Vicious

Fantasy

First published: 2013
Print length: 432 pagesTitan Books Ltd, 2018

Description

College roommates Victor Vale and Eli Cardale discover that carefully induced near-death experiences can produce superhuman abilities. Victor’s attempt to gain such powers goes disastrously wrong and sends him to prison. A decade later, he escapes seeking revenge, while Eli, now known as Eli Ever, leads a campaign against other superpowered people. Both men gather enigmatic allies with extraordinary abilities as their conflict intensifies. Betrayal, loss, ambition, and competing ideas about the meaning of power shape the struggle between them, linking their shared past to their sharply opposed purposes.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Atmospheric · Direct · Lyrical

Pace

Brisk

Tone

Cerebral · Dark · Tense · Unsettling

Structure

Dual timeline · Nonlinear

Focus

Character · Ideas · Plot

Emotional intensity

4 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 3 / 5
Ideas: 3 / 5
Structure: 4 / 5
Background knowledge: 1 / 5

Themes

AmbitionGriefIdentityMoralityPowerRevenge

About V. E. Schwab

V. E. Schwab is an American fantasy writer who publishes children’s and young adult fiction under the name Victoria Schwab. Her novels often begin with a clearly defined speculative condition and follow the pressure it places on identity, loyalty, and ambition. She pairs atmospheric settings with direct narrative momentum, whether the premise involves four Londons with unequal access to magic, near-death experiences that produce extraordinary abilities, or a bargain that condemns a woman to be forgotten. A Darker Shade of Magic turns its system of parallel worlds into an adventure shaped by court politics and forbidden power, while Vicious concentrates on rivalry between former friends with opposing purposes. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue works across a broader span of time, using its central curse to examine freedom, loneliness, memory, and the traces a person leaves through art and other lives. Across these different scales, Schwab repeatedly uses fantasy rules to structure conflicts over power and self-determination.

Series

Vicious · Book 1

Villains · Book 1

Books by V. E. Schwab

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Titan Books Ltd
Language: English
ISBN: 9781785658679

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