Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Vengeful by V.E. Schwab

92 reviews

cowardlyteaman's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Animal death, Medical trauma, Grief, Gun violence, Medical content, Police brutality, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Addiction, Murder, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Confinement, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, and Cursing

Minor: Stalking

pelb's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Here’s the thing, I wanted to love this book. The writing style is great, I love all the characters, and the powers are cool. I loved that we got to see more of Eli’s backstory, I felt like I understood his character a lot better after that. Here’s my main problems: 

1. The focus on new characters 
- there were two new characters introduced, which seemed cool at first. They were good characters with interesting abilities, however, it felt like they were thrown in out of nowhere and then they took over the story. I felt like they could’ve had their own spin off story, rather than being put in this book. Their presence is what killed it for me, because it detracted from the main plot line and caused the downfall of my second problem: 

2. The ending 
- I could’ve overlooked everything else if it wasn’t for the ending. It was extremely rushed and felt unfinished, which was very disappointing after all the buildup. There was no satisfying conclusion I was looking for and I felt confused by the end, wondering why it wasn’t a trilogy, because the story is very clearly not over. Now if she actually comes back and makes a third book, which I’ve heard she might, that would significantly change my opinion of this book, because it was a very enjoyable read. I don’t think she’s going to though, so I am very disappointed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Torture, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Murder, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Self harm

Minor: Addiction

ashwyn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I love everything about this book. I need a third book so bad, PLEASE v.e. schwab I'm begging

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Torture

ana_distracted's review against another edition

I love VE Schwab's darker shade of magic and I liked the first book in this series but this is just too dark.  There is a good story-line, in amongst the story-lines, it seems to be the one that gets the least pages.  Everything else is just dark and violent without any real reason.  Also Schwab likes not just flipping between characters but flipping between times.  Forward, back some times four years ago, sometimes 4 weeks ago, sometimes 2 years ago.  It's annoying.  The story doesn't feel like its moving forward.  Just swirling in gratuitous violence/misery. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Torture, and Domestic abuse

theintrovertsbooks's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Torture, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Abandonment, Self harm, Medical content, Forced institutionalization, Chronic illness, Gun violence, Blood, Gore, Confinement, Body horror, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Police brutality, Cursing, and Stalking

Minor: Sexual assault, Alcohol, Child death, Rape, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Sexual violence, and Drug use

kal517's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Torture and Gun violence

chaptersofamylea's review against another edition

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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

‘That was ambition. And ambition plus power was a very dangerous combination.’

3 ⭐️

I didn’t really enjoy this one as much as I did Vicious, some of the time it felt like a slog to read and didn’t feel like there was much of a plot? Little disappointed as I loved Vicious a lot. Also, is there meant to be a sequel? 

TWs: ref to child abuse, graphic depictions of violence and torture, murder

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse

currently_introverting's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Medical trauma, Blood, Gun violence, Murder, and Torture

Minor: Animal death

lizziaha's review against another edition

dark

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

The sheer breadth of this book is very impressive. There are so many moving parts and ve schwab manages to weave them together so intricately. That being said, because there are so many moving parts, there are still some loose threads that I desperately want to pull. I’m not sure if there will ever be another book, but I want one!!!! Part of the reason that these books are so compelling is because they have a very Batman-villainesque feeling to them and there’s not really a hero to hang your hopes on, so you have to decide which of your morals you will set aside as you choose who to root for. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Body horror, Death, Child abuse, Medical content, Physical abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Self harm, Blood, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Sexism, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Infidelity, Animal death, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Addiction

jwells's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

I don't know how to review Vicious and Vengeful, except that I read them practically compulsively, and could hardly put them down. I don't usually like an antihero, or a book that is lean on likeable characters, but that didn't seem to apply to these.

I finished Vengeful thinking about Brandon Sanderson's sliding scales of protagonists: likeability, competence, and proactivity. He says that if you are sliding one of them down, you can compensate by sliding the others up. If all of them are low, readers lose interest in your protagonist. Victor is extremely high on proactivity. I also thought, there might be another scale for vulnerability: both Victor and Eli discover in this book that they are far from invulnerable, in spite of their superpowers, and that also makes them more sympathetic and interesting as protagonists.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, and Medical trauma

As in the first book, some deaths that are temporary, and others that are permanent.