the writing is gorgeous and prose-like; reading this book felt like i was dreaming the whole time. i especially loved the inclusion of footnotes and journal entries - it reminded me so much of Piranesi, which i enjoyed a lot!! if you enjoy parallel universes, jumping through time and space, circular narratives, and moody atmospheres, this is the book for you.

while i enjoyed the writing style, and the complexities of sisterhood depicted in the novel, i thought the magic system was a little too abstract? for my own taste. there were parts that seemed to drag on forever, particular the Esi section. it felt like the author put me in so much suspense that it left me so exhausted to figure out what was going on.

criticisms aside, i did enjoy this book overall. and if you have a sibling you are close with, you Will cry, guaranteed.

This book was so explosive, and the way Schwab has set up the dual timelines is so brilliant. While the events of the present timeline never feel like they have gasp-worthy plot twists, the suspense set up by the short chapters, fast pace, and constantly shifting timelines is addicting to read. The flashbacks to the past interrupting the currently moving plot creates a constantly changing interpretive framework that feels exciting to uncover.

Somehow, the reveals of this book are gradual, yet the reading experience remains lightning quick. By constantly moving between revelation and forward momentum, you're thrown into processing new information while you're anticipating the next big collision. Each flashback gives just enough information to alter your understanding, then catapults you back into the present before you have time to let anything settle.

These revelations allowed for so much philosophizing and analysis. Interestingly, the suspense comes almost entirely from this volatile character development. Rather than trying to guess what might happen, the tension is carried by the ambiguity of the emotional and moral meaning of the plot itself.

Not only does this suspense create an addictive page-turning experience, it feels loaded like a wound up spring as each revelation compounds upon the last. Each intervening chapter adds a new piece of information that changes the significance of something you already thought you understood.

As every flashback adds new information, every present-day chapter moves the characters closer together. When the two finally converge, the detonation is unrelentingly forceful as all of the context accumulated for 300 pages gets released at once. By the end of the book, it feels like you've been on the wildest rollercoaster of your life, and you immediately want to get back on to feel the rush again.

While the plot is exciting enough on its own, the true stars of Vicious are its morally ambiguous characters, Eli and Victor. It takes a lot of skill to write characters who are deeply flawed and dangerous, and make them legible and likeable, and there's a twisted sense of excitement in wanting to root for a character who you know is bad.

Through Victor and Eli, Schwab creates a sort of critique on the superhero genre itself, playing with its moral shorthand as she questions what makes someone a hero, what makes someone a villain, and if the distinction is even reliable in the first place.

Eli and Victor are frankly "bad" people, and yet they are fascinating because they are so psychologically coherent. Especially as the book progresses, the timelines converge, and their deeper machinations begin to be revealed, there is a certain tragedy in both of their characters that makes them uncomfortably easy to empathize with.

Eli and Victor are so wrapped up in their own trauma, motivations, social perceptions, and ideologies that easy moral categorization is nearly impossible. The fun of this book is uncovering the messiness underneath the outward projections the characters begin with, rather than trying to determine a true hero or villain.

This book is definitely for the superhero comic book lovers as the inspirations are clear. It feels at once like a love letter to the genre and a complication of its most common tropes, and the fast-paced action feels like a perfect fit. It's cinematic without being overwritten, detailed just enough without being drawn out, full of malice and manipulation and delicious ambiguity.

Simply put, it's fun as fuck. A bit of intellectualism packaged in a fast, nasty story that creates a moral mess and refuses to apologize for it.

A truly delightful read! I thought the characters were well developed. Liana and Melia don't feel like 'chosen ones' or 'not like the other girls' that so many other female protagonists in the fantasy romance genre do. They feel like people who are doing all they can in a shitty situation, and I liked that about them. And the political tension throughout?? Delicious. The climax?? I was HOOKED

(@sashareads im forever trusting your recs🙂‍↕️)

Love Lethal, Death Divine surprised me with how much it gave me to think about. What initially pulled me in was the dual timeline and the mystery of how Liana and Melia’s stories would eventually connect, but the deeper I got into the book, the more invested I became in the larger questions underneath the fantasy.

One of the things I loved most was the exploration of free will and what we inherit. These characters carry so much that they never chose: family expectations, political loyalties, old wounds, inherited beliefs, and roles decided for them long before they had a say in their own lives. Yet the story keeps asking whether those things have to determine who they become. Watching Liana and Melia slowly move from being shaped by other people’s choices to making choices of their own was incredibly satisfying.

That also made the book’s exploration of recognition especially beautiful to me. Recognition across time, recognition of the people we love even when everything around them has changed, but also recognition of ourselves beneath everything that has been placed on us. There’s something powerful about seeing yourself clearly and realizing that you are more than the role someone else gave you. In a story so concerned with time, I loved that recognition could exist outside of it too. Some things can change completely, and yet there can still be that feeling of I know you.

The relationships were another highlight for me. Love here isn't portrayed as something that magically makes everything uncomplicated. These characters can love imperfectly, make terrible decisions, hurt each other, and still have to decide what they’re willing to sacrifice for the people they care about. I especially appreciated how love, loyalty, family, and duty constantly collided rather than existing in neat little boxes.

The political intrigue and mythology added another layer to all of this. The gods were unpredictable and often felt less like benevolent forces and more like beings playing with lives for their own purposes, which made the characters' attempts to control their circumstances feel even more precarious. I also loved the contrast between the dreamy, almost fairytale quality of the writing and how quickly it could become brutal and bloody.

The time travel structure took me a little while to settle into. The lack of clear time markers initially left me trying to piece together where we were and how everything connected, but once the rules became clearer, I really appreciated what the structure was doing. Seeing the same world through different perspectives made certain moments land differently, and watching the consequences of one character’s choices ripple into another’s story became one of my favorite aspects of the book!!

By the final stretch, I was emotionally invested. There were moments where I wanted to shake everyone involved, moments where I was genuinely stressed, and moments where I just thought, damn, these people have been through ENOUGH. 😮‍💨

This ended up being a much more thoughtful and emotionally resonant read than I expected going in. I came for the fantasy, time travel, mythology, and political intrigue, but what I’m leaving with is a story about choice, identity, love, and the complicated process of becoming your own person. If you love fantasy that blends mythology and time travel with political intrigue, complicated relationships, and questions about identity and agency, I definitely think this one is worth picking up.