Vicious

You'd think that after DNFing a book for being focused on yet another milquetoast socipath, I would make an effort to steer clear. Unfortunately, I didn't realize until maybe 50 pages in that I made the same mistake all over again with Vicious. But I mean, it's a subversion of the superhero narrative! Morally ambiguous arch nemeses! Superpowers! And all everyone seems to be talking about is how awesome it is. Gotta be good, right? headdesk

Vicious was boring as hell. Neither Eli or Victor are particularly interesting or clever. Victor's rage and wily nature are good hooks at the beginning. The first chapter is fantastic. You meet this grinning man who whistles while he digs up a grave and you can't wait to see what he'll do next. Mostly brooding and pacing, as it turns out. You could feel Schwab fumbling around for a plot while Victor tries to come up with a plan. A good chunk of the book is instead spent detailing Victor and Eli's history together, which could have been simplified significantly, as you can get the gist of the vendetta pretty quickly. The story is devoid of interesting plot points, instead there a lot anticlimactic misfires. A bit like rolling over in bed and thinking, “Was that it?”

Eli is not much better, and while there is slightly more depth to his mission - he believes he's chosen by God - he's for the most part pretty one note. The interesting characters are Victor and Eli's respective partners, two sisters, Sydney and Serena, and Sydney not until the very very end. Serena, we sadly do not get to see the perspective of until over 200 pages in. Referred to as the siren, who can make anyone do anything she tells them, she struggles with the emptiness inside her after her “death” in a far more complex way than either of our leading men. But still, there's a lot left hanging about her, like why she even bothered with Eli in the first place and let him try to kill her sister. I wasn't suprised when Victor killed her, because there was no way he could win with her alive and fighting against him, but I was pretty disappointed. This is a character who could have the world at her feet and she was brought down because she got in the middle of some stupid grudge. This should have ended with Sydney and Serena getting the drop on both of them and walking away hand in hand and whistling. To waste such a character is bullshit, in my humble opinion.

I was thinking of giving this two stars for the cool concept and the somewhat exciting ending, but honestly that just pisses me off more. There was so much more that could be done with this.