#this is about vicious by VE Schwab

[haikyuuhoo]

The desire to see Vicious by V. E. Schwab turned into a movie/TV show just so I can see the delivery of

“When I climbed into that water, I put myself in His hands—”

“No, you put yourself in mine.”

[evenstarfalls]

[thenightshadowqueen]

I know it’s been said before but I’m literally always thinking about this so: the thing that I think gets me the most about Victor and Eli is how fundamentally similar they are, and how completely blind they are to it. Victor, I think, has more awareness in the beginning; after all, he sees himself in Eli, and that’s why he’s interested in him (which I think is really interesting facet of his character and their relationship, but that’s a separate post). But later on, both of them see themselves as better than the other—again, Victor less so, but he still does. Eli has always had this sense of moral superiority, but Victor has the sense of intellectual superiority. Eli is so set in his religious fanaticism and Victor is so set on his revenge that neither of them can see that they’re exactly the same. And like I said, Victor is more aware of it, but I think both of them are oblivious to a degree.

Also don’t even get me started on how fucking obsessed they are with each other.

[robobee]

i do really respect that v.e schwab was like "what if a rich private school white boy AND a republican mormon got superpowers. wouldn't that be fucked up" and wrote an entire book about it

[lesbiradshaw]

a wonderful caricature of intimacy

by eliotcardale

“Deny, deny, deny,” Victor murmured, and then, took a step closer, cocking an eyebrow. “Are you really that afraid that I might be right?”

Ironically enough, that, Eli did not deny. He instead countered with a question of his own. “What makes you think my faith is blind?”

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

your favorite of my favorites: A Book Poll

okay, i have now officially seen Just Enough open tags to override my vampiric need to be explicitly invited into things, so! here are my (current) Five Favorite Books for y'all to vote on, in order of Publication Date (and incidentally the order in which i read them)

shout out to @e-b-reads and @beardedbookdragon for the recent open tags! i am inflicting this on paying this forward to @asexualbookbird and @alloreli (who i warned), and to @sixofravens-reads (who i did not).

[alltoowellsscarf]

Just thinking about the scene in Vengeful when Eli is talking to Victor's ghost:

Victor: He doesn't know how patient you are, doesn't know you like I do

Eli: No, no one ever has

I am totally normal about these guys

[threefuckencrowsinatrenchcoat]

Every day we get closer to the last book in the Vicious trilogy and I swear that keeps me fucking alive

[discountsoysauce]

Yall might have to bare with me on this one I'm not great at articulating my thoughts and although I'm neurodivergent I really don't have the proper terms to explain myself here

But like

Okay so it's very obvious that Eli is not neurotypical. I don't want to really get into specific diagnoses because I very much do not want to fall into the serial killer = mental disorder trope. It's a shitty trope and very harmful when handled poorly, especially with Cluster B personalities. Under no circumstances am I saying that Eli's mental condition is the cause of him being a serial killer. I am in fact trying to say the opposite.

TW for discussion of abuse and ableism

Basically, the crux of my argument lies with Eli's flashbacks in Vengeful, specifically when it comes to his father.

Eli mentions that the abuse started when he was around 9 years old because his father saw "the devil" in his eyes.

Eli's age at the time is very important. 9 years old. A literal child. Eli has done nothing wrong at this point aside from exist, and yet his father sees something wrong with him. It's possible that it was intended for Eli to have truly had some "evil" inside of him from the beginning, but it is far far more likely that Eli's father saw some kind of behavior out of the norm (we see that Eli was not a very expressive child. He had to learn all of those behaviors later on) and concluded that it hinted at some "hidden evil". We see those ideas reflected in our own society all the time, with apathy or lack of expression in face or vocal tone can be misconstrued or depicted as evil or heartless.

Eli was never evil or a bad kid. He was 9 years old. There was no devil in his eyes, he simply expressed himself in a way that was considered abnormal.

There's more I could say on this but I've run out of brain power. If anyone has any insight or ways they relate to Eli that they're comfortable talking about or even criticisms, I'm very open to discussion.

[i-needserotonin]

imagine being so jealous of a man that you kill yourself

[agamingsystem]

Sigh... I miss reading about Victor and Eli

[fuckvictorvale]

I <3 how crazy victor and eli are

like wtf is their problem. also I hope they stay fucked up forever

[barrywhelk]

Eli: I love this iced coffee

Victor: I don’t believe you truly love anything

[caitlinincolour]

goddammit why are my favourite characters always the morally grey, borderline sociopathic ones?

[bandoftheives]

rip victor vale and eli ever you would’ve loved my tears ricochet by taylor swift

[spoondrifts]

eli ever is actually the funniest bitch in this entire book for being like "now i didn't set out to murder that guy. i just happened to memorize his schedule and track down his address and stalk him for weeks and run him over with my car when i just happened to see him crossing the street in his own neighborhood" while eating chinese takeout and watching a report on the hit & run on his tv