A follow-up to Fracture, told from Decker's point of view. People are dying, it's like the town is cursed and Delaney is trying to come to terms with what she knows. Life has to go on, a new school year is starting and life has to go on, but as people keep dying, the question of what's going on has to be asked.

It just didn't catch me like the first book, and the ending felt unsatisfying. I wanted more from this, a more that it didn't give.

While technically it's paranormal, it doesn't read like there's really any paranormal in it, Delaney knowing about death is just a minor sideline to the rest of the story. ( )

Vengeance is the sequel to Fracture. I didn’t read the first book, but the second is written in the perspective of a different character. Overall, I liked it. It reminded me a lot of Lois Duncan’s books written in the mid 90’s. A group of socially different (but still all white, because we can’t get over that apparently) teenagers are drawn into a dangerous plot where the perpetrator may or may not be supernatural in nature and the overall theme of trusting each other and staying friends is ultimately what saves them. Not a bad read for teens who like suspense. There are some vague references to sex, but there are no passages that detail the act. ( )

I had mixed feelings going into this book. With Fracture being one of my favorite books from 2012 it was impossible not to be excited about a sequel, and from Decker’s point-of-view no less. (I loved his novella Eleven Minutes) But at the same time I couldn’t help but wonder why there needed to be a sequel at all. I remember thinking Fracture was a great standalone, but I had no doubts in my mind that I would love this book. I’ve loved all of Megan Miranda’s book to date... until now.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t bad. I enjoyed it, I just didn’t think it was up to par with the rest of her books.

Ever since Decker pulled Delaney from the Lake that fateful day, all the other towns deaths are blamed on “the curse.” Some think that curse is Delaney, some think it’s the lake, looking to claim someone in her place.
So when weird things keep happening to Decker and his friends, the friends that also helped pull Delaney from the Lake that day, they start to think maybe the curse is true. Maybe the lake is after them all.

The whole time I was reading I was waiting for something big to happen. About halfway through I realized it wasn’t going to, and that the string of little inexplanable incidents were the main plot. There is also a lot larger focus on romantic drama now that Decker & Delaney are a couple, which was both nice and annoying at the same time.

Overall, while it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t great either. It felt more unnecessary than anything else. ( )

I wouldn’t recommend reading Vengeance without first having read Fracture, Megan Miranda’s debut novel. Fracture introduces the primary protagonists, Delaney Maxwell and Decker Phillips, and provides vital back story that this story relies on.

Vengeance is told from Decker’s point of view (whereas Fracture was told from Delaney’s perspective. It has been a few months since Delaney was trapped beneath the frozen surface of Falcon Lake but the events of the past winter linger for them both and it seems neither the Lake, nor death, has finished with them yet.

Miranda is able to revive the tense and sinister atmosphere of Fracture in Vengeance. From the first pages, death seems to stalk Decker but you are never entirely sure where the threat is coming from. As he struggles with feelings of guilt for Delaney’s accident and still mourning Carson’s untimely death, Decker can’t shake a feeling of foreboding, of worse things still to come.

I loved the ambiguous nature of the threat. You are never quite sure who, or what, is stalking Decker and Delaney until the final scenes of the novel and that uncertainty generates the suspense that kept me turning the pages. I did think the story was diluted in places though, the vengeance angle wasn’t pushed quite hard enough to suit me, and Decker’s emotional angst/relations woe is given too much attention at times.

Though not perfect, I really enjoyed Vengeance. It works well as sequel, and I think Miranda was true to the established characterisation and story. Though some questions may still remain unanswered, I hope the author doesn’t attempt a third book but instead starts fresh, I really want to see what else she can do. ( )