Well hello there, guys! I finished this book a few days ago and I loved it so much. I am going to split this post into some categories so that you can skip to which ever part you like. Also I am going to try and keep it spoiler free, but if there are going to be some, you will see a spoiler warning before it.
1. Short summary of the book
In this book we follow our main character, Victor Vale, and his dorm roommate, Eli, as they try to kill themselves. That took a turn, am I right? Basically, both of them are in their final year of university and have to find an interesting subject to write their thesis on, because of their very demanding teacher. Victor choses to write about adrenaline and Eli about EO's(ExtraOrdinaries). They come to the conclusion that a near death experience can make a person become an EO( hence them trying to kill themselves :)) Unfortunately, things go terribly wrong. But don't you worry, ten years later Victor breaks out of prison and is thirsty for revenge.
2. Characters
I will be talking about the most important characters to the plot, but also some of my favourites, because, let’s be honest, I am biased.
Victor Vale:
He is our dark, morally grey, main character that I ended up loving. Now, don't get me wrong, he doesn’t get better(well not really), he still has questionable morals, but i still felt empathy towards him. Victor is a pretty remote person, he's not very chatty or sociable, but you can tell that he's very smart. In the second half of the book, when he's planing his revenge, you can tell that he is very analytical and looks at things from all perspectives. He "lost" a lot of things to Eli. He always came second to him, in their friend group, in their classes. I've also had a similar friendship, so you can now understand why I empathised with him and eventually loved him.
Eli Ever:
I did not like Eli(you already know I'm not an objective person, but I will try to be one for this part). My dislike for him might have had something to do with the fact that I was the Victor in most of my toxic friendships(as I've mentioned previously). Eli is quite literally the opposite of Victor. He is social, outgoing, and very, and i mean very, confident.He's also smart, since him and Victor went to the same prestigious college. ⚠️ POTENTIAL MINOR SPOILERS ⚠️ I believe that Eli is the perfect example of someone who has some sort of religious trauma(or even brainwashing). After he transforms into an EO he becomes obsessed with his new power. He is also very religious, so when he sees Victor as an EO he suddenly comes to the conclusion that all EOs are a form of the devil and need to be killed. That is very strange, considering that he's also an ExtraOrdinary, but his reasoning is that God chose him to be an EO and basically murder all those other people. I do believe that he feels some sort of remorse in killing EOs, but unfortunately not enough to stop. ⚠️ POTENTIAL MINOR SPOILERS ENDED ⚠️
Sydney Clarke:
She is my favourite character in this book. She get found by Victor in the middle of the road, after she was shot by her sisters boyfriend. She is a sweet, nice thirteen year old, that has idolised her older sister her entire life. Sydney also has the saddest back story in my opinion, so of course I cried every time there was a flashback scene. I really hope that we will get more of her in the second book("Vengeful"). ⚠️ POTENTIAL MINOR SPOILERS ⚠️ She also has a really interesting power, but one that I think is burdening for someone her age ⚠️ POTENTIAL MINOR SPOILERS ENDED ⚠️ .
Serena Clarke:
She is Sydney's older sister, and someone that I, surprisingly, don't hate. I, unfortunately, don't know that much about her, but you can see that she loves her sister dearly, even when it might not seem like it. Serena also seems to be the result of a brainwashing of sorts, which leads her to do all those horrible things to Sydney. ⚠️ POTENTIAL MINOR SPOILERS ⚠️ Her power seemed, in the begging, like something great and useful. And while it is useful, I do believe that is very depressing, because the line between reality and superpower gets very blurry. She thinks that no one likes her for who she is, due to her power⚠️ POTENTIAL MINOR SPOILERS ENDED ⚠️ .
3. Writing style
I love V.E. Schwab, so it probably won't come up as a surprise that I really enjoy her writing style. What I've noticed in her other books, but also in this one, is that the chapters are pretty short and they all end with these small, yet gripping, cliffhangers. From that you can probably get that it was a very hard to put down book.
4.Things that I loved about it
There was not one single dull moment throughout this entire book. I loved the pacing as I've previously mentioned, and just the overall writing style. Another thing that I loved were the characters and how complex they were, and how each of them were the villain in the others’ story. I also really liked the dark academia and “X Men” vibes that this book gave off. One thing that I surprisingly loved was the two different time lines. She did a great job at making both of them interesting and making the reader engaged by ending each chapter on a cliffhanger. I’ve seen a lot of authors who didn’t manage to make it enjoyable to the reader, so of course I was skeptical about it. And lastly, but definitely not least, my absolute favorite thing about this book was Dol. A ginormous black stray dog(⚠️ POTENTIAL MINOR SPOILERS ⚠️ that was killed multiple times ⚠️ POTENTIAL MINOR SPOILERS ENDED ⚠️), that now has as a father Victor freaking Vale. Isn’t that the most amazing thing you’ve ever heard?
5. Things I didn’t enjoy
Literally nothing. Loved all of it.
6. Some great quotes
“He couldn’t afford to think of next, or after. He’d spent far too long thinking of now. Waiting for now. The only nexts in his world were the short, quick ones standing between him and Eli. And they were falling away so fast.”
“ So she sat on the balls of her feet atop the leather chair and watched Victor sleep, as if the frown lines that lingered even now would rearrange and tell her all his secrets.”
7. Overall opinion
I am not at all surprised that I loved this book, because I’ve read most of V.E. Schwab’s books and all of them were five star reads. The characters are really interesting, and even though they are objectively bad people I’m pretty sure that everyone can relate to at least one of them. I would recommend this book to everyone that likes dark academia and “X men”, but not only to them, because I think it could be a really enjoyable read, even if you’re not a fan of these.
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