Vicious was one such book that I surprisingly managed to avoid all plot knowledge of, despite seeing it being promoted a lot everywhere, and despite seeing it being recommended on BookTok a lot, too. I’m glad of that, though, as it meant that I was able to go into the story blind. I think that’s my preferred way to read books now: to know as little about the story and the characters as possible. It means that I don’t have any preconceived notions or ideas of how the plot should go and so I therefore can’t be ‘disappointed’ by the actual story, as I might have been had I gone into it with certain expectations (which has happened before).

I feel that you get to live so many lives when you do go in blind like that. That you get to read and experience so many different stories that are completely new to you and enjoy them for the first time, essentially, almost as though you’re the one living them, if that makes sense?

But that aside, I found reading Vicious to be a very fun experience. The story follows Victor and his college roommate Eli, who live in a world where the supernatural exists. Superheroes and supervillains with otherworldly powers are something to be revered and respected, and so it’s unsurprising that it is a dream for many to also become one of these extraordinary individuals.

But neither Victor or Eli are heroes.

A joint research project between the two leads them both down a road that I didn’t see coming at all. Twists, turns and betrayal all spin out from their initial chance acquaintance, and then shared curiosity, in college, and it ultimately leads to the theme of revenge that this book focuses on.

But it’s not just them that have questionable beginnings: everyone in this story is just so messed up!

There are no undeniably wholly “good” characters, or wholly “bad” characters. Everyone is morally grey by design, even when they believe that they are doing the ‘right’ thing for the ‘greater good’. And there’s something so incredibly human about that.

Things aren’t so black and white in real life either. It’s about perspective, and the idea of good and bad are purely subjective to each individual. But it quickly becomes clear in this story that good is never quite good enough for some. And bad, well bad might not be as bad as initially thought, either.

And despite it all, these characters who aren’t entirely perfect or guilt-free, find each other, find a home, and feel belonging. What this book does so incredibly well, is the found family trope. It’s one of my favourite things to read in a book, or watch in a show or film, and I can almost be guaranteed to latch onto a fandom if the found family theme features largely throughout the story. Watching how relationships progressed between characters in this book, and watching how they came to love and care for each other, was beautiful, and I’ll never get tired of seeing that!

Especially as there was actual build up to these developments, too. Things started slow with a lot of backstory and gradual growth, which I always enjoy – as slow-burn developments of anything in life are far more realistic to me – and so even though I was initially thrown by the nonlinear timelines being used, I was quick to begin loving it. In fact, I came to really appreciate the narrative choice of this story as I found that I enjoyed reading about what happened years in the past, what happened a few weeks ago, or what happened just a few days prior. I always had questions that I was eager to find the answers to, either from learning about the character’s history or seeing their current lives.

Hell, I found myself questioning the actual characters until the end, too, and the slow build up and backstory only added to my intrigue. Everything came full story and it all finally caught up with the present pretty much when the book was over, and I was for sure left wanting more.

Though one thing that definitely left me wanting more was the final conflict between Victor and Eli. There was a particular anticipation for this fight throughout the book, what with Victor’s obsessive pursuit of revenge and Eli’s blatant hypocritical existence constantly butting heads with each other, so I was a bit caught off guard by their meeting being remarkably short. But, in hindsight, I also found that this was actually a refreshing change to the usual dragged out trope of characters dancing around each other for endless seasons of a tv show or for a long book series, and this unexpected change up from the norm was almost like a weight off of the shoulders for me.

Vicious was unexpected in a lot of ways and that kept it very enjoyable. Especially with how I didn’t really know who I was supposed to be rooting for throughout the entire story until the end: all the characters were pretty ambiguous and I was left eager to learn more about their world. In particular, I’m excited to meet more characters in the sequel will hopefully also have unclear goals and morals and so who are therefore open to audience interpretation…

“Villains” is the series by V. E. Schwab, and I can’t wait to read more!