Vicious

Villains, Book 1

By: V. E. Schwab

Narrated by: Jeremy Arthur

V. E. Schwab's New York Times bestseller Vicious is a masterful tale of ambition, jealousy, desire, and superpowers.

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?

In Vicious, V. E. Schwab brings to life a gritty comic-book-style world in vivid prose: a world where gaining superpowers doesn't automatically lead to heroism, and a time when allegiances are called into question.

"A dynamic and original twist on what it means to be a hero and a villain. A killer from page one…highly recommended!" —Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Marvel Universe vs The Avengers and Patient Zero

One of Publishers Weekly's Best Fantasy Books of 2013.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books.

©2013 V. E. Schwab (P)2022 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

2013, Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year, Long-listed

Entertainment Weekly's 27 Female Authors Who Rule Sci-Fi and Fantasy Right Now

"Fresh, merciless, and, yes, vicious. Wow." (Mira Grant, New York Times best-selling author of the Newsflesh Trilogy)

“Schwab's characters feel vital and real, never reduced to simple archetypes.... In a genre that tends toward the flippant or pretentious, this is a rare superhero novel as epic and gripping as any classic comic. Schwab's tale of betrayal, self-hatred, and survival will resonate with superhero fans as well as readers who have never heard of Charles Xavier or Victor von Doom.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

“A fun, morally-flexible revenge tale...Vicious methodically ratchets up the tension as Victor and Eli circle each other for the inevitable kill.” (Daniel H. Wilson, NYT best-selling author of Robopocalypse)

Fav author

It’s official! I have a new favorite author! V E SCHWAB! She is incredible! I have not read anything like her work. The magic is phenomenal. The characters are so well put together, I feel they are real. I live the foundations and dynamic between the 2 MMCs and the sisters are great together! I am going to read the second right after this review!

Slow start..

Overall I ended up really enjoying this book. It didn’t grab me right away like Addie LaRue did. It was a little bit slow to start for me, I think it picked up about half way through. I’m glad I stuck it out and did not DNF. Starting on Vengeful now :)

Speechless.

New reader and now a fan of V.E. Schwab, and all I can say about this audiobook and novel are lovely things. Jeremy was a perfect pick for narrator, and he kept me in the story every second, just as the characters themselves had. Can’t wait to listen to the next.

Loved it!

I’ve enjoyed every book I’ve listed to by V.E. Schwab, and the narrator and characters in this one were fabulous and the plot was gripping. A great listen!

So Good!

It's such a good story! The characters are very endearing. The narrator does a fantastic job. Can't wait for book two!

Great story

This was a solid story with characters I enjoyed and felt invested in. I will definitely continue this series.

Amazing!

I love this series. its one I will listen to again. the Narrator is a 10/10 he really brings the story to life.

Couldn't stop listening

4.5 stars

I listened to this book and I honestly couldn't stop listening. I badly needed a nap, but I kept going because I wanted to know how everything would play out. First off, I knew nothing about this book going in, and I really liked letting the story unfold on its own with no foreknowledge of the characters or the universe. So I will do my best to keep this review spoiler-free.

The story revolves around two major characters, Victor and Eli, who meet as college roommates. They both take a class that assigns them to develop an independent research project. Although their projects seem completely different at first, they talk and eventually decide to work together using each of their ideas to see if they can induce a body to develop extraordinary abilities.

This is a series that is aptly named because neither character is the "good guy". This COULD be considered a superhero/supervillain origin story, but it doesn't feel like the usual superhero novel to me. That said, I definitely thought of the darker Batman-type stories a few times when reading this.

Victor and Eli are both very interesting characters, but both act for selfish reasons, making them characters you would normally hate. Except somehow Schwab is able to make you feel some empathy for each of them, which I attribute to her amazing writing. Personally, I did end up having a favorite, but I'd rather not sway other people's opinions, so I'll keep that to myself. I really liked Mitch's character, who was a good foil for Victor, and I liked how protective he was of Sydney. Serena was scary, but I think Schwab gave you enough so that you at least understood her motivations.

Overall, I would say I loved this book and can't wait to read the next one (thank God I waited until both books were published to read this). I had some confusion with the time changes, but that may have been because I was listening to it and didn't have the book with me to read along.

The narrator, Jeremy Arthur, was perfect for this book. I don't know if his voice would have worked for other books, but it definitely worked for this one. He struck just the right atmosphere for me and it contributed to me not wanting to put this down. This is my first time with this narrator, but I would definitely be interested in listening to other books by him. I'm glad he's narrating the second book in this series.

Dark and violent

Not as enjoyable as her magic series. Too dark and violent. Characters are interesting and I. Oils get into it more if there were more light spots.

No surprises but a good story

I’d say it the ending was a bit anticlimactic. I mean, if Eli lost his head too I’m sure it wouldn’t fix itself. Otherwise it was a good read with a little “save the cheerleader, save the world” feel.