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V. E. Schwab: Vengeful (Paperback, 2020, Tor Books) 4 stars

A superpowered collision of extraordinary minds and vengeful intentions--V.E. Schwab returns with the thrilling follow-up …

Review of 'Vengeful' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

A good sequel to the first book, Vicious.

It continues with the main story of Eli and Victor, but adds in a third thread around Marcella, who decides to go in the opposite direction from Eli and Victor (who prefer to remain more in the shadows), and embraces her EO (ExtraOrdinary) status, collecting a team of her own and setting out to take the town by storm.

At the end of the day there's still no real heroes in this book, they're flawed (at best) to sociopathic characters that have outsized consequences due to their EO powers. While none of them are even close to white hatted, this isn't a book of unlikable characters making unlikable choices. They have reasonable motivations and choices, but one of the things that isn't really explored as much as I'd have liked is the way most of the EO characters seem to have varying degrees of sociopathy. None of the EO that you meet seems to be interested in using their new abilities for the greater good, most seem to just want to hide and lead a normal life. Marcella is the first to want to be open about it, and June the first that has integrated what she is into her life.

It feels like there's a third volume, given the threads at the end of this one that are left hanging.