Vengeful by V.E. Schwab continues the dark story of a found family with powers and a dark feud between characters who were once like brothers.
Vengeful is the second novel in the Villains trilogy. The first book is Vicious, and the highly anticipated final book, Victorious, has just been released.
The theme of this novel is being broken. A couple of characters are broken in more ways than one. The tight-knit family is broken as well.
This sequel ramps up the violence, the murder, the epicness, and the characters. The new characters are good, but I hate that they take so much time away from the characters that I love. I feel like V.E. Schwab was so great at giving every character a moment in Vicious and bouncing back and forth between characters, giving the story a breakneck pace. But this book sticks with characters too long without bouncing away to another character. Victor is only in the novel 35% of the time, which is a shame.
Like Vicious, Vengeful is told out of order, with everything leading to an epic event where all the characters will meet. Schwab is the only writer who can mess with time and never confuse me as a reader. Her writing is excellent in that way.
The ending was so epic. It has characters we’ve been wanting to see meet up for some time, some new and some old. The ending plays it perfectly. Alliances are broken and newly formed. Characters are torn between friend and foe. I loved the ending so much and everything that came with it.
Why did I read Vengeful by V.E. Schwab?
I read Vengeful to get ready for Victorious, the final book in the Villains trilogy. I have a signed copy preordered and cannot wait.
I have read Vengeful before, but it was six years ago when it was released. I’m glad I read it again because I forgot so much. I remembered the major things that happened, but I forgot characters like June and where all the characters ended up in the end. I would have been a little lost without the reread, but now I’m all ready to finish the trilogy.
Plot Summary:
After the events of Vicious, Victor is back, but soon he realizes he is not whole. He keeps dying and then reviving himself. He wants this fixed and hopes some other EO can eventually fix him. He starts tracking them down and kills them when they can’t help so he doesn’t lead them away from the new organization that is tracking down EOs.
Little does Vale know that Eli is helping them track these EOs down while in his prison cell, in an agreement that they will not experiment on him anymore. Eli doesn’t know Victor survived their last battle, but clues start pointing to his old foe, which he keeps secret from Stell, who started the organization after the events of Vicious. The organization tracks EOs, imprisons them, and performs studies on them.
A new EO, Marcella, can erode anything, craves power, and quickly starts taking over the city. Stell makes a deal with Marcella that he won’t go after her if she can lead him to the EO killing healers.
Sydney is against the killing but agrees. She has also found out that Mitch killed her sister and doesn’t know what to do with the information.
Sydney has met a new EO who can shapeshift named June and has not told Victor or Mitch about her. It’s unclear if June’s intentions are genuine or if she has a plan involving Sydney.
What I Liked:
The dark tone is set early. The characters we love or loathe are all expanded upon and grow.
The structure is the same as Vicious, where it jumps around in time but leads up to an event. This one adds characters to the same structure, but it manages to still make sense and not confuse the reader.
Eli gets a heartbreaking backstory that expands on his character and makes this reader a little sad for him.
The conclusion was really epic and wrapped up a lot of individual storylines. This novel gets pretty gory, and it is described so well. The ending was complete while still leaving room for expansion.
What I Disliked:
I think a little too much time was spent on Marcella and not enough on other characters, especially Victor. At the end of the novel, I couldn’t figure out what he even wanted to live for. It seems like death would have been more preferable.
Recommendation:
If you’re a fan of the first book, you must continue this epic story. As a fan of the superhero genre, this unique series adds so much to the genre.
Vengeful is a good step-up novel from Young Adult to Adult Fiction. I feel this book is more adult than Vicious.
I did not like it as much as Vicious, but this book is epic and expands on our characters in interesting ways.
Rating:
Vengeful by V.E. Schwab
4 out of 5 stars
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