Review: Vengeance Bound by Justina Ireland

Vengeance Bound
Justina Ireland
Release: April 2, 2013
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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.

Review:

Vengeance Bound is a a young adult book by new author Justina Ireland. This book deals with mythology and the Furies, those angry, angry ladies who like to punish those they feel are wicked. This is a dark and fun read, with some faults for sure, but I enjoyed delving into Cory's world

Cory is a human girl living with two Furies inside (and occasionally outside) her head. Ever since the Furies found her, she's had a rough life - on her own - filled with killing, running, and hiding. We meet her right after she has moved to a new town (for most likely the hundredth time) and is starting at a new high school. We experience Cory's gruesome past through her memories throughout the story and go along with her as she navigates small town high school life during the day and small town murder at night. The author balances well the time spent in high school with the time spent on the more Fury-focused plot. I enjoyed some of the drama going on around Cory while at school, although I think I kept trying to read more into every little side character that came along.

The Furies have quite the desire for murder and send Cory little hints about the local low-life men they want her to execute. She finds them, reads their crimes in their eyes, and then kills them using some special Fury abilities and weapons. The problem Cory faces is that she doesn't really want to be an executioner anymore and she's worried about the power the Furies are gaining. Every kill seems to feed their strength and Cory worries that she will eventually lose herself to the Furies. It's a very believable predicament.

Where this story stumbled for me was in the last one-third. As Cory's personal life starts to take off a little the story starts to fall a little flat. With regard to the love interest, things went from zero to sixty mighty fast. I liked the character, I just felt like the story became slightly different once their relationship really started to blossom. The ending of the book was also a little too "tied up neat with a bow" for me and after enjoying the darker parts of the story I was a little disappointed with all the sudden happiness. Some pieces of the ending were also just too convenient and I feel like things could have been wrapped up better.

Vengeance Bound's portrayal of the Furies is probably my favorite that I've read. Ireland writes them as manipulative and properly murder hungry to a degree I really enjoyed. She was not afraid to make this book full of darkness and death, as per a book featuring the Furies center stage. I also liked that two of the three famed Furies were possessing a regular human girl and the story as to why this was possible and what happened to the third real Fury. I thought this was an original take on the myth and added something different.

Recommended for fans of: mythology, Furies stories, dark YA, and Dexter.

This review is based on an advance copy provided by the publisher

   1/2

  3.5 / 5 stars