Review & Event Recap: Vengeful (Villains #2) by V.E. Schwab

Vengeful, the long awaited sequel to Vicious was released this Tuesday. Let me tell you all that I am a happy reader! It is no surprise that I am a huge Schwab fangirl. Vicious was the first Schwab book I ever read and I was hooked. It’s been 5 years since Vicious was published and I have been waiting 4 years (since I read) for more about Victor, Eli, Mitch, and Sydney. It was so worth the wait. Check out my audiobook review below, as well as event highlights! Christy, who was the best and went to the event at Books, Inc in Berkley, and brought back a gift to giveaway. Thank you to Macmillian Audio and Tor Books for the opportunity to read and review Vengeful, which in no way influences my thoughts or reviews below.

 

Vengeful (Villains, #2)

by V.E. Schwab
Narrator: Jeremy Arthur
Published by: Tor Books
on September 25, 2018
Genres: Adult, Sci-Fi, Fantasy
Bookshop
Goodreads

Eli Ever and Victor Vale were only medical students when their mutual discovery that near-death experiences can, under the right conditions, manifest extraordinary abilities.

They were best friends, and rivals, and then enemies. They were dead, then alive, and then---Eli killed Victor, once and for all.

Or so he thought---but Sydney Clarke felt otherwise, and used her own superpower to tip the scales. Now, a trio hides in the shadows, while another takes advantages of post-death life to take over the city of Merit.

If there can be life after death—will there be calm after vengeance, or will chaos rule?

 

Review

Vengeful was worth the wait. It was darker and definitely had more of a superhero quality to the story. These books need to be made into movies…I mean it’s better than any I ever read or seen. The beautiful imagery, the brutal reality, the perfect plot, all make for what I think would be blockbusters! I loved this book for so many reasons, but for me it always comes down to the characters and at this point I am pretty sure Schwab is a master at making me feel for her characters no matter how monstourous.

In this Vicious world most of the Extra Ordinaries, ‘EOs’, people who have died and came back with a some kind of supernatural power. Most keep to themselves, stay low, out of the spotlight, they aren’t donning masks and saving the world like most superhero novels. Except one, Eli Ever did put on a mask, but he did it to rid the world of others like him. He found himself on a rightous path, he thought he was meant to take his powers and use them to eliminate other EOs because they were unnatural. His college roommate, Victor Vale had other plans, and made it his mission to stop Eli, until he had to focus on saving himself.

Jump forward and those authorities are now a well established organization to investigate and neutralize EOs, called EON. Eli Ever works with EON from his prision cell to track down and investigate potential EOs, just like he did in the past, just now most of them end up in cells instead of graves. Victor has stayed with Mitch and Sydney while they do their own EO investigation looking for healers. Sydney isn’t aging and is desperate for some normalcy, while she works to strengthen her power. Mitch is loyal and a tech genius who has been teaching and caring for Syd and Dol.

We also meet a few new characters, most notably Marcella, the former mob boss wife. She is new to the EO community as her husband decided to murder her, but alas revenge brought her back. She has decided that she had enough of the men running this city, and it was about time a woman took the job. I loved Marcella’s wickedness. She knew what she wanted, and she took it by any means necessary. She had power and planned to use it to her best advantages.

We can’t forget about June, a type of shapeshifter, who we don’t know much about, but she has been keen on keeping an eye on Sydney for the last 5 years. Her path leads her to Marcella for they both have a common enemy that must die. I loved how much June wanted to protect Sydney, even from afar. I am also still very curious to her backstory.

The audiobook was great and I love being able to hear the feelings of the characters instead of having to imagine it for myself. So a good narrator is important. Listening to audiobooks has changed my life and I highly recommend this one if you were thinking about it!

Vengeful, like Vicious, is told from many POVs, jumps timelines, and gives us plenty of insight to understand the story, as well as what has been going on for the last 5 years. I personally did recently re-read Vicious, but I think it is perfectly reasonable to go into this story without a refresher as Schwab reminds us of everything we need to know to move forward.  With a plot that forces the reader to ask questions about ethics and revenge, most can only come up on the side of somewhere in the middle due to Schwab’s brilliant character driven story.

 

Event Recap w/ Christy

I always enjoy Victoria’s events because the audience energy is off the charts. With over 150 people in attendance last night, you can imagine how much the room was buzzing!

 

Wow. Just. Wow. pic.twitter.com/oDV7mjyTYX

— Victoria/V.E. Schwab (@veschwab) September 27, 2018

I can say this – attending her event and hearing her talk about the badass women in Vengeful made me put the duology on my TBR. It helps that she said her unknown inspiration is Supernatural (SPNFamily!). I also got to hang with Jana and meet Shae, finally! Plus I made some new bookish friends. Always a win.

 

 

 

 

Giveaway

1 Signed copy of the Steel Prince ashcan + vellum shades of London! Comment here about Vengeful, or Victoria’s other books, etc for a chance to win! Open US/PR only until October 5th!