Here’s a short summary of Vicious:
Victor Vale and Eli Cardale are estranged friends who both attend the same college. For his final thesis, Eli decides to take a darker turn and does one on EOs (ExtraOrdinaries, who possess powers from unknown means). In an X-Men reminiscent world, the two men find a way to garner these abilities. However, after a deadly experiment, Eli goes sick in the head with moral superiority, deciding all EOs are worthy of death - including Victor, who becomes jailed. Years later, Victor has escaped, and he’s out for revenge, cold and raw.
Here's a short review of the novel:
This book was a mash of science fiction and fantasy, though it has some very realistic elements. Vicious was the best book I read this year by far, portraying two characters that are twisted by their ideals. Neither of the characters are right or wrong but deeply in the middle, and the reader has to battle out their morals in their heads. Victor is cold and sharp, almost unfeeling; Eli is passionate and ambitious, out to get what he wants. Both of these characters are similar and make the reader feel exhilaration at what is to come. Told in dual perspectives and timelines, it provides an interesting frame for the reader to grasp the two characters’ motivation. I would dub this story as a mixture between X-Men and Death Note, and what an interesting mash-up it is, for it gives the reader so much feeling, emotion, and ideologies packed in one single, tightly-clasped book.