This book was just FUN from start to finish

Long Live Evil is a super fun read with twists, betrayals, and laugh-out-loud moments. a MUST read for fantasy lovers who have dreamed of entering their favourite book! and lets be real, you would pick a fun villainous character! who wouldn't?!?!

i cant wait to see where this story goes, and to get more of my favourite character Cobra !

INCREDIBLE! I have been waiting a long time to love a book this much. Hilarious, witty and charmingly self-aware, 'Long Live Evil' subverted all my favourite Romantasy tropes, and transformed them into something entirely new and delicious. It pulled me in with the promise of a great time and floored me with its poignant depictions of humanity and hope in the face of adversity.

I grew to love so many of the characters in this book and honestly won't be the same until I get my hands on book 2 - I'm so glad this is a trilogy because Sarah Rees Brennan has created a world I am nowhere near ready to leave. Until then, this officially marks the beginning of my villain era which, if it's anything like Rae's, is guaranteed to be fun.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Little Brown Book Group for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 'Long Live Evil' will now live in my mind rent free for the forseeable.

(Review to be published on my Goodreads profile on 18/07/24)

A wonderfully entertaining spin on traditional fantasy! We have a twenty year old girl, seriously ill in hospital and whose doctors are advising won’t make it. Her sister keeps her company, reading her favourite fantasy book series and they argue over their best characters. Our MC Rae is visited by a mysterious woman who gives her a way to save herself by entering the world of the book and obtaining a magical flowers. Rae does so and finds herself embodying a character who is about to face some serious challenges themself! Rae must use all her knowledge of the books to try and get what she needs.

This has vibes of The Princess Bride and sits in a recent wave of fantasy novels of becoming the villain. Rae occupies a villainous space within the narrative, but not to the reader who knows who she really is. Indeed this book asks you to consider what really makes a villain and challenge pre-conceptions.

This is an exciting, bold book absolutely packed with action sequences, intrigue, characters doing the unexpected. It’s vibrant, sometimes tongue in cheek and great fun to read! I will definitely be continuing with this series and I’ve pre-ordered the physical book.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. I loved the premise but sadly the way this was written was just not for me. I think it was the combination of very caricaturistic characters, confusing world building, the constant pop culture/modern language (while a certain amount of this is expected given the premise- I think it was taken over the top). All of these felt very jarring beside the very heavy topics tackled in the books.

We have all fantasied about stepping inside our favourite book, changing plot points, and telling the story our way while being besties with our favourite characters and conspiring against our least favourite.

This book is that. Which is an incredibly hard thing to pull off.

Not only is Sarah Rees Brennan telling the story of Rae, a dying girl who steps into her favourite book series to try to complete a quest that will allow her to live, but she is also telling the story of that book series. And it works.,

You have short descriptions of the version of the story Rae read versus the story that is happening as Rae changes the course of events. It's easy to follow, and incredibly engaging, I was fascinated throughout wondering where the story would go.

The characters are also incredibly fun and compelling. I loved that no one is who they seem on the surface, Even the characters who Rae at first believes are one dimensional contain SO much heart and emotion.

I cannot get over how much I adored this book. I will be thinking about it until the sequel comes out and then probably until the third book comes out and then likely forever and ever.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

When I first heard about this book I was immediately intrigued. Long Live Evil is like nothing I’ve read before in fantasy, except for manwhas (Korean mangas), as the plot is based on a regular young woman getting sucked into the story of the current popular novel of our world, where she becomes the villainess of the story.

Narrated in a humourous and silly tone, this book follows truly evil characters (a future axe murderer, an actual murderer, and a scheming woman). But are they really evil? Nothing is really like it seems at first as the author chose to write evil characters who still have some goodness in them and supposedly good ones who aren’t that innocent. It makes for interesting characters who you surprisingly grow attached to.

As it does with the characters, Long Live Evil plays with numerous tropes and literary conventions, twisting them to create something entirely unique. Here I must give two major trigger warnings as the author is very descriptive in gory details and in the description of cancer, an illness our main character suffers from. We truly are in an adult book here.

I loved Rae, our main character, with her humour, and courage but also because of her cunning and scheming side. She is ready to do everything to achieve her goal, and by everything I mean everything. She’s a heroine unlike any other I’ve read before. Her voice is also the occasion for the author to give some strong feminist undertones to the book, which denounces misogyny and the way women have to live in a society created by men.

In brief: If you’re looking for a fantasy but also want something different, go and pick up this one. It’s truly unlike anything I’ve seen in novels before and was perfect as I wanted something reminding me of some manhwas I’m currently in the middle of. Full of twists and turns, Long Live Evil will keep you holding your breath until the end!

My rating: 4/5

P-E-R-F-E-C-T.
So now excuse me while I read everything else by Sarah Rees Brennan I have on my shelf!

I'm sure that every keen reader sometimes dreams what it would feel like to travel to the world of their favourite stories, encounter beloved characters and get to be part of the incredible story they read about. That's what happens to Rae, a 20 year old girl, who, on the brink of death, gets a chance to get her life back, but only if she succeeds in her quest. And it's definitely not as simple as it sounds, because in order to do that, she needs to go to the world of her favourite book series, straight into the body of villainess with a set death sentence. The problem is, Rae doesn't remember all the details from the books, so she has to improvise to achieve her goal and come back to her family.

I loved the premise of this book and thought that it was a great idea, however, I don't think it was executed very well. The pacing was all over the place, which made me confused a lot of times of what and why some things were actually happening. The use of modern language was quite cringy for me as only one character used it and others were using more refined speech as is usual in fantasy books. I really liked the names of the characters (The Beauty Dipped in Blood, the Golden Cobra etc.), although the characters themselves didn't impress me a lot. To be honest, I found most of them quite flat. The evil part was strange as well, as, at least to me, it felt very forced, and every little. 'evil' action was meant to remind the reader 'Look, these people are so evil!'. I enjoyed some parts of the story, for example, that although the story seemed to be set, characters and their actions changed the plot a lot, making it more dynamic and diverse. All in all, I'm not sure that I would be very keen to continue with the series as my experience with Long Live Evil was very much a mixed bag.

Thank you to Little, Brown Book Group UK and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinions! As per publisher's request, my full review will be posted on Goodreads on the 18th of July, 2024.

Subtle as a brick and insanely over the top--a feature rather than a bug for its intended audience--but an entertaining, entertainingly meta read that kept me going through a whole day of covid misery and a truly remarkable return from stage 4 cancer. It's worth checking out a sample before committing to this one; stylistically it'll be polarising, and you'll know within the first few chapters whether it'll work for you or not.

Bravo to Sarah Rees Brennan, may she write very many more!

Thanks to Orbit and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my review!

This book was insanely good! I finished it in two days and it took me this long just because I had other adult things to do otherwise I would have finished it in a few hours, that’s how good it was!

Rae, our fierce protagonist, is extremely sick, in fact she’s dying, and the only comfort she has is when her sister Alice, reads out loud their favorite book, Time of Iron, so when a mysterious woman shows up and tell her there’s a way out of her suffering, she jumps right in.

For Rae to be cured of her sickness, she only needs to go to Eyam, the fictional realm of Time of Iron and steal the Flower of Life and Death, it seems easy enough, except Rae wakes up in the body of the villainess, Rhaela, the kings ex, who’s marked to be executed in the next morning.

Honestly, this book just became one of my favorites, the characters were so lovable, even if the majority were villains (or maybe because of that) and the plot was just too good, I figured out the plot twist pretty quickly but that just made me anticipate the unraveling even more.

I just don’t know how I will be able to wait for the sequel, I want more of this world and more of these characters !!

Thanks Netgalley and Orbit for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review

Long Live Evil was a conflicted read for me.
Two parts of me were fighting with each other.
The plot quality searcher was screaming at the seams however the Fun Reader was loving every second of it.
This book was a weird mix of Pop Culture references, a crazy mixture of Modern language (Sometimes coming across as quite juvenile) with a lacklustre of fantasy elements that were fighting to make sense.
The emotional tone was overwhelming, but it did make sense if we think the Main Character’s emotional state was unstable throughout this book.
The premise was quite simplistic- yet so intriguing. Very reminiscing of the popular ISEKAI genre that we see so prominent in Korean manwhas, webtoons, and Anime.
A girl who dies in the real world gets transported into a fantasy world as the villainess. This is a popular subgenre of Fantasy Isekai. And some elements are influenced by it.
This book felt like an experimental film. I rode on the sarcastic, campy tone.
It is relatable to see Rae fall in love with the villain. We as readers do understand these feelings the best. “The villain will burn down the world to save you”.
Rae’s only solace was the notion that someone would burn down the world to save her because she had no real hand in what would happen in the real world. Where she was dying of cancer.
When she was given the opportunity to save herself, she grasped it with both hands.

If you are looking for a traditional book, this might not be the book for you. The modern pop culture references, the weird writing choices, and the unwillingness to conform to the traditional fantasy rote might throw you off the narrative.
This book is not about that.
This book is about having a fun ride. To not take things seriously, and to love the morally grey characters.
It’s reflective of what happens when you have nowhere to go and are given a chance to be whatever you want to be.

This book was a surprise.

First I feel I have to be that person and point out that this one will really delight all the readers that have read or known any isekai/villainess story, because it was a great inspiration for the author and it definitely shows in the type of story, the narrative and all the little choices the protagonist makes, even the terribly bad one. It very much is a love letter to the genre.

The premise of the story is a common one for this genre: If you had a chance at salvation, would you take it?
Alone in her hospital room, awaiting her obvious end after her long battle with cancer, Rae is contemplating all the little choices she made and how she would change some, like the terrible fight she had with her sister, the only person that stayed by her side, love unchanged and sharing all the enthusiasm and joy with their favorite novel series Time of Iron.
In the middle of this she is visited by an odd lady that presents the choice to steal the magical cure, a flower that blooms once a year, in the fantasy novel that Rae loves. Rae is a sensible girl, so of course she calls for a nurse and when none come, she gets up and tries to leave the room, unknowingly taking the offer and so, when she crosses the door is thrown into her favorite book series, the blood stained story of the beautiful heroine and her multiple love interests that would die and burn the world for her, but she is in the skin of Rahela, the villainous step sister that will be executed for treason that very same day. So, as many other villainesses before her, she must scrabble to find a way to survive her terrible odds.

I absolutely adored Rae as a protagonist, and of course, I battled a lot with her penchant with seeing the whole word as a fantasy filled with not real people, because I knew that would bite her in her generous assets. And I love the band of villains that she gathers to make her heist possible.

Even if you can see how the story goes, and you can see coming every twist and turn (and where everything goes terribly wrong), this book id a great read, it's a fast and fun read and I am more than hooked waiting for the next one.

A fantastic spin on the classic fantasy genre, I loved every second of this one!

It was funny, with elements of plot that made you rethink everything.

Can’t wait to read this again in August!

Different fantasy tale, interesting and quite fun.

Rae, lying in hospital on chemotherapy, finds herself becoming a character in a much-loved fantasy series. She decides to become the villainess as a more interesting character than a boring heroine. However her effect on the plot is alarming. This is a relatively easy read, amusing in places, with a straightforward plot, nicely told. My criticism would be there are far too many florid comparisons and metaphors which pad the book out a bit. It’s enjoyable and original as well as engaging. There looks as if there will be a sequel. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you to Orbit Books, Netgalley and Sarah Rees Brennan for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Well, DAMN.
I had an inkling I would love this story (not just because Sarah's In Other Lands is one of my all-time favorite books), but I couldn't have anticipated just HOW MUCH.

It was funny, as in giggle out loud sort of funny; it was emotional, as in brought me to tears sort of emotional; it was honest, and knowing what the author has gone through in her pesonal life, it means all the more.

The characters were incredible, nuanced and complex and so unique in their own kind. As always, Sarah weaves representation seamlessly in her stories, and that's wonderful to read about.
It's hard to narrow it down to a favorite character, but I will say Marius and Eric's relationship was executed incredibly (I was rooting for them from their very first interaction and I can't wait to see how their bond develops); Key broke my heart in a million pieces, and without spoiling anything, I really hope that amongst all the capital letter Evil he gets to find peace. The female characters being badasses was a given, but I was pleasantly surprised by Lia in particular.

I can't believe I have to wait one+ year for the sequel, but trust me you don't want to miss the first installment in the Time of Iron series!
Excited to get my hands on a physical copy! <3

✨"Watch me. This is my villain origin story"✨

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you found yourself in your favorite book?

Rae is 20 years old and terminally ill with cancer. So when a mysterious woman gives her the opportunity to enter her favorite book for a chance to survive in the real world, Rae accepts. Too bad she finds herself taking the place of one of the story's villains just before his execution.

Long Live Evil is a very complex read,but trust that. it is still worth it! It’s composed by a world building full of plots and subplots that , given the protagonist's knowledge of the story already, will be explained as it goes along. Also, I found myself having to keep in mind two timelines: the one of " how the story should have been" and the one of " how it is actually proceeding" thanks to Rae's actions however, at about 1/3 of the book I started to get used to it coming to love everything.

Trust me , in this book you can't help but be part of the team villain : The characters are both predictable and unpredictable and are so well characterized that they have no problem shining even on their own. In particular, though, I loved the interactions between Rae and her "minions," which were hilarious most of the time.
I couldn't help but love the ship between Rae and Key about which I won't say much to avoid spoilers, but I assure you that it won't be what you imagine and you will fall in love with Key.

✨As I said before it was a complicated read in every way and one that I had to put on hold for a while...but once I picked it up again I loved it! I found myself not knowing what was going on for a good part of the book ( I loved this).Then suddenly I knew what was going on laughing and crying in the process. Long Live Evil is that book for everyone who (Like me) in real life would like to would like to be a little more "villain" ,plus was a book able to make me laugh ,make me emotional and that I found brilliant and original!

❓Which book would you like to live in?

Rae is dying of cancer. Her father has left, her mum is running out of options to pay for treatment and her boyfriend has decided he's better off with her best friend. When a mysterious stranger offers her the chance to step into her and her sister's favourite fantasy novel to save herself in the real world she jumps at the chance. Unfortunately, she jumps straight into the satin slippers and impressive corsetry of a villain due to be executed.

I think most fantasy readers have wondered how they'd fare in their favourite fictional settings and come to the conclusion they wouldn't last long! Rae does what she must to survive and often, that makes her an unlikeable character. I love this. After years of having a female character's only permissable flaw be "adorably clumsy" having a woman actually be allowed to make mistakes and work through them feels like real progress.

Sarah Rees Brennan takes all of the fantasy tropes and leans into, subverts or flat out tramples them.all. Including the aforementioned "adorable clumsiness". This book managed to go from heart wrenching to high camp fun to mortal peril and all the way back again. I can't wait for the second.

Thank you to Little Brown Book Group UK for providing an ARC via NetGalley. This is my honest review.

Buzzwords: portal fantasy, villain main character/aesthetic, fantasy spoof (with heart), queer characters (love triangle, what?), royal plot, multiple POV, plot twists, i’ll kill for you, shock ending.

Sarah Rees Brennan writes unique fantasies that will appeal to fantasy fans seeking a different experience whilst still being the ultimate adventure. Brennan will write a fantasy to point out the overused parts of the genre as if it is an inside joke for the two of you. This light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek is refreshing. Not only does it provide a distinctive narrative, but it also celebrates fun in a very serious realm.
If you don’t take yourself too seriously and fancy a quick-witted adventure, Brennan is an author not to miss. Very few take on the task of writing a book like this, and fewer still can develop character relationships and a good storyline to go alongside it.

As a fan of Brennan’s young adult book, In Other Lands, I was eager to experience what she would explore in an adult fantasy series following a seductive villainess. Upon reading it, I quickly realised this wasn’t necessarily what I imagined, yet I still think there is an ideal audience for the book and I endeavour to explain who I think this shall be.

Let’s start with the initial concept of this book. A portal fantasy. You don’t get many portal fantasy stories anymore. Sometimes they feel that little bit more unbelievable, as if from the child’s realm of dreaming. Yet, I loved how this book sought to bring to life (literally) the escapism of magic.
Rae, our main character, is a cancer patient living in a hospital until a strange lady appears offering her the chance to enter her favourite fantasy series. This is not a simple choice for many reasons, but I liked It draws on feelings of what stories can mean to you, especially during hard times. How you might even imagine being your favourite character. They provide much-needed escapism from your own worries and a feeling of greater strength. Long Life Evil poignantly demonstrated a fun portal fantasy whilst remembering the real, personal struggles of living with an illness.

Rae steps into the fantasy story, but rather than leaping into the role of a heroine ready to be saved by the golden hero, she is the villainess. The villainess on the day of her execution. Immediately Rae needs to scheme to save her life.
The book community, as a whole, talks about villains a lot. How they offer more complexities than heroes and are willing to go one step further for their goals. This book doesn’t necessarily provide an insight into the workings of a villain, but how one might survive in the villain’s role. This was the first expectation I had to change as it didn’t feel like a villain’s story, but rather “playing act” as a villain which felt more childish than I expected from the author’s adult debut.
However, Rae knows she is in a fictional landscape and exists for self-interest, disregarding the other characters. They are fictional and can be stepped on for her own gain. Her assigned role and outlook towards other people gave her a dangerous mindset. The story doesn’t worry about how she might appear to readers by trying to rationalise every decision made but shows a single-minded character, not caring for others. In this, you get a character who feels like the villain. It certainly demonstrated the dangers of justification.

Rae, to an extent, enjoys the role to start. Feeling energised by a different body, and exploring a world she loved. Not to forget the adrenaline rush after escaping death (you know, girl things). She highlights a light tone in times of danger, especially as she picks apart the classic stereotype of a villainess. The sensual, curvy villain who will seduce men to do her bidding. Her commentary was amusing, although I don’t think the story warranted as many tit jokes as we got.
It was interesting to see her navigate the story with prior knowledge of the plot. The author does a good job of using this to the character’s advantage, whilst adding multiple challenges that change the dynamic of the story so Rae doesn’t know everything.

One part I enjoyed was how Rae went in with images of each character and how this changed throughout the story. This was the main strength and appeal of the story, next to the unique narration. The characters started as clear-cut “basic” archetypes, but as Rae got to know them, they evolved into characters with their own causes and reactions. Building them beyond their role got you thinking about how a person like them might feel about their “role” on a deeper level. As a fantasy reader, this approach appealed to me as it challenged what you often see from these kinds of characters.
This journey of getting to know the side characters affected Rae as well. After seeing them as characters to use to reach her goal, she grew to care for them. This was an emotional journey readers could get behind. It was especially nice seeing the women form a closer attachment.

The side characters had a strong page presence, making it easy for readers to quickly become invested in their lives, from backstories to their own brand of humour. I liked the attention to detail throughout the whole book, not just for the characters. The aspect of being in a fantasy novel becomes more than just a novelty (wink wink) fact. I was impressed by how Brennan linked it to the wider plot, with its own revelations. The novel is well thought out and this intrigue will keep fans coming back for me.

I have ended up being rather complimentary about this novel and, honestly, it deserves it. I saved many quotes from it, both amusing and surprisingly emotional ones. Even if it was not a new favourite for me, *cough cough* it took the first 100 pages to get into the story, the writing sometimes reads a bit younger and the villainy direction wasn’t what I wanted, I genuinely felt like it was well-crafted for what the author wanted it to be. The series will go from strength to strength with characters fans will be quick to love. I’m just not 100% sure it’s for me.

Thank you to Sarah Rees Brennan, Orbit Books and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

When I'm reading fantasy novels I always think about how I would fare in the often brutal and unforgiving worlds such as Westeros or the Continent in The Witcher books. I'd probably try to lay low, find a bookshop or apothecary to work in and avoid anyone who looked like a main character as much as possible.

Rae very much gets the reverse experience as she is thrown into the worst moment to be in. She has the advantage of knowing how the story goes, but how much of an advantage is it truly? What if that knowledge changes the story in ways you could never anticipate? The story certainly didn't move in ways I expected and I loved being kept on my toes for the whole time.

This is a story for everyone (like me) who is too scared to be the villain in RPGs even though there's no consequences in the real world. I loved reading Rae revel in being the villain, especially after living a life of pain and suffering.

This is love story to the true magic of books and their power to transport us out of ourselves into another life. If you like isekai anime, especially book related ones like Ascendance of a Bookworm, you'll love Long Live Evil.

Long Live Evil is a fun and exciting book story of twists, betrayals and plenty of laugh-out-loud moments for those who've been a goody-two-shoes all their lives but dream of the freedom of being the villain.

I give Long Live Evil 5 stars!

My review will be published on 14th July 2024.

Thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for my digital review copy.

3 stars.

It took a lot of this book for me to decide if I wanted to continue it. I'm not sure what expectations I had going into it, but it didn't seem to align with what I thought. Once I got over that, and realised that this book was just pure fun, I had a way better time.

This book is a mix of a character book and a plot book, in that there is a plot, but I'm not too sure I could tell you the plot and we do spend a lot of time with the characters and see them become tropes, or subvert tropes.

The subverison of well-know fantasy tropes was a joy to read. It was refreshing to read about villains being villains for villany's sake, and seeing all the wicked people interaact and scheme.

The pacing did seem to suffer in the middle of the book- this was where the plot went more on the backburner and we have more focus on the characters and their relationships.

It did take me a little bit longer than usual to read this book, which I think stemmed from the pacing, and that my kindle sometimes had the chapter lengths as upwards of 20 minutes (it felt like there was some very long chapters in this) and some parts did fell infodump-y, but I was able to persevere.

It did fell like we were missing knowledge of the "Time of Iron" series (the fictional book series that is in Rae's world) and I don't know if it's a me thing, but I'm reminded that it's one of my least favourite things (it also happens in Carry On by Rainbow Rowell, which reminds me why I still haven't read past the first one). Maybe the meta levels of this weren't for me (that being said, I did love picking up on all the pop culture references)