Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Vengeful

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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gardens_and_dragons's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Again, I am a sucker for a good friends to enemies story with villains. You completely understand and sympathize with these characters, even though you don’t condone their actions well, this was not necessarily some thing that was needed for any sort of closure from the last book, I think that it was a welcome romp.

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marinasjd's review against another edition

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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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paper_bound's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense 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

4.5

I did not expect to like this. In fact, when I first read Vicious 4 years ago, I decided NOT to read this one and thought I never would. I love the first book and thought it was great as a stand-alone. But here I am loving this one.

It’s different in a lot of ways from the first book, which I think is why some people don’t like it as much. The best way I can explain the difference is to say Vengeful is much more comic book. I felt like I was reading a novelization of a beloved comic book. And that’s what made it so great.

I loved all of the characters. They are so evil and yet I feel so warmly toward them and want them (well most of them) to succeed in all of their endeavors.

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