I was expecting more"," but I still enjoyed it. ( )

The epic battle between Eli(lawful evil) vs Victor (neutral evil) continues with even bigger threats (Marcella and the emergence of EON) and even more of the same plot points from the last novel.

*Light Spoilers Below* *Light Spoilers Below*

An organization/mercenary type person is hunting Extra Ordinary people (mutants)

Victor, Sydney and Mitch are on the run.

A unforeseeable problem makes it incredibly complicated for the trio to stay hidden.

Victor must stop blank in order to stop Eli to save Sydney.

Cool shit happens in between.

*End of Light Spoilers*

Despite knowing all this I still had fun reading it and I instead to continue reading anything written by V.E. Schwab. I like having fun when I'm reading. I'll probably not continue with this series though, it is getting kind of stale unfortunately. If you like the first one though you will most likely enjoy this one as well. ( )

I am SO overwhelmed right now! Vengeful was even better than the first book — everything that was awesome in book one, cranked up to the max. Just spectacular.

I loved the development of Sydney’s character. She was already amazing in Vicious, but there, she was in the background. Here, we watched her grow up and finally come to terms with Serena’s death, watched her deepening relationship with Mitch and Victor, despite the circumstances.

Eli’s POV was an interesting addition, but I still hated his holier-that-thou attitude. His backstory shed some light on his character (nature vs nurture), yet it can’t excuse the fact that he was a total self-righteous prick . Seeing Victor through Eli’s eyes, though… now THAT was fun! But WHY the hell was Eli so bent on killing the one person who, by his own admission, was the only one who’d ever seen through his mask? That’s some serious soulmate stuff right there — again got X-Men Charles/Erik vibes! — shame Victoria Schwab hadn’t explored that bond more deeply.

Two totally BADASS female characters were introduced here — June and Marcella — with two of the awesomest EO powers in existence (not counting Victor’s, of course). I’d like it more if June was at the forefront, instead of Marcella (who was still a badass, but in a spoiled, entitled way that got old really fast), too bad we got only a glimpse of June’s backstory and were treated to Marcella having sex with her husband instead.

My only complaint is that there was not enough Victor. That’s just me, though, because he’s my new favorite thing, and I wanted him on every page.

I will definitely reread both of those.

But… WHAT IS UP WITH THAT ENDING?! VICTOOOR!! ( )

I downed this book in a day and have been digesting it before I put my thoughts into a review. I originally put 4 stars, but in writing this review, I am knocking down to 3.

Things I liked:
—the family dynamic of Victor, Mitch, and Sydney (one of my favorite parts of VICIOUS)
—more women, even if some of those women were pretty obnoxious and one-note (ahem, Marcella)
—ding dong, Eli’s dead! And by Sydney!
—June’s power was by far the most interesting presented so far of the EO’s

Things I didn’t like:
—Marcella was too one-note and really lacked a personality other than scorned housewife
—Too many extraneous characters. I really didn’t need the backstory of (almost) every EO, which leads to me to my next point...
—WHY DIDNT WE GET TO LEARN ABOUT JUNE? I loved her power, it was so creepy and cool, but it really bugged me we didn’t get a semblance of an explanation, but we did for other EO’s. June’s motives were incredibly unclear and confusing, making her trying to convince Sydney to choose her as family all the more confusing (like bitch, Sydney DID and her two platonic dads are named Mitch and Victor, tyvm)
—V should’ve been given a limit of how many times she could describe June’s accent as lilting (and maybe she was, but it wasn’t enough!)

It’s not a bad sequel. I enjoyed the ride, and really, we could’ve had a much worse return to the Villains universe. It would’ve been a more satisfying read with more time with the core characters of VICIOUS and not a bunch of randos who either die in the end or go away. ( )

No one knows Eli like Victor does and vice versa. And yet they aren't driven by each other’s existence in the sequel.
A large part of what made Vicious a page turner was slowly finding out what each character was hiding and how Eli and Victor became enemies. Before starting this book I wondered if the sequel would be as interesting because we already know all that.

I loved reading about Victor, Eli, Sydney and Mitch. Finding out what happened to them after Vicious was great. Victor and Eli were as messed up and murderous as ever, and the author did a great job walking the fine line between villainous and too-evil-to-read-about.
It was the many other characters that made the book feel too elaborate at times. There’s Dom, the evil doctor, June and Jonathan etc etc and all of them felt like side notes. Their chapters weren’t bad by any means, but they just provided lore and exposition around the main cast. Necessary for the story? Yes. Fun to read? Meh.

Secondly, it was Marcella who drove the plot. Victor and Eli aren’t actively pushing the story the way they were in the first book. They are still somewhat obsessed with each other, but aren’t concerned with each other until at least halfway into the book.
And as much as I liked reading about Marcella wrecking her husband’s life, eventually she also started to feel like a means to an end instead of a character on her own. Eli and Victor have to meet and Marcella is the plot device to make it happen.

I will be reading the third book though. All of Vengeful felt like an elaborate setup to get Victor and Eli back in the business of killing each other and I am excited to see what the finale will be. ( )