V. E. Schwab is quite skilled at writing fast-paced, tension-filled stories. Vengeful is no exception, and reads like a dark, gritty version of X-Men.

My favorite part of the Villains series comes down to the morally ambiguous characters. There are often times very thin lines drawn between who is a hero, anti-hero, and villain. It ultimately comes down to the choices of characters, which are often chaotic and unexpected. Schwab is quite fond of employing entropy as a narrative tool. Marcella was an especially fun character; I'm a sucker for a fabulous, petty antagonist.

This was a solid sequel to Vicious. My only criticisms would lie with the anti-climactic ending (which I cannot get into without touching on spoiler specifics), and this book's classification as "sci-fi." While the narrative certainly has sci-fi elements, I was left wanting to know more about the underlying mechanisms of how the EO's powers worked. Mind you, I am one of those jerks that considers Star Wars to be fantasy (in space), not sci-fi, so take of this nitpicking what you will.

Overall, this is still a fun book; I would recommend the series if you like super heroes, thrillers, and/or good old-fashioned drama.