Campy, funny, all around good time.

You know what, I have to admit this was a very weird read, but boy was I hooked. The fantasy world was fun. I love a main female character that truly doesn’t care what anyone think and goes down her own path and Rae definitely did exactly that. She knew exactly who she was and didn’t budge and I loved that. The self-awareness that the storytelling had is definitely was made the book so great. It wasn’t taking itself too seriously. We could go down these cooky, fun, windy paths and enjoy ourselves along the way. Was it a bit predictable? Yes, but the characters and the writing and the whole atmosphere of it all made me not care in the slightest. It was laugh out loud funny and a good time all around.

Also, I absolutely LOVE it when side characters have more dimension than just moving the plot along and l loved that they were whole and complete characters.

Now, I will say that the pacing was a bit of a slog to get through at first, but when I was in it, I was in it. Brennan made you really like Rae and care about her journey. You were rooting for her and wanted to stay and watch her succeed.

Sadly this was a DNF for me. The writing felt very choppy and there was far too many POV’s to care about any of the characters. Key was the only interesting one!

Yes yes yes.... Give me more! Key's number one fan! And the Cobra close second obviously!

What would you do if you were about to die and someone opened up a door to your favorite Book's world and told you "You have 1 month, if you get hold of the magical flower you'll wake up cured." Obviously call for the nurse to grab this insane person...

Rae has to fight for her life, and makes friends with some people who think her mad. For her the characters aren't real, cause its just a book...right?

I love that the people in the book dont understand the modern way she talks, many moments were hilarious.
The cast is amazing and I love how we see people get close to eachother, in different ways than the story Rae knows, how Rae changes the story sometimes without wanting to.

I dont want to spoil but... Go read it!
GIVE ME THE NEXT BOOK!!!!!!!
*Thanks to NetGalley and Brown Book Group UK for access to the ebook against an honest review.*

Thankyou NetGalley for sending me this copy of this book! I was so excited to read this one, I was really enjoying it to begin with, then I put the book down and come back to it a few days later. I struggled so badly to get back into this, I was so close to having this as my first dnf, but I believe every book deserves to be finished. It just got a little confusing where the book was going from when I was reading it.

I appreciate that the author used her own experience with cancer as some of the motivation for the main character, Rae. Which of course, made this the most real and chilling aspect of the book - particularly the idea of cancer treatment as being so awful that it must be punishment and that you must be truly villainous to deserve it.

That's where any interesting concept of villainy ended for me, however. The writing was so disjointed that it lost any clear sense of plot. The majority of the characters were ham pantomime villains and Rae was an idiot throughout, completely trashing any concept of story, memory loss aside.

The over-use of insouciant and references to Rae's "evil twins" (her breasts, for God's sake, call them her breasts. And that's before we get into Rahela's sultry body and voice and "villainous curves" yuck) were also tiresome. As was all the Gen Z language.

The world and the original story would have actually been really interesting, had they made any sense. And and the extracts from Time of Iron read worse than the plot presented.

I nearly gave up around the 20% mark and it was only when new POV chapters that didn't involve Rae at all started appearing that I had any motivation to continue. I was much more interested in Marius, the Cobra, Emer. Literally anyone but Rae.

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Long Live Evil is a fun, campy, meta look at what would happen if you fell into your favourite story. Our Main Character is terminally ill in the "real" world and gets given a second chance at life, if she can find a flower within the realm of her favourite book. This is not extremely well executed or paced to be frank but it is very fun and goofy, It doesn't take itself or common romance fantasy tropes seriously. I think with the right expectations this book will be loved by the right audience.

To start with the positives, the first chapter was captivating. So many notable quotes and concepts to truly think about and I was highlighting and super excited for how this book would progress.

Unfortunately my enthusiasm did not last long, the pacing was off. I was bored and found things to be moving slowly. I also found there was a bit too much “real world” lingo. At first this was an interesting juxtaposition with the high fantasy old worldie times but it became tired quickly.

Truly a shame as the concept was phenomenal.. just the execution was not there for me.

Thanks to Orbit and NetGalley for providing an ARC for review.

I was very much anticipating the release of this book. The whole premise of someone becoming one of the characters in their favourite book series was so fun and interesting to me as someone who has thought many times how much I’d love to be absorbed into my favourite worlds.

I, overall, did enjoy the book. I loved the world building, had a great time reading it - it was a huge amount of fun in an incredibly unhinged way and there were some characters that I really enjoyed.

It didn’t fully live up to my expectations though. The pacing felt a bit off at points and I personally found it quite slow in places. I also, at times, struggled to root for the main protagonist but I did like the development of the character and would love to see if I warm to her a bit more. The cobra, however, was a star! More of him please.

What I really loved, though, was the ending. It was exciting and it surprised me. I thought I knew what was coming and I have to applaud Sarah Rees Brennan for actually coming up with what I thought was a good spin on it. It was that exact moment for me that committed me to reading more of the series and I will definitely be picking up book 2!

Long Live Evil is a fun escapist fantasy book that I really enjoyed. It took me a little while to get into and I wasn't sure if it was the book for me but I'm glad I stuck with it as i found it really enjoyable and overall a fun read. There is a lot of world building and introduction to various characters that I found difficult to keep up with initially but once I got my head around it and settled into the story I couldn't put it down. I love the premise for this book and enjoyed seeing a story told from a 'villain' perspective although if our characters are truly villainous is another thing. I found the characters entertaining and I cant wait to read more if this continues as a series.

I’ll be honest, when I started this book I was a little dubious, I loved the premise, stepping into a loved book series (in this case, a fantasy series called Time of Iron) and becoming one of the characters, a villain in fact, all to save your life in the real world. However plot aside, and with the importance of the main character’s fatal illness at the start of this story, the book starts incredibly light hearted to the point, for me, it’s a little jarring. Yes it’s fun, silly, dastardly and all that but the use of “villain”, “evil” and “minion” like a comma, or the size of Lady Rahela’s breasts was getting a little repetitive. I was concerned that this book was fun but without particular depth. And I’m glad to say I was wrong.

Stick this book out and it’s absolutely worth it, the characters become more than tropes and 1 dimensional characters grow and develop as their lives deviate from the plot of the tale. Rae starts this challenge, surviving the story to obtain a healing flower, treating it almost as a game after spending so long in hospital, the people around her are characters, of no real consequence to her scheming, the plot is vaguely predictable as her sister has read this story by her hospital bed. However as the book continues, Rae comes to realise these characters are real, they feel and love and want and as this realisation comes to Rae and her feelings grow for these people, the shallowness of the book I previously judged feels more like a deliberate mirroring of Rae’s growth and the supporting characters taking a more solid, deeper form.

This is a fun book, deliciously devious and silly at times but there are also themes of redemption, the morality and complexity of good and evil, and love. There are some really enjoyable, wild characters on the page and many that you get to witness blossom, and I have to say that I ended the book desperately needing more.

This is a ride, a little bumpy at times but it takes you somewhere exciting if you just hold on tight - and you absolutely won’t regret it.

Thank you NetGalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the e-arc.
I had been anticipating the release of this book for so long and i was overjoyed when i received the arc only to then be so disappointed. The writing was flat, the characters made me feel nothing, I couldn’t get invested in any of them and this is sad for a book that promises villains and knights and spymasters. And it didn’t feel adult at all to me.

Unfortunately I really struggled with finishing this book.
The premise was really good, I love the idea of falling for the villain (always have)! I think there was too much info dumping at the start which made it hard to connect with the characters and I was overall a bit confused.

The writing style was brilliant though.

WAIT.. wait a minute.. SARAH!!!!! the way this ending gagged me. i was prepared to come on here and say blah blah marius valerius is pookie, my kingdom for self loathing and homosexuality and swearing fealty to one person at all costs (the gideon/harrow of it all), but suddenly the ending has me fully invested in the main plotline. SLAY!!!! tickled by the multiple vampire chronicles references i sniffed out as well (anybody else up wearing sorrow like jewels?). as always i love you sarah rees brennan and if you have one fan it is me. the jared lynburn/nick reeves tortured archetype will never not hit for me!!!!

Unfortunately for me, the writing style of this just didn't work. There's a lot of exposition at the beginning, trying to set up all these political players as Rae is transported into a fantasy world. Add in the pop culture references and the obvious satire/play on the genre and I just found I couldn't get into the overall story.

I definitely think this is more of a personal taste issues. I'm just not keen on the blend of modern day and fantasy. I want full immersion. And Rae overall isn't a bad character. Right from the start she's had to face issues no-one should have to deal with, and she's even accepted that her life is essentially over before she's given this second chance. But her romance was pretty average, and when added to my other issues I unfortunately didn't really have an enjoyable reading experience.

DNF'd at ~50%

As much as the concept of this book really appealed to me, I found the execution rather lacking. I've picked it up trying to finish it so many times now, but I can never get more than a couple of chapters further on.

Rae, as a character in her own world, is...not uninteresting, though you don't see much of it. In the fantasy world she's ended up in, she is jarring. Every single time I even came close to maybe connecting to another characters, the narration breaks in with a reminder that actually, they're not real and therefore not worth caring about. It is impossible to suspend your disbelief and actually enjoy the progression of the story because you are constantly being reminded that Rae is the only character who means anything at all and everyone else is just fodder for the plot. Because she doesn't care about anyone, you can't either, and if you somehow manage to put this out of your mind for long enough to lose yourself in the story you can barely go two pages without it cropping up again. At no point did it feel like I was reading a coherent story. Sarah Rees Brennan did very much establish that Rae is Not Of This World, but Rae interacts with her new world with absolutely no buy-in to the mechanics that govern it except for the absolute bare minimum, which she does largely with disdain.

Having not been able to finish the book, I can't say whether Rae ends up changing her perspective later. But given that I got halfway through with absolutely no sign of character growth - Rae just walks into preordained situations that she already knows about and walks out with exactly the same attitude as before - I can't see how it can be turned around in the latter half. There are a couple of surprises, but they just seem to bounce off her. She cares about only one thing (getting out of the world she's ended up in) and that is where the entirety of her attention is focused. If it doesn't feed back into her goals, it is not worth her time, which means that the book is quite lacking in anything resembling downtime or emotional development. There is no ebb and flow of tension. It's all go, all the time, and the few and far between quiet moments are interrupted by the reminder that none of this is real.

All in all, I just found that this book dragged. I gave it as many shots as I was willing to, and it never ended up hooking me, or even mildly intriguing me. I think it just wasn't for me.

A young woman battling illness is given a chance to walk into her favorite book, play a villain and save her life in the process.
The premise of this story had everything I usually look for in a book. It sounded adventurous and high stakes while also not always taking itself seriously. Unfortunately, the book falls a bit short of fulfilling its own promise for me.

The main character, Rae, enters the story on a quest to find a magical flower that would save her and send her back to her real life. In doing so, she allies with people, plots and schemes (like a villain) to make the events of the book as she remembers them happen and find her way back home.

The interesting set up sadly does not hold up as the story progresses. The pacing is probably the biggest reason why. A lot of the first part of the book is spent going back and forth between characters with very little to no plot progression or world exploration. I was very close to dnfing from the 20% mark on and only kept reading out of curiosity for the denouement. The story does become more engaging in the last third of the book, making me wish the lead up to the ending was as well.

Another aspect that didn’t quite work for me is the tone of the book. This book is marketed as adult fantasy and I feel like it reads more as YA for most of it. The comedic aspects can also sometimes feel almost like a caricature which also doesn’t fit the adult fantasy promise.

Highlight of the book for me are the secondary characters like Key, the Cobra, and Marius who add a lot of depth to the world. The dynamic between the Cobra and Marius in particular was probably the most interesting aspect for me. They go through quite the journey together and end up in a very interesting place by the end of the book.

An intriguing premise, interesting characters, but the book does fall short on delivering on its promise.

"Isekai" is a trope that has gained popularity primarily in Japanese culture, featuring stories about characters transported to alternative worlds. In recent years, this theme has increasingly appeared in Western works. One such example is the book Long Live Evil, which, despite having the potential to explore this theme in an intriguing way, ultimately turned out to be disappointing.

The plot of Long Live Evil revolves around Rae, a girl dying of cancer who is given a chance to survive by entering her favorite fantasy series. The protagonist, taking on the role of the story’s main villain, must find a magical flower to complete her quest and save her life. Despite the interesting premise, the story quickly loses momentum as the fantasy world Rae enters is exceptionally generic and lacks depth. And in the case of isekai this is unforgivable. The author tries to give it uniqueness by introducing some vague magical items that can be used only by aristocracy, but this aspect remains underdeveloped, rendering the fantasy world nothing more than a bland backdrop.

Another issue is the uneven pacing and the excessive number of points of view. Instead of developing Rae's character, who should be the reader's avatar in this new world, the author focuses on POVs from side characters, such as the Golden Serpent and Marius, who dominate the narrative, pushing Rhae into the background. As a result, Rae, who should be the central focus of the story, becomes just one of many characters, preventing the reader from fully engaging with her journey. Additionally, the comedic elements based on contemporary slang and the inclusion of musical scenes give the book a parodic tone that doesn’t align with the epic fantasy promised in the promotional materials. Also, despite villainy being the main theme, once again we receive characters who only pretend to be evil while not doing a single evil thing throughout the whole book. In fantasy, we already had the era of „assassins who actually don't kill” and now it seems that we're entering the times of „villains who are actually good at heart”.

In summary, Long Live Evil is a book that had the chance to create an intriguing isekai story, but ultimately fails on many fronts. Although the author's style is accessible and easy to understand, the lack of a clear goal and the superficial approach to the theme leave the story feeling unsatisfying. Unfortunately, for me Long Live Evil was too simplistic and disappointing.

Long Live Evil is quite possibly my favourite new book. I have never been more seen than when I was reading it.

At its core, it's an isekai story: Rae went to bed as a cancer patient in her last stage of illness, and woke up as a healthy, vivacious villainess of a fantasy series her younger sister loves, Beauty Dipped In Blood.

Long Live Evil is for the manhwa-reading girlies who know the Otome Isekai tropes like the back of their hand and enjoy a good shake up to the original story's plot.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC copy of this book, in exchange for this honest review.

When i read the synopsis of this book, i was immediately drawn to the concept of it. It reminded me of the time where i, also, wrote a short story for a college writing competition where you got to travel into your favourite story. If you know me, you know i love morally grey characters or villains so to read a book based on the actions of one was something fresh and exciting. I enjoyed the storyline and the pacing was good. I'm glad that i wasn't expecting it to end like that. When i read it i was like "oh. Wait a minute," i went back and read it again to make sure i was understanding it correctly and just went "ohhhhh" again when i came to the realisation 😂. The only reason why i didn't give it 5 stars is because i was struggling to picture scenes at times as not much description was given but other than that, i do think it is a nice read.

Thank you netgalley and little brown book group for letting me read this for an honest opinion.

After seeing all the positive reviews for this book I went in hoping for the best but came out very disappointed. I really tried to stick it out but I ended up DNFing at 49% and only got that far because I really liked Key,

I love the concept of someone becoming a character in a book but I felt this read more of a upper YA book than an adult book. I found the FMC to be a little annoying and constantly going on about how much of a villain she was got a bit boring,
The only thing that would have kept me reading was Key, He was a great character and I found myself looking forward to the interactions with him in but it wasn't enough to get me to finish the book unfortunately.