Vengeful (Villains, 2)

lays down, stares at ceiling wow that ending send help for my emotional state

I love how the individual threads with the different POVs intersected finally and wow the ending left room for mooooore which i love of course but ouuuuch some parts just hurt. my poor emotions. Apart from my regular faves of Syd, Victor and Mitch and Eli i loved all the new characters we were introduced to. They were all so intriguing and I was riveted by their back stories and how their present stories unfolded.

Marcella was an amazing character. as was June and they're so different but equally interesting. I'm particular interested in learning more about one character, Rios, I hope we see her again.

Again we have the same non linear timeline, where we go back to 5 years ago then back to the present, as it morphs into a sort of countdown to the big showdown! and it was worth the wait! The timeline shifts were well done, i was never confused. It only had me excited for getting to the present day events to see how it would all play out and i wasn't disappointed but my poor heart!

I hope we get more in this world because my heart needs mending ok!

I enjoyed this sequel to one of my favorite books ever. Although Victor was still a prominent character in this book, I do wish we could have had as much of his perspective as in the first book. However, it gave other great characters like Sydney and June a chance to shine. I can't wait to learn more about June if the series continues. Dominic's major action scene was awesome and it was neat to get a closer look at the logistics of his power. It's fun to see everyone's powers evolving as the timeline moves forward. The ending was GREAT and although I was not really interested in Marcella's storyline throughout most of the book it did pay off (~~~minor spoilers ahead!!~~~) in her epic face off against Eli. I also really enjoyed Syd's internal struggle over Serena's fate but I wish Vengeful had as many moral quandaries like this as Vicious did. Overall it was a great read and I am dying to see what comes next.

V.E. Schwab once again prompts her readers to question what makes a hero or a villain, and to identify that all motives have many sides. VENGEFUL catches up to our misfit family from VICIOUS, but introduces a new, bad ass, and extremely dangerous ExtraOrdinary named Marcella. Power, motive, and weakness align to create a dark and gripping tale of family and loyalty.

Again, Schwab expertly utilizes time to cultivate anticipation for the eventual culmination of the twists and turns of the story. However, I felt the strands of the story and characters were too broad and seemingly unrelated at times. I had a lot of trouble identifying with Marcella, who did her own thing until about page 350 when the main EOs actually started to interact. Until ~50 pages to the end, the story seemed a bit random and wasn't as gripping as I would have liked. But those last 50 pages were fantastic in their ability to boil down the book into its fundamental theme: Victor vs. Eli.

The character developments occurred in subtle shifts: Eli's new perspective on his own abilities; Victor's reluctant attachment and love for his "family"; Sydney's growth and maturity. These were small, emotional, and character driven changes that brought a wonderful depth to the story.

I was not as enamored with VENGEFUL as I was with VICIOUS (book 1), but it was a solid, action packed continuation of the story that I know was create with heart and love (seriously, follow Schwab on social media to see how much she loves her fans and these characters, it's amazing). The end provided some possibility for book 3 without a glaring obligation, which was refreshing and made the ending finite but still relatively optimistic. I would love to see more of Sydney, she is still my favorite character.

Ms. Victoria Schwab has accomplished in creating a compelling sci-fi story where I question my own sense of morality.

Vengeful is the sequel to Vicious — a story of med-students who obtain superpowers and play god as they seek to destroy each other. It is hard talk about Vengeful without spoiling the master piece that is Vicious.

It is hard to describe my feelings and thoughts about Vengeful, while I thought the book was brilliant in prose and plot, it did not feel brilliant. Just like Vicious, Vengeful introduces to us a cast of questionable characters who are neither good or bad (well maybe quite bad) but certainly not evil. That’s the thing about Vicious that I loved, it truly showed that a villain is the hero of his own story. And in Vengeful we explored that same concept.

Victor is back, but not completely, his powers are working against him and he is desperate to find someone to fix him. This desperation is the key motive for many of the characters in Vengeful. Eli’s desperation to be set free. Sydney’s desperation to bring back her sister. Marcela’s desperation to become powerful. June’s desperation to seek revenge but be loved. Stell’s desperation to complete his life’s work.

Desperation leads people to make some morally gray decisions. Ms. Schwab’s masterful writing allows the reader to truly get inside the character’s head and understand the core of their soul and what drives their decision making. It makes you re-think your sense your morality, for these characters didn’t want to cause death nor destruction. They just wanted revenge on the people who hurt them. Which is a very human thing to do something (minus the superpowers).

However, I felt something was missing. There was something about Vicious that truly resonated in me that Vengeful did not, but I still can’t figure out why? I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy Vengeful, I truly did! It was brilliant and Ms. Schwab is a fantastical story-teller. But one could can enjoy a book without being completely obsessed with it?

Like always Ms. Schwab’s writing is precise and sharp just like fresh sharpened steak knife. Her way with words and language is divine. She has the perfect amount of dialogue and prose mixed together to keep the readers engage and falling in love with the prose.

Aside from my personal unknown dissonance, Vengeful is a sequel you must read! Test your sense of morality and root for characters who shouldn’t be cheered on. This actioned packed tale is one that will leave you wanting for more!

I have to start this review exactly the same as last time with Vicious. I almost gave 5 stars, but in the end, it came out of a 4.5-star experience for me and finally I decided I round it down to 4.

It doesn't mean this is not a good book. It's an excellent book, a great story and I also really like how she writes. The writing is wonderful. The characters are mostly likable, although I think I liked some characters who were meant to be villains more, than the main protagonist. But it may be that this is intended.

Anyway, I decided some time ago, that I only give 5 stars when a book keeps me awake at night, when I can't wait to pick it up and read or when it has such a cathartic effect on me, that I cannot think of giving anything else.

And although there were some times when it kept me reading past my bedtime and I never felt it a struggle to pick it up, I still had that tiny bit of YA aftertaste, that somehow the book doesn't take itself completely seriously. It's a very dark work and a quite grim story, but still, sometimes it felt like that teenagers are the intended audience and that bothered me a little bit.

Still, I'm more than happy that I found V.E. Schwab. Somehow she managed to become one of my favorites, even if I gave 4 points to both of the books I've read so far by her. I'm certain I will continue exploring her work and I hope that the tiny aftertaste I managed before will dissolve or I get used to it.

I recommend this one to anyone who read the first book, and I also have to state that this is even better. So these 4 stars somewhat shinier than the ones I gave to Vicious.

There's nothing particularly wrong with this sequel, it's not like you're going to have a terrible time or anything if you liked the first book, Vicious. I just feel like it was a little less focused this time around. I also feel like the time skipping was a little less intuitive in this one. I found myself having to double-check when certain chapters happened, which wasn't a problem I had in the first book. One problem with the flashbacks is that, because certain characters move around a lot as time goes on, you can't really intuit the order of events without memorizing their path. The characters that move also tend to have one long goal they're pursuing, so it gives us fewer important character development moments as a point of reference.

For instance, in the first book, almost everything done at the college happens in more or less the order it's presented whenever we jump back to an important flashback, and the characters are developing their experiments about EO's. After the story leaves the college, Victor and Eli's motives change, their setting changes, which makes it a lot easier to keep the story straight. Here, characters who jump around from place to place tend to either have the same goal the whole time, or are going through mostly internal "finding who they really are" kinds of character changes, which aren't very helpful in anchoring them to a specific period of time in the story.

I know this seems like I'm just trashing on it, but it's really the big difference between itself and the prequel. If the characters from the first one bother you, they won't be much better here, because it still sticks to the "bad people doing bad things" philosophy as last time. It's not just a rehash of the first book, that's for sure. It just feels like that's the main noteworthy thing this time around. Honestly, I kind of wish Victor and maybe even Eli didn't make a reappearance. Marcella is plenty interesting on her own, and I don't think it was totally necessary to check up on Victor and Eli. I was honestly kind of down for this to be another book in the "Vicious" universe, not a continuation of "Vicious" itself, when the book opens on a completely new character, with not much to do with our original cast. I think having a story more focused on Marcella would have actually solved a lot of my problems with the story's structure. The climax just requires the old characters to be there, and kind of requires them to have been doing what they were doing the whole story for it to work out as it does.

I won't say that this retroactively ruins Vicious by not leaving the story alone. But I will say that it feels a bit like the previous story is holding this one back a little. I kind of wonder what this story could have been like if the author just nixed Victor and co. from this story, and just saw where that took things. The back of the book seems enthralled with another "Victor vs Eli" story. But, it feels like, for most of the book, that's not what it's trying to be.

So, TL:DR - pretty alright read, but not as good as the first. I have complaints but they are kind of small, and based on what I personally think would make a more interesting story. If you liked the first one, give it a try. If you didn't, it's probably not going to redeem the series for you.

Villains is a series to read when you want something out of the ordinary. It is for when you are ready to root for the bad guy or you’re just tired of Mary Janes and Gary Stus in books. These are not misunderstood good guys. These are the Villains of the world, they kill unapologetically, they do not have altruistic tendencies and it is really a kill or be killed kind of black and white world to them.

***Victor went around acting like the world was one big game of chess. Tapping people and saying, “You’re a pawn, you’re a knight, you’re a rook.” ***

When the majority of the main characters have some exceptional power, better known as Extra Ordinary (EO) and kill with no remorse you might think that it would be difficult to like and root for them. Maybe it is for some other readers out there but I this is one of those books where I definitely picked a side and it wasn’t the ‘good guys’ side.

Vengeful is told a really chaotic manor. Not only are there PoV jumps but there are also time jumps anywhere from ten years ago to just hours before the big showdown. I really like how that works for this book. It is a little jumpy at times but the slow doling out of information about what Victor, Mitch and Sydney have been doing over the last five years really worked for me. It also give a ton of insight into the side characters in a short period of time.

Victor is not a good guy. I mean I thought that we knew that in Vicious but he is now even worse and has very little conscious if he has one at all. He will protect himself and Sydney and Mitch if possible but that is really where his priorities lay. While I like him still in some regard because of his loyalty to Mitch and Syd he really is awful.

***“If you kill all the EOs you meet,” she said, “how are you better than Eli?” Victor’s teeth clenched. “I take no pleasure in this, Sydney, but if EON finds them, they’ll be one step closer to finding us. Do you want that to happen?” “No, but—” “Do you know what they’ll do? First they’ll kill Dol, and then they will take you, and me, and Mitch, and we will never see the light of day, let alone each other, ever again.” Sydney’s eyes widened, but Victor went on. “If you’re lucky, they’ll lock you in a cage. Alone. If you’re not, they’ll turn you into a science experiment—” “Victor,” warned Mitch, but he only stepped closer. Sydney stared up at him, fists clenched. He knelt so they were eye to eye. “You think I’m acting like Eli? You think I’m playing God? Fine, you play, Sydney. You decide, right now, who should live. Us, or them.” Tears hovered on her lashes. She didn’t look at him, kept her gaze focused on his shirtfront as her lips moved, short and soundless. “What was that?” he asked. This time, he heard it. “Us.” ***

Mitch and Syd are the only characters in this who have any redeeming qualities and can be deemed good. They are devoted to Victor though and have a little family unit of a kind. I connected with Syd the most in this series as she is living life with the two men after her sister’s death and trying to become stronger in her power. Dom, an ex-soldier, is also an EO just trying to get by in life and a pawn on Victor’s chess board.

There is a new villain in town. Marcella is a woman scorned who ended up with EO powers and is now marching her way through everyone who ever did her wrong. She is a pretty straight forward character and was not a good person before she had her near-death experience. Now that she has some extraordinary power she will use it to take all the power.

Eli is back and V.E. Schwab was able to make me feel bad for him. He has been captured but EON the human agency tracking and detaining Eos for an indefinite period of time. I actually felt incredibly bad for Eli, especially after learning about his past and experiencing the torture he was going through at EON in the beginning of his captivity.

June is also a new quantity. She can change who she is in a blink. The way her power worked was so strange and different. I really liked the twist to it. I’m still not sure if I like her or not even at the end of this book but compared to all of the other characters, she seems more normal than most. I liked her friendship with Sydney even if it worried me a lot.

There is a big showdown at the end involving Victor, the other villainous EOs and EON. Things happen and well it definitely is a showdown not everyone makes it out of. Schwab doesn’t do the standard HEA ending that most stories have and so if that is what you always need in a story you will be out of luck. But she has interesting and unique endings and I like that about her.

This series is a duology right now and I’m not sure if Schwab will revisit it in the future. Although I like it if she did, it would be interesting to see the character situations five or ten years down the road. The ending is left open enough that it could be a possibility if the right story formed in her mind.

Narration:

Jeremy Arthur brought the characters to life for me. I especially like his portrayal of Victor, Mitch and Sydney. He also did a good job on the female characters. I was able to listen to this at my normal 1.5x speed without losing intonation.

Let me start off my review by saying I love all of V.E. Schwab's other books. The characters are colorful and fun and the stories are entertaining and dark and suspenseful and amazing! I adore her other books and I even really liked Vicious. That is, I liked Vicious until I read this book and it made me realize all the pretentiousness of those characters and the anti-climatic ending of the first book.

But lets talk about this book. The only three characters I liked in this book full of characters was Sydney, Mitchell, and June. And this book had little of them in it which in and of itself is a crime (seriously there needs to be more Sydney and Mitchell, I adore those two so very much). But that brings us to Marcella, probably the most poorly written female "I'm bad ass therefor I'm a well written character" kind of trope. Marcella was overly powerful, misogynistic, overly snarky, painful to read about kind of character. Also WOW ok we get it. She's drop-dead-gorgeous but for pete's sake we don't have to hear about how hot and sexy she is in literally every single paragraph. What about her hatred towards other women? I hated that. It was very much a "Oh I'm not like other girls, I'm not dumb like other girls, I don't care about materialistic stuff like other girls do" is such sexist thinking that it DROVE ME UP THE WALL how much Marcella hated other women in this book because she thought she was "smarter than the average bear" or, well, woman in this matter. I didn't mind the parts where she was showing up men, because yeah most men do think the way they did in this book, but I mean even at some point one of the guys definitely would have not underestimated her.

I could go on and on about Marcella and how pretentiously she was written but lets talk about that random mad scientist guy who was such a trope of a mad scientist I felt like the book literally slapped me across the face with it. I hated him. Moving on.

Eli finally got some comeuppance in this book and despite how it was advertised as "You'll feel sorry for hating Eli in the first book" this made me hate him even MORE. Like, how is that possible? Oh, right. Give him a stereotypical tragic backstory with an abusive father and a god complex so strong that the Lord himself is calling down "Hey, you're over doing it!" and throw in some classic torture brought to you by mad scientist™ and you got me hating him and every single page he was on!

I honestly hated majority of this book because A.) Most of it was given over to Marcella and her one note "I'm so bad ass I can't see past my own nose" character. B.) The book tried to make you feel bad for Eli but actually made me hate him even more. C.) June was barely in it and she was like the best part.

And and June! Lovely, amazing, developed character June! I wanted to know more about her! Unfortunately! We! Were! Stuck! With! Marcella! and also? There was literally no reason for June to hang around Marcella for as long as she did? Marcella spent the majority of the time undermining June but I think Schwab tried to pull off a "They're teaming up! Whereas the boys are not, therefor that leads to failure!" but June was literally being pushed around and insulted by Marcella the entire time she was with her. Like? I just don't get it? I hated this book.

Sydney and Mitchell are perfect though, thats why I gave this book 2 stars instead of one.