Reading round up (62)

Reading round up is a weekly journal where I record my daily reading progress, my thoughts on each book as I read it, and any books I've acquired during the week.

19th January

Finished Vicious by V. E. Schwab (read 98 pages) and I loved it!! Such a unique superhero tale. I also started My Soul to Steal by Rachel Vincent (162 pages) because I need a quick read after my disastrous last week.

20th January

Currently Reading: My Soul to Steal by Rachel Vincent

Current page/percent: page 375

Read today: 213 pages

Thoughts: Enough female rivalry in YA. Enough teaching impressionable teenage girls that it's right and expected of them to fight with their fellow girls over boys. We have to fight so damn hard for everything we do and have and say in life; we have to fight so hard to prove that we're as worthy and capable as any male; we don't need to be fighting each other too. We need to be supporting each other. (plus: have you seen teenage boys? they're gross. don't be fighting over those trashcans.)

21st January

Picking up Avalon again and hoping to finish it sometime this year. Read 25 pages in like 2 hours. It is taking me SO LONG to read this. I don't know why?? I love this book; it shouldn't feel like a chore!

I read a spoiler for Soul Screamers that KAYLEE GETS WITH TOD????? So I immediately bought If I Die from Kindle (it was hella expensive but hella worth it) and read 21%.

22nd January

Read 47% of If I Die and I AM SCREAMING BECAUSE TOD!!! MY BABYYYYYYY. I loved Kaylee with Nash but Kaylee/Tod is NEXT LEVEL.

23rd January

Finished If I Die (read 32%), and MY BABIES. I was so fricking scared in the end, there. 

24th January

I didn't feel like reading much today but I finally got my hands on Reaper by Rachel Vincent (64 pages). It took me three months to find a copy of this novella, and I read it in an hour. Kinda wishing I'd savoured it. Ah well. Tod is a huge sweetheart and I loved this glimpse into his life. It was really interesting to see him before he'd died and compare how he was with how he is. Loved it!

25th January

Failed at reading today because I got watching beauty bloggers on youtube and that ate up my reading hours. Ah well.

Books finished this week: 3

If I Die | Rachel Vincent

See above for the IMMEDIATE reasons I needed this book.

Vicious

My Soul to Steal

If I Die

Reaper

Vicious (Review)

Vicious | V. E. Schwab

Published by: Titan Books, January 10th 2014

Genre: Adult, Science Fiction, Thriller, Superheroes

Pages: 340

Format: Paperback

Source: Purchased

A masterful, twisted tale of ambition, jealousy, betrayal, and superpowers, set in a near-future world. 

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? 

In Vicious, V. E. Schwab brings to life a gritty comic-book-style world in vivid prose: a world where gaining superpowers doesn’t automatically lead to heroism, and a time when allegiances are called into question.'

This book is dark. Hella dark. Vicious pulls no punches, is willing to go into the darkest reaches of the human mind, and is brutal in its honesty. I read a 100 page sample of it eons ago, and loved it then, but having the full book is so much better.

Vicious is tense and gritty and an unpredictable take on superheroes. Reading it is kind of like being repetitively run over by a car. It's shock after shock after shock, wrapped up in emotional turmoil and trauma. 

My favourite thing of this book is Victor. I can't even pinpoint what I love about him; it's something about his morals and his loyalty, his secrets and honesty, his unforgiving nature and his compassion. I've never read a character like Victor. I'd like to say something about the other characters, Sydney and Dol and Mitch, but I can't figure out how to say what I want. This book has confused my words to such a strange extent.

To sum: Sinister and honest, Vicious is a superhero story like no other, but so much more than that.

Characters ★★★★★

Setting/world building ★★★☆☆

Writing ★★★★☆

Vicious (ARC preview review)

Vicious | V. E. Schwab

Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, AWESOME.

A masterful, twisted tale of ambition, jealousy, betrayal, andsuperpowers, set in a near-future world.
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?

Gahh!! What a place to end a preview!

I only got 100 pages of this (Thank you Tor/Forge & Macmillan, and Netgalley) and as is the nature of previews I've only read a small part of this book so cannot fully review it. But I will say certain things about it.

I had a couple of issues at the beginning. It switches times a lot - some chapters are 'A Week Ago', some are 'Two Days Ago', but once you get into the story you don't even notice the changes and it becomes less of a problem. Another thing is sometimes the scenes are quite short, and with it flipping between times it has a hurried, stunted feel about it in the beginning. It's not detrimental to plot exactly but it doesn't flow as well as it could at times.

And that's all the niggly bits out of the way. Here's all the amazing stuff!

Things I adored:

It blurs the lines of superheroes/supervillains. There's no bad guys and good guys here, just guys. And I'm assuming there will be more of this in the rest of the book, which I need RIGHT NOW.

The characters are rich, deep, and individual. Can't say I've ever read a Victor or an Eli before; they're absolutely unique.

The method of becoming ExtraOrdinary! This is my favourite thing about this book. Granted at times it's a little biology-science-heavy for those of us who aren't Super Intelligent Science Folks, but it's remarkably easy to understand. So, to become an EO - someone with superhuman abilities - you must have had a NDE (Near Death Experience), meaning to become Superawesome, you've gotta die. And then come back. Easy, right? Nope. The idiot boys of Vicious almost kill themselves more times than is recommended (that is to say, it's not recommended at all. Don't do it, folks!)

Weirdly, I like how selfish Victor is. He still cares about people, and he helps them out when they need it, but he's incredibly selfish, and it's not necessarily presented in a negative way. People are selfish, that's just the reality of it, and Victor is a human being. He has flaws, and mighty big ones at that, but he's real and human. Eli, on the other hand, presents a flawless front, someone with no cracks or secrets or faults, and in the first 100 pages of this book Eli comes across as emotionless, desperate, and frankly unhinged - all the traits of a good supervillain? Well, we'll find out in the rest of the book.

To sum up: freaking awesome plot, unique characters, and a really cool concept. If I had to rate it now, I'd give it between 3.5 to 4 stars, but I suspect by the end of the book I'll be raving about it and throwing five stars to the wind.

Now someone give me the full book before I implode with desire.