Vengeful

This was decent enough to read to the end, but doesn't hold a candle to its predecessor. It utterly fails to fulfill the promise of [b:Vicious 40874032 Vicious (Villains, #1) V.E. Schwab https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1532011194s/40874032.jpg 19250870].Really, this series would be great if it stuck to the basic framework of (don't laugh) Megamind - guy who sees himself as a villain winds up protecting people from his creation, who sees himself as a hero. The protagonist isn't perfect, but learns and grows into a true hero, even if he has flaws.Instead of pursuing the continuing story of Eli's evil pushing Victor to be better, this book creates a new supervillain and focuses a large percentage of the book on her, leaving Sydney, Victor, and Eli to function almost in the margins of Marcella's story. Unfortunately, Marcella is pretty much the most boring character ever conceived. There are Bond villains with more depth and charm.And Victor doesn't offer a foil to the power-hungry, amoral Marcella. Much more than in the first book, Victor is simply a clever psychopath rather than a flawed character we can identify with. I mean, he spends the entire book hunting down innocent people and murdering them in cold blood when they can't help him - even when they try to help and are no immediate threat! And no one (least of all the author) seems terribly fussed about this. Sydney raises one concern and is scared into shutting up, but Schwab can't seem to commit - she could have leveraged that moment to draw Victor as a really bad guy (arguably worse than Eli, since his motivations are less selfless!), and told a story about the people around him having to deal with that. But instead she has one character ineptly try to question his actions, and then treats Victor like a hero for the rest of the story.I was also disappointed that we didn't get much about the idea that EOs are missing some integral human element. I think there's one offhand mention that maybe people just become more themselves when they transform. But this was a major issue in the first book, and basically gets dropped in favor of lingering descriptions of Marcella's hair, eyes, legs, and outfits.If Victor couldn't embrace the Megamind role, at least we could have had Sydney as the protagonist, as she deals with having a guilt-ridden, messed up relationship with a father figure who is becoming more and more evil. Instead, we got a story mostly about:Marcella (violent sociopath)Victor (violent sociopath)Eli (violent sociopath, but at least gets an interesting origin story and thinks he's doing the right thing)June (marginally sympathetic at times, but ultimately a violent sociopath)(Also, a random complaint - EON was pathetic. This supposedly formidable quasi-military group could have solved 90% of their problems with lots of snipers and decent IT security.)

Unfortunately, I didn't find this as captivating as the first one. Schwab decided to focus on new characters (in an effort to bring a more female presence, I guess?) when I just wanted a continuation of Victor and Eli's saga. Mitch was also pushed aside as a character (except when someone needs IT) and even Sydney had little to no development (beyond development of her power). June, the most interesting new character, was mostly auxiliary, a means to move the plot forward, but because of her power, we also don't really get a feel for who she is, her main motives (her weird obsession with Sydney is seemingly out of nowhere), or any development outside of the epilogue and even that is a bit of a cliffhanger. I was a little disappointed. I would probably have preferred the version of the book her editor told her to rewrite because, as Schwab put it, “it was just a continuation of Vicious”. That's what I wanted as a reader. Marcella and June's stories should have been saved for a Tor novella or as more secondary characters instead of having the focus shifted to them.