If you lived in the dark, you died in the dark.
Vengeful
by V. E. Schwab
Genre: Fantasy
About: Victor Vale is no stranger to death, only now he can't seem to stop dying. Two minutes, three minutes, four minutes... Unless he can find an EO to fix him, he may not wake up the next time. So he begins to hunt EOs, just as Eli Evers once did. And one EO in particular is not hiding. Marcella Riggins wants her powers to be known. But her powers of not of the healing kind and she's ready to ruin all in her path.
Thoughts
Why do I love Victor so much? He's a cold, calculating killer, he uses people as pawns, and he always hangs up the phone way too early. But damn, he just had It about him. I make up excuses for his killings, re-read sections to understand why his actions are necessary, and fan girl over every clever line and cool moment. He's a villain alright, but he's a villain you can't help rooting for.
The story in this one is a little messier than the first book as there's a lot of set-up. Marcella's character is great but her story doesn't really connect with Victor or Eli for the majority of the book. The synopsis suggests she's playing everyone and pulling all the strings, but while she's a very strong character and definitely important to the story, she's not exactly the mastermind behind either of Victor's or Eli's actions. So how the three stories connected felt a little messy, but also brilliant because I have no idea how Schwab conceived of this story or made the events work so perfectly towards the end.
The writing is absolutely gorgeous, as I've now come to expect from Schwab. The characters are fascinating - even the ones you despise have such a strong presence that you can't help finding their stories compelling. And I'm still so in love with the magic system, the powers are really well thought out and fit the characters so completely. I'm dying for Mitch to die and get a power. I want more Mitch.
This is such an incredible series, I really hope Schwab continues it because it is genuinely exciting to read.
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