The recipe for the character of a superhero is simple: a difficult childhood, captivating personal charm, broadly understood nobility and supernatural skills that favor doing good. But what if the proportions were reversed and superpowers were granted to mortals who have all sins on their conscience? He lifts the veil of secrecy in his latest novel by VE Schwab ...
Recipe for disaster
Victor Vale and Eli Cardale are two students who meet completely by chance. After a temporary stage of resentment, it turns out that they share something more than common interests: they are both extremely intelligent and hellishly ambitious. Genius and success are a dangerous mix that often only needs a spark to explode and destroy everything around. In the case of Victor and Eli, their fascination with the otherworldly powers that some humans wield played the role of a flashpoint. The world was open to them – it was enough to complete a project that would allow them to start their dream medical studies. Curiosity mixed with vanity gave rise to an obsession that has resulted in a dangerous experiment that allows the heroes to overcome their human limitations. However, everything has a price – in this case it is friendship,
They look good with death
VE Schwab constructs characters in an unconventional way. Although the heroes of Vicious. The wicked acquire supernatural abilities, they do not use them to help others, on the contrary: they play with the laws of nature, violating the order of the world. As the name of the series suggests, in the plot we can look for role models in vain, which does not mean that these characters do not arouse sympathy. The author efficiently juggles the characters’ perspectives, which allows the reader to learn about the motives of their behavior, and Schwab herself avoids the mistake of many writers who create characters without psychological depth, because they focus too much on the action itself.
Fantastic thriller
The author of Vicious. The Wicked has attempted to create an unusual crossbreed of genres – because we rarely deal with a mixture of fantasy and a bloody thriller. I must admit that she was successful in this art. In addition to the supernatural abilities of the main characters, the novel itself provides the reader with an opportunity to feel a thrill that is in vain to look for on a daily basis. She manages to achieve this emotional rollercoaster by intertwining two types of narrative: while the chapters related to the main plot of the novel make the book really hard to put down, the retrospective chapters allow you to catch your breath and understand the reasons that led to the conflict between the main characters.
A scarlet book
You can definitely say Vicious. The nefarious by VE Schwab arouses curiosity before we even decide to read: on the one hand, the bloody red cover brings to mind books full of ancient legends and spells, on the other hand, the edition strikes with a minimalist style. Unfortunately, Schwab’s novel has a soft cover and although it does not affect the comfort of reading, the item loses a bit of its effectiveness – the hard cover could be the icing on the cake in the case of such a carefully published item. It is also worth mentioning that the leitmotif, both on the cover and inside of the book, is bones, and the paper used to print the novel has a scent that no self-respecting bookworm can resist.
The dark side of the force
VE Schwab’s novel is an interesting experiment with the conventions that appear far too often in our culture, namely the fight between good and evil. Despite her efforts, the author did not manage to resist this pattern, but the compromise she made is also interesting: as the motto on one of the first pages of the book says, Vicious. Marked is not a story about the triumph of good over evil, but about a choice between bad and worse. The conclusion drawn from Schwab’s novel is simple: demons live in all of us, you only need to be in the right circumstances to lure them out of hiding.
