REVIEW: Vengeful - V.E. Schwab

Title: Vengeful (Villains #2) 

Author: V.E. Shwab

Publisher: Titan Books  

Date Published: 25th September 2018  

Pages: 480 

Format: Physical ARC 

This book is the sequel to Vicious. For protective purposes, and because I’m nice and don’t want to spoil anyone - I have included a synopsis of Vicious. If you haven’t read Vicious, you SHOULD because it’s incredible. Come back here when you’re ready to read/have already read Vengeful so we can squeal together! 

“Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. 
Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?” 

In my eyes, Victoria Schwab can do absolutely no wrong. I’m never a fan of sequels, they never seem to match up to the greatness of the first book but this was one hell of a masterpiece. I absolutely loved every second of this book, from beginning to end. It was written beautifully, it had just the right amount of drama and craziness and the new characters were honestly, SO much more likeable than the original ones. This is honestly my favourite book of the year. I actually prefer it to Vicious, which is highly highly unusual for me to say. Well, I said it. It was great. 10/10. Now, for the juicy bits. 

Marcella. 

Oh god how I love Marcella. She is incredible. Her parts of the story were fascinating, I ended up wishing there was an entire book just about her. She’s the strong, independent woman we all want to be. Honestly. She knows what she wants and damn, did she go and get it! 

Victoria did an incredible job writing her as such a quotable character, she belongs in Mean Girls. 

“How many men would she have to turn to dust before one took her seriously?”  

Girl, right? 

The pacing of the story was impeccable. It was so much more fast-paced than Vicious was. It was just like BAM BAM BAM 25 things just happened and you need a lie down to recover. There was never a dull moment reading this book and as far as I’m concerned, that’s the best type of book. 

The detective aspect of the book was an added bonus. I’m a major fan of detective shows like Criminal Minds and I was getting huge huge huge Criminal Minds vibes. I loved the investigation, I loved the hunt. I loved the whole entire storyline. 

I’m going to stop writing this review now, because I’m aware that I’m just gushing but honestly. If you weren’t a huge fan of Vicious, I would still definitely recommend picking this up because it was miles miles better. 

Did you love this book as much as I did or were you hugely disappointed? Let me know your thoughts!