#FearlessWomen Blog Tour: VICIOUS by V.E. Schwab

Welcome to this week’s #FearlessWomen post, where for the next several months, I’m celebrating the releases of some Tor Books Fearless Women authors! I’m thrilled to be sharing this week’s book drop with you, the rerelease of Vicious by V.E. Schwab. The sequel to Vicious, Vengeful, will be released on September 25th, and in anticipation of this, Tor is rereleasing the first book with a brand new shiny cover:-) (and I have to mention that Vengeful is one of my most anticipated releases this year!!) Also, I’m sharing a special memory of my experience reading Vicious back when it came out in 2013, so check it out below! And in case you haven’t heard about #FearlessWomen yet, here’s what the campaign is about:

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Women are shining in every genre of speculative fiction, and it is no longer enough to say “Women are here.” Instead, #FearlessWomen everywhere are taking a stand to say “Women will thrive here.”

Highlighting major titles from bestselling authors V.E. Schwab, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Jacqueline Carey as well as titles from acclaimed and debut authors such as Mary Robinette Kowal, Tessa Gratton, Sam Hawke, and Robyn Bennis, #FearlessWomen will be a coordinated social media celebration encouraging fans to start a dialogue about women in publishing, their worlds, their voices, and their unique stories.

Tor Books’ handles across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (@torbooks) will be using the hashtags #FearlessWomen (and #FearlessFantasy and #FearlessSF) to promote excerpts, exclusive content, quizzes and giveaways beginning in May. There will also be exclusive giveaways at BookCon, San Diego Comic-Con, and New York Comic Con. Follow Tor Books online, join the conversation – and get reading!

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In Which I Share a Fond Memory of VICIOUS

Before I get to the “highlight” part of this post, I wanted to share a story about my experience reading Vicious back in 2013. Back then, Victoria Schwab was about to become a newly published writer, and she didn’t yet have the huge fan base she has today. In other words, she was mostly still unknown in the book community. I’m not sure how I heard about it—I may have received an email from her because I had subscribed to her newsletter—but she put the call out to anyone who was interested in participating in an “ARC blog tour.” The first ten people to respond to her email would become part of the tour. I had never heard of an ARC tour before (and haven’t since) but hell yes I wanted to be on it! Luckily, I responded quickly enough to the email and became one of the ten readers to be on the tour. Based on where we lived across the country, Victoria set up a schedule and sent an ARC of Vicious on its merry way to the first reader. The idea was that after reading the book, that person would mail it to the next person on the list, and so on, until everyone had read the book. She included an exclusive set of Vicious trading cards for each person, which was a nice touch. I received the book a week or two before the publication date (perfect timing!), read it quickly, and posted my review days before it went on sale.

Fast forward to just a couple of days ago, I attended Phoenix Comic Fest and V.E. Schwab was there to promote the rerelease of Vicious. I was thrilled to meet her at a signing, where I got to thank her for choosing me to be part of the tour. I even got to ask her the question I’ve been dying to ask for years: Did she ever get the ARC back after we had all read it? She did:-D I remember that each reader wrote something in the ARC before passing it on, so I’m sure she has a very unique memory of her first published book.

I intended to try to do a reread of Vicious in anticipation of today’s release, but I just didn’t have time. Instead, you can read my gushing review here if you’re so inclined.

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And now for this week’s highlighted book, Vicious, which releases TODAY! Check out the cover, read the story blurb, and don’t forget to read my exclusive excerpt from the book:

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.

Exclusive excerpt:

TEN YEARS AGO

LOCKLAND UNIVERSITY

“WELL?” asked Victor later that night. He’d had a drink. A couple drinks. They kept a stocked beer shelf in the kitchen for gatherings, and a supply of hard liquor in the drawer under the bath-room sink for the very bad days or the very good ones.

“There’s no way,” said Eli. He saw the tumbler in Victor’s hand, and headed to the bathroom to pour himself one, too.

“That’s not strictly true,” said Victor.

“There’s no way to create enough control,” clarified Eli as he took a long sip. “No way to ensure survival, let alone any form of abilities. Near death experiences are still near death. It’s too great a risk.”

“But if it worked . . .”

“But if it didn’t . . .”

“We could create control, Eli.”

“Not enough.”

“You asked me if I ever wanted to believe in something. I do. I want to believe in this. I want to believe that there’s more.” Victor sloshed a touch of whiskey over the edge of his glass. “That we could be more. Hell, we could be heroes.”

“We could be dead,” said Eli.

“That’s a risk everyone takes by living.”

Eli ran his fingers through his hair. He was rattled, unsure. Victor liked seeing him that way. “It’s just a theory.”

“Nothing you ever do, Eli, is meant to be theoretical. I see it in you.” Victor was very proud of verbalizing the observation in one try, considering his level of inebriation. Nevertheless, he needed to stop talking. He didn’t like people to know how closely he watched, matched, mimicked them. “I see it,” he finished quietly.

“I think you’ve had enough.”

Victor looked down at the amber liquid.

The moments that define lives aren’t always obvious. They don’t always scream LEDGE, and nine times out of ten there’s no rope to duck under, no line to cross, no blood pact, no official letter on fancy paper. They aren’t always protracted, heavy with meaning. Between one sip and the next, Victor made the biggest mistake of his life, and it was made of nothing more than one line. Three small words.

“I’ll go first.”

About the author:

VICTORIA (V.E.) SCHWAB is the author of the NYT bestselling Shades of Magic series, as well as a number of MG and YA novels, including This Savage Song. She has been called “the heir to Diana Wynne Jones.” Her dynamic work has caught the attention of major TV and film studios. Schwab has a Masters degree in Art History from the University of Edinburgh. She currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee, but frequents Edinburgh. You can visit her at www.veschwab.com.

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And you can follow the other #FearlessWomen participants as well! Each one will have exclusive content on their blog posts, so check them out:

This is a Metaphor
Dark Faerie Tales
Cherry Blossoms & Maple Syrup
SciFi Chick
The Bibliosanctum
Tenacious Reader
Itching For Books
Across the Words
Fantasy Literature

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Have you read Vicious yet? Are you excited about the upcoming release of Vengeful?