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Rating: ★★★★☆ 4 stars
Genres: Adult, Science Fiction, Fantasy Fiction
“Sydney once had Serena—beloved sister, betrayed enemy, powerful ally. But now she is alone, except for her thrice-dead dog, Dol, and then there's Victor, who thinks Sydney doesn't know about his most recent act of vengeance.
Victor himself is under the radar these days—being buried and re-animated can strike concern even if one has superhuman powers. But despite his own worries, his anger remains. And Eli Ever still has yet to pay for the evil he has done.”
Non-Spoiler-ish Review:
Vengeful is a solid sequel to Vicious that brings back old characters while introducing new ones: we see Victor, Sydney, Mitch, Eli, and other characters that were in the first book and learn of Marcella and June, two very interesting and complex characters. Schwab once again writes and the world builds beautifully— she expands her world into new dimensions and has fleshed out many of the characters that have returned while adding adequate development for new characters. I really love how Schwab is able to examine the grey spaces that exist between good and evil and how her characters are not defined among those lines. They exist in between, as antiheroes, as characters with complex backgrounds and ideals who are extremely capable yet not always morally “good.” This not only applies to her older characters, but the new ones as well. June and Marcella are both strong women who have their own agency and extremely unique powers. They take the world into their own hands and shape it as they see fit. They are as ruthless and cunning as Victor and Eli and I appreciate how strong and independent Schwab made these two women. I also enjoyed how Schwab gave us a much needed backstory of an important character! It added more depth to that character and made me understand them on another level.
There were a couple of aspects about this book that prevented it from being a five-star read. As much as I love the new characters, I felt like the full cast wasn’t handled great. We were following a lot of different people throughout the story and that personally made it harder for me to connect to the characters beside those from Vicious. These newer characters weren’t characterized the best, and even some of the older characters that we followed were mainly used as a plot device. The plot was alright, but for a while I didn’t understand the main point of the story and where it was building up to. It also took some time for the characters to come together and work towards the final battle. Speaking of which, the final battle wasn’t necessarily bad, but I felt it was too short for my liking. One other aspect I didn’t like was that one of the characters felt inconsistent: their line of thought and actions in this book did not line up with those in the first book. I was disappointed because I really love this character and it was a shame for them to act and think in ways that were not consistent with their original characterization.
I still immensely enjoyed this book, but the plot and the characterization were what really prevented me from giving a five-star review. While I like this book, to me, it will never live up to Vicious.
Character Rambling (with spoilers):
“Ignorance is only bliss if you want to get caught.”
Victor Vale. Oh boy, I LOVE him so much, our asexual king! He is such an interesting and complex character who is willing to do anything for those close to him. He does a lot of bad things, but as a reader we get to understand him deeply without erasing what he has done in the past. I really liked reading about Victor’s fear of reliving his death multiple times and leaving his family unprotected because it humanizes him in a different way. He is cold and calculating, but he also has made room in his heart for Sydney and Mitch. I really loved his character in Vicious, but his characterization in this book was lacking for me. Victor felt inconsistent throughout this book. It was hard for me to understand why Victor was killing EOs, though I do realize it was to find someone to heal him and cover his tracks. But this reason wasn’t convincing enough for me, considering how Vicious revolves around Victor being AGAINST Eli for killing EOs. Victor also wonders if he himself is becoming like Eli, but this is just a passing thought and never really gets revisited or explored later in the book. I would have really loved to see Victor work out that internal conflict, but we just don’t see it and it was disappointing.
“Victor stared at the wall as if it were still a window. “He doesn’t know how patient you are,” he said. “Doesn’t know you like I do.” Eli cleaned the blood from his hand. “No,” he said softly. “No one ever has.”
Eli Cardale. I am SO thankful to Schwab for giving us a much needed Eli backstory because we didn’t understand much about him in Vicious. In truth, I didn’t like him in Vicious since he was the main “antagonist” there. Yet reading his backstory made me so much more understanding of his character and how he is a deeply damaged individual who has gone through many losses in his life. It doesn’t take away from how horrible he is, but it doesn’t make me completely dislike him anymore. I also found the final fight really interesting, considering how Eli and Victor teamed up momentarily to defeat Marcella. It was bittersweet in ways, since both men want to kill each other, yet they are the only ones that fully understand one another. And it’s sad, to see what they’ve become and what their relationship has become, and how it plays out in the book. I really don’t know how I feel about Eli dying, considering that there is going to be a third book in the series that will most likely focus on Victor and June. All I know is that it will feel slightly empty without him.
“I don't want to survive. I want to thrive.”
Marcella Morgan. Her character is so multidimensional and fascinating. She is such a powerful woman, who pushes back against what people expect of her and does what she believes. She needs no validation from anyone and is her own person. She has her own voice and makes sure it is heard. I appreciate how relentless and dedicated to herself Schwab wrote her to be, but I cannot help but think her character served no other purpose but as a plot device. She is introduced in this book and is then later killed off. The book seemed to revolve around her perspective and actions a bit, but to what end? What did her role really serve beside as a plot device?
I also need to mention the family dynamic between Mitch, Sydney, and Victor. I love them so much and I really hope they reunite in some way during the last book! June also really stood out to me as an intriguing character and I am interested in seeing more of her in the third book!
- lian
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