“No, Sydney,” he said. “I need you to stay here.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Because you don’t think I’m a bad person,” he said. “And I don’t want to prove you wrong.”

4 1/2 stars.

Wow. I honestly don't know how I can even begin to start this review.

I discovered this novel the other night, and after rereading the synopsis a couple of times, I was interested in reading the novel, but I decided I wasn't interested enough in it. So I put my laptop away and pulled out a load of schoolwork. Yet, I couldn't stop thinking about how compelling the novel sounded. And after a mere 10 minutes, I caved in and hastily bought the ebook. My plan was simple: read the first few chapters of Vicious, force myself to realize that this novel was nothing special, and go back to my pile of school work.

And now, 24 hours later, I'm sitting in front of my laptop furiously typing up a crusty review to satisfy my need to rant about how freaking entrancing this book was.

This is not your typical novel of "two boys are on bad terms, drama happens, and they make up, and life is swell."

This novel is so flipping dark, yet so enduring at the same time; it leaves you feeling like your heart has been scraped out with a butter knife (pun intended).

The story starts off with two boys: Victor Vale and Eli Cardale.

Victor and Eli both seem like your average overachieving pre-med school students on the surface, yet they both share the similar sentiments and a similar wickedness that they both somewhat attempt to conceal. One day, their professor assigns a thesis project where the students are given the task of formulating a scientific thesis and then following up by researching and analyzing information pertaining to their topic. The premise of Eli's thesis, or rather both of the boys' theses, is adrenaline and its permanent effects on a human. Eli, however, takes it one step further. He decides to investigate "EOs", or the "Extra-Ordinarys." He formulates that "EOs" can be formed if the human body undergoes severe, near-death experiences that cause large amounts of adrenaline to be produced. Schwab sets the two boys up so that you just know that they will, inevitably, start changing the direction of the assignment until it becomes purely experimental. From there, the two become obsessed with the concept of pushing their bodies into overdrive as they are met with orchestrated and controlled near-death experiences.

But the one thing that the boys don't realize is that to reach these near-death experiences, the amount of control they have over the entire experiment is greatly reduced to almost 0.

The story picks up quickly from there, with Victor and Eli becoming consumed and almost maniacal as they repeatedly continue to simulate these near-death experiences. That's all I'm going to say about the synopsis since the story picks up rather quickly.

Now here's what made this novel so great:

1. Victor Vale.

I'm not going to lie and say that Victor Vale is perfect, flawless and absolutely amazing. He's none of those things. He's most definitely flawed, hell-bent on revenge and wonderfully delusional. I LOVE HIM. He's this crazy, power-abusing man who only has his sights set on his former best friend, Eli, but at the same time, he tries so hard to make things right for Mitch and Sydney. Of course, there were times when even I questioned whether not he was going too far, but the motives that Schwab creates for Victor are too understandable. And it's not just Victor, but all the other characters as well. Schwab does such an incredible job crafting each character to make every action they make justifiable.

2. Sydney and Serena

Their relationship was quite interesting; it wasn't your archetypal 'love-hate relationship,' but rather, it was a complex, tangled relationship between two sisters who were torn apart from an event that almost removes any sense of humanity left in them. I adored Sydney so much. Every time that danger was around the corner, my first thoughts would always go towards Sydney's survival, and I definitely think that Schwab sets up a perfect backstory for her. As for Serena, I kept hoping that she would somehow redeem herself throughout the novel despite her monstrous actions. Honestly though, as much as I tried to hate her, I couldn't bring myself to view her contemptuously. Given her own backstory and her sentiment on the EOs, I couldn't exactly blame her. However, I do think that there were things that she did that truly crossed the line, so I didn't exactly like her either. She was a character that was definitely influential and instrumental in how things played out on Eli's side but nothing more.

3. Eli "Ever" Cardale

I didn't really know whether to like him or not. He seemed like the "perfect" guy with a bit of a sharper, vituperative edge, but every single time he eliminated another EO, my view on him became less understanding and more monstrous. Honestly, he's the "well-meaning-guy-gone-too-far." His whole freakish excuse of murdering people for the sake of "saving the world" strangely reminded me of Hitler's plan to exterminate all Jews. The parallel between the two is just too similar, as the best villains are the ones who think they're the hero.

4. Mitch Turner

He was a bit of a mystery at first; we never got more than a couple of sentences on his backstory until we reach the end of the novel. His character was far interesting than I would have liked to admit. He reminded me of a loyal, lapdog that did nothing more than solely obey his "master". As much as I appreciated how much he aided Victor, I enjoyed his character even more when he began to show his signs of resistance. After all, Mitch Turner is more than just a Pavlovian dog, am I right?

Overall, this novel was absolutely enthralling. I have very few complaints about this novels, as I loved almost every aspect of this novel from the fluid writing style to the excellent character building. My main complaint wasn't that the main characters committed murder frequently. Rather, it was that the afterthought for their murder was practically nonexistent. At times, it was hard to see these characters dismiss the fact that they had killed multiple people and yet, they barely felt a fraction of the remorse that usually follows. It just didn't make sense psychologically. For example, (MINOR SPOILER ALERT) Victor barely mentions Angie's death, and it seems as if he was completely dismissing the fact that he had 'accidentally' murdered her. This could be due to the fact that he is newly transformed into an EO, but Angie's death is too overlooked.

Additionally, Eli didn't even seem to care about Angie's death either; instead, he trained his focus toward eradicating Victor. This, also, could be explained by the fact that he was also incapable of feeling empathy and humane emotions after his transition to an EO. (END SPOILER) Although it is a possible explanation, it seems too unlikely that he didn't have a larger reaction to the death of his girlfriend at the hands of his best friend.

Besides a minor complaint, this novel is fast paced with an amazing plot line. I definitely don't regret picking this book up (even if my grades suggest otherwise), but I'm beyond excited for the sequel!