book review: vengeful by v.e. schwab

Vengeful by V.E. Schwab
Titan Books, 575 pp.
Published September 25, 2018

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?

You'll LOVE it if...you agree that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

Vengeful picks up several years after the first novel, and with the time jump it picks up a new, villainous E.O. in Marcella Riggins. The wife of a high-level, ambitious criminal, Marcella suffers a near-death experience after attempting to bring her husband to task over a series of affairs. Her experience grants Marcella truly extraordinary powers more terrifying than what Eli and Victor wield; although altogether different from Serena Clarke's powers in Vicious, they carry the same horrifying, god-like implications. Marcella, her powers, and the flaming swath of revenge she cuts through the city of Merit dominate the narrative. Both vindicated and vindictive, Marcella challenges readers' sympathies in the same engaging fashion that the original cast of characters did in Vicious. Her initial hurt, and the obstacles she faces after almost dying, bring weaponized femininity to the forefront in this sequel.

You'll LIKE it if...you've missed the characters from Vicious.

Victor, Sydney, and Mitch return, all dealing with the implications of Victor's resurrection at the end of the first novel. The ragtag family dynamic continues with a twisted charm; I particularly enjoyed Victor struggling with his self-important nature and the growing paternal instinct he feels toward Sydney. After such an extended absence, it's wonderful to rejoin these fully-fleshed anti-heroes on a new quest. Eli Ever continues to play an important role as well. We finally learn more about his childhood and how he developed a fixation on the divine, giving him much-needed depth. The world these warring E.O.s move through looks very different from the one in which they first met, but that doesn't make their feud any less engaging.

You MAY NOT LIKE it if...you wanted the main focus to stay on Victor and Eli.

The problem with Vengeful is...it really has very little to do with the vengeance Victor and Eli might want to deal out upon one another. Ultimately it reads like a companion novel, rather than a true sequel, to Vicious. The majority of excitement and intrigue in the narrative is relegated to Marcella's rampage through the criminal underbelly of Merit; while she's an excellent character, and her arc is an interesting one, what I really wanted was a satisfying continuation of Victor and Eli's feud. The writing and characterization remain superb; there is no drop in quality from Schwab on either count. Instead it feels as though her attention was drawn elsewhere in the long break between books, so much so that she might have lost focus on why she first undertook the sequel. As an expansion of the world of E.O.s Vengeful works quite well, but those hoping for more of their favorite narcissistic antagonists might find themselves as underwhelmed as I did.

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