You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

4.14k reviews for:

A Lesson in Vengeance

Victoria Lee

3.59 AVERAGE

archiveofycs's profile picture

archiveofycs's review

5.0
adventurous dark mysterious 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

'
dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
dark mysterious

The story was good, but very cookie cutter?  It almost feels like I’ve read this before.  I was hoping for more ghost activity though.
taraoxo's profile picture

taraoxo's review

5.0

THE ENDING ?!?!?!? I can’t. I’m obsessed this book had me hooked in the first few pages. The book surprised me so much I never saw it coming. I don’t normally read books like this but this has changed my opinion. I loved it so much. The best book I’ve read so far this year
challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I can definitely see this being someone’s favorite book but it was mid for me. I was listening and about halfway through I realized I didn’t know much of anything about the characters’ personalities. Everything just felt superficial, like when Felicity would describe Ellis as knowing her or being closest to her I was just thinking “I don’t know anything about her.” It just felt like a lot of telling, not showing. 

I got frustrated with Felicity towards the end.
I still don’t know if this is a ghost/supernatural book or if Felicity really was delusional. The part with Marjorie’s skull being left in the lake should’ve been the end in my opinion. Like, sure it’s a twist that Ellis’s moms published her book and it’s dedicated to Felicity but that just makes this end on a sour note instead of the bittersweet one.


One of my favorite parts was Felicity pushing Ellis off the roof and I wish that scene had been longer. The author used a lot of metaphors and quotes and flowery langue and I feel like this scene was just too quick.


I could not tell you who any of the other girls in the Godwin house were. This book felt really long but I didn’t get a lot of character development. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

darias009's review

DID NOT FINISH

DNF.
I feel like this book is trying very very hard and failing.
I think it was probably due to the writing style? I am not entitrely sure. There are attempts made to build atmosphere, but they were lost on me. I didn't feel it. I felt the attempt of it but it didn't reach me. Maybe it was because I didn't read it in my mother tongue that I didn't find it very emersive but I found it lacking.
I mean there were scenes, like the visit at the antique shop, where I think it did work but overall it didn't capture me.
Also I couldn't build a connection with the characters, I found them all a bit pale and not really interesting.
I had hopes for this book, like dark academia, witches and then it's also queer? Sounded great but I didn't like the execution and it finally lost me once we actually got to recreating the witchy stuff shortly before the halfway point. I don't see myself finishing this. I just didn't work for me, sadly. Maybe next time, I'll listen to the average rating for a book and not think "Hey, maybe my experience will be different." And while I had this experience with other books, this one wasn't one of those for me. I am afraid I will have to continue to search for an dark academia book that will satisfy my demands for that kind of story.
dark mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
aspiringliterati's profile picture

aspiringliterati's review

4.0

Oh my, my. Never getting tired of good ol’ dark academia!

Most of the book was slow moving and some of the characters were just there to fill spaces and serve a purpose but I also couldn’t stop reading it. I read it in a day without even trying to so that counts for something.

Therefore, these 4 stars are perhaps tad generous of me but the last 80 pages of this were WILD. I had to - somehow - account for that with my final rating.
And - it had a really good ending IMO! *smirks*
madds__'s profile picture

madds__'s review

3.5
adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes