Vengeful

Vengeful by V.E. Schwab continues the Villains saga five years after Vicious. As Victor's resurrection slowly kills him and Eli remains imprisoned, new EO Marcella Riggins embraces villainy with terrifying power, threatening everyone's survival.

Vengeful is V.E. Schwab's 2018 sequel to Vicious, expanding the morally grey superhero universe whilst maintaining the series' commitment to antiheroes, moral ambiguity, and the question of what separates heroes from villains. Five years after the events of Vicious, this darker, more ambitious instalment raises the stakes by introducing new players, exploring the costs of resurrection, and proving that sometimes the most dangerous villains are those who fully embrace what they are.

The novel picks up five years after Victor Vale's victory over Eli Ever. Victor, Sydney, and Mitch have settled into a precarious routine - Victor hunting EOs whilst desperately searching for someone who can fix what's killing him. His resurrection from death wasn't clean; his body is slowly deteriorating, his power becoming unstable and dangerous. Pain episodes strike without warning, threatening everyone around him. Victor needs a healer, but finding one means exposing himself to dangers he's barely managing.

Eli Ever remains imprisoned in a high-security facility designed specifically for EOs, part of EON (ExtraOrdinary Observation and Neutralization), a secret government organization that captures and studies EOs. Eli hasn't abandoned his conviction that EOs are abominations requiring elimination - he's simply biding time, manipulating his captors, and waiting for opportunity. His storyline explores institutional responses to superpowered individuals and how belief systems persist even in captivity.

The game-changer is Marcella Riggins, the novel's breakout character and perhaps Schwab's most compelling creation. Marcella discovers her EO ability—the power to unmake anything she touches, turning matter to rust and decay - after her mobster husband's attempt to kill her. Unlike Victor and Eli, who wrestle with their identities and justify their actions, Marcella embraces villainy completely. Betrayed by her husband, dismissed by the criminal underworld that benefited from her strategic mind, Marcella decides to take everything she was denied. She's terrifying, charismatic, and utterly unapologetic about her desire for power and revenge.

Schwab employs a more complex structure than Vicious, juggling multiple timelines and perspectives. Marcella's backstory reveals her pre-EO life - the brilliant woman dismissed as mere mob wife, the strategic mind underestimated because of her gender, the rage simmering beneath enforced smiles. Her transformation into EO becomes both literal and metaphorical rebirth, shedding the woman who played by rules for one who makes her own.

June, a shapeshifter working with EON who can steal both appearance and abilities temporarily, adds another layer. Her power makes her the ultimate infiltrator but also raises questions about identity - if you can be anyone, who are you really? Her storyline intersects with both Eli's imprisonment and Marcella's rise, creating narrative threads that eventually collide explosively.

Sydney has grown from traumatized child into teenager navigating typical adolescent struggles alongside her resurrection powers. Her relationship with Victor remains complicated - he's not quite father figure, not quite friend, but the person she's chosen as family. The novel explores how found families function when built on morally questionable foundations.

Victor's deterioration provides ticking clock urgency. He's dying slowly, his power consuming him from within. His desperation leads to darker choices, testing his relationships with Sydney and Mitch whilst revealing how far he'll go to survive. The question becomes not whether he'll find a cure, but what he'll sacrifice - and who he'll hurt - in the attempt.

Marcella's rise through Merit City's criminal underworld is both thrilling and horrifying. She's not simply evil but rather someone who's decided that if society treats her as decorative object or obstacle, she'll become the apocalypse they never saw coming. Her confrontations with those who underestimated her are satisfying in their brutal justice, even as her methods are undeniably monstrous.

The novel expands the world's mythology, introducing EON and exploring governmental responses to EOs. This institutional layer adds complexity - how should society handle superpowered individuals? Can they be contained? Should they be?

Themes of gender and power (particularly through Marcella), deterioration and mortality, identity and transformation, vengeance versus justice, and institutional control run throughout.