Comment

PrimaGigi
Jul 19, 2015PrimaGigi rated this title 1 out of 5 stars
Victor and Eli were college roommates. Intelligent, arrogant, lonely young men. In their senior year a shared experiment on adrenaline and near death experiences, uncovers a hidden potentiality. Under the right conditions a person can become an EO (ExtraOrdinary) Ten years later and Victor is breaking out of jail with a single thought: exacting his revenge on Eli. What is good and bad is open to interpretation of the person. I couldn't tell if it was a story about ethics and morality or just who seemed to lack it or compound it, into whatever fit their doing. Victor and Eli are presented as two opposing but equal forces; both become EOs. It's Victor continued attempts that drives Eli to decidedly goes on a killing rampage after Victor kills his girlfriend. Eli is crazier then Victor because he was raised religiously. Eli sees that EOs are unnatural and takes it upon himself or "ordained" by God to kill others like him and Victor. there is a lot of timeline jumping, I enjoyed it during the fast half of the, but when it got to the second part of the story where it's meant to piece the conclusions together, we are given timeline jumps of minor characters backstories. If you failed to mention their significance in the first half of the book, then they aren't important now. Along the way of breaking out of jail Victor (with his cellmate Mitch) happens along Sydney; another EO, who was shot by Eli. (Sydney is Serena's sister and Eli's Gal Friday). Victor takes her in and finds out her powers are to his advantage. After reading about Victors revenge story I found him to be petty and childish. You get that by him defacing his parents self-help books. He's the one that lacks obvious empathy. You are expected to like Victor a little more, since we have established Eli is crazy via his religious upbringing. I feel bad for the cast of characters around these two more then anything else. Serena, Mitch and Sydney are all being used, expect that Victor is better because he isn't planning on killing them after. Neither of these two characters were likeable and both were reprehensible. Eli' s logic behind killing other people is faulty and lacks any base. His past isn't brought into question. How he got the scars on his back by his Minister father, the only indicator into his obsession with being righteous. We refuse to admit religions are cults that prey on those more susceptible to that belligerent nonsense. We have been shown that throughout history religions have sparked the most wars, we refuse to believe that this is any inducement towards catering towards insanity. Eli is a perfect proponent of it. Victor is Eli's antithesis, he doesn't pronounce his atheism, it's just there. Where Eli is moralizing in his religion, Victor is amoral is his Atheism, solely stuck on his self-absorption, finding there is nothing leaves Victor with less regrets in his actions. Victor is an asshole with a secret heart 'O Gold. Speaking as an Atheist (former Catholic and Born-Again) that is shit. I never in my Atheism have thought without action to the consequence regarding other people around me. Atheism isn't Hedonistic, self-absorbed or apathetic that's a simplistic look at it. It's more Humanistic. Not to say their aren't any bad Atheists, there are, just too few to count, like not all Christians, Jews or Muslims are narrow-minded. The book really could have done without the religious debate.