Why the hell am I bothering you with two posts about books you're not going to read when it could easily fit into one post for you ignore? Based on last year's reading list and the pacing I had at the beginning of the year, I thought I might read enough to justify turning this into a once a month post. Then I got lazy and didn't write February's post until now and I'd already taken the pictures, so I didn't want to retrieve all those comics and books again just for another photo shoot. So, now here we are. As a future note, I'll probably switch back to the once every three months posting as my reading has slowed down a little.
Vicious by V. E. Schwab
"They still had a minute before the final bell sounded, and even if they were late, the teachers would never mark them down. All Eli had to do was smile. All Victor had to do was lie. Both proved frighteningly effective."
"'You thought our powers were somehow a reflection of our nature. God playing with mirrors, but you're wrong. It's not about God. It's about us. The way we think. The thought that's strong enough to keep us alive. To bring us back.'"
Victor Vale and Eli Cardale are both smart and ambitious medical students. It's during a class project that they discover a common trait amongst emerging EO's, those few deemed ExtraOrdinary for their superhuman abilities. With that knowledge, they devise a plan to gift themselves those powers. It's a plan that ends with Victor in jail and turns Eli into a serial killer. Ten years later, as mortal enemies, the two are on a path of confrontation from which only one can walk away.
Vengeful by V. E. Schwab
Set five years after the events of the first book, Victor Vale and his group are hunting for an EO with a particular power that might be able to save Victor before he dies. Eli Ever is locked away in a government facility, putting his previous experience to use in locating other EO's. As the two of these spend their time hunting, another EO emerges, and Marcella Riggins is not one to hide in the shadows as other EO's tend to do. With her new powers she sets her sights on taking over the city of Merit: building her own team of EO's, taking over the organized crime syndicates, and manipulating Victor and Eli against each other.
If you like superhero stories, these are definitely books to pick up. It's just the start of the emergence of ExtraOrdinarys (EO's) and the public is still not convinced while the government is trying to get a handle on the situation. Of course, a lot of the people using their powers are using them for bad reasons, and the ones trying to stop them aren't much better. The powers in these stories are interesting and thought out, each one matching to the person possessed of them, and are different from other powers that we've come across especially with all the superhero/ power movies recently.
One of my favorite things about these books and Schwab's writing is the pacing. Though the main story actually takes place in just a day, the backstory that Schwab gives is a story of its own and not just huge info dumps. Both books are told in chapters labelled in relation to where they fall to the Present Day (the main part of the story). They can range anywhere from a week ago to over twenty years ago from today. Despite the story constantly jumping through time periods in multiple characters' lives, Schwab's writing makes it easy to follow along with all the pieces until the climactic finale.
Though it's a lot of information setting up backstories and the different pieces that lead us to the ending, neither story seems to ever slow down. Everything about Schwab's writing makes you want to press forward to find out what happens next. That I wasn't able to stop to hold onto a particular quote from "Vengeful" is a testament to this, the story just moved so fluidly that I couldn't pause long enough to hold onto a passage that might encapsulate the story, or even just something that really stood out from the rest of the writing. The only reason I managed to find a couple for "Vicious" was because I'd read it a couple years ago and already knew what to expect.
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