Series Review: Villains Series by V.E. Schwab
Official Synopsis: 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?
First published in 2018, Vicious remains one of my favorite books ever. Following two problematic characters as they learn more about themselves and the new discovery they have made. Victor and Eli are best friends who both are interested in how the human body works, what limits it has, and what happens when you die. When they learn that near death experiences can bring you back to life with something...extra, they know they are close to a big scientific discovery. The problem is they don't know the connection between what powers you get, or if you have any control, only know that the powers reflect how you died and what your last thoughts and dreams were. They become ExtraOrdinary, but that makes them targets and after an experiment gone wrong...enemies.
Victor has been in jail, waiting for the moment he can run into Eli again. Victor has the power to inflict pain, Eli is determined to make sure no other super-powered person lives, even though he lives with his own powers. But Victor, an unfriendly face and mostly selfish, starts to gain a ragtag group of EOs, he prepares for what happens when he runs into Eli next.
Vengeful continues to follow the story of Victor and Eli and their battle with each other, but also introduces us to a new character, Marcella. Marcella who survived a house fire that should have left her dead is now determined to be powerful, be in charge, and not let anyone get away with messing with her again. When she realizes she can leverage the two most powerful EOs against each other, she can't help but crave the power that comes with that. Now she is gathering her own sidekicks, working her way through Merit and causing havoc as she does. We also get to see into the world of EON, a secret government organization that is working on collecting EOs, to keep them locked up and away from where they can cause harm, both intentionally and unintentionally. As EON tries to track down Victor and his group of EOs, they also try to get Eli working for them.
In the epic conclusion of the trilogy, Victorious shows us how our morally grey group is dealing with the events in the ending of Vengeful. We get to see that EON is still a problem, Victor is still running but also...dying? And Syd and Mitch are trying their best to stay connected to Victor while running on their own, hoping one day to have a place they won't have to leave behind.
But we also have a new character, Dr. Gabriel Gray, who is a psychiatrist that has become obsessed with EOs, especially after getting a unique power of his own. As he worms his way into EON he is hoping to capture any EO he can find and hoping to keep them all together in the EON facility, not as prisoners but as a way to help them...at least in his own head. Eli and Victor become a big part of the research that Dr. Gray wants to do, especially with the connections he can make due to his powers. We get to see a lot more EOs too, some who can shift their appearance, disappear or walk through walls.
Even with the large gap between the publishing between Vengeful and Victorious, I was super excited to finally have this book in my hands. I absolutely adore these characters, even with how evil they can be. I loved the dynamic between how Eli and Victor see having powers. Eli thinking he was given the powers by God to stop people like Victor from having them and Victor who thinks the power of pain was what he was meant to have and finding all the ways to use it to get what he wants. I really enjoyed how the series ended, it felt like a perfect Victoria Schwab ending to the series.
This series will continue to be one of my favorites I've ever read and I'm excited for the next chance to re-read it. I have always been really interested in how the characters get their powers, what influences the powers they get and that line between life and death that these characters walk the entire series.
Overall this is a perfect 5 out of 5 star series for me and I hope you all choose to check it out!
Comments