No one delves into the psyche of anti-heroes quite like Schwab does. Schwab manages to make universal themes and quiet wonderings seem extraordinary and inevitable, creating a webbed tale that will not let you go even once you’ve discovered how it ends.
This is one of the rare books that you just know will age well – the universal themes, the obsession with what constitutes good and evil, the characters that you wish weren’t so similar to you and yet are, play a big role in why this is a book that will transcend decades and readers.
The thing about Vicious is that it has a timeless feeling to it – not just in terms of how old you need to be to read it but in what time period it will be read. There is space for moments of innocence, for the occasional light-hearted jab, sure – but at its essence, Vicious explores the dynamics of ethics, what makes us human, and the line between good and evil that is far too easily blurred.
What starts out as part of a thesis ends with Victor ending in prison for killing someone, Eli hunting down and eliminating what he deems ‘unnaturals’ as part of a God-complex, and one epic battle between the good and the evil.Īs promised by the title, this book packs a punch. Vicious is about two brilliant college students, Eli and Victor, who – in part due to their arrogance and part to their ambition – decide to experiment with near-death experiences after finding accounts of people who claim to have earned supernatural powers through being close to dying. Schwab’s Vicious (which just last year got a long-awaited and begged-for sequel called Vengeful) is one of these stories.įirst things first: what is Vicious about? Still, there are some books that are so vividly ingrained in your mind that you just know on an instinctive level that everyone, whether they like reading or not, could take something away from a story. There are people out there who have never read Harry Potter. “Plenty of humans were monstrous, and plenty of monsters knew how to play at being human.”Įvery once in a while, there comes along a book that you know, deep in your heart, everyone and their mother would enjoy.
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