§Synopsis
01When she arrives at a remote lake house with her fiancâe, Allen, and young son, Matthew, Susan Blanchette feels like someone is watching her, and when Allen disappears, she becomes the pawn in a twisted killer's deadly game.
§Our take
Vicious is the superhero story for people who are tired of capes. Schwab uses the origin-story setup to build two men who are each arguably the villain, then lets you pick whom to root for. As one reviewer put it, no one here is good, and that's the draw.
The prose is cinematic and quick, and the plot is the star. Admirers call it hard to put down. Others admire the craft but feel held at arm's length, partly because of the jumping timeline and partly because the side characters read like abstractions. One reviewer hears The Count of Monte Cristo all through the revenge arc and found it distracting. You may respect this book more than you love it, or the reverse. Either way it's lean, and it knows what it's doing.
§Themes
- No heroes allowed
- Both leads refuse the hero or villain label, so the moral murk is the point.
- What power does to people
- The book asks how powers change their owners and whether obsession and hatred can ever be let go.
- Faith versus revenge
- One character's religious certainty sits against the other's hunger for payback.
- A rift told out of order
- The time jumps slowly expose the break between them. They're an engine of suspense if you like the structure, a layer of emotional frost if you don't.
§How it was received
Publishers Weekly found the characters vital and real, and the book has enough bite to reach beyond superhero devotees. Reviewers split after that: some loved the gray antiheroes, while others found the climax flat or the whole enterprise skillful but emotionally cool.
§Read it if
- You like antiheroes and stories where no one is clean
- You want a tight, plot-forward thriller you can finish fast
- You enjoy revenge stories with a Monte Cristo flavor
§Skip it if
- You want a big, lived-in world with a wide cast. This one is narrow and character-driven.
- You need characters to feel warm. Some readers stay at a distance throughout.
§Before you start
- Reading experience
- A lean, fast thriller that keeps hopping between the present and ten years earlier.
- Reading order
- Start here: Vicious opens the Villains series, but its central battle lands on its own. Vengeful followed in 2018, and Victorious is listed for a future release without a firm date. There's also a prequel short, Warm Up, and a novella, ExtraOrdinary.
- Content notes
- Violence, revenge and imprisonment are central to the story; Suicide and suicidal ideation, self-harm, panic attacks; Alcohol and recreational drug use.
§Common questions
- Is Vicious part of a series?
- Yes, it opens the Villains series. Vengeful followed in 2018, and Victorious is listed for the future without a firm date.
- When did Vicious come out?
- Tor Books published it on September 24, 2013.
- Do you need to read anything first?
- No. The prequel short Warm Up exists, but the novel is the place to start, and its central conflict is complete on its own.
§If you liked this
- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas — One reviewer sees Victor's revenge arc as a close mirror of Dumas's novel.
- Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice — A blogger compares the tone of the leads' intense, ambiguous relationship.
- A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab — Schwab's other early fantasy, with a lighter, more adventurous tone than Vicious's moral bleakness.
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