Vicious by V.E. Schwab

I like independent bookstores, mostly. I just love the idea of them, but between various tax laws and a public addicted to the convenience of an online platform, it's hard for independents to survive. Obviously, I do buy from Amazon at times, but by far I get most of my books used. However, when I do go into an independent to browse, I try to make a point of buying something. During the massive most awesome road trip of all time last summer we stopped in an independent in Little Rock, Arkansas called Wordsworth Books. Great people and solid selection for the size. They even had some interesting imports in the kids section. We bought Thomas a Where's Wally book (Where's Waldo but British) none of us had seen before and I picked up Vicious. 

Sometimes your favorites creep up on you. It starts out as a solid like, but after a time it suddenly becomes apparent that you'll pick up anything with their name on it. V.E. (Victoria) Schwab was like that for me. Some time over the summer, I realized that I'd happily give anything she writes a shot. 

Schwab writes fantasy about half of which is set in a mostly real world setting. Vicious is about two overly intelligent young men who develop a theory in college about how to create people with extraordinary abilities (EOs). In the world of the book, EOs already exist but they are rare and generally unconfirmed. Most people don't believe in their existence and no one seems to know why it happens. Victor and Eli, as part of their senior seminar, aim to not only figure out what these individuals have in common, but also why it happens.

From there it is really only a short step to trying to create these abilities in themselves. From there things go awry. Turns out that both Eli and Victor have some unresolved issues and super-powers just complicate things.

It's an interesting narrative told along two timelines. The first is when Eli and Victor are seniors in college. The second is ten years later after Victor has escaped from prison with his cellmate Mitch. I often find following two timelines a little confusing, but Schwab did an excellent job keeping the two distinct. While the story overall was pretty dark, I very much enjoyed Victor not because he is the good guy, because he's not, but because he struggles to keep his darkness in check.

A fun read overall and I'm looking forward to the sequel.