. Aside from that, I did really enjoy the
characters and the trio that we were presented with, even though they were odd at times. All that
being said, I was pleasantly surprised to have realized that this book was that good.