A review by aneges
A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee

mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Liked a lot the writing and the atmosphere. I like the fact that there is care in the writing and the descriptions to create the atmosphere without weighing down the story too much, especially considering it is YA. 
The premise was also quite intriguing, we got a glimpse of the past of the school which gives horror vibes, some mistery about what happened which will be slowly revealed and also mentions of the occult and magic in a magical realism way.
Throughout the story it’s not clear if the magic is real or not and this was handled really well and added a lot to the tension.
The characters were well developed and had the right depth to them and there was also some representation of mental illness which was good in my opinion. 
The plot was not the main point of the book but it was mostly there to guide the narration of the exploration of the characters and atmosphere.
For my liking the ending was the weakest part of it as some things happened that even though it raised the tension it lost something on the mystery and atmosphere side. 
There is less mistery obviously but also less vagueness on the occult side and even though I kind of hoped that it would end up being all on her mind I hoped that it would leave the doubt.
The ending was a bit underwhelming perhaps, it seemed almost like the author didn't know how to close it properly, especially the epilogue 3 years later didn't really add that much. 
Overall I enjoyed the character arc of Felicity and I liked how she wasn't good and didn't even feel particularly bad about it (not because I think it's right obviously but because it's still fiction and sometimes it's refreshing to read about bad people).
I would say the book overall deserves a solid 4.5 (or even slightly more) but this ending makes me lower it a bit. Despite this it was still not that bad that it makes me regret reading it and I'm glad I picked it up. 
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