I really love this concept and I think it's such a fun set up. Unfortunately the characters felt very slapstick / pantomime and the writing style felt very juvenile. I've really loved previous books by Sarah Rees Brennan so I really wanted to like it but I bounced off this one hard :(

Such a cool concept with some really fun elements! The metafictional narrative is reminiscent of the film adaptation of The Princess Bride. I absolutely love the cover of this book!

I struggled a little with the pacing and the plot seemed to stuttered a lot, especially at the beginning. This was mainly due to info dumping and over explaining.

The main thing I struggled with was the overuse of modern slang, colloquialisms and pop culture references. I understand that Rae is from the present day real world but it was like she wasn’t even trying to blend in - curious considering her life depended on it… Overall, a less is more approach may have been much more comedically effective and given the book less of a young YA feel (I understand this is being marketed as an adult epic fantasy?).

I can see people absolutely loving this book but the writing style just wasn’t for me.

Huge thank you to Little, Brown Book Group UK and NetGalley for granting me access to this ARC for an honest review.

Thank you so much for reading my Book Review of Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan. I was lucky enough to be read an ARC copy from NetGalley, so thank you Orbit UK for that!

I was really intrigued by the premise of this novel. A bookworm who finds herself trapped inside her favourite book series is such a fun idea! Brennan really plays around with the tropes of fantasy novels which I loved, its a really playful take on the genre.

We meet our main character Rae as she is in hospital undergoing a gruelling cancer treatment. A content warning for in depth discussion of cancer and cancer treatment which could be difficult for some to read, and definitely took me by surprise. Brennan herself has been living with cancer recently, so it’s a very accurate portrayal but it was difficult to read at times.

Rae’s body is failing her, so she makes up for that by escaping to a fictional world, which she reads with her sister. I really loved the sisters aspect of this novel, Rae and Alice are a great portrayal of sisters, and Rae’s motivation to do anything for her sister was particularly accurate to me.

Brennan handled what could’ve been a tricky jump in the narrative very well. Rae is transplanted into the character of the villain and has to really think on her feet to figure out what to do. I liked that we kept a lot of Rae’s personality in the villain, she continues to speak in a modern way, which does throw the other characters off. Despite this, Rae does struggle with some aspects of the switch in worlds, which I also thought was quite accurate, no one would be able to just completely switch with no slip ups.

There is quite a few characters in the novel, and they’re all very well developed and written. It’s tricky to completely root for anyone which definitely makes it more fun. The evil characters have motivations and morals, and the good characters aren’t as good as they seem. This was done so well by Brennan, and was a fun way of really turning the fantasy tropes around.

One of the formatting elements of this novel I struggled with was perhaps just an unfinished copy problem and may be fixed. It was tricky to tell who was speaking at times, the line breaks meant I could see it was supposed to be someone else but there were no names or context in the writing itself. But even with this I still kept up with the majority of the dialogue.

The only other element I struggled with was that the novel felt a wee bit rushed and roughly plotted out. There seemed to be big gaps in the novel where more plot should’ve been, it just read very weirdly at times. It didn’t flow quite as well as I wanted it to which was a shame.

But overall I really enjoyed the novel. It was something very different to the usual fantasy novels I pick up. I loved that Brennan really played with the tropes of fantasy, and with the reader’s expectations so much! It was a fun and cheeky fantasy novel, and I hope there’s another book, it ended on a great cliffhanger!

Thank you so much for reading my book review of Long Live Evil. Huge thank you to Orbit UK for the proof eARC to read!

Many thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK, Orbit, and NetGalley for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy of this book for an honest review.

What an absolutely wild ride. Campy and irreverent, a portal fantasy that was packed full of twists that genuinely took me by surprise.

”At least seventy percent of villainy was the aesthetic.”

I’ll start off by placing heavy emphasis on the fact that my star rating does not give a complete picture of my journey with this book. The second half of the book is absolutely 5 star standard, brilliant plotting. However, the first 25% of the book was such a profound 1 star (if even that) - at times I was left wondering whether I was mid-stroke with how incomprehensible both the writing and story were. If not for my “at least a third” rule for DNFing books, I definitely would have put this one down. I read this sentence no less than 15 times before beginning to grasp what its meaning was:

“And, Rae recalled with a shock like walking down the steps she relied on at night only to find air instead of a stair, a new guard suggested how the lady should be punished.”

Baffling! My issues with the start of this novel are many. Lots of talking head, white room syndrome happening - it’s often unclear where a scene is taking place or who is in it until they pop up in dialogue. Action occurs in quick succession, and jumps between present action, and characters reminiscing with no warning. This continues throughout the book, but is most jarring when you begin reading as it isn’t marked out conventionally with section breaks or italicisation. This is worsened by occasional continuity errors.

There is little explanation of why our main character Rae is thrown into the story, and by whom. I can only hope light will be shed on this in future installations! I also wish the world she’s thrown into was never introduced as being from Rae’s favourite book (why not her sister’s?), given she knows so little about it - this is very easy to overlook, however, especially as the story progresses. This book is extremely fast paced, so expect to be thrown into the action with little warning of new characters or background on world building.

Aside from the rough start, this story is brilliantly engaging. The dialogue is sharp, sarcastic, and may not appeal to everyone’s taste or humour. I appreciated that this was a story that didn’t lack in substance, but certainly didn’t take itself too seriously. Long Live Evil’s true strength lies with its characters, each of which shines beautifully. Inter-character relationships were believable and I found myself so invested in them, especially the sister dynamics of Rahela and Lia.

I will absolutely be looking forward to reading what comes next after that delicious cliffhanger!

This book caught my attention with its premise and I couldn’t help but request an eARC. Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing it to me!

Twenty year old Rae is on the brink of death after a long fight with cancer. Before she dies, however, she is offered a mysterious choice: If she enters the world of her favorite book series and fulfills a mission, she will be healed and return to her old life. This sounds far too good to be true, because when she wakes up in the book world, she occupies the body of Lady Rahela - one of the villains, and one of the first to die. However, if she already is evil, why not make use of it? This is how she starts her ruthless intrigues with only one goal: To make it back home.

I am a big enjoyer of stories where a protagonist travels from our world into a fictional one. It’s usually just webtoons or anime that provide me with this specific trope, so seeing it utilized in a book piqued my interest. And it is wonderfully adapted! There are small quotes of the original novel at the beginning of every chapter, and it’s a lot of fun to see how the story that Rae is in slowly diverts from the original.

This keeps the suspense constantly high. How far can Rae manipulate the other characters without throwing the whole plot entirely into chaos? How can she stay alive in a cut-throat royal court where death looms from all corners? She is, after all, in a dark fantasy world with plenty of assassins and the undead. Towards the end, it did annoy me that Rae still assumes she knows everything about the book, no matter how clearly she has already changed characters and plot threads. Her insistence on and trust in the original plot simply doesn’t make sense at times, after so many changes to the story that she knew have occurred. Luckily, the last fantastic plot twist does not suffer from this aspect at all. That alone made me forgive any annoyance I have had at this point!

The side characters show a wonderful evolution from their vaguely described tropes to actual human people. The occasional shifts in PoV illustrate this beautifully and also gave interesting new perspectives. I also adored Rae’s inner conflict about accepting the other characters as real people. It is far too easy to be evil when the sacrifices of your actions are only fictional people. But are they still only fictional if she can befriend them and uncover hidden depths?

The writing style feels very modern and humorous, although not all of the jokes worked for me. The clash between Rae’s modern view point and the high fantasy setting is quite intentional, but some of the comments and references felt a bit too forced to me. Some of Rae’s monologues also didn’t feel authentic, even though, to be fair - at that point she is already inside the book, so expecting realism might be asking a bit too much. Other than those few moments that made me roll my eyes, I did enjoy a lot of the dialogue, so it is probably just a matter of personal taste. It also lightens up the otherwise dark mood tremendously, which is a big relief.

All in all, I greatly enjoyed my time reading this book! It’s funny, gripping, a little absurd and deals with topics close to my heart when it comes to loving books and wanting to become part of their worlds. It also has this energy of defiantly reclaiming your will to live, no matter the consequences, which kept me coming back to it. The cliff hanger is just as evil as this book, though, so beware of that. Other than that, I would absolutely recommend it to anyone who enjoys villains and the dark side of things, who loves witty and snarky protagonists and who just wants to crawl into their favorite novel sometimes!

2 stars.

This is an honest review and is what I experienced with the book which is a unique opinion. I was interested in this book because I had seen it about on social media, the cover is cool and the premise sounded interesting but overall I found it a bit confusing, with too much going on. I initially found the language contrast between Rae and the book characters was well written but it quickly became a bit cringey for me.

I do really like the cover, and enjoyed the character Key, but sadly this time this book wasn’t for me. I wish the author luck with it though!

I picked this up because it was such an interesting unique premise and I was very curious to delve in.

It’s starts off a little slow and confusing. Once Rae falls into the story, we get introduced to a lot of characters with differing motivations (the ones that Rae remembers form the story) and the reality of who they are. As their backstories emerge, they gain more definition and change which Rae for the most part refuses to recognise or acknowledge.

I was tempted to DNF but then we meet the Cobra and he is just fun and breathes life into the book (and the book within the book) and shakes all the characters up. By the time we have our Den of Vipers, I’m invested and overlooking the language, the writing and plot holes (take your pick which book I’m referring to). I have an appreciation for Meta but have mixed feelings about the way this was handled.

Overall I enjoyed this and would continue the series but can see that it won’t be for everyone. 3/5 stars

1★

Thank you NetGalley for the e-arc of this book.

I’m sad to say I didn’t enjoy this at all. When I first saw the cover and read the blurb, it really intrigued me, but somehow it felt like a completely different thing.

Let’s start with what I did like, and that is... the cover. Gorgeous art! I wish I had that on my shelf, but it is what it is.

Now for the stuff I didn’t like, and there were many. First of all, the writing. I really disliked everything about it. It was so awkwardly written. Words repeated in a single sentence. Some sentences felt like nonsense. The dialogue was awkward and forced. I understand that Rae was from the modern world, but whenever she started speaking, I wanted to close the book. It was awful and out of place. And don’t even get me started on how many times she mentioned how big her boobs were, how off balance they made her, how good her eyeliner game was, and how evil she was. (And I won’t even talk about Jesus and Batman, that was so cringe.)

Overall, this read like a child or a teenager wrote it. I guess some parts were supposed to be funny but felt too juvenile. How is this in the adult section? It could barely pass as a young adult. It’s too childish.

The characters were just… boring. I don’t even know what to say about them. I didn’t like a single one.

I honestly hated this so much I skimmed most of it. I genuinely wanted to give this a go. I read up to 5% and already knew I didn’t like it. But I thought I’d give it a proper chance because maybe I could be wrong. So I read some more… But the more I read, the more I hated it. Skimmed the rest. Still hated it.

There’s not a single thing I liked - except for the cover. In my eyes, this is not a good book. The blurb sounded amazing, something for me. But no. I did not enjoy this.

Rae knows she’s dying. After years of gruelling cancer treatment, her body is finally giving in. Her friends, her boyfriend, even her father, have all left her. The one good thing left in her life is her sister, and their shared love for the Time of Iron fantasy series. Then a mysterious woman visits her hospital bed with an offer; enter the world of her favourite books and retrieve the Flower of Life and Death, and she will wake up cured. Fail, and she will die. Since she’s dying anyway, she has nothing to lose.

When she wakes up in Eyam, she finds herself in the body of villainess Lady Rahela, also known as the Beauty Dipped in Blood. Everyone knows the villains have the most fun, and get the best outfits, so she embraces her role and sets out to find the flower.

Long Live Evil is pure, tropelicious fun, complete with starry-eyed heroes and hideous monsters. Rae thinks she knows what’s going to happen, and treats the characters like they’re not real people, because to her, they’re not. They come from the imagination of an anonymous writer. Who cares, if they get hurt along the way? And being evil is so much fun.

I was a bit concerned at the start that it was going to be reliant on my absorbing the whole fictional book series straight away. What really helped was the fact that Rae was a bit lost too. She had lied to her sister about reading the first book. When it was read to her in her hospital bed, she understandably didn’t pay attention to all of it. She knew where the story was going, but not how it got there. So when she falls into the plot of the first book, she’s not got all her facts straight.

The characters of Eyam do start out as stereotypes of epic fantasy, but as Rae starts to change the narrative, they start to grow as people—though at times they still have literal starry eyes. I started having fun and along the way, I came to care about the characters too.

While it’s mostly fun, there are some serious moments too. One of the reasons Rae identifies so much with the villains is the treatment she’s received in the real world. Villains are often born out of a traumatic experience, and she knows what it’s like for people to reject you for things outside of your control. It touches a little on the ableism involved with villains showing their evilness in their outward appearance. Knowing that Sarah Rees Brennan is a cancer survivor, adds weight to Rae’s experience, and explains where a lot of the story is coming from.

But mostly, it’s just rip-roaring fun.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for this E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF

This was a 2024 release I was really looking forward to, so I was super excited to be given an ARC, but unfortunately I just couldn't get through this book. I don't think this is necessarily a bad book, I just don't think I'm the right audience for it.

I found this book very hard to get into. I didn't think the prose was particularly strong, and there was too much telling and not showing for my liking. It felt as if the author felt the need to hold the reader's hand to guide them through the story. The first chapter in particular is really had to get through, and I think it really lets the book down as an opening chapter. An opening chapter is supposed to intrigue a reader and get them hooked, but it had the opposite effect on me. I felt this book was weirdly paced and structured, which left me feeling confused, and that there was too much info-dumping, especially so early on in a book. I just found this book very hard to read.

I do think it has some potential, and some jokes did make me smile or chuckle, but that wasn't enough for me to keep reading unfortunately.

There's definitely going to be an audience for this book, unfortunately that audience just doesn't include me.

I had seen Long Live Evil knocking around on socials and thought the premise sounded like something I would really enjoy so naturally I decided to give it a go. Sadly, it wasn’t for me at all. I didn’t like the characters or the style of writing unfortunately!

I am aware that so many people absolutely adore this book and what it is doing - which makes me all the more sad that it wasn't for me, even though the concept seemed to be made for me.
This story had so much potential. The meta of it all, the story-in-story, the fish-out-of-water, the humor, the sadness of reality, the fighting of sickness.... There could have been so many layers to fill with awesomeness, but sadly I just couldn't see it.
I thought it genius to make the writing style plain, full of cliches - I thought it was to stress the point of this narrative. And maybe it was, but it just wasn't brought to term in my opinion.
About 50% in I had given up looking for deeper meaning or a message apart from the obvious.
It's still a fun story you can enjoy, sadly it wasn't enough to hold my attention.

3/5 stars for being unique.

Thank you @netgalley and @littlebrownbookgroup_uk for the eARC!

#Netgalley #Bookstagram #LongLiveEvil

I love love love this. This is a brilliant take on the villain story. I wish there was more to this. The twist and humour are spot on. I read this in a day. Could not put it down

✨2 stars✨

I was really excited to receive the ARC for this book because the premise sounded really interesting! Rae wakes up in her favourite fantasy book but instead of in the heroine’s place, she finds herself as the villain. This would have left a lot of avenues for the author to explore.

However, I really did not enjoy the writing. This is the first book I have read by this author so I’m not 100% sure whether her writing is always like this or whether is was the choices in this book that felt especially jarring and like the author was trying to sound “cool”.

🚨Potential Spoilers: This part of the review will now include quotes🚨



Examples of the questionable dialogue:
- “My family motto is he came, he saw, I conquered.”
- “seriously, you will be powerful A.F.” 🤮
- “Lady Rahela punched the air in triumph. ‘Boom,’ declared Rae. ‘Holy Prophecy.’”
-“Now Rae made the toast her bitch.”
-“Shots fired. Literally.”
-“Sorry but the old Rahela can’t come to the phone right now.”
-“The emperor had daddy issues.”
-“Rae turned her throaty purr thrilling.”
-“They were in public! Villains were off the chain.”

These were just a few examples. I understand that it was supposed to be a modern-day girl being transported into a fantasy book but honestly what 20 year old actually speaks like that?

I’m also confused about the categorisation of this book because it reads incredibly young but is supposed to be an adult fantasy according to the Waterstones website but I might be wrong.

The whole reason Rae is transported is so she can attempt to find a flower (which of course if she managed it she would be the first to do so🙄).

Overall I was really disappointed with this book and probably won’t pick up anymore in the series.

I received an ARC from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Long Live Evil is the first book in the Time of Iron series. The story follows Rae, who lives in our world and her life is completely falling apart. After making a magical bargain, she is transported to her favorite fantastical world, but not as a heroine - instead, she finds herself as a villainess. This book is so much fun to read and I can't remember how many times I laugh out loud. The plot is fantastic and the characters are well-developed. If you're looking for a chaotic and humorous fantasy book, I highly recommend picking this one up. I loved it and can't wait to read the next book in the series. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with an early copy.

Thank you to the publisher for the earc!

“What would you do if you were transported into your favorite book?” is one of the most asked questions in bookish circles. A very common answer is “Well, I’d enjoy the last 5 minutes of my life.” In Long Live Evil Rae gets the chance to live within her favorite book. She has to get a magical flower that can heal her or she’ll be stuck inside the book forever. Unfortunately for her, she wakes up in the body of a soon-to-be-executed lady, which complicates things. She has to find allies, who can help her, but the question is, how well can you know the characters of a book?

I had such high hopes for this book, but unfortunately it didn’t deliver. The idea was so interesting, but it was executed poorly. Too many times I couldn’t follow what’s going on, the sentences made no sense. Many times I write it off as English being my second language, but after a certain point I can’t blame it on this fact anymore. Sometimes characters were at one location, but in the next moment they were at a completely different place with no explanation how they got there. I wish this book had one more round of editing for these kind of issues. Because they sound insignificant, but it interrupts the reading experience and no matter how much you want, you can’t enjoy the book. And let’s not mention the glaring plot holes, because there were a few.

I wasn’t a fan of the characters, mostly because we had 2 different versions of them. One lived in Rae’s mind, and one in the book. And this is the thing that annoyed me the most during the book, how is it possible that she knows nothing about the characters? The way she expected them to act and the way they actually acted were so different. If it’s your favorite book, you know the characters as well as the back of your hands. Or not? The only character I loved was Key. He was crazy, had a death wish, and thought everything can be solved with violence or murder.

<spoiler>And here is my biggest issue with Rae. How is it possible that she didn’t realize while reading the books that the King and the Emperor are 2 different men? It just doesn’t make sense to me.</spoiler>

The only good thing that I can say about this book, that it was funny. It did not balance out the problems, but at least I got to laugh on many occasion.

If I want to be completely honest, I would not recommend this book. It is possible the series will get better, but right now I don’t see that. I'll probably continue the series, mostly because I hate unfinished series, and also the last chapter was interesting enough.

This book was a fun and entertaining romp with an original premise - what would happen if you found yourself cast within your favourite fantasy novel? Would you change the storyline or would you try to stick to the script? What are the characters really like outside of the narrative slant?

Add to this the fact that our protagonist has been put in the body of a minor villain and you have an interesting set up indeed.

I found this funny, original, very camp and witty. However, there were parts that dragged, it did not keep up the momentum all the way through, which is why it didn’t get a full star rating.

This is a cozy hug from a quaint village, spiced up with just the right amount of drama to keep you hooked, plus a sweet romance subplot.
While the romance storyline was enjoyable, the themes of friendship and found family truly shine in this story.
The intricate world-building introduces so much whimsy, including sentient house plants, winged cats, merhorses, mermaids, unicorns, and spirit bears; I wanted nothing more than to escape into this story.
Kiela, the protagonist, is a lovable character reminiscent of Emily from Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries. Her socially awkward, prickly, and homebody nature adds depth to her character development as she gradually opens up to the community, forms meaningful friendships, and earns their unwavering loyalty.
Caz, the spider plant, was easily my favourite character, full of the best witty banter.
A must-read standalone for those who enjoyed Legends & Lattes / Bookshops and Bonedust / the Emily Wilde series.

Thank you NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for providing me with this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Brilliant cover and title, it will attract many readers!

Rae is about to die from cancer. Her sister is obsessed with a book series and it was so cute that she read it to Rae. Rae becomes a fan of it too but she’s mostly angry about her situation.

When a mysterious woman shows up in her hospital room and tells Rae she has a chance to be cured from cancer, Rae doesn’t believe her because the way to do it is to enter the world of the book series she and her sister love and find a certain flower.

Rae does really end up there as a villain and it’s clear from the start that she’s so ready to be evil!

I recently read an article about chronically ill and/or disabled people, like me, who were looking for books to read with good rep. It made me realize that what the author did here, providing a way to miraculously cure the main character’s disease, is an ableist way of not having to deal with an ill person. The article did state that not all chronically ill and/or disabled people mind this. As for me personally, it made me feel uneasy.

The reason why I rated this book so low is because the level of writing was very low too. I don’t find this easy to write but I honestly kept thinking “Is this written by a drunken teenager”? I just don’t get that this book is being published by a publisher I love. Or maybe this just wasn’t for me. I hope this finds its readers but I had to DNF because I just couldn’t keep reading this.

Unfortunately this book just wasn’t for me. I think this could be an amazing read for so many people, for me the writing just didn’t work.