I waited way too long to read this.

Well, it’s no wonder this is the book that propelled her to the bestseller list. It feels like one of those books that just falls out of the author’s pen (or keyboard, or whatever), practically telling itself. (Of course, I know that doesn’t really happen. But sometimes a story finds the exact right author at the exact right time, and it feels inevitable and effortless, even if lots of work behind the scenes is actually making it look that way.)

If you were to try and narrow it down, one might say that Vicious is what would happen if a book about superheroes was actually centered around the villains (who think they are heroes), but that’s really not accurate. Or maybe you could say it’s about two college seniors who try to gain superpowers by scientific means, but it all goes wrong. That’s not technically an inaccurate description, but it doesn’t do the book justice, either. I could keep going with these one-line descriptions, but none of them would be able to encompass it all. This book does its own thing.

One of the most frustrating things about trying to describe (or review) genre fiction, especially complex genre fiction, is that you CAN’T describe it. You can’t fully explain the way the words invoke specific images in your head, or the weirdly timeless atmosphere (despite mentions of laptops); how it feels simultaneously like a modern day Frankenstein (no coincidence, I think, that one of the main characters is named Victor), but also a gritty urban thriller. I mean, you *can* say that (obviously), but it’s better experienced for yourself. I feel like I spend half my life trying to explain the weird plots of the books I love, and then when friends give me That Face (you know), inevitably ending up shouting at them, OKAY JUST TRUST ME AND READ IT OKAY.

But really, I’m so impressed with Schwab and her character work here. In a lot of ways, this book is character-centric, especially compared to the Darker Shade of Magic series, which I read last year. Really not that much actually happens, but we dive pretty deep into Victor and Eli’s heads, which wouldn’t normally be my thing. Anti-heroes and morally ambiguous main characters aren’t something I usually enjoy, but here, half the fun was playing Spot the Unreliable Narrator. Both Victor and Eli are villains in hiding at the beginning of the book, legitimate sociopaths mimicking human behavior, and then you give them superpowers, and BOOM, off to the races. And it *works*.

I also really liked the way that Schwab played around with format. The story isn’t told from back to front, but skips around from present day to ten years before, and all in between. I thought it was a really clever way to shake things up, and reveal information just at the right times without resorting to clunky exposition or weirdly timed character interactions. It also felt fun, and like Schwab had fun writing it.

I think the book actually stands really well on its own, and I’m not sure where the sequel could be going, but I hope it’s good, because this book deserves a good sequel.

[4.5 stars]