The premise of this book intrigued me greatly and I was very excited when I was accepted for an ARC. Action, a villainous FMC and becoming a character in one of your favourite fantasy books? A very big YES to all of these and I had high hopes as I started. However, I’m not sure I fully understood what I just read. At points in the story, I did consider if this might be my first DNF of the year; at other points, I was completely hooked! I battled internally with what to rate this book as I continued, determined to find out if Rae’s (FMC) outcome would be as expected and I was pleased to find that it wasn’t, as well as some pretty big twists along the way that I did not see coming and definitely made me want to read on. But, as I said, I’m still not sure about some parts of the story, so it has to be a 3 star read for me (maybe 3.5 if I could give that).
The characters had their given names as well as a ‘title’ given to them in the book, and especially at the start, this was quite confusing for me to keep up with the characters, their relationship to each other and how they all linked into the story. Towards the end, (from about 60%) I managed to get the hang of them all and have a better understanding of the world building.
On saying all that, there were some very good action scenes! I especially liked the women v ghouls in Chapter 11 and thought that it was well written. Also, since Rae was from the present and had travelled into a story from the past, there were some humorous parts where her turn of phrase and sayings needed to be carefully changed by her to fit the narrative that she had found herself in. The author did this very well. The banter between characters was also great and there were some laugh-out-loud moments that kept the story somewhat lighthearted, especially since the FMC is battling aggressive cancer in the real world, and this is often referred to as she needs to acclimatise herself to her new body, which is healthy and able.


***POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW***


Some of my favourite lines include:
‘…she seemed better in her hot tub. She was starting to think of it as her plot tub.’
Key: ‘I don’t struggle with violent impulses. I revel in violent impulses.’

My favourite quote from the book, that resonated deeply with me is:
‘Nobody lives forever, but a story can. Stories are how I survive.’

Would I recommend this? Yes
Would I look out for the second one? Yes. I was not expecting the twist at the end and I am interested to see what happens next.

Thank you to NetGalley, Sarah Rees Brennan and Little Brown Book Group for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a fun read but not the best.

I enjoyed just the weirdness of the whole thing but there wasn't anything surprising about the plot.

I honestly don't know what to say... if you don't want to think too much and you want a good laugh then choose evil 😄

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for an eARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Rae is dying when she is visited by a strange woman in her hospital bed, a meeting that leads to her entering the world of her favourite fantasy series in the body of the villain. And if she has to be the villain she might as well go all in.

Rae’s reaction to finding herself in this world, and in a body that wasn’t slowly shutting down, was delightful. She immediately embraces it as an opportunity to enjoy herself and embrace her inner villain.

This was by no means a perfect book (some of the plot points were obvious pretty early on for example) but I honestly had such a great time reading it.

Long Live Evil is Sarah Rees Brennan’s first foray into adult fantasy and I am so happy it’s not her last. I absolutely loved this book, the characters, the world and of course the downright, wicked, snarky and hilarious humour!

Rae has cancer, following her diagnosis her world and family have fallen apart until she only had her sister left and there is no cure. She’s offered a lifeline, a life or death chance to step into the world of her favourite fantasy series, Eyam. There, she can save her own life by stealing the Flower of Life and Death.

Rae is totally up for this, it’s her favourite series, she pretty much knows it inside out, piece of cake right? Then she wakes up as Rahela, the evil stepsister to the heroine, who is due to be executed the next day…what is she going to do?

What else can she do but pull together a motley crew of the wickedest characters in the book and plan a deadly heist to get her hands on the flower. You never know, she might just do it and help the villains survive. Maybe it’s time the villains got a happy ever after!

What can I say? I absolutely loved this book, Brennan doesn’t hold back with her sharp, accurate and poignant description of life with cancer but, she also sets the pace for distinct, wacky, camp and seriously funny banter throughout! The world building is perfect from the Evil Dead-esque magical pit and valley to the immense golden brothel!

This book just pulls you into this world that takes an hysterical view of heroes, heroines, villains and pretty much all the fantasy tropes and I am totally here for it! Brennan delivers all of this and more, and have no fear you don’t get bored as you progress through the book, nor does it become overdone or too much. Brennan has crafted this camp, snarky, funny book beautifully and the characters themselves are pure brilliance!

Rae is an absolute delight, she has that reader attitude- it’s all fiction right?!? She forges her way through, negotiating 21st century attitude and behaviour alongside the traditional fantasy customs and culture brilliantly, with some absolutely hilarious outcomes! She’s definitely not one dimensional!

I absolutely adored Key, the totally unhinged, sociopathic guard, who most definitely has his eye on Rae. Their relationship throughout the story is just so wonderful to see develop and again lifts this minion out of a single dimensional view.

Other characters tears of note are The Cobra, the dashing, extroverted spymaster with a heart of gold who has the greatest backstory, Marius the scholar - who is so much more than this and Emer, the lady’s maid who will truly surprise you!

Throw in some great romance tropes, many of which are totally shattered to bring forth more nuanced, slow-burn romance development and of course the most devious twists and turns that see the characters pivot and balance to stay on plan, even if it is plan number 987!

This book surprised, entertained and delighted me! I laughed out loud and gasped more than a few times and was totally pulled into Rae’s world, albeit with that underlying cancer story line that maintained a depth and poignancy that was ever present. Brennan has truly written the most contemporary, brilliant, snarky, humour filled love letter to the fantasy genre and after that dramatic cliff hanger I’m here for the next book in the series and you should be here for Long Live Evil!

Thank you Little, Brown Book Group UK and Netgalley for the ARC of Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Featuring a motley crew of unhinged villains, lots of questionable choices, and a shit ton of wicked and wacky humour, Sarah Rees Brennan’s Long Live Evil is a diabolically fun yet surprisingly poignant take on a portal fantasy.

What would you do if you were presented with a life or death opportunity to enter your favourite fantasy series? For Rae, whose entire life collapsed 3 years ago when she got diagnosed with cancer, the choice is easy. All she must do is step into the world of Eyam and steal the Flower of Life and Death, which should be a piece of cake with her infinite knowledge of the story. That is, until she wakes up in the body of Rahela, the evil stepsister to the heroine, who is due to be executed the next day. Together with a motley crew of the most wicked characters, she starts scheming to pull off this deadly heist and maybe, possibly give the villains a chance at a happy ending, if they can surive until the final page.

Within the first few pages, Sarah Rees Brennan just sets the tone and it’s honestly an absolute trainwreck in the best way possible from there on out. Long Live Evil is ridiculously entertaining, campy, and extremely meta, and somehow it just works? I will admit that the first couple of chapters were a bit overwhelming and had me worried that the wackiness would become tiresome after a while, but holy smokes did my trust in Brennan pay off in the end.

Rae is just an absolute hoot to follow, and I absolutely loved her ‘devil may care’ attitude (because this is all fiction anyway, right?). The way that she navigates this fantasy world and interacts with all the in-world characters was entirely too amusing, and the culture clashing between her 21st century Earth customs and the outdated way of life in the world of Eyam resulted in so many hysterical scenarios that had me cackling out loud more times than I’d like to admit.

Though while Rae absolutely carried the story for me, I also really loved some of the ‘minions’ that she recruits for her evil master plan. Especially Key (the unhinged and slightly sociopathic guard with a dangerously seductive grin) and The Cobra (a rakish spymaster with a heart of gold despite his interestingly traumatic backstory) really captured my heart, and their character arcs had some surprising twists and turns that had my jaw on the floor and hit me right in the feels. Not to mention the slow-burn romance elements with killing as their love language… chef’s kiss!!!

Long Live Evil truly just kept subverting and shattering my expectations at every possible opportunity, which created an exciting level of unpredictability that totally took me by surprise, especially given the fact that Rae knows how this story is supposed to end. Moreover, I really liked how Brennan cleverly used Rae’s modern sensibilities to deliver an hysterical level of meta commentary on the fantasy genre that is not only extremely funny but also gives this story unexpected layers of depth and nuance.

Because honestly, it’s not just all shits and giggles. Rae’s experience with cancer, based on Brennan’s own harrowing life experiences, looms like a constant dark cloud over the story, and I really appreciated the deeper themes of mortality, mental health, morality, and the dire consequences of your actions. It doesn’t take long before fiction and reality start to blur, which quickly raised the emotional stakes to unbelievable heights and resulted in some heavy emotional gut punches that just hurt so good.

At some points Long Live Evil does admittedly get a bit convoluted with the double narrative of the ‘original’ story and the unexpected divergences due to Rae’s meddling, and I honestly think the multi-POV set-up only increased the chaos. For me, Lord Marius and Emer’s perspectives paled a bit in comparison to Rae’s loud and audacious narration, but I do have to say that I eventually warmed up to them as the plot thickened.

And ultimately, there’s truly no denying that Brennan absolutely nailed the execution of this story, ending on a cruelly bittersweet cliffhanger that could very well kickstart my own villain origin story if I don’t get the next instalment asap. If you are looking for a refreshingly subversive and delightfully twisted story that simultaneously feels like a love letter to and a diss track about the fantasy genre, then I can’t recommend Long Live Evil highly enough.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. Long Live Evil is scheduled for release on August 1st, 2024.

Thank you Netgalley for providing this eARC for review.
2.5🌟 I really wanted to love this but it unfortunately fell short of my expectations. The book has an excellent premise and starts off interesting with Rae's cancer story, the mysterious woman (the author maybe?) is interesting and hopefully in the future we will find out more about her and how this whole transferred into a story thing works.
Considering how the whole book takes place within the story of 'Time of Iron' we're given a poor amount of information and worldbuilding to hold the readers interest during the book. The fact that Rae doesn't remember most of the first book and that she is transported into the events of the first book make it very confusing for us as readers to fully understand what is going on and what the character's motivations are. Not to mention the fact that every action of Rae's changes something about the book but we as readers don't know the full extent and impact of those changes because we don't know most of the plot! Big moments between characters e.g. Marius and the cobra just fall flat because we have no real context or backstory for them, Marius' whole character is boring and his chapters unnecessary, more time could've been devoted to actually telling the reader what is going on and what the significance of it is to the world of this story.
What confused me most is how much Rae's presence in the story changes the story. It sounds as if the Cobra changed the books but only as far as inserting his character into events that happen much the same as they were always going to, however, every decision and action of Rae's changes a fundamental part of the book as we are told it and that seems like a very odd choice to me. If we are meant to presume the mysterious woman who offers Rae the bargain is the author then maybe this is intentional on her part and we will learn more later on?
As others have mentioned the constant 21st century slang is overused and annoying, although this does become slightly better as the book progresses.
The plot twist at the end is the main selling point but I do wonder if all of Rae's story changing was just a plot device to lead to this twist and to develop the romance of these characters which again seems strange as she is living in a world with a pre-established plot.
Considering we're told over and over that Rae/Rahela is a villain and Rae is having so much fun playing the villain, she's just not shown in any way to be a villain? We're told several times that she's looked down on and thought of as evil because people see her as a harlot so perhaps this is the author trying to make some kind of a point but it really falls flat as Rae tells us over and over how much of a villain she is whilst doing basically nothing and just trying to advance the version of the plot she knows by getting the heroes together, not villainous in the slightest unfortunately.
Ultimately I found myself wishing I was instead just reading Time of Iron itself as it sounded far more interesting.

2.5 stars.

At first glance I love the title, cover and concept for the book - who wouldn't want to dive straight into their favourite book?!

The author starts off sensitively describing Rae and her cancer treatments and how this makes her feel and the idea of suddenly becoming an outcast. However, when Rae dives into this fictional world the book loses direction. Rae says she loves this book so much, yet can't remember the details or relay to the reader exactly what is going on. The world building is poor and lacks clarity, which made this a slog to get through - which is a shame because I think this has such potential to be every reader's dream and make it very fun and lighthearted. The POV changes between chapters, which I usually enjoy but this was confusing and time moved strangely. The goal for Rae was to retrieve this magical flower to cure herself from cancer, but this didn't seem like a priority for Rae or any of the other characters. I loved the manipulation where every decision Rae makes changes the plot somehow and gives her agency as a character but what she wished to achieve I'm not sure.

The side characters like Key and the Cobra were great additions, albeit needed more direction. The twist at the ending was very unexpected and well done in twisting the reader's perspective but I'm still confused on why it happened and what this means for Rae. I loved the idea of a book from a villain's perspective, but Rae and her 'minions' were not actually villainous but just either sociopathic killers or outcasts. I would have loved Rae to fully embrace the stereotypical tropes or mannerisms of a villain and changing the story to match what she as the reader wanted.

Overall, I was disappointed. Long Live Evil was a book that I couldn't wait to read but it didn't live up to the marketing. There are elements that were really good and the concept is brilliant, but the execution wasn't the best and confusing,

Villain POV fantasy books are very popular right now and I do really enjoy reading them, so Long Live Evil was one of my most anticipated books of the summer.

Unfortunately, I had to DNF it at 14% which is such a shame. I enjoyed the beginning of the book, and it’s a great premise. Rae is dying of cancer, stuck in her hospital bed as her sister Alice reads from her favourite fantasy series – Time of Iron. A stranger comes to her room and offers her a quest to save her life, but it will mean being transported into the setting of the fantasy series in a character that suits her the best. When Rae wakes up in the land of Time of Iron as the Villain, she decides to embrace the narrative.

The book started to go downhill for me when we got into the fantasy part of the story. The books that Rae has read are part of a multi-part series, and we are thrown in the middle of the plot of one of the earlier books. Without really knowing anything about the series, this gets very confusing, particularly as we are told snippets about the entire series worth of books in a seemingly random order. Backstory is given about the future storylines and character plotting straight away which makes it hard to get to know the characters in front of us. I think if Brennan had introduced it a little slower, with more focus on the book in the series that we were in, this would have been a lot less confusing. Each character also seems to have a name and then a title such as ‘The Beauty Dipped in Blood’ and ‘The Once and Forever Emperor’, but then some of them didn’t have those titles yet as we were too early in the series (the Emperor was still King at this point, for example) so this was also confusing.

Adding to the confusion of the world-building is the fact that The Time of Iron series is sister Alice’s favourite books, and not Rae’s. When it came to some of the more intricate world building (such as currency), the get out clause was that Rae couldn’t be bothered to remember what these details were. This was incredibly frustrating and pulled me out of the immersion of the story.

My last gripe was with the writing – sadly, it’s very poorly written to the point that it became cringe-worthy. I stopped reading when Rae told the King he would be ‘powerful AF’. It felt very much like it was aimed at 12-year-olds. There’s apparently a musical depiction that I missed later on, which sounds intriguing but not worth slogging through the rest of the book for, I’m afraid.

Overall, Long Live Evil was a big disappointment for me and I DNFd at 14%. Thank you to NetGalley & Little Brown Books Group UK – Orbit for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for a (very) honest review.

This was definitely one of the more unique books I've read so far this year! Everything you know about a "classical" fantasy book is thrown on its head and I absolutely loved it!

Rae spends the last days of her life sick and weak in a hospital bed - until a mysterious woman offers her a bargain: If she can obtain the Flower of Life and Death from the Imperial greenhouse then she will have the chance to live, but should she fail, she will remain in the world of Eyam forever. Rae knows this world pretty good, not only is it the setting of her sister's favourite book series, it's also hers. So Rae takes her second chance with out knowing the twist: Instead of being the hero Rae is now in the body of Lady Rahela, the evil stepsister due to be executed the very next day. But Rae is willing to do everything to succeed... even if she's got to be the villain of the story.

It is hard to describe this book, but my tip for everyone is to buckle up, because you're in for a hell of a ride here. The characters are just so hilarious and there are so many plot points and twists you never would've seen coming. The focus os the story is, in my opinion, definitely more on the characters than the story, but you just had to love Rae and her team of villainous sidekicks. The writing itself was modern and had a lot of slang, but this just added to the humour.

If you want to to read something exciting and unique, you have to pick up this book! I have never rooted for the villains as much as in this story.

This was a whimsical flight of fantasy that incorporated modern terms into a somewhat medieval setting which while interesting I found somewhat jarring.

I loved that this was archetypical - you are seeing the villain's point of view which we rarely see and this added a fun dimension to see her embrace the villainous side. You're rooting for Rae even when you are confused by the dialogue and what just happened. Rae has gone through so much and just wants to get her life back, but can she.

I struggled with the pacing and the mix of language which I could not adjust to but I am eager to see what happens next because that cliffhanger was intense

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.