Sydney Clarke once had Serena—beloved sister, betrayed enemy, powerful ally. But now she’s alone, except for her thrice-dead dog, Dol. And then there’s Victor, who thinks Sydney doesn’t know about his most recent act of vengeance. Throughout the next section of the book, it is revealed that Marcella and Marcus met in college and were drawn to each other because of power and looks. Marcus’s family is in the mob, and a few years into their marriage, Marcella encourages Marcus to join in on the family business. He does so, thrilling Marcella, who has always been taught to aim high. Her ambition and cruelty seem to run deeper than Marcus’s, although she hides hers. At business meetings, her husband pushes her aside and speaks about her as though she is his plaything, an object he owns. He does not let her participate in the “business”, something that continues to bother Marcella. The Fragile Threads of Power features both new and old characters leading to a compelling mix of nostalgia and intrigue. I was pleasantly surprised by how prevalent the old characters were in the story. Though they remain the characters we love, you can also feel how the passage of time has changed them. They have grown and matured and their relationships felt much richer and more complex. I was particularly obsessed with any scene that involved Kell and/or Lila. I won't say anything to avoid spoilers but *incoherent screaming.* It made me so emotional to see how far these characters have come since we last saw them in A Conjuring of Light.

I find myself compelled to restrain from divulging further details, eager to grant you the space and freedom to explore the depths of this vicious, dark, yet undeniably inventive and exhilarating universe. It is all about perspective. Good and bad are always subjective aspects of one’s life and they always need a determinative factor to keep them going around in circles. Good is never good enough for some, or too good for others. Good can be twisted and turned into bad. Good could be worse than bad. Bad might not be as bad as it seems. Bad could be terrible. This is my upgraded review: And here we go: Victor and Eli’s competition to eliminate each other might be reminded you; Charles Xavier and Erik Lehsherr’s never ending rivalry ( personally I always had a hard time to choose between two hot man, with his sexy Scottish charisma McAvoy already stole my heart years ago but don’t forget Fassbender’s amazing Irish and German heritage, we saw the big parts of it at his movie “Shame”)vicious is a novel of two former college friends turned enemies, victor and eli. both clever, cunning and eager. their shared obsession of gaining extraordinary abilities will be their friendships downfall. through experiments, they both acquire supernatural powers, but their paths separate and victor lands in prison while eli roams free. ten years later, victor has escaped and is seeking revenge on eli, who is now a renowned hero. a fine line between good and evil, a game of cat and mouse, a morally gray world. i absolutely love the idea of anti-heroes. i love taking characters that we are meant to despise, but end up empathising and somewhat admiring them instead. maybe that makes me personally questionable, but wow. i loved how messed up and arrogant and broken both eli and victor were. their relationship was everything to me. from friends and confidants, to conspiratorial partners, to enemies. their relationship was just so demented and deranged, i couldnt look away. i love how the lines were blurred when it came to them. it was such a unique experience as a reader to see them at their worst and unravel the complex events which led them to that point. And in this moment, I suddenly know that there is, in fact, a god somewhere out there answering my prayers.

She pulled away enough to hold him with her cold blue eyes. He could see the devil in them, silver-tongued and cunning, and Eli thought, not for the first time, that he should have killed her when he had the chance.” With The Fragile Threads of Power VE Schwab welcomes readers home to the Shades of Magic world. The start of a new spinoff series to the Shades of Magic trilogy, The Fragile Threads of Power expands the scope of the original trilogy to explore themes of power, control, love, and leadership. I admit that I was nervous to return to a world that I love so much, but The Fragile Threads of Power absolutely exceeded my expectations. Victor and Eli were college roommates who experimented with a theory that Eli had about how Extra Ordinary people were created. Turns out he was right. a b c Charaipotra, Sona (August 8, 2020). "The Book of V.E. Schwab's Heart". Publishers Weekly . Retrieved June 24, 2021.

Goodreads Summary:

You asked me if I ever wanted to believe in something. I do. I want to believe in this. I want to believe that there’s more.” Victor sloshed a touch of whiskey over the edge of his glass. “That we could be more. Hell, we could be heroes.” Mitch and Syd are the only characters in this who have any redeeming qualities and can be deemed good. They are devoted to Victor though and have a little family unit of a kind. I connected with Syd the most in this series as she is living life with the two men after her sister’s death and trying to become stronger in her power. Dom, an ex-soldier, is also an EO just trying to get by in life and a pawn on Victor’s chess board. Goodreads Choice - Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction". Goodreads . Retrieved December 9, 2022. Victor meets Marcella at an art gallery, and she asks him to join forces with her. Marcella has discovered Sydney has abilities, too. After Victor tells her he doesn’t want to work with her and leaves, Marcella reveals his hotel and his whereabouts to EON. June finds out and is angry, turning her against Marcella, because she doesn’t want Sydney put in danger. See the starry cover for V.E. Schwab's 'The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue' ". EW.com . Retrieved June 19, 2021.

Victor is not a good guy. I mean I thought that we knew that in Vicious but he is now even worse and has very little conscious if he has one at all. He will protect himself and Sydney and Mitch if possible but that is really where his priorities lay. While I like him still in some regard because of his loyalty to Mitch and Syd he really is awful. Victor and Eli started out as college roommates-brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in one another. A shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death-experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. They become EOs, ExtraOrdinaries, leaving a body in their wake and turning on each other.I know,” he said loudly. He had to speak up over the screams. “But you’ll have to indulge me. I’ve waited so long to try.” Nov. 3: Shades of Magic is one of my favorite series. So I'm going to break my rule (once again 🙄) of not reading series that aren't finished. Definitely recommended for any fans of morally ambiguous antiheroes, and thanks to everyone who wouldn't stop recommending this.