Reviews with content warning for Death - Vengeful

I. NEED. THE. NEXT. BOOK.

Schwab never fails to pull me into a book and not let me go before I've finished it. Her pacing is gripping and well-balanced and her writing adds to the tension. You'd expect that a long book consisting of short chapters, perspective changes and time jumps would be very confusing, but to me, it was very easy to follow. The fact that the reader gets left on a character cliffhanger for roughly fifty pages every once in a while and then gets thrown back into their story after another character cliffhanger adds amazingly to the tension. By the end of longer chapters, I sometimes forgot where in the timeline I was, but they're always stated in the chapter title, so all you have to do is just flip back and your memory is refreshed.

I was so happy that we finally got full insight into Eli's backstory. The mystery worked well in the first book, but knowing his history gave the character a whole new dimension and made him ten times more scary/unhinged than he already was.

I have to be honest and admit that June's character arc disappointed me a little. She's not a flat character; we get hinted at her backstory a lot. However, we never really know what happened to her and her exact motivations for doing what she did.

It's been a few years since this book came out, but I hope Storygraph's information is true and there is a new book coming, because this story feels anything but complete to me; there's a difference between an open ending and an incomplete one, and this was the latter. I want to know more about Victor's history and motivations, what happens to him after the book, where Sydney and Mitch are going, June's backstory, and so many more things.

January 2nd, 2024 - January 5th, 2024.

“Gods [were] crucified before they were worshipped.”

“While seeking revenge, dig two graves—one for yourself.”

“Run, thought Victor, and he could see the response in Eli's coiled frame.
Chase me.”

Content Warnings

leweylibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.75

I do think I like the first one better, although I did still love this book and really enjoy reading it. My main gripes are that I wanted more of Marcella's story, particularly her rise to power, and more about June. I love that there were some badass ladies added into this one, but after we got their backstory and caught up to the present, we suddenly got much less of them? Idk.

I also wanted more from the ending!! There was so much action and craziness, and I absolutely refuse to believe that

Eli actually, truly died because what a shit way for him to go really, that doctor was a psycho asshole, and I refuse to accept Victor's story being left at a "oh well maybe he's on his way to figuring out a cure and he has this one thing to stall it for now. I just think there's so much more to explore there.

Basically, I feel quite strongly that she needs to write a third book.

Now for the things I liked. The pacing, especially towards the end, was so fun. Those chapter headings making it clear that time was ticking towards some big final moment was so enticing. I still really enjoy Eli and Victor's dynamic even when they're nowhere near each other (well, sort of). I also really enjoyed all the backstory we got from Eli since there wasn't much of it in the first book, it was really focused on Victor's story and POV. So it was fun seeing once they met each other how Eli's opinion of Victor and how he thought about their shared moments differed from Victor's. There were also just some really cool abilities in this book, like how cool is it that Marcella could just ruin shit and June was basically a living voodoo doll? That's the best part of these books, the abilities and how the person got them and what they cost and what they still cost. Victor's struggles with his power after coming back to life is also so interesting and is definitely worth exploring even more in another book imo. Like do we think

he may figure out how to take away his power and that's how he can survive? What about Sydney and her growing power? Thank goodness she didn't bring Serena back after all lol. And what about June, will she find Sydney again? I just have so many unanswered questions damn it lol

Lastly, thank you V. E. Schwab, for never letting

the dog stay permanently dead 🙌

Now please write a third book thank yooouuu

Quotes:

Perhaps she was glass. But glass is only brittle until it breaks.
Then it's sharp. (17)
Victor hadn't spent a lot of time in strip clubs. He'd never understood their appeal--never been aroused by the half naked bodies, their writhing oiled forms--but he hadn't come to the Glass Tower for the show. He was looking for someone special... He had craved a lot of things--power, revenge, control--but sex was never one of them. Even with Angie... he'd wanted her, of course, wanted her attention, her devotion, even her love. He'd cared about her, would have found ways to please her--and perhaps found his own pleasure in that-- but for him, it had never been about sex. (51)
It was a bloody work of art, that shift, and the bouncer blinked, confused, but June knew from experience--when people saw something they didn't understand, they couldn't hold on. I saw became I think I saw became I couldn't have seen became I didn't see. Eyes were fickle. Minds were weak. (57)
"If you kill all the EOs you meet," she said," how are you better than Eli?" (73)
Mitch had that look on his face, that carefully blank look that adults when they were trying to convince you everything was fine. They always assumed that if they didn't tell you a thing, you wouldn't know it. But that wasn't true.
Serena used to say that she could tell when someone was lying, because all those unsaid things hung in the air, making it heavy, like the pressure before a storm.
Sydney might not know the full scope of Victor's lie, but the wrongness was still there, taking up space. (82)
The thing about mistakes was that they weren't always big, or obvious. Sometimes they were simple. Small. The decision to keep walking. The turn left instead of right. Those few extra steps and the wrong direction. (94)
"You're a child, and I promised to protect--"
"A promise you can't keep is just another lie," she snapped. (96)
But it wasn't all Serena's fault.
Her sister had been lost for a really long time when Eli found her. Sydney had been lost too, but Victor had been the one to find her.
It wasn't Serena's fault that Sydney got the hunter and she got the wolf. (99)
She once had a yoga instructor who compared the mind to a house. Marcella had rolled her eyes at the time, but now she imagined going room to room, switching off the lights. Here was fear, switch. Here was panic, switch. Here was confusion, switch.
Here was pain.
Here was anger.
Here was her husband, that cheating fuck.
Here was him slamming her head into the table.
Here was his arms sweeping the candles.
Here was her voice breaking, her lungs filling with smoke.
Here was his back as he walked away, and left her to die.
That light, she left on. She marveled at the way a group writer inside her head, at the warmth that came with it, rippling through her skin. (111)
She was nursing a beer in a glass bottle, and she was bored--bored by the music, and the boys who swaggered over every now and then to flirt, and then stormed away, sulking, when she turned them down. She was bored by being called beautiful, and then a bitch. Stunning, and then stuck up. A ten, and then a tease. (117)
Marcella had always been pretty. The kind of pretty people couldn't ignore. Bright blue eyes and pitch black hair, a heart-shaped face atop the lean, clean lines of a model. Her father told her she'd never have to work. Her mother said she'd have to work twice as hard. In a way, both of them were right.
Her body was the first thing people saw.
For most, it seemed to be the last thing, too. (117-18)
Sooner or later, the pastor would glimpse the devil in his son again, and lead Eli back to the chapel. Sometimes the beatings were months apart. Sometimes days. Sometimes Eli thought he deserved it. Needed it, even. He would step up to the cross, and curl his fingers around the cold metal cross, and pray--not to God, not at first, but to his father. He prayed that the pastor would stop seeing whatever he saw, while he carved new feathers into the torn wings of Eli's back.
Eli learned not to scream, but his eyes would still blur with tears, the colors in the stained glass running together until all he saw was light. He held on to that, as much as to the steel cross beneath his fingers.
Eli didn't know how he was broken, but he wanted to be healed.
He wanted to be saved. (152)
There had to be away-- to find EOs, to contain them. Maybe, one day, to use them. EOs we're dangerous, yes, some catastrophically. So, but what if, among the lost and the deranged, there were those who could be fixed, given purpose, made whole? What if that's didn't change a person's nature, only amplified it? (170)
You're not blessed , or divine, or burdened. You're a science experiment.
Maybe Victor was right.
Maybe Eli was just as broken, just as damned, as every other EO. It was true, he hadn't felt that presence the night he killed. Victor. Hadn't felt anything like peace.
But that didn't absolve him of his task.
He still had a purpose. And obligation. To save others, even if he couldn't save himself. (175)
At fifteen, the personality he'd crafted was nearly perfect... He had a winning smile and an easy laugh, and nobody knew about the scars on his back or the shadows in his past. Nobody knew that it was all an act, that none of it came naturally. (177)
An EO isn't just the product of their catalyst. They are the product of the person they were before. The circumstances, not also the psyche. (183)
How many men would she have to turn to dust before one took her seriously? (266)
Some people were matches, a bit of light and no heat. And some were furnaces, all heat but little light. And then, once in a blue moon, there was a bonfire, something so hot and bright you couldn't stand too near without burning.
Marcella was a bonfire if ever June saw one.
Of course, even bonfires eventually went out, smothered by their own ashes. (319-20)
Sydney missed her sister.
But she missed the version of Serena who had loved and protected Sydney, made her younger sister feel safe, and seen. And that Serena had died in ice, not fire. (401)
"All the more reason to go the other way. You two can circle each other forever, but there's only one way it ends, Victor, and it's not in your favor."
"Thanks for the confidence," said Victor, dryly.
Mitch shook his head." You and your vengeance..."
But it wasn't vengeance.
Whatever's happened to you, however you're hurt, you've done it to yourself.
Campbell had been right.
Victor had to take responsibility. For himself. And for the monster he'd helped to create. Eli. (433)

Content Warnings

cowardlyteaman's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

kaitieg97's review against another edition

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Reading about Sydney was a little boring, Marcella needed to be more in the story, and I wanted more Victor.

Content Warnings

gravedetails's review against another edition

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slow-paced

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

3.75

Very slow for this writer almost did not finish halfway through because of the constant flashbacks to years prior good book but I personally needed more of a straight forward timeline to keep my interest.

Content Warnings

theintrovertsbooks's review against another edition

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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

Content Warnings

elinorn's review against another edition

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4.0

This was fun, I found myself loving but also hating all the villains, in the best way possible. I want to read more books from the villain/anti-hero's perspective!

Content Warnings

emily_zylstra02's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

4.75

Content Warnings

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