Schwab mentioned that Vicious is about toxic masculinity, ambition and obsession, which becomes apparent in the way Eli and Victor have a fixation on each other. Someone else could be labelled a villain for trying to stop them.” Someone could call themselves a hero and still walk around killing dozens. “But these words people threw around – humans, monsters, heroes, villains – to Victor it was all just a matter of semantics. This is pointed out by Victor in the book, who eventually labels himself the villain later on, as he is the rival of the supposed hero.

It deals with a grey area, as neither Victor nor Eli can be seen as the conventional hero. Vicious is not only a dark story about revenge, but also touches upon the question as to what morality and the concept of good and evil truly is.

Eli is busy eradicating EOs from this world, until Victor makes his hunt on Eli obvious. Both are EOs, and each has a powerful EO on their respective sides Eli teamed up with a young woman who can bend anyone to her will, while Victor joins forces with a girl who has a power beyond anyone’s imagination. Once Victor is released, he sets out to find Eli and take revenge. One of the experiments of Eli and Victor ends in disaster, causing Victor to be locked up in jail for ten years. The latter determines the power of an EO, which can vary from healing abilities to destructive ones. An EO is not consciously created it is a result of a near death experience, and the most prominent emotion the dying person is experiencing. They are interested in the concept of “ExtraOrdinaries” (EOs), or ‘superheroes’, and end up experimenting in the hope that they will be able to create an EO. The story starts with Victor and Eli, who are medical students at Lockland University. “Plenty of humans were monstrous, and plenty of monsters knew how to play at being human.” The duology is rightfully named ‘Villains’, as the main characters are wicked in their own right. ‘Vicious’ is an enticing book nonetheless, and it deals mostly with (toxic) masculinity.īoth books play with the question as to what morality really is, and they show that the concept of good and evil is not as black and white as we tend to believe. I have to admit that ‘Vengeful’ would suit Raffia slightly more, but this is mainly because this one can be read as feminist, however, ‘Vengeful’ is the sequel to ‘Vicious’. This time there will be two books of the month, because I am dealing with a delightful duology: ‘Vicious’ and ‘Vengeful’ by V.E.

Ve schwab vicious series