Vengeful

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.

Vengeful is THE fantastic follow up for Vicious. I can’t imagine another book that would fit this series perfectly and I know it’s good because I wanted to reread Vicious as soon as I closed Vengeful.

V.E. Schwab’s growth as a writer was evident in this instalment. Her storytelling, character design, takes on character development/regression, and explorations of the human psyche with her cast of morally ambiguous characters was absolutely delicious. I love that Schwab isn’t afraid to write about consequences because there are bound to be PLENTY in the world the book is set in. We get a look on what’s been happening to our trio of Victor, Sidney, and Mitch, while also getting an update on Eli and reading about his childhood. The book is also peppered with bits of POV from secondary to minor characters and while this may not be ideal for some, I enjoyed what it added to the story.

Vengeful also brings in new characters and EOs into the mix and I loved discovering their abilities and what they can do with it. I do wish Schwab probed a bit more when it came to the limits of these powers and I’m hoping it’s something she can delve into with a third book. Vengeful is almost an even 50-50 split when it came to ‘page time’ of new and returning characters and this is where I was left with wanting more. I wanted more of my favourites and more of the new ones, and I know I’m basically asking for more pages, but who wouldn’t?

As with Vicious, Schwab does a great job in tying loose ends and finishing Vengeful on the often hard-to-achieve note of providing closure with enough material to continue. Filled with electric, powerful villains in a world determined to hunt or be hunted, Vengeful is a grittier, thrilling sequel that continues to prove that plenty of humans are monstrous, and plenty of monsters play at being human.