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Book: “Vengeful” by V.E. Schwab
Publishing Info: Tor, September 2018
Where Did I Get this Book: copy from the publisher!
Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound
Book Description: Magneto and Professor X. Superman and Lex Luthor. Victor Vale and Eli Ever. Sydney and Serena Clarke. Great partnerships, now soured on the vine.
But Marcella Riggins needs no one. Flush from her brush with death, she’s finally gained the control she’s always sought—and will use her new-found power to bring the city of Merit to its knees. She’ll do whatever it takes, collecting her own sidekicks, and leveraging the two most infamous EOs, Victor Vale and Eli Ever, against each other.
With Marcella’s rise, new enmities create opportunity–and the stage of Merit City will once again be set for a final, terrible reckoning.
Previously Reviewed: “Vicious”
Review: It’s an interesting experience reading this series for the first time as I am. That is, when the first book came out, people rightly assumed it was a stand-alone. And then many years later, here comes this book and it’s unclear whether it’s just a sequel or carrying over to a third book? Me, now reading the trilogy with the knowledge that it will be a completed trilogy here soon, I’m having perhaps a different reading experience than others. That said, while I think I would have been more frustrated by this book had I read it back when it came out and without the knowledge that there would be a third, I still found this book to be suffering from a rather stifling case of “second book syndrome.”
To start with what continues to work: the general vibe of this world and the new powers/abilities that were introduced. Like the first book, I still am very much enjoying the “dark superheroes” vibe that is going on. In many ways, this is just more of the same: more cool powers and more darkness. I did have a few questions about how certain characters’ abilities worked, but this was definitely one of those books where the general atmosphere was more important than the detailed ins and outs of how the magic system works. That being the case, I was fine treating the fantasy elements as a more “soft magic” system.
That said, when I say this book is more of the same as the first book, I mean that in every way, because in this book we all got even more characters and even more time jumps. Some of these worked ok, but I also think that the story, both in pacing and in overall theme, began to become muddled by the inclusion of all of this “more.” While a few of the new characters were interesting, I felt like it came at the expense of some of our existing characters. People who had been represented as complex and multifaceted began to resemble cardboard cutouts more and more.
One of the strengths of the first book was the interesting exploration of what it means to be a “villain” and the complicated layer of greyness that can be found therein. Here we were given a new character who I think was meant to further expand on this point, but instead, simply fell flat and almost reinforced the more black-and-white nature of the question. I feel like Marcella was supposed to represent some sort of deep thought exercise on misogyny, women, and power. But I don’t think this was successful at all. Marcella was just a villain, pretty much full stop. So any waxing poetic she did on this subject was always seen through the lens of a character who was a pretty clear villain, regardless of her gender, thus watering down any greater commentary on powerful women that was trying to be made.
I also think the overall pacing was harmed by all the constant time jumps and the increased number of cast members whom I was expected to keep track of. I simply began to not care about some of them and feel frustrated by the limited time I got to spend with those I did still have interest in. Beyond this, this book felt a bit directionless with regards to its overall theme. There were some good lines sprinkled throughout, but by the time I got to the end of the book, it failed to come together into a greater point overall. Given the strength of the message in the first book, this was all the more disappointing.
Now knowing that this is a middle book in a trilogy, it’s very easy to see “middle book syndrome” all over this one. Schwab is still a talented author, so I didn’t have a bad time with this book by any means. But had I read this one when it came out, I may have found myself wishing that “Vicious” had remained a stand-alone. We’ll just have to wait and see how the third book ties everything up to see which side I end up falling on for the trilogy as a whole.
Rating 7: A bit of a letdown from the strength of the first book. I still enjoy Schwab’s writing, but this book seemed to muddy the waters of this world and story more than it edified them.
Reader’s Advisory:
“Vengeful” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Can’t Wait Books of 2018 and Villain Protagonist.
