I have a cute model, so here you go. :) I got this from Ale as part of the Cannonball read book exchange. I read it only in the daytime, because I am wimpy. Vicious tells the story of two college boys Victor and Eli who start experimenting with cheating death to become EOs, people with extraordinary abilities.
There are a lot of interesting ideas in here about good and evil and souls. Eli gets his abilities and becomes a vigilante, killing other people who have extraordinary abilities. Victor ends up in prison for a long time. He’s not the good guy in this story either. It’s a dark revenge story where Victor is chasing Eli.
Both men have interesting characters helping them. Mitch met Victor in prison and is convinced he’s cursed (I was 100% sure he would die.) Sidney and Serena are sisters who both drown. Sidney is 11, and gets a bit of the dark magical girl trope but is still interesting. Serena is the most powerful person in the book, with mind control abilities. She hooks up with Eli, convinces him not to kill her with her powers, and then aids him in his murder spree. This to me makes her the most evil and most dangerous person in the book. She has the capability of making Eli stop, and she chooses not to. She likes the power that comes with controlling people.
The end surprised me, I figured I knew where it was going (one of the two men had to die) but it took a sharp turn. And I really loved it. Eli is smart and cruel but Victor is smarter. I normal don’t enjoy reading stories where no one is good. But this was stylish and fast paced and very engaging. I’ll read the sequel, but only during the day.
Love your #scaryaf categorizing. I’ll need to remember to use that!
I loved this book and requested the sequel Vengeful for Christmas but sadly did not get it, so will have to get it the old fashioned way from the library ? I highly recommend V.E. Schwab’s Darker Shade of Magic series.