After Victor defeated Eli a new life should have begun for them. However, soon after his resurrection Victor starts to experience strange symptoms as a result of his temporary death. So he, Sydney, and Mitch have to set out to find a cure and all by leaving no witnesses behind.
While Victor, Sydney, and Mitch are trying to keep a low profile, back in Merit Marcella has the opposite in mind: after her near-death experience she has become an EO, and now she wants to use her power to take over a crime syndicate. The bigger the show, the better according to her.
This is the second part of the Villians' series, and it is not possible to read this part without the knowing the plot from "Vicious".
This book also follows its predecessor in terms of telling structure:the story is told with various flash-backs and from several point of views. At the beginning this seems quite chaotic, especially as Marcella's and Victor's stories run parallel and you are wondering where the connection is going to be. However, in the end, it runs together as one big climax.
The story is once more extremely gripping and told with short sentences that remind you of a movie script. Thus the pace is as fast as you expect it to be and given the plot fitting. It was perfectly paced. Once more, "Vengeful" does not dwell on morals and doing the right thing. Instead it provides a story of survival, power, dubious morals but also of trying to protect some sort of happiness in this dark world. Despite all the conflicts there are moments of good and kindness in all of the characters.
In the end, there are no good-only characters. Everyone is morally grey, you don't expect it either and still you are hooked to the story and their fates. The motives behind all the actions are shown and they make sense: Marcella is power-hungry after a life of being seen as only a pretty girl next to the boss. Eventually this hunger turns into insanity. Even the guys on the "good side" (EON) are given a chance to shown their different shades: from Stell who wants to contain but not needlessly torture EOs, to a soldier who is just there to see blood speckled across the wall.
Despite this great character portrayal, there are aspects that I wished would have been explored more. Those are mostly queer aspects: while Victor is shown - not explicitly stated - as being asexual, the topic is dropped and never again mentioned. So someone who has never heard of the word "asexuality" will simply read over it, shrug their shoulders, and ignore it. Nevertheless, it is still nice to have a novel with an asexual character that does not revolve around the topic.
There is also June and Sydney's relationship, which I feel could have been explored much more and in a queer way as well - however, there is still a possibility of that happening.
Nevertheless, the story has unexpected twists and turns. These made me scream and shake my book in desperation. Even when it happened to the "bad guys" I still felt a sort of regret about it. On top of this, I would just like to say "Mitch and Dominic deserve Better™".
"Vengeful" is just as thrilling to read as the first part and the characters remain as great as expected while they walk through their stories. This book also deals with the aftermath of the first part and is, without a doubt, a worthy continuation!
| Vengeful | by V. E. Schwab | |
|---|---|---|
| Published | 2018 | by Titan Books |
| Series: | Villains | #2 |
| Pages: | 462 | |
| ISBN13: | 9781785652486 | |
| Goodreads: | Add to shelf | |
| Content warnings: | major character death, | gore, violence |
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