The Guardian called
Vicious "a brilliant exploration of the superhero mythos and a riveting revenge thriller". It received a starred review from
Publishers Weekly, which called Schwab's characters "vital and real, never reduced to simple archetypes" and praised the book as "a rare superhero novel as epic and gripping as any classic comic".
Publishers Weekly also named
Vicious one of its best books of 2013 for SF/Fantasy/Horror. The
American Library Association's
Reference and User Services Association likewise awarded it the top fantasy book in their 2014 Reading List. In late 2013, the rights for a film adaptation of
Vicious were bought jointly by Story Mining & Supply Co and
Ridley Scott's
Scott Free Productions. In May 2014, Alexander Felix was hired to write the screenplay. == Sequel ==