We got to learn about everything and the puzzle was complete by the time I turned the last page. The concept of jumping back and forth in time was also done really well, each chapter led to the next despite taking place in different years. Every character was incredibly well-written and developed excellently from beginning to end. There was no POV that I enjoyed the least, to me all of them were essential to the story. We get point of view from all of the characters, which is unexpected and interesting at the same time. There is a lot of foreshadowing surrounding the secondary characters, and it is pretty predictable but still very intriguing to see if it will pan out the exact way we imagine it will.

The rest of the characters that appear later on in the story are also perceived in different aspects that hint at us their purpose in the story.

Our first glimpse of Eli makes us think that he might be the victim of Victor’s viciousness. During the first times we meet him, that’s what we see the quiet young man whose future will drastically change because of the ambition he has and the one that his best friend has as well. When it came to Eli Cardale, he is perceived as the quiet, studious young man with a brilliant future. It made us realize that Victor Vale is or would become Vicious. Everytime Schwab described Victor, she managed to find a way to make us realize how there seems to be a dark aura around him. The writing style was one that quickly caught my attention since you could from the very beginning notice how different Victor and Eli were. As imagined, things go wrong, and we get to see the aftermath of their deadly experiments. The topic immediately catches Victor’s attention and convinces Eli to perform experiments to see if they can create EOs. They each settle on a different topic for their thesis, with Victor choosing to go with the practical route, and Eli decides to investigate ExtraOrdinaries or EOs. Both young men have very different personalities, with Victor proving to be more ambitious and cunning than Eli, who seems to be calmer, but whom Victor knows is hiding something harsh behind his glasses. The plot itself follows college roommates Victor Vale and Eli Cardale as they navigate their senior year at Lockland University.

The story jumps back and forth in time, starting out in present day and then jumping to ten years earlier. It is very unexpected, and the story takes a dark turn quickly.

Schwab’s Vicious, the first book in the Villains series, is quite the adventure that blurs the lines between good and evil completely.

Ve schwab vicious series