Vengeful (Villains, 2) Paperback – January 7, 2020

Very very very cool. it doesn't disappoint at all, and the first one was already really good. The beginning probably leaves you a bit perplexed, especially because you wouldn't expect what's happening to poor Victor ("poor" in quotes obviously ahahha). There's a lot of backstory for the various characters, which at times I really appreciated and at other times I hated because it was very slow, but they give a lot of information and allow you to understand how the characters are made and what they think. SPOILER!!! I hated the fact that June didn't have a well-defined backstory. Sure, this would leave room for a third book, but damn, what if there wasn't a third? June's character had a lot of potential and well, so it seems a bit left there. For the rest, a great book

I have to start this review exactly the same as last time with Vicious. I almost gave 5 stars, but in the end, it came out of a 4.5-star experience for me and finally I decided I round it down to 4.It doesn't mean this is not a good book. It's an excellent book, a great story and I also really like how she writes. The writing is wonderful. The characters are mostly likable, although I think I liked some characters who were meant to be villains more, than the main protagonist. But it may be that this is intended.Anyway, I decided some time ago, that I only give 5 stars when a book keeps me awake at night, when I can't wait to pick it up and read or when it has such a cathartic effect on me, that I cannot think of giving anything else.And although there were some times when it kept me reading past my bedtime and I never felt it a struggle to pick it up, I still had that tiny bit of YA aftertaste, that somehow the book doesn't take itself completely seriously. It's a very dark work and a quite grim story, but still, sometimes it felt like that teenagers are the intended audience and that bothered me a little bit.Still, I'm more than happy that I found V.E. Schwab. Somehow she managed to become one of my favorites, even if I gave 4 points to both of the books I've read so far by her. I'm certain I will continue exploring her work and I hope that the tiny aftertaste I managed before will dissolve or I get used to it.I recommend this one to anyone who read the first book, and I also have to state that this is even better. So these 4 stars somewhat shinier than the ones I gave to Vicious.

Great book, arrived with no scratches or anything. Besides that though, the book is pretty good not better than the first but still good

There's nothing particularly wrong with this sequel, it's not like you're going to have a terrible time or anything if you liked the first book, Vicious. I just feel like it was a little less focused this time around. I also feel like the time skipping was a little less intuitive in this one. I found myself having to double-check when certain chapters happened, which wasn't a problem I had in the first book. One problem with the flashbacks is that, because certain characters move around a lot as time goes on, you can't really intuit the order of events without memorizing their path. The characters that move also tend to have one long goal they're pursuing, so it gives us fewer important character development moments as a point of reference.For instance, in the first book, almost everything done at the college happens in more or less the order it's presented whenever we jump back to an important flashback, and the characters are developing their experiments about EO's. After the story leaves the college, Victor and Eli's motives change, their setting changes, which makes it a lot easier to keep the story straight. Here, characters who jump around from place to place tend to either have the same goal the whole time, or are going through mostly internal "finding who they really are" kinds of character changes, which aren't very helpful in anchoring them to a specific period of time in the story.I know this seems like I'm just trashing on it, but it's really the big difference between itself and the prequel. If the characters from the first one bother you, they won't be much better here, because it still sticks to the "bad people doing bad things" philosophy as last time. It's not just a rehash of the first book, that's for sure. It just feels like that's the main noteworthy thing this time around. Honestly, I kind of wish Victor and maybe even Eli didn't make a reappearance. Marcella is plenty interesting on her own, and I don't think it was totally necessary to check up on Victor and Eli. I was honestly kind of down for this to be another book in the "Vicious" universe, not a continuation of "Vicious" itself, when the book opens on a completely new character, with not much to do with our original cast. I think having a story more focused on Marcella would have actually solved a lot of my problems with the story's structure. The climax just requires the old characters to be there, and kind of requires them to have been doing what they were doing the whole story for it to work out as it does.I won't say that this retroactively ruins Vicious by not leaving the story alone. But I will say that it feels a bit like the previous story is holding this one back a little. I kind of wonder what this story could have been like if the author just nixed Victor and co. from this story, and just saw where that took things. The back of the book seems enthralled with another "Victor vs Eli" story. But, it feels like, for most of the book, that's not what it's trying to be.So, TL:DR - pretty alright read, but not as good as the first. I have complaints but they are kind of small, and based on what I personally think would make a more interesting story. If you liked the first one, give it a try. If you didn't, it's probably not going to redeem the series for you.

I am absolutely obsessed with this book! It kept me hooked from start to finish. The characters, the plot twists—everything was just perfect. Highly recommend it to anyone who loves a good villain-centric story.

I was so disappointed by the book. I loved Vicious. This just felt liked it dragged on for nonsense followed by more nonsense. There didn’t need to be a second book. Vicious told the story. This didn’t add anything of value.