Member Review

'All of Our Demise' is the sequel to 'All of Us Villians' the successful novel from Christine Herman and Amanda Foody. With a focus on magic, villains, heroes and secrets, they have chosen a popular and exciting genre for their duology.
'All of Us Villians' is set is the fictional town of Ilvernath, in a world where magic is commonplace but there are still some nasty secrets to be revealed. 'All of Our Demise' is set immediately after the events of the first book and I would recommend that you do read the first book as it really does set the background and storyline - there are many layer to the story as regards the tournament history, deaths, use of curses, alliances etc that it would prove difficult to start with book two. Not to mention that it would also provide many spoilers for the narrative so far.
So what has happened?
A member of the magical community in Ilvernath has recently published a book called “A Tradition of Tragedy”; a revelatory and salacious book that shocks the community to the core as they learn of the truth behind the magical powers in Ilvernath. Or rather the curse behind their powers.......
There are seven families who have been fighting to control the high magick for centuries, resulting in a magick tournament that occurs ever generation. Now, with the rising of the Blood Moon, the families realise that they must choose their champion for the tournament - only and this is not a Tri-Wizard event but rather a duel to the death with only one winner. When the Blood Veil falls, the tournament will begin and the eventually winner (murdered?) will receive control of high magick until the next event.
Not one of the families is particularly likable and seem to have no redeeming aspects. Overall, they certainly fit the character of 'villains' from the title. Faced with media scrutiny and the realisation that they can no longer hide as before, our seven champions enter the arena. Alliances will be made and fractured, friendships destroyed and hearts broken as our seven battle their way along.
The story is told from the perspective of four champions:
Alistair Lowe
Briony Thorburn
Gavin Grieves
Isobel Macaslan
providing the reader with an insight into their history and also their reasons for participating. The history aspect functions particularly well and we learn of how all the champions grew up as friends in the town and now are struggling their emotions as they fight. I also found myself sympathizing as I hear of the story from their viewpoint - a great method of encouraging the reader to become emotionally invested in the novel.
With each chapter we learn of the internal struggle faced by the character - that no one is truly a villain but neither are they truly a hero. It makes for a refreshing change that the typical character redemption arc is taken in various directions here and provides the reader with an expected ending.