The story begins in the present, where Victor and Eli haven’t seen each other in ten years and then the story jumps back to when they first met as students at an exclusive school. The book itself is fast-paced and flashes between the past and present, whilst also flicking between different character's perspectives to give a well-rounded story. Their paths then split onto very different courses which leads us into a fascinating character study on what it means to be a hero, or a villain, and are these terms ultimately definable? Are some people’s powers better than others or are all EO’s a risk to society at large? Following the lives of two students, Victor Vale and Eli Cardale, from when they start a mission to work out if there is such a thing as an EO and if so - are these people born this way or made through some kind of trauma? This leads to a number of questions and although both Victor and Eli are obviously smart people, they are drawn to each other as competitive kindred spirits. Schwab gives us an epic tale of extraordinary people and what that means, not only on an individual level but also whether they should exist or not. Driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the arch-nemeses have set a course for revenge. Ten years later Victor escapes from prison, determined to get his revenge on the man who put him there, while Eli has spent the years hunting down and killing other EOs. Victor and Eli, due to a research project gone wrong, become ExtraOrdinaries (referred to as EO's from here on in) with supernatural powers.

Books like vicious by ve schwab