Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Vengeful by V.E. Schwab

42 reviews

lizziaha's review against another edition

dark

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

The sheer breadth of this book is very impressive. There are so many moving parts and ve schwab manages to weave them together so intricately. That being said, because there are so many moving parts, there are still some loose threads that I desperately want to pull. I’m not sure if there will ever be another book, but I want one!!!! Part of the reason that these books are so compelling is because they have a very Batman-villainesque feeling to them and there’s not really a hero to hang your hopes on, so you have to decide which of your morals you will set aside as you choose who to root for. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Body horror, Death, Child abuse, Medical content, Physical abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Self harm, Blood, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Sexism, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Infidelity, Animal death, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Addiction

megb64's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Gun violence, Medical content, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, Misogyny, Murder, Blood, Drug use, Sexism, Confinement, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Domestic abuse, and War

Minor: Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Child death, Police brutality, and Rape

jkneebone's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I loved the first book in this universe, Vicious, but for some reason Vengeful did not quite live up to my expectations. Picking up five years after the events of Vicious, in Vengeful we find Victor, Mitch, and Sydney still on the move, traveling from place to place as they try to figure out what's wrong with Victor (after his reanimation by Sydney, his power is on the fritz). Meanwhile Eli, after being arrested, was given over to a new program called EON which is dedicated to hunting down and capturing EOs. This book also introduces us to several new characters: Marcella, a mob wife-turned-EO after her cheating husband tried to murder her; and June, an EO with the power to assume the form of any human she has touched, who has been keeping up a secret long-distance friendship with Sydney.

There is a lot happening in this book, and though parts of it were really interesting to me - we finally get some Eli POV and find out more about his history! - there was, for me, a bit too much going on, to the point that I found it a bit hard to know what to focus on. Eli and Victor's obsession with each other continues - Eli has visions of Victor's ghost and suspicions that he isn't dead, and once they're confirmed he wants to rectify that himself; Victor is determined to keep Eli from getting out of EON - but we also have Marcella's quest for vengeance against her husband/subsequent desire to take over the entire Merit mob, and the addition of EON as a source of conflict/potential fear for most of the characters. There's just a lot going on! I didn't find Marcella particularly compelling when contrasted with the other characters, and the sort-of role-reversal of Victor and Eli

-not only is Eli imprisoned while Victor roams free, Victor starts trying to find EOs who might be able to help him, and then killing them when they can't help - he's literally using the system Eli perfected to kill EOs, albeit for a different reason -

didn't make a ton of sense to me; it felt like a re-hashing of the first book in some ways.

It was still a quick and engaging read - although definitely not for those with a sensitivity to violence or graphic images, as there was even more gross and gory stuff happening in this book - but for me, lacked the delicious darkness of the first book. The characters were nasty, but the motivations felt muddied - and maybe that was the point, but whatever it was, it just didn't work for me as much as the first book did.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Violence, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Death, Child abuse, Medical trauma, Blood, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Self harm, Animal death, and Medical content

marinasjd's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Medical content, Murder, Violence, Blood, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcohol, Animal death, and Addiction

donatio's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This was just as intriguing as Vicious. 
The multiple POVs, the new characters, the writing, the plot... just brilliant. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Car accident, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Medical content, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Addiction, Blood, Body horror, Gore, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Drug use, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, and Violence

audrey5's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I just absolutely love this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Murder, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, and Medical content

Moderate: Blood and Drug use

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

xcampuskiddo's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Toxic relationship, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Self harm, Torture, Medical content, Sexism, Blood, Murder, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gun violence, Stalking, Confinement, Cursing, Drug use, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Police brutality

katiedalton's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I think Vicious was a better book, I felt that Vengeful couldn’t decide if it was going to be book 2/3 or 2/2. Plot wise I wasn’t sure if it was going to wrap up nicely or if it was trying to set itself up for another book. 

why was June so obsessed with Syd? Like I wanted to know more the whole book and it didn’t happen. And it leaves on this “cliff hanger” of June deleting her info at EON?but we don’t know that much about her either…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture and Medical content

Moderate: Gun violence

luxxltyd's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Abandonment, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Violence, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Torture, Animal death, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Gun violence, Medical trauma, and Medical content

Moderate: Infidelity, Grief, Sexual content, and Addiction

alexandrabelze's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

i have so many issues with this book idek where to start. i actually enjoyed the first one and got so excited for this one (especially after reading marcella’s intro chapters), but this was just disappointing. victoria tried to fit WAY too many storylines and new characters into this book. and it doesn’t help her case that her storytelling was, at times, extremely messy. on top of that, the structure of these books did not help that issue at all. i also could not vibe with june’s character. which is disappointing bc her power is cool. anyways i’m about to go off in the spoiler <3

first of all, i expected that when sydney found out that victor was the one who killed serena it would be more dramatic? maybe a little tense? but instead i was let down and we moved on almost immediately. like hello??? next, and i hate to say this, i think dol should have stayed dead this time. i’m glad victoria kept him for a majority of the story, but it would’ve felt more complete to add him to the final deaths. and it would’ve built up sydney’s character. speaking of building her character, WHY did we go through ALL of that with the dead birds just for sydney to decide in ONE PARAGRAPH that she did not want to revive serena?? i honestly would’ve preferred she tried it and failed. finally, eli’s death was boring. i was expecting an insane emotional battle between him and victor that ended in something so dramatic and lowkey sensual, but instead he just…died. like that was next level disappointing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Medical content, Medical trauma, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Vomit

Moderate: Animal death and Stalking