revenge

Vengeful

Leave a comment

by V. E. Schwab
First sentence: “The night Marcella died, she made her husband’s favorite dinner.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Vicious
Content: It is very violent, with a super high body count, and some of the deaths are quite violent. It’s also swearing, with multiple f-bombs. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Spoilers for Vicious, obviously.

Marcella Riggs is a powerful woman, married to a rising mob man. But when she discovers that he’s been cheating on her, she loses her temper. And then he kills her. She doesn’t die, though, but is turned into an EO – an ExtraOrdinary – with an unusually dangerous power. Eli Ever is still in custody at EON – the organization that was created to track and capture/neutralize EOs – but has become useful (by force? by choice?) to helping them track EOs (since that’s what he was doing before he was captured). Victor Vale has evaded death again, with the help of his sidekick/ward, Syd, who can raise things from the dead. The problem is that she didn’t do it quite right, and Victor’s power overwhelms his system and kills him for an increasingly larger length of time.

And then there’s June.

I found June to be the most interesting of the characters that Schwab introduces. We don’t know much about her: she’s a shapeshifter, she’s a hitwoman, and she takes a fascination/liking to Syd.

A lot happens, plot-wise: Marcella gets revenge and then collects June and another EO and decides to take over the mob and then the city. Eli’s dealing with EON and trying to get his freedom again. Victor spends most of the book trying (and failing) to find a cure. But in Schwab’s deft hands, all these moving parts coalesce into a grand finale that not only wraps this book up but also sets up a third (out this fall! Reading soon!) quite nicely.

Did I love it? No. But then, this series isn’t my favorite of Schwab’s. That said, it is compelling to read about people who are so morally questionable, and explore the idea of what if EO’s really existed and the consequences of their actions (which superhero movies never seem to do). It’s very Watchmen-like in its DNA, which, if you like that, then this is a solid read.

That said, I am curious to see how Schwab wraps this up, and I have the ARC of the third book, so I’ll be reading it.

Vicious

Leave a comment

by V. E. Schwab
First sentence: “Victor readjusted the shovels on his shoulder and stepped gingerly over an old, half-sunken grave.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There is a lot of violence, and some swearing, including quite a few f-bombs. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Victor has just gotten out of prison, after spending ten years there for a murder he accidentally committed, and he is out for revenge. The target is his ex-best friend Eli, who has decided to become the judge, jury, and executioner of the city’s EO – extraordinary people, those with special powers. The thing is that Victor and Eli are both EOs: ten years ago, when they were best friends at college, they became interested in how EOs came to be, and they recreated the conditions to give themselves powers. But things went awry (hence accidental murder) and Victor is hell-bent on stopping Eli.

This is a straightforward revenge story, building up to a climax at midnight when the two foes face each other. But, because it’s Schwab, it’s also more than that. You get their history together (and a feeling that Victor was in love with Eli), and the ups and downs of their early experimentation. And the way their relationship so spectacularly imploded. There are minor characters you both come to care about as well as loathe, and you have to wonder who is “good” in this book. (Answer: no one, really.) The last bit made me incredibly anxious: Schwab is ruthless and has no mercy for her characters, so you didn’t know, going in, who was going to come out of this alive.

In short: it was fantastic.