REVIEW: Vicious & Vengeful by V.E Schwab

Vicious:

This is a reread for me but damn did I forget about half of the stuff that goes on in the book. I reread this

just in time for vengeful to come out but this time I read it in the audiobook format. The audiobook just really sets the tone and I think the reread was perfect for this time of year. October is the month for leaves to fall and it to be spooky. Although it isn’t spooky, what I will say is that revenge is definitely an October theme and revenge is a dish best served cold. We follow Eli and Victor ten years in the past, as they are medical students. They are doing a research project on near death experiences and the effects of that. Their research reveals that somebody could get extraordinary abilities from a near death experience and so they try it themselves and everything goes down hill from there. Fast-forward to the present when Victor breaks out of prison and Eli is killing EO’s. Wow a lot went wrong there. Throughout the story we learn of both of their backstories, which then lead them to be the people that they are today. Enter a few side characters like Sydney, Serena and Mitch and we have the perfect teams. Who will win? Or will they both die. I seriously love Victoria’s writing and can’t wait to read more from her in the future. 5 out of 5 stars.

Vengeful:

Okay, I’ve been trying to combat this review and figure out a way to write this for the past couple of weeks. Okay. We will get through this, so let me just take a minute. Good. This was soo good. And I adored it. I’m so glad that we got to see our favourite characters again. Eli and Victor are just so annoyingly amazing. But the downfalls of the book are the other characters like Marcella, June, Mitch and Sydney. How this book was marketed to me was that it was Marcella’s story but with Eli and Victor and that crew thrown in. But that’s not how it was. Marcella was meant to be the front and centre but she was thrown away like a bit of trash in the end. Hyped up to be this big deal like the big bad but she was just a character for Eli and Victor to overcome. A character to move the plot along and I didn’t like that. And then along comes June, at first I was warming to her and then I realised how fucked up she was. She was stalking a young girl for heavens sake. That’s so creepy even though her intentions may have been good. It was such a good book which is why I rated it 5 stars but somehow I feel like it was an unnecessary sequel. I do hope that Schwab does write more in this world though. I read this by listening to the audiobook. 5 out of 5 stars.