Vengeance Bound by Justina Ireland
The Goddess Test meets Dexter in an edgy, compelling debut about one teen’s quest for revenge… no matter how far it takes her.
Cory Graff is not alone in her head. Bound to a deal of desperation made when she was a child, Cory’s mind houses the Furies—the hawk and the serpent—lingering always, waiting for her to satisfy their bloodlust. After escaping the asylum where she was trapped for years, Cory knows how to keep the Furies quiet. By day, she lives a normal life, but by night, she tracks down targets the Furies send her way. And she brings down Justice upon them.
Cory’s perfected her system of survival, but when she meets a mysterious boy named Niko at her new school, she can’t figure out how she feels about him. For the first time, the Furies are quiet in her head around a guy. But does this mean that Cory’s finally found someone who she can trust, or are there greater factors at work? As Cory’s mind becomes a battlefield, with the Furies fighting for control, Cory will have to put everything on the line to hold on to what she’s worked so hard to build.
2 1/2 stars
Thank you to Simon and Schuster and Edelweiss for this eARC! This title is now available.
There was a time I thought this book could be something great. There was a time I thought this concept was the best thing since sliced bread. But then everything fell apart.
The book starts out with the most awesome concept. This girl, Amelie, has a bit of a problem. There are a couple of Greek Furies in her head, and they constantly want her to kill people. Well, they call it “handing out justice.” (It’s still killing people, evil though they may be.) Amelie was once in a state of distress, and the Furies answered her call for help. Now she can’t get rid of them. Her entire family is dead. In the book’s prologue, we find her a medicated vegetable under the care of a doctor who isn’t helping at all—only hurting. The Furies help her escape, and then the book cuts to a couple of years later where Amelie, as “Cory,” is still in hiding, trying to track down that doctor to enact vengeance. However, the Furies are getting more powerful and threatening to take over her mind. So what does she do to stay sane? She enrolls in high school.
That chunk right there, which I just summarized, was the best part of the book. The sad thing is that it’s basically the first two or three chapters, and they’re all set up. I should have had alarm bells go off when Cory/Amelie decided that English class was more important than enacting justice on murderers, rapists and the like. But I kept reading on, so sweet was the promise of those first few chapters.
Enter Cory/Amelie’s trio of girl friends. Each one of them is more terrible than the last. One is a complete witch, the other is a surprise witch, and the other one is so emotionally unstable she is constantly having nasty little break downs. You’d think the Furies would be the only insane and malicious girls in this story, but you’d be oh so wrong. I hated every single one of them with a fiery, burning passion. Even Cory/Amelie didn’t seem to like them. They made little to no sense at all.
Then enter a boy named Niko, who actually makes the Furies stay quiet for once. Drum roll please for INSTA-LOVE! Other than the fact that he makes the Furies stay quiet, there is literally no reason of Cory/Amelie to be attracted to him. We never learn anything about him. His entire character is built to love Cory/Amelie for no reason. Literally none. He’s as flat as a piece of paper.
Last but not least, the ending. That wasn’t an ending. I had made it all this way, hoping and praying for redemption but I just started shouting. That wasn’t an ending. It was … convenient. There was no real triumph. There was no real end. Things were just … released to go as they would. There won’t ever be any retribution for it, either, because this is a stand alone. This is just … it. That wasn’t an ending.
Frankly, I’m just disappointed. I really am. The first two chapters had such great promise, but things fell apart so fast and never even tried to self correct. The characters were all completely 2-D, the love interest wasn’t a relationship at all, and that wasn’t an ending. I hoped and expected so much more from this. I had originally rated this 3 stars on Goodreads, but I think I’m actually going to stick with a 2.5 rating.
My Life is a Notebook 