Vengeful

by V. E. Schwab

Overview

*NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*

*2018 GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST SCIENCE FICTION CATEGORY*

*Entertainment Weekly's 27 Female Authors Who Rule Sci-Fi and Fantasy Right Now*

A super-powered collision of extraordinary minds and vengeful intentions—V. E. Schwab returns with the thrilling follow-up to Vicious.

Magneto and Professor X. Superman and Lex Luthor. Sydney and Serena Clarke. Victor Vale and Eli Ever.

Great partnerships—now soured on the vine.

But Marcella Riggins needs no one.

Flush from her brush with death, she’s gained the control she always sought—and will use her newfound power to bring the city of Merit to its knees. She’ll do whatever it takes, from taking over the mob to collecting her own sidekicks, and even leveraging the two most infamous EOs, Victor Vale and Eli Ever, in a dangerous game of cat and mouse.

With Marcella's rise, new enmities create surprising opportunity—and the stage of Merit will once again be set for a final, terrible reckoning.

“In Vengeful, V.E. Schwab is at the top of her game, with twisty action, oddball family pairings and unexpected antiheroes you can’t help but root for.” —Washington Post

“Schwab's characters feel vital and real, never reduced to simple archetypes... In a genre that tends toward the flippant or pretentious, this is a rare superhero novel as epic and gripping as any classic comic. Schwab's tale of betrayal, self-hatred, and survival will resonate with superhero fans as well as readers who have never heard of Charles Xavier or Victor von Doom.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780765387530
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/07/2020
Series:	Villains Duology Series , #2
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	15,911
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

VICTORIA “V. E.” SCHWAB is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty books, including the acclaimed Shades universe, the Villains series, the City of Ghosts series, Gallant, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and The Fragile Threads of Power. When not haunting Paris streets or trudging up English hillsides, she lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is usually tucked in the corner of a coffee shop, dreaming up monsters.

Editorial Reviews

Readers won't be able to put down this dark and riveting tale of power and revenge.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred

“With all the knife-sharp thrill of its cinematic predecessor, 2013’s Vicious, bestseller Schwab’s second Villains series plunges readers back into the world of extraordinary humans.”—Publisher’s Weekly, starred

“Vengeful picks up five years after the insane events of book one, ratcheting up the stakes and introducing two kickass women with extraordinary powers.”—Paste Magazine

“Schwab does a masterful job in these two books, capturing all of the questions superheroes would raise in our reality and with nuance not often found in the genre at large.”—BookRiot

“If Vicious is a blast to the chest, then Vengeful is a cold knife between the ribs, sharp and something that’ll sit with you long after you reach the last page.”—Culturess

“[Schwab is] a highly skilled writer...With each page, the story grows faster, denser, and more inescapable, like all good books should. Vengeful, like Vicious before it, is one of those books.”—Den of Geek

“The long-anticipated sequel to V.S. Schwab's super-villain novel, Vicious, is finally here, and it's worth the wait.”—Bustle

“V.E. Schwab showcases her prolific writing prowess in Vengeful…an adrenaline rush.”—Hypable

From the Publisher

★ 10/08/2018
With all the knife-sharp thrill of its cinematic predecessor, 2013’s Vicious, bestseller Schwab’s second Villains series plunges readers back into the world of extraordinary humans, or EOs, who were granted special abilities after near-death experiences. Upon being revived, Victor Vale discovers his pain-dealing powers are not only on the fritz but slowly killing him. With the help of hacker Mitch Turner, he seeks a fellow EO to cure him. Meanwhile, newly empowered Marcella Riggins and shape-shifting assassin June are taking over the local mob by force. Eventually the trail of bodies left by both groups bring them to the attention of EON, a clandestine paramilitary organization determined to contain or neutralize all EOs, and in whose laboratories serial murderer Eli Ever is being tortured in a never-ending science experiment. When ordinary human soldiers prove ineffective at tracking Victor or killing Marcella, EON lets Eli out of his cage, and these disparate-seeming threads are finally woven together with Schwab’s characteristic skill, suspense, and vivid imagery. New readers and fans of Schwab’s many other books for adults and teens will dive right in, and fans of Vicious will be overjoyed to rediscover this exciting series. Agent: Holly Root, Root Literary. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

In this much anticipated sequel to Schwab’s VICIOUS, narrator Jeremy Arthur offers a dynamic performance that brings to life each character’s point of view. His variety of range reaches from the soft, innocent voice of a girl named Sydney to the sharp, vindictive voice of Marcella, a woman scorned and seeking vengeance. He seamlessly transitions to the chilling, calculated thoughts of sociopathic killers Victor and Eli, which are often completely devoid of emotion. The detailed attention Arthur gives to the characters enhances their realism, which, in turn, enhances the story’s ability to affect listeners’ emotions. Arthur’s character portrayals, along with Schwab’s suspenseful plot and evocative descriptions, make VENGEFUL a killer audiobook experience. N.H. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2018 - AudioFile

★ 2018-08-21

Victor Vale has died twice—and it's not getting any easier.

Five years ago, after the bloody battle that ended with Victor dead and his former friend Eli imprisoned, Sydney Clarke used her power to bring Victor back. But for ExtraOrdinary people like Victor, Sydney's resurrection power comes at a price. Now Victor is racing against time to figure out how to repair the damage death has done to him—and struggling to hold his weird little makeshift family—made up of an ex-con, a former soldier, and a girl who can raise the dead—together even though he's falling apart. Meanwhile, a new EO is rising in the town of Merit. Marcella Riggins isn't the type to take murder lying down, and she's come back from death with only one thought in her mind: ruin. She'll start with her husband, who killed her when she confronted him over his infidelity, but she won't stop there. Five years may have passed since the events of Vicious (2013), the first book in Schwab's (A Conjuring of Light, 2017, etc.) Villains series, but her superpowered characters haven't exactly used that time to relax. The tension in this sequel starts high and keeps ratcheting higher, as Victor's grip on his power starts slipping and the body count starts rising. Victor and his friends and enemies are a fascinating group of complicated characters, and the utterly ruthless Marcella is a great addition to the mix.

Readers won't be able to put down this dark and riveting tale of power and revenge.

Kirkus Reviews