Vicious by L.J. Shen

 

So I was at my therapy session the other day and was like, "You know the problem with being a content creator with a larger platform is that everyone expects you to have an extremely radical opinion on whatever the latest hot take is, and it gets to the point where you start to second-guess your own opinions because you begin to ask yourself, 'is this really what I think or am I just doing this for the clicks?'" And then my therapist was like, "Ma'am, this is just a drive-thru Starbucks, please take your coffee so we can help the next person in line," and I was like, "Well, SOMEONE'S getting a one-star review on Zocdoc."*

*Just kidding, although if you don't think of coffee as therapy, you've obviously never had a double shot blonde espresso oat milk latte.**

**Seriously, just kidding. Coffee is not a substitute for therapy.

I was leery about picking up VICIOUS because literally everyone and their horny granny was hyping it up, and contrary to popular belief, I don't actually sit around here looking for popular books to hate on. I also really didn't like the last L.J. Shen book I read. It was one of her mafia ones and reading it made me angry, and I was like "NEVER AGAIN." So it kind of seemed like me and Ms. Shen just weren't destined to be. And I was fine with that. Really. Things were fine.

But then one of my friends wrote a review saying that this was basically THE CRUEL PRINCE but with a human cast. And it was like one of those children's TV show buzzers went off, where they're like, "Uh oh! You said today's WORD OF THE DAY!!!!!" Because if there was one thing she could have said that would have made me pick up the book, it was that. I fucking love THE CRUEL PRINCE. Enemies to lovers served up hot on a plate. There's seriously no better rush.

Here's the thing about VICIOUS. It's very much like Hana Yori Dango/Meteor Garden in terms of vibes. Except they call themselves the HotHoles, which is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Also the hero's name is Vicious, which I guess he calls himself because he hates being named Baron. But as stupid as the name Baron is, I think his nickname might actually be worse. Also he calls the heroine "Help." Because she's part of the help. It takes a LOT of mental gymnastics to get over the nicknames, but after reading five books of Zodiac Academy and enduring things like "Faebook," my literary suspension of disbelief has stretched like taffy and I find myself willing to tolerate all kinds of ridic as long as it's for the sake of a good story. Maybe you can't get over the name thing. Maybe it's like sandpaper on your brain. But if you can get over the name thing, the story is so worth it.

Look, I get that it's toxic. I don't care. If you come at me with a story that serves up old skool Asian drama vibes, the feminism is going on the shelf for a while. I'm a sucker for the "I hate everyone but you" trope, especially when it's liberally salted with the "touch her and die" trope and the "I've loved you for years" trope. Yes, I know this buys into toxic masculinity and the idea that men only treat women like shit because they like them, and in real life, I would definitely give that a hard no, but in a story, where the characters are obviously meant for each other and you know that everything is guaranteed to turn out all right in the end because this is a redemptive romance and love is the invisible fairy godmother who makes everything all right with a kiss and a magic wand, I SHIP THE FUCK OUT OF IT. The end.

And this was a really great story. I actually really liked Emilia a lot. I liked that she had the agency and witty rejoinders of an old skool Charlotte Lamb heroine. I liked Vicious (ugh) and how he had such a sardonic and cynical outlook on life that was a result of not wanting to be hurt. I thought his backstory was super sad and I thought the revenge story was compelling and added a nice touch of darkness to what could have otherwise been a really saccharine storyline. I liked both timelines, the side characters, and the pacing of the story. When Emilia and Vicious go on their Christmas-in-New-York date I swooned. Actually, this might be the only Christmas romance I've read that didn't feel like it was trying to convert me to the Hallmark channel. It was just so good.

VICIOUS is a really great story. I'm not giving it a full five stars because the pacing was a little bumpy and I didn't particularly like the epilogue (and also the names, omg). But this was so, so close to being a perfect read. I might actually like L.J. Shen after all, oh my God. I can't wait to talk to my "therapist" about this tomorrow when I pick up my latte. (Starbucks staff: NOOOOOOOO***)

***Just kidding

4 to 4.5 out of 5 stars