Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Vengeful by V.E. Schwab

55 reviews

pelb's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Here’s the thing, I wanted to love this book. The writing style is great, I love all the characters, and the powers are cool. I loved that we got to see more of Eli’s backstory, I felt like I understood his character a lot better after that. Here’s my main problems: 

1. The focus on new characters 
- there were two new characters introduced, which seemed cool at first. They were good characters with interesting abilities, however, it felt like they were thrown in out of nowhere and then they took over the story. I felt like they could’ve had their own spin off story, rather than being put in this book. Their presence is what killed it for me, because it detracted from the main plot line and caused the downfall of my second problem: 

2. The ending 
- I could’ve overlooked everything else if it wasn’t for the ending. It was extremely rushed and felt unfinished, which was very disappointing after all the buildup. There was no satisfying conclusion I was looking for and I felt confused by the end, wondering why it wasn’t a trilogy, because the story is very clearly not over. Now if she actually comes back and makes a third book, which I’ve heard she might, that would significantly change my opinion of this book, because it was a very enjoyable read. I don’t think she’s going to though, so I am very disappointed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Torture, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Murder, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Self harm

Minor: Addiction

theintrovertsbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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: Violence, Murder, Torture, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Abandonment, Self harm, Medical content, Forced institutionalization, Chronic illness, Gun violence, Blood, Gore, Confinement, Body horror, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Police brutality, Cursing, and Stalking

Minor: Sexual assault, Alcohol, Child death, Rape, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Sexual violence, and Drug use

currently_introverting's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Medical trauma, Blood, Gun violence, Murder, and Torture

Minor: Animal death

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

jwells's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

I don't know how to review Vicious and Vengeful, except that I read them practically compulsively, and could hardly put them down. I don't usually like an antihero, or a book that is lean on likeable characters, but that didn't seem to apply to these.

I finished Vengeful thinking about Brandon Sanderson's sliding scales of protagonists: likeability, competence, and proactivity. He says that if you are sliding one of them down, you can compensate by sliding the others up. If all of them are low, readers lose interest in your protagonist. Victor is extremely high on proactivity. I also thought, there might be another scale for vulnerability: both Victor and Eli discover in this book that they are far from invulnerable, in spite of their superpowers, and that also makes them more sympathetic and interesting as protagonists.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, and Medical trauma

As in the first book, some deaths that are temporary, and others that are permanent.

_persephone's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Death, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Sexual content and Sexism

Minor: Animal death

idroplungs's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

The majority of the book is not as good as the first. Too many characters being followed and too many moving pieces making it too easy to put down. Stick with it though as the ending is surely worth it since the last 80pages flew by without being able to stop it. Schwab's EOs are an amazing twist on super heroes or super villains, keeping the line blurry is what keeps it interesting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Gun violence, Death, Murder, Violence, Medical trauma, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Self harm and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Cursing and Animal death

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

mariegatou's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Terminal illness, Physical abuse, Murder, Medical trauma, and Child abuse

Minor: Suicide attempt

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