Vicious

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2013

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Chapters 5-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 5 Summary

In the cemetery, Sydney and Victor still dig. Sydney asks Victor about prison and Mitchell Turner (Mitch), Victor’s former cellmate and the third member of their group, who is waiting back at their hotel room. Sydney ends the chapter by asking if the prison let Victor out. Victor smiles the smile he uses “a lot before he [lies]” and says yes (36).

Chapter 6 Summary

Chapter 6 takes place in prison, a week before Victor and Sydney dig in the cemetery. Victor reflects on the last 10 years in prison while Mitch decommissions a security camera. As Mitch works, Victor reads aloud from a book he borrowed from the prison library, focusing on a passage about pain. Turning off a person’s ability to feel pain also shuts off their fear of death, which makes “them, in their own eyes, immortal” (37). Only half-listening, Mitch finishes his work, and the two prepare to confront an approaching guard.

Chapter 7 Summary

A week after breaking out of prison, Victor and Mitch drive a stolen car through heavy rain. They’re going to Merit because Victor saw a news article accompanied by a picture of Eli, who was hailed for saving a bank from an EO robber. For 10 years, Victor’s wondered where Eli was, sometimes with “such an intense need to know that it hurt” (40).

Further down the highway, Victor spots a figure trudging along the side of the road. Victor feels pain radiating from the figure, and Mitch stops so he can get out. The figure is Sydney, who’s recently taken a gunshot to the arm. Victor numbs the pain, and Sydney gets in the car.

Chapter 8 Summary

Back at the cemetery in the present, Sydney and Victor still dig. Sydney asks if Eli will get the message. Victor believes he will, but if he doesn’t, Sydney’s sister, Serena, will. Sydney shivers at the memory of Serena turning away when her boyfriend (Eli) shot Sydney. To shake off the memory, Sydney asks why Victor wants to see Eli when he probably can’t kill him. Victor agrees that Eli likely can’t be killed but that “the fun is trying” (44).

Chapter 9 Summary

In the past at Lockland, Eli explains his findings about EOs to Victor. According to Eli’s research, EOs are made, rather than born, and they gain their abilities after dying and coming back to life, a process called a near death experience (NDE). The prospect excites Victor, but in an effort not to show it, he points out flaws in Eli’s theory—mainly the number of unknown factors. Eli’s excitement wains. He argues that EOs are only a theory and that he’s not “actually trying to create one” (49). Victor asks Eli why not, and Eli argues that the creation of an EO is comparable to suicide. Victor agrees but continues to promote the idea. Eli starts to come around, but Angie arrives steals Eli’s attention. Annoyed, Victor leaves them in the cafeteria.

Chapters 5-9 Analysis

All the major characters now established, these chapters introduce some of the core concepts of how EOs work in the world of Vicious. A person becomes an EO following a traumatic death experience from which they return to life. Schwab links this to origin stories in comic books, discussing similarities to heroes such as Spider-Man, who obtained their abilities after a triggering event. Schwab then subverts the superhero genre by requiring EOs to have a very specific experience in order to develop powers—namely a rebirth triggered by a strong enough will to live. Victor’s challenge to Eli to make an EO foreshadows both boys becoming EOs.

Schwab continues to deliberately withhold information in these chapters to build dramatic tension and suspense. In addition to Victor and Sydney’s abilities and the occupant of the grave, Schwab also introduces Serena (Sydney’s older sister) and the strife in their relationship, with few specific details. The identity of Serena’s boyfriend also remains a secret in this section, though it is later revealed that the boyfriend is Eli. Schwab uses Eli as the link connecting all the characters together. Throughout the book, Eli wants to be at the center of something incredible, and it is ironic that he connects a group of ExtraOrdinary people who ultimately want him dead.

Victor’s explanation of pain in Chapter 6 is both foreshadowing and irony. The idea of turning off a person’s ability to feel pain foreshadows Victor’s EO power: the manipulation of pain, both his own and that of others. His statement regarding pain and immortality is ironic because Victor, despite frequently completely turning off his own physical sensations, never feels immortal. This may be due to the pain he endured in order to obtain his gift. This passage also hints at Eli’s ability. Though Eli feels pain, his ability to heal himself means the pain doesn’t linger. His body takes away pain, which leads to Eli feeling immortal and developing a superiority complex.