Vicious

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness, death, child abuse, bullying, and ableism.

Emilia, known to her friends as “Millie,” is one of the narrators and protagonists of Vicious. Vicious also often refers to Emilia using the insulting nickname “Help,” which refers to her parents’ jobs as domestic workers; he never uses the nickname “Millie,” which he insists is for her friends, a role that he is not interested in occupying. When he and Emilia enter a romantic relationship that is more emotionally intimate than their prior sexual affair, he refers to her using her full name only.

Emilia’s narration takes place in two timelines: her time in high school, during the one year she lives in Todos Santos, California, and 10 years later, when she lives and works as a waiter and artist in New York City. In the high school timeline, Emilia is an outsider at All Saints High School, which is attended primarily by extremely wealthy students. Emilia, whose parents work as domestic housekeepers help to the wealthy Spencer family, comes from a starkly different socioeconomic background than her peers. This difference leads her to be harassed and bullied by her classmates, most notably by Baron “Vicious” Spencer, Jr.