Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Vengeful by V.E. Schwab

12 reviews

gardens_and_dragons's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Again, I am a sucker for a good friends to enemies story with villains. You completely understand and sympathize with these characters, even though you don’t condone their actions well, this was not necessarily some thing that was needed for any sort of closure from the last book, I think that it was a welcome romp.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Animal death and Toxic friendship

alexandrabelze's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Medical content, Medical trauma, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Vomit

Moderate: Animal death and Stalking

lauraeerika's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

there was no reason for this book to be so fucking long & messy at the same time!? 
where was the editor?
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everything else in this book chef’s kiss, i just couldn’t care less about the constant pov change’s, im still thinking why did stell have a pov?
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the thing is i love v.e.schwab’s writing but to me there was so much going on that everything that we were supposed care about kind of were swept under the rug of the action and by the end of it, i was just so confused 
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don’t know if i’ll read the third book (i kind of consider vicious now a standalone in my mind)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Violence, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Infidelity, Mental illness, Confinement, Stalking, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, and Emotional abuse

lukas_ty's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Murder, Toxic friendship, Violence, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail

kt2e56's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Torture, Violence, Hate crime, Forced institutionalization, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Drug abuse, Addiction, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Pedophilia, Infidelity, and Drug use

lakebreeze's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gun violence, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic friendship

sunrae_booknook's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I loved this book so much. I usually am not a fan of book two but this was better than the first. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Gun violence, Drug use, and Death

Minor: Chronic illness, Confinement, Animal death, Cursing, Gaslighting, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Violence

kaadee's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This one blew me out of the fucking water, dude. From the first page and Marcella’s death to the very end! I fell in love with Victor, which I didn’t like him before. I felt sorry for Eli which I honestly didn’t expect to. I enjoyed June A LOT but I feel her character didn’t have enough background! I need more. I need more. I need more. I love Sydney and Mitch. I love that Sydney and Victor have a specific special relationship. This book really brought the thunder. I was hoping the whole time for an enemies to lovers thing with Victor and Eli but of course, no. They were so in love with each other and they just had bitter ex energy the whole time. I love the way they thought about each other, even if it was in a very fucked up way.

Eagerly waiting for the next book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Death, Medical trauma, Violence, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Medical content, and Murder

Moderate: Stalking, Drug use, and Toxic friendship

nyssbomb's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Violence, Body horror, Blood, Confinement, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Gore

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Animal death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Rape

alice_clay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, and Torture

Moderate: Gun violence, Toxic friendship, and Child abuse

Minor: Animal death