[Book Review] Vengeful by V.E. Schwab

Vengeful by V.E. Schwab is the long awaited follow-up to Vicious, which is one of my all time favorite novels!

When my copy of Vengeful came in the mail earlier than I expected, I just had to reread Vicious before I dove in so it took me some time to get to this one. Feel free to check out my review of Vicious here! And click here to see my unboxing of the incredible OwlCrate Vicious/Vengeful limited edition box.

Now, let’s dive in to my review!

My Thoughts on Vengeful by V.E. Schwab

The opening of the book focused on a new character, Marcella Riggins. I gotta admit, I wasn’t loving her at first. In fact, I thought she was a bit irritating. However, she ended up growing on me a bit! I especially enjoyed her character during one particular scene, but then after that, she got pretty annoying again.

After the opening scene with Marcella, we met up again with Victor and where he is in the present. I was pretty shocked to see that this book picked up five years after the first book ended! I was immediately curious as to what had happened in the time gap. Soon enough, however, we jumped right into a scene from the past, which picks up right where we left off in Vicious.

I was so thrilled to see that the author followed the same jumpy timeline as Vicious. This format is one that I usually have a very hard time with, but V.E. Schwab has mastered how to organize the story to make it not only work, but work really well. I just love that this format gives the reader more and more information as the story slowly progresses.

I say “slowly” there because there is a ton of back and forth that is constantly switching between the present and the past, and anywhere in-between, but don’t worry! The story is not truly slow. Instead, it is action packed and filled with twists and turns! There was also a lot more blood, power, and villainy in this one compared to the first. Some of the deaths were quite graphic and brutal… and I loved it!

In Vengeful, we were introduced to a few other characters, though not many of them stuck around for very long. One really interesting character that had a pretty significant role in this book was June. I loved her character from the second we met her and she quickly became one of my favorites!  I really hope to one day learn more about what happened to June to give her the power that she ended up with!

Beware, the negatives:
The first slight negative that I had with this book was how much time we spent with Marcella versus our favorite four- two EO’s, one human, and the faithful pup. With the time we did get to spend with them, it felt like something was… off. I can’t quite put a finger on it, but there just wasn’t the same oomph of their chemistry from the first book. It felt a little… flat.

Another negative for me was that there were a few elements included in this book that I really could have done without. One was a drugging that seemed so out of character. The other was the strange sexual related bits. Neither of these things added to the story for me. Instead, they felt out of place and really unnecessary.

My Favorite Passages from Vengeful

Distance wouldn’t save him, but it might protect them.

From here on out, we leave absolutely no trace, and that means before we go forward, we have to go back.

Mitch had that look on his face, that carefully blank look that adults got when they were trying to convince you everything was fine. They always assumed that if they didn’t tell you a thing, you wouldn’t know it. But that wasn’t true.

The thing about mistakes was that they weren’t always big, or obvious. Sometimes they were simple. Small. The decision to keep walking. The turn left instead of right. Those few extra steps in the wrong direction.

There was a rager going on in one of the nearby warehouses, the heavy pulse of the club’s bass blanketing the streets. Nick couldn’t hear his own heart over the beat, let alone the footsteps coming up behind him.

“You crazy bitch,” he bleated as she bent down and wrapped her hand around his mouth.
“That’s no way to talk to a lady,” she said, digging her nails into his skin. It withered in her grip, flesh peeling back to reveal bone that thinned and cracked until the slightest pressure made it shatter.
Marcella straightened, dusting her palms. She swore softly. There was a crack in her manicure.

People can see an awful lot, and believe none of it.

My Final Thoughts on Vengeful

If you enjoyed Vicious, I definitely recommend giving Vengeful a read! It was so much fun to dive back into the world where Victor, Mitch, Syd and Dol live.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this! I hated to put it down when I had to go to sleep or go back to work after a lunch break; I just wanted to know what was going to happen next! Unfortunately I can’t say I loved this one quite as much as I love Vicious, but still a wonderful read!

Of course, I still cannot wait to see where the story goes next, if there is a third book!

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