Review: Vengeful

Vengeful by V.E. Schwab
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The follow-up to Vicious could very well be the end of another duology for Schwab, which I rather hope to be the case given how long and arduous and difficult the process for writing this book was, according to her. But also because it finally builds up to a really satisfying ending - even with a hint of "And the adventure continues!" - that I'd really, really, really hate to see her write a third book that overrides it. Once again, I find myself wondering, are we really supposed to NOT root for either Victor or Eli over each other? I mean, the series is called Villains, but Victor, as bad as some of his actions have been known to be, isn't anywhere near as bad as Eli, not by a long shot. And there are worse people out there. Better villains, too. Well-rounded, well-developed villains on the level of recent Marvel baddies like Killmonger or Thanos. I'm especially looking at Marcella, who's proof that if there's any writer besides Margaret Stohl who should get the job of writing an all-women Marvel movie, Schwab needs to get in there too. Maybe this one was a little difficult to read, due to the short chapters that keep flipping around between POVs and going all over the place in the timeline like Arrow on steroids - I actually managed to forget that Vicious was super-anachronic too, but checking a copy of that book on the shelf at work today reminded me - but it was also a blazing fast and blazing fun read too. If there is, in fact, a third book, I'll read it for sure...but again, despite how little I like the whole duology trend, I really actually do hope this is the end of the road for our Villains.

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