Vengeful (The Villains, #2)

by V.E. Schwab

I liked this book so much more than Vicious. I had not expected to like it this much, especially because I did not care that much for the first book. I would have given this book a five-star rating, had the main characters come together a bit sooner such that the story tied in together. Now, we were just following separate main characters that somehow ended up in the same place by luck. No real reason whatsoever. I would have liked their storylines to intertwine a bit more.

In this book, I still hated Victor Vale, sorry buddy. I really liked Eli, June, Marcella, Mitch, Sydney, and even Dominic, who we did not get to know that well. Don't get me wrong, I did not think that they were nice people, but their personalities were complex and interesting. To be fair, June, Mitch, and Dominic were not that complex, but still interesting. Sydney will always be my favorite character, possibly also because she is the only good character in this series. She is just so innocent, that's the only way I can describe it. June had an interesting premise, but I never understood her obsession with Sydney. Again, it felt like something that was an easy connection to the story instead of something with a real reason. I really loved Mitch, but he was just a bystander in this book that did not have anything to do with the story at all. He existed and cared for Sydney, that's all. Eli took again a very interesting turn, with his cooperation with Stell and his manipulation. Oh, I also really liked the plot twist with the woman that was an EO working with EON. I wonder if I reread the book, I will find clues that she was an EO before the plot twist is explained because I never even questioned it.

To be honest, it is difficult to describe what is exactly so good about this book. It is definitely not the storyline, because I am sure you have seen most of it before. The characters are very complex, very morally questionable, and very dark at times. You really start to question if the characters that you are reading about and rooting for, are actually the bad guys. I think I switched sides more than 50 times. I just couldn't decide if I even agreed with anyone anymore.

This series is definitely a must read if you like villain stories. But, if you don't care about characters that much and more about the story, I would personally go for another book. This story is good, but the complex characters make it remarkable.