Vengeful by V. E. Schwab Series: Villains #2
Published by Tom Doherty Associates ISBN: 9780765387547
on September 25, 2018
Genres: Superheroes, Fantasy, Paranormal
Pages: 402
Read it as: Hardcover
Source: Purchased
My rating:
Check it out in Goodreads
Synopsis
Magneto and Professor X. Superman and Lex Luthor. Victor Vale and Eli Ever. Sydney and Serena Clarke. Great partnerships, now soured on the vine.
But Marcella Riggins needs no one. Flush from her brush with death, she’s finally gained the control she’s always sought—and will use her new-found power to bring the city of Merit to its knees. She’ll do whatever it takes, collecting her own sidekicks, and leveraging the two most infamous EOs, Victor Vale and Eli Ever, against each other.
With Marcella's rise, new enmities create opportunity--and the stage of Merit City will once again be set for a final, terrible reckoning.
I was so beyond excited for this book, but I’m sorry to say that what you’ve heard may be correct. Vengeful was… It was not a bad book, we should get that out of the way. Not a bad book at all. But after Vicious, you go into this book with expectations. Inevitably high expectations, and Vengeful just doesn’t meet them.
The new characters are interesting, just not what I wanted to see
There’s a couple of new characters, and some added focus on others, but that didn’t work for me. This might be just me, but I wanted more of Eli, and Victor, and the gang we were introduced to in the first book. The combination of their personalities and skills was what made Vicious such a compelling book. These new ones have motivations, yes, but I couldn’t bring myself to care what happened to any of them. And with so much page time dedicated to them… You can guess that was no fun.
The jumps in time were confusing
I can’t help comparing it with Vicious because it’s just impossible. Vengeful’s time jumps were really confusing. I had to go back to the chapter break to check when exactly the scene was taking place. It was jarring and if the characters hadn’t already kept me from fully getting into the story, then this would have. It didn’t work as well as in the previous book. And this was one aspect that I truly enjoyed.
Theme wasn’t as cleverly used
Another thing that made its predecessor so charming was how the theme was woven throughout all the action. It was so scattered here. What was this book really about? Victor trying to stay alive? Eli wondering about his purpose in life? Sydney dealing with her problems? Marcella unleashing her fury on Merit? Stell tiptoeing the line between right or wrong?
Who knows? Although, now that I think about it, I wouldn’t have minded less Marcella and more Stell. He was such a key player in Vicious, and his involvement with EOs and the developments that followed ARE quite interesting. I could’ve gotten behind that.
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All in all, I was very disappointed. I feel like we needed a sequel, but one that would do the previous book justice.
Have you read Vengeful yet? Which is your favorite V.E. Schwab book? If you haven’t read anything by her, then tell me which is the book by her you’d like to read first!
I’m sorry this one didn’t live up to your expectations, Pamela! I still enjoyed it, but it surely didn’t live up to Vicious. I enjoyed Marcella, her desire to be seen and her fiery nature are really refreshing, but I would love it if she got less pages. And I don’t understand the point of June and the other EO on Marcella’s side (can’t even remember his name). I wish we stick to Victor, Eli, and the gang :/
Tasya @ The Literary Huntress recently posted this awesome thing…Romance Fails in Fiction Tag
Right! That’s how I felt about the new characters as well. I really liked Marcella, but I could have done with less pages from her too! It{s so frustrating, because even though I’d heard it was not as good as Vicious I still really wanted to love it :/