Look, I need to rant for a second. Why does V. E. Schwab think it's okay to just DROP a character like Marcella Riggins into my life at 2AM while I'm batch-editing BookTok clips and expect me to function normally? This woman gets murdered by her own husband and wakes up with the power to literally disintegrate things she touches, and Schwab wrote her like she's the villain and the main character and the love interest of chaos itself. I had to pause my editing timeline three separate times because Jacob Weigert had me GRIPPING my phone like it owed me money.
Now here's the thing - this is the German audiobook version, and I need y'all to understand something. Jacob Weigert doing nearly 15 hours of this? In German? The man understood the assignment.
Marcella Ate and Left No Crumbs
The way Weigert voices Marcella is what got me. She's not just "evil woman with power" - he gives her this controlled, almost bored authority that makes every threat land harder. Like when she's dismantling Marcus's empire piece by piece, there's this calm precision in the delivery that's scarier than any yelling would be. And then he shifts to Victor Vale and it's a completely different energy - colder, more calculated, like someone who's been dead inside for a while and is just now remembering what spite feels like. The dialogue between characters never confused me once, which matters when you've got Eli, Victor, Marcella, and a whole roster of ExtraOrdinaries all scheming in different directions.
The pacing here is wild because Schwab does this non-linear timeline thing - jumping between past and present - and Weigert keeps each timeline feeling distinct without being jarring. I bumped to 2.0x about an hour in (as I do), and honestly? It hit even harder at that speed. The tension just stacks.
The Triangle of Terrible People I Can't Stop Rooting For
Here's what makes Vengeful different from your standard "superpowers but make it dark" story: every single person in this book is the villain of someone else's story. Marcella thinks she's the protagonist taking back her power. Victor thinks he's the antihero with a plan. Eli thinks he's literally doing God's work. And Schwab plays them against each other like chess pieces that all think they're the queen.
The moment Marcella decides to pit Victor and Eli against each other? I was at the gym, mid-set on the leg press, and I literally said "girl, NO" out loud. Because you KNOW that's the mistake. You know it. And the buildup to that decision is so well-constructed that you can feel the inevitability of it in your chest before it happens. Chef's kiss levels of tension.
But I'll be real - if you haven't read or listened to Vicious (book one), do NOT start here. Schwab assumes you know Victor and Eli's whole backstory, their powers, their history. You'll be lost in the sauce without that foundation, and not the good kind of lost.
What Almost Made Me DNF (But Didn't)
The middle section - maybe hours 6 through 9 - gets a little heavy on setup. Schwab is juggling a LOT of POVs and timelines, and there are stretches where it feels like she's moving pieces around the board without letting any single thread breathe. I didn't DNF because I trust Schwab's payoffs (and I was right to), but if you're someone who needs constant momentum, that section might test you. At 2.0x it was manageable. At 1.0x? I could see people putting it down.
Also - and this is minor - Weigert's female voices are solid but not spectacular. Marcella works because her voice is mostly about presence and control, not range. But some of the secondary women blur together a bit. Not a dealbreaker, but worth noting.
Spice Level: Zero, but the Violence Is the Spice
Listen, there's no romance here. No spice. But the way Schwab writes power and revenge scratches the same itch? Marcella touching something and watching it crumble, the way people flinch around Victor - that's the tension. That's the thrill. The violence is precise and meaningful, never gratuitous, and Weigert delivers it with this understated intensity that hits harder than screaming would.
Who Gets This Rec (And Who Should Skip)
If you love morally bankrupt characters who are all convinced they're right, if you want a superhero story where nobody's actually heroic, and if you can handle a non-linear structure that demands your attention - POV: you're obsessed. This is your book. The morally-grey-and-proud-of-it energy also runs through Iron Flame, though that one at least gives you a love interest to cling to while the world burns around you.
If you need a clear hero to root for, or you want romance, or you listen while doing dishes and only half-paying attention - skip it. This one requires your whole brain.
The 2AM Verdict
Schwab wrote a revenge story where the revenge isn't even the most dangerous thing happening, and Weigert carried almost 15 hours of morally grey chaos without dropping the ball. My algorithm is screaming. I'm adding the German Vicious audiobook to my already-847-deep wishlist because apparently I need more problems.
