Review: Vengeful (Villains #2)

Vengeful (Villians #2)
By VE Schwab

Published By: Titan Books
Publication Date: September 25, 2018
Date Read: July 8, 2021
Genre: Adult – Fantasy
Source: Bought
Format: Audiobook
Pages: 575

From Goodreads:
A super-powered collision of extraordinary minds and vengeful intentions—#1 New York Times bestselling author V. E. Schwab returns with the thrilling follow-up to Vicious.

Magneto and Professor X. Superman and Lex Luthor. Victor Vale and Eli Ever. Sydney and Serena Clarke. Great partnerships, now soured on the vine.

But Marcella Riggins needs no one. Flush from her brush with death, she’s finally gained the control she’s always sought—and will use her new-found power to bring the city of Merit to its knees. She’ll do whatever it takes, collecting her own sidekicks, and leveraging the two most infamous EOs, Victor Vale and Eli Ever, against each other.

With Marcella’s rise, new enmities create opportunity–and the stage of Merit City will once again be set for a final, terrible reckoning.

“Perhaps she was glass. But glass is only brittle until it breaks. Then it’s sharp.”

Vicious was my first book by VE Schwab and I fell head over heels in love with her writing and her stunning storytelling. I am so, so glad that I finally picked up the sequel. This is actually the second time I have started this book. I picked Vengeful up last year, got half way through and then lost interest. This time I decided to give it a go on audio, and I am so glad I did. I ended up really enjoying it. Clearly, last year I just wasn’t in the mood for it.

Vengeful sees the return of our favourite anti-heros Victor and Eli, as well as adding in some new characters. At first I wasn’t sure of the new additions. We see quite a lot of the book told from new character, Marcella’s point of view. While her point of view was enjoyable, I just found myself missing Victor and dying to get back to know what he was doing, or even getting back to find out more about Eli as well. As I got further through the book, I started enjoying her point of view a little bit more and by about half way I was really happy and excited about the new characters. Marcella and June gave a totally new take on this tale, and it was awesome to get to see some more female EO’s.

The narrator of the Vengeful audiobook did an absolutely fantastic job. He brought such life to these incredible characters and this epic, fast-paced storyline. I’m usually funny about male narrators, especially when they’re telling the female point of view but in this case, it was fantastic. I completely forgot on Marcella and June’s chapters that it was a male telling their story because I was just completely taken in by this amazing story and its narration. If you’re an audiobook lover, I highly recommend that you listen to this one, it’s fantastic.

Vengeful was a fantastic follow up to Vicious. I ended up really enjoying it and I was so anxious to see what was going to happen to these characters. Victor is still my absolute favourite character from the series, and I desperately hope that Victoria will write a third book so I can obsess over him and this story all over again. Vengeful was a great follow up and I highly recommend this amazing series. It was, once again, a fantastic, thought-provoking novel from VE Schwab.

“Maybe we are broken. But we put ourselves back together. We survived. That’s what makes us so powerful. And as for family – well, blood is always family, but family doesn’t always have to be blood.”

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