Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Vengeful

i have so many issues with this book idek where to start. i actually enjoyed the first one and got so excited for this one (especially after reading marcella’s intro chapters), but this was just disappointing. victoria tried to fit WAY too many storylines and new characters into this book. and it doesn’t help her case that her storytelling was, at times, extremely messy. on top of that, the structure of these books did not help that issue at all. i also could not vibe with june’s character. which is disappointing bc her power is cool. anyways i’m about to go off in the spoiler <3

first of all, i expected that when sydney found out that victor was the one who killed serena it would be more dramatic? maybe a little tense? but instead i was let down and we moved on almost immediately. like hello??? next, and i hate to say this, i think dol should have stayed dead this time. i’m glad victoria kept him for a majority of the story, but it would’ve felt more complete to add him to the final deaths. and it would’ve built up sydney’s character. speaking of building her character, WHY did we go through ALL of that with the dead birds just for sydney to decide in ONE PARAGRAPH that she did not want to revive serena?? i honestly would’ve preferred she tried it and failed. finally, eli’s death was boring. i was expecting an insane emotional battle between him and victor that ended in something so dramatic and lowkey sensual, but instead he just…died. like that was next level disappointing.

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juliasbooklife's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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emtees's review against another edition

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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.

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kt2e56's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

Vengeful is to Vicious what Part II was to the first Godfather. Just so phenomenal from start to finish. It brought back characters we were already glued to in the first book but also gave us some brand new ones that actually wind up stealing the show a bit, including Marcella Morgan who is a “Good for Her” baddie for the ages. This was a satisfying conclusion to Victor and Eli’s story but honestly, Schwab is so talented that I’d absolutely read more about this world and these characters if she were to bring them out again to play some more.

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dododenise's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

4.5

I really liked this book. It was a great continuation of vicious and added a lot more interesting aspects.

The story was beautifully crafted. It created lot’s of loose threads, sending you into different times and to different characters. Slowly the story comes together. It should be complicated. It should have confused me. But somehow the complexities of the story were threaded together so elegantly, it barely was any effort.
I like how at first you don’t even know what the plot of the book will be and it’s just about creating the story for these characters.

Loved June as an addition to the story. However, I wasn’t a fan of Marcella. I didn’t like reading from her perspective and had to drag myself through those bits. She just falls flat in contrast to the other amazing characters.

I wished for more Eli and Victor together. I know logically, that would’ve been really difficult to do. But those two together are so much fun to read.

Overall a really great book. Beautifully written, wonderful characters and interesting story.

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nyssbomb's review against another edition

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adventurous dark slow-paced

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

3.75

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redreading_hood's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

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