Book Review (PRINT), The Vindico

              The "Vindico"was an amazingly written, planned out and "out of the box" novel! If you enjoy reading about the X-men, (or Marvel/ D.C Comics) this would be a great book to start reading. The story is based in the modern age (now, in 2012- 2013) but Super heroes (called the "League") and Super villains (called the "Vindico") are real. All the two main opposing "teams" want nothing for each other but pain, agony and revenge. Deeper into context, the Super villains decided that they were aging and no longer could
keep theSuperheroes defeated. They kidnap five teenagers, and grant them super powers! I find this book

extremely intriguing to readers, as the fictional super powers from comic books finally emerge, releasing into a larger and unlimited way to see Superheroes and Super villains, in our modern world!

            As on the cover of the book, it says that five teenagers, swept out of their daily and annoying lives, into a mansion belonging to the enemies of their heroes. The Vindico, a notorious group of villains, wanting nothing but revenge on the infamous Superheroes (The “League”), create a plan. The solution to their problems was to create a group of new Super villains, who would become their protégés. They decide to kidnap the teenagers, and grant them any super power imaginable- as long as they pledged allegiance to them. Sadly, the Vindico technically didn't give a choice to the teenagers.
 The punishment for not staying within the mansion's premises was pain- a lot of pain. At some point in the book, one of the characters decided to run away from the mansion, including the villains who were able to kill him easily. He ends up getting caught by one of the villains, and punish him severely (I don't want to ruin the story). After the protégés learn to use/ get their powers, they start to fight side by side with their mentoring Villains. After killing a Famous Hero, by an accident, the teenagers decide that being mass murdering Villains was not what they wanted to do. From that point on, they try to create a plan that would erase the fact that they side the Super Villains, but still make them look innocent enough to not get punished by the Superheroes!

              In the Vindico, there are many characters. In other reviews, some readers find that there are to many primary characters, and supplementary characters. The author gives five main characters (The protégés), all of their families, friends and bullies, six Main Villains, (plus the Villains who'd died previously), more than ten main Superheroes, and their protégés. Despite the large amount of characters, the story wasn't as confusing, as the book progressed through the story. Since the whole novel was basically based in one place(inside the Villain's mansion), it was easy to follow the story. I enjoyed the fact that the characters in the story were clearly thought out. All the characters had a weakness, or a reason to want revenge on something, or someone in their lives. "James Renwick", one of the protégés (age fourteen) who received super strength, was broken hearted at school, after dating, but his x-bestfriend. He, of all characters in teh book would have an excuse to want revenge on his ex-best friend, making it a reason why the Villains would make him one of their protégés. Already having fury and vengeful thoughts within himself, the Villains could simply just toy with his brain, and manipulate him into wanting to "side" with the Villains! James's mentoring villain is the "Torturer", who has super strength, and had a similar backround lifestyle to James. Along with James Renwick, there were four other protégés. Hayden Lockwood, who is sixteen.His family had abandoned him, making him into a lovable, despicable character. His family story is disguised by his funny personality. Before he is kidnapped by the Vindico, he already naturally has "telekinesis" (has the ability to control the motion/ where something moves). Hayden's mentor, known as Leni, is  a strict, brute villain, (who had actually been kicked out of the League of Heroes, which had caused him to side the enemy of his previous Super hero friends.) The next character is Lana Hunter, described as a 'weak' and defenseless teen, before she was turned into a  'mutant'. She gets kidnapped while having a perfect example of her "defenselessness", but gains strength and agility, as her powers. Her mentor, Avaria, has a sad background. Her husband had given her artificial powers, illegally, and he was part of the League of Super heroes. The League killed him, and a villain was formed, after the new powers were given to Avaria. The next protégé is fourteen year old Emily Lau. She is a well online-known hacker, and was kidnapped after she hacked the Super hero (top-secret) website. She and her mentor, "Rono", are technology professionals. The last protégé is Sam Bennett. He's a shy, telepathic eleven year old, and his mentor's name is "Sliver". Sliver is a joking and teasing villain, who was amused by playing cruel jokes on the other protégés minds. Lastly, there is the Barron. He is the center of the Vindico, and previously was the heart of the League of heroes. He is shown as a smart, but aged character. The rest of the characters in the "Vindico" are the League of heroes, and the protégé's parents, friends and bullies.


In my opinion, the "Vindico" was a well written book. the author, 'Wesly King' is a creative author, who blended in the older marvel (x-men) comics with a modern twist, into a novel. It worked out amazingly, and overall, it was quite appropriate for children. The violence wasn't extremely gorry, because the worst punishment done was described in great detail, until the actual part that the character had gotten hurt. "Hayden saw the trees turn around, and wrapped towards him, hovering. The pine trees started rapidly spinning, floating towards him. "This can't be good," he thought."'
Then the chapter ended, making the content less gory. The only thing that I didn't appretiate as much, is that I really don't enjoy romance in books. This would be a point that would probably change the mind of someone who was younger, or who didn't like dating, romance,   etc. Almost every protégé was kidnapped after/ in the                            (Picture of the X-men)
process of being in a broken relationship, or a romance ending. Lastly, the book contained a number of ( my standard) of swear words. Even though it seemed appropriate to the environment/ time, I still didn't enjoy those parts as much.  I find that the story was extremely easy to read, and it was hard to put the book down! Except for a few romantic, or inappropriate (language) this book would be great to start reading! Out of the rating of ten, I'd give "The Vindico" an eight (8/10). I gave this suspenseful novel an eight out of ten, because of the originality of the context, or topic, and the smooth run of the story line.  "The Vindico" should be definitely placed above average. Also, I found that if comic book readers wouldn't read novels, the comic fans would quickly take the Vindico and get drawn to it! It has the same suspense and  story lines of the X-men, and actually gives out more imagination, then some comic books!


In summary, I enjoyed The Vindico very much. Since I liked reading the X-men, I was really interested in this fast paced, suspenseful, and creative story! This book actually won a various amount of prizes, and was in our reading competition, last year.  Except for the overcoming amount of characters, the personal rating of over inappropriate language, and the romance (my preference), this book was an original, fun and easy book! I definitely advise readers to read this novel, or at least skim through it. ( I've already advised people!)
(Author of The Vindico, Wesly KING)