-- Supposed to be a Buddy Read with the lovelies Hannah and Bree --

“Maybe we are broken. But we put ourselves back together. We survived. That’s what makes us so powerful. And as for family—well, blood is always family, but family doesn’t always have to be blood.”

FORMAT READ: Audiobook (Recommended) via: Libby
SIMILAR VIBES: A Darker Shade of Magic & The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
READ FOR: thought-provoking story and complicated characters (anti-heroes)
READING LEVEL: Level 3-4 out of 5
tw // suicide, harm

*All of my reviews are as spoiler-free as possible-spoilers are marked*

BASIC PLOT:

Read only if you have finished Vicious:

Spoiler

In this book after Victor is revived by Sydney, he doesn't come back 100% like before. Mitch, Sydney, and Victor move around to try to find a cure for victor but encounter... problems. New characters are introduced (that I honestly liked). While Eli, on the other hand, gets captured and helps a certain EO hunting agency to trach down other EOs.

as usual, v.e. schwab does not fail to amaze me, especially as a character-driven biased person, I fall in love with her characters every time. I was so immersed in the story as usual and I love that I can always count on V.E. Schwab to do this to me.



First of all: JUNE, MARCELA, AND SYDNEY QUEENS!!

I live for the feminism in this book and how well they were projected like UGHHH I have no words. They were so interesting to me and and I could read a whole book about them only (which maybe was what should’ve been done? oops). The character dynamics especially with Sydney and Mitch make me so soft inside though, I’m glad we got to see more of that.

“He didn’t know how he was broken, but he just wanted to fix it”

guys, eli. ELI. He’s the anti hero of the anti-hero but I can never get myself to hate him. In fact, I love him guys. He just wants to be happy and not feel broken. I don’t know how else to keep this spoiler-free without mentioning more but just know that.

Even though I loved the characters I can’t help but criticize the plot because everything happened the was I thought it would and nothing really surprised me in terms of the plot. Although, I did enjoy it a whole lot and it was nowhere near bad... It was just predictable. Especially compared to Vicious hehe

If you have ever read any V.E. Schwab book, I think you can agree with me that she has a very unique mood in her writing. A little bit dark, but still captivating and endearing in a way. Her writing style is still one of my favourites.

Honestly, I’m really sad we got less of the magical realism element here. It took a different approach as compared to Vicious and that’s probably why most people were disappointed. Especially with Victor and Eli, we got less time with them and given this is a sequel for their story I guess I just wanted more of them. I didn’t even really realize it until I finished the book so yeah… it just depends on what your expectations are going in.

CHARACTERS: ✦✦✦✦✦
PLOT: ✦✦✦✧✧
WRITING STYLE: ✦✦✦✦✦
WORLD BUILDING: ✦✦✦✦✧
THEMES: ✦✦✦✦✦
PAGE TURNER: ✦✦✦✦✦

a lot of people said that they didn’t enjoy this book as much probably because they were comparing it to vicious. Since it’s been at least a year since I read Vicious this probably lessened my prejudice going into the story. Although, I couldn't help but wish for more magical realism after I finished reading and compare it to Vicious so hehe. I mean it is the sequel. I still feel like something was missing for me in the end… I wanted a closure that I didn’t get (kind of).

At the end of the day, I really did enjoy this book and I would recommend it. Just don’t go into it expecting another Vicious since it leaned more on the crime side.

I seriously need a live action version of this NOW.


VILLAINS SERIES REVIEWS
Book #1 : Vicious ★★★★★
Book #2 : Vengeful ★★★★★