Vicious - V. E Schwab

"A masterful tale of ambition, jealousy, desire, and superpowers. Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?"

I am unsure of what I think about this book. On one hand I found the characters very compelling. Both Victor and Eli are complete Psychopaths that are inextricably drawn to each other. They act like cat and mouse, constantly circling each other, watching for weakness. I adored the complex friendship between the two men that hovered somewhere between admiration and bitter jealousy and how this developed as they grew and became more obsessed with power and their own warped view of right and wrong. The deeply understand each other but still despise each other. 

The dynamic is very clever and both characters where incredibly interesting. Schwab's use of language to navigate this was also very good. There are some very quotable lines. The writing was minimal, clean and beautiful. 

However I found the plot to be lacking. It was relatively simplistic and I was never felt shocked or surprised in the way the book was progressing. The ending was also a tad disappointing. All in all I think it would have been an amazing book if the plot had been more unique and slightly more hard hitting. 

Age Rating 14+. Torture, brutal violence and swearing.