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A review by emtees
Vengeful by V.E. Schwab
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
I was so excited to read this book after finishing Vicious and it did not disappoint. I have some minor criticisms but overall it was a really fun read.
The story picks up five years after the events of Vicious. In the aftermath of the showdown with Eli Ever, the odd little family of sociopath Victor Vale, his gentle hacker friend Mitch, and their surrogate daughter Sydney have stayed together, but they have their share of problems. Sydney’s powers mean that she is aging very slowly, stuck in the body of a preteen while her mind matures, and she is becoming frustrated with the protection and restrictions her guardians impose. Meanwhile, after being resurrected with Sydney’s powers, Victor’s own powers have gone “wrong.” He seems to be stronger than ever, now able to control people’s bodies as well as their pain levels, but there is a trade off - every few weeks, he re-experiences the events of his original death by electrocution, and each episode comes closer to killing him. Desperate for a cure, Victor drags his companions around the country on a quest to find an EO who can heal him, killing all those who fail to cover his tracks. And former Detective Stell is now the founder of EON, a secret government organization that tracks down, contains and in some cases kills EOs, with the help of their secret weapon, an imprisoned Eli. There is also a new EO causing trouble - Marcella Riggins, a former mob wife who uses her powers to take over the organized crime of Merit and then sets out to expose EOs to the world and let them take their rightful place in the spotlight. All these plot lines converge on a single night in Merit for an explosive final chapter.
First, the minor criticisms. Like Vicious, this book cuts back and forth in time, and uses those cuts to propel the story forward, creating a false sense of momentum even at times when the actual plot is quite slow. (I called this book medium paced because there is no option for “fast and slow, at the same time.”). But while Vicious had two timelines, Vengeful has a lot more. There is the main timeline, the month leading up to the super powered fight. There are separate sets of flashbacks to cover the last five years in the lives of Victor, Eli and Sydney. There are flashbacks to Marcella’s backstory, and to fill in the gaps in Eli’s. Victor’s flunky, Dominic Rusher, gets his own set, as does June, a new character who is part of Marcella’s entourage but has a connection to Sydney. It’s a lot of jumping around and it makes the book feel unfocused. It doesn’t help that all these flashbacks aren’t equally interesting, or important. It was good to finally get some insight into Eli, and I enjoyed seeing the last five years for Victor and Sydney set side-by-side, seeing the ways they were keeping things from each other despite sharing a home. But Marcella ultimately ended up feeling like more of a plot device than a character, and there was nothing revealed in her flashbacks that I couldn’t have figured out from the way she was in the present, and some of the other scenes felt like they could have been explained in a few lines rather than getting entire chapters. I wouldn’t have minded seeing this book tightened up a bit.
But those are minor quibbles because this book was fun and just as compulsive a read as the last one. I didn’t want to put it down. Considering how far apart the characters seemed at the beginning, Schwab brought them all together in a clever way, the multiple threads of the plot all winding together with interesting revelations. I also liked a lot of the character moments, whether it was Victor’s slow acceptance of responsibility towards his new family and for creating Eli, or Sydney’s conflicted feelings about Victor, Mitch, June and her late sister, Serena. The character work is done with a very light hand in these books but Schwab still has interesting things to say about heroes and villains and where the line between them is.
Unlike Vicious, which I felt ended on a final note but with options open for a sequel, it is clear that Vengeful is set up to continue these stories. I hope Schwab decides to do so because as much as I’m not sure they’re good people, I still really want these characters to get a happy ending.
The story picks up five years after the events of Vicious. In the aftermath of the showdown with Eli Ever, the odd little family of sociopath Victor Vale, his gentle hacker friend Mitch, and their surrogate daughter Sydney have stayed together, but they have their share of problems. Sydney’s powers mean that she is aging very slowly, stuck in the body of a preteen while her mind matures, and she is becoming frustrated with the protection and restrictions her guardians impose. Meanwhile, after being resurrected with Sydney’s powers, Victor’s own powers have gone “wrong.” He seems to be stronger than ever, now able to control people’s bodies as well as their pain levels, but there is a trade off - every few weeks, he re-experiences the events of his original death by electrocution, and each episode comes closer to killing him. Desperate for a cure, Victor drags his companions around the country on a quest to find an EO who can heal him, killing all those who fail to cover his tracks. And former Detective Stell is now the founder of EON, a secret government organization that tracks down, contains and in some cases kills EOs, with the help of their secret weapon, an imprisoned Eli. There is also a new EO causing trouble - Marcella Riggins, a former mob wife who uses her powers to take over the organized crime of Merit and then sets out to expose EOs to the world and let them take their rightful place in the spotlight. All these plot lines converge on a single night in Merit for an explosive final chapter.
First, the minor criticisms. Like Vicious, this book cuts back and forth in time, and uses those cuts to propel the story forward, creating a false sense of momentum even at times when the actual plot is quite slow. (I called this book medium paced because there is no option for “fast and slow, at the same time.”). But while Vicious had two timelines, Vengeful has a lot more. There is the main timeline, the month leading up to the super powered fight. There are separate sets of flashbacks to cover the last five years in the lives of Victor, Eli and Sydney. There are flashbacks to Marcella’s backstory, and to fill in the gaps in Eli’s. Victor’s flunky, Dominic Rusher, gets his own set, as does June, a new character who is part of Marcella’s entourage but has a connection to Sydney. It’s a lot of jumping around and it makes the book feel unfocused. It doesn’t help that all these flashbacks aren’t equally interesting, or important. It was good to finally get some insight into Eli, and I enjoyed seeing the last five years for Victor and Sydney set side-by-side, seeing the ways they were keeping things from each other despite sharing a home. But Marcella ultimately ended up feeling like more of a plot device than a character, and there was nothing revealed in her flashbacks that I couldn’t have figured out from the way she was in the present, and some of the other scenes felt like they could have been explained in a few lines rather than getting entire chapters. I wouldn’t have minded seeing this book tightened up a bit.
But those are minor quibbles because this book was fun and just as compulsive a read as the last one. I didn’t want to put it down. Considering how far apart the characters seemed at the beginning, Schwab brought them all together in a clever way, the multiple threads of the plot all winding together with interesting revelations. I also liked a lot of the character moments, whether it was Victor’s slow acceptance of responsibility towards his new family and for creating Eli, or Sydney’s conflicted feelings about Victor, Mitch, June and her late sister, Serena. The character work is done with a very light hand in these books but Schwab still has interesting things to say about heroes and villains and where the line between them is.
Unlike Vicious, which I felt ended on a final note but with options open for a sequel, it is clear that Vengeful is set up to continue these stories. I hope Schwab decides to do so because as much as I’m not sure they’re good people, I still really want these characters to get a happy ending.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse
Moderate: Toxic relationship
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Child abuse
There are minor hints of child abuse and other forms of abuse in character backstories. Several relationships are toxic and the relationships between characters who have hurt each other or done bad things in the past is a major theme. One main character is a victim of violent domestic abuse.