I loved the premise of Long Live Evil and the opening chapters quickly drew me into Rae’s world and her situation.
Rae is terminally ill with cancer and spending most of her time alone in hospital visited only by her sister who reads to her from their favourite book series. She is offered the chance by a strange woman to escape into that fantasy world and she takes it.
When she wakes up, she discovers that she in the body of the villainess of the story. Not only that, but she is due to be executed the next day so she really has to start thinking quickly about how she can save herself.
I really enjoyed this part of the story and Rae’s confusion when she has to deal with a healthy that is completely different to her own was fun. The popular culture references were generally amusing too and helped the reader feel how out of place she was in this fantasy world
Sarah Brennan obviously had a very clear picture of her fantasy world and I did love the fact that the characters actually had the power to change the story, and not always for the better. The ideas about the villain being the most interesting character in a story were explored well too.
However, as the story progressed I found it hard to stay engaged with Rae and none of the other characters with the exception of the Golden Cobra and the Northern Princess held any appeal for me at all. Marius in particular annoyed me as we seemed to spend a lot of time with his internal thoughts but never really got to know him better. Most of the characters didn’t feel any more real to me than cardboard cut outs and I can see why Rae kept thinking that they weren’t real. Even though we had multi POVs, I don’t feel that I really understood any of the characters motivations.
There was a plot at the start of the novel but this seemed to get lost in the complications of working out what was actually happening and why. The ending felt quite rushed and some things definitely weren’t clear.
This was a great premise for a fantasy novel and I really enjoyed some aspects of it but in the end It was a slog to get through. Had I not felt committed to finishing it because it was an ARC, I would probably have given up before the half way point. I know that many other readers have loved it though and it does seem to be one of those books that you either love or don’t really get.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers, Little Brown Book Group UK, for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This shouldn't be as good as it is. It's a complicated mess but... I kinda loved it. The beginning is tough and I understand why people DNF'd but from 25% in i just got invested.

A story within a story within a story. There were so many plot twists and cliffhangers sprinkled across the book like confetti that I couldn’t have guessed! Such a lovely mish-mash of fantasy and rom-com with a touch of drama.

Tbh I was afraid this morally grey narrative would be a flop but I am absolutely enamoured with it. I’m all for giving minor characters a chance to shine and THIS BOOK IS IT FOR ME! The mix of pop culture references, witty dialogue, and unexpected character developments need a special shout out too.

I tend to try to anticipate and guess the author's next move and Brennan always pulls the rug under my feet when I least expected it, making this book such a fun read for me! You bet I'll be counting down the days to the sequel!

Thank you Little, Brown Book Group UK for this arc via NetGalley.

This was an unfortunate DNF for me. The premise was so very exciting and I do feel that Brennan is a fantastic author, but the finished result simply didn’t work for me. I do believe this book will hit for others, however, and I look forward to more from the author!

There seems to be a bit of a trend this year for ‘protagonist decides they’d rather been the villain in a secondary world where they actually know they’re the villain’, if that makes sense? So far this year I’ve read THE DARK LORD’S DAUGHTER (a fun MG) and HOW TO BECOME THE DARK LORD AND DIE TRYING (an absolute hate-fuelled DNF). LONG LIVE EVIL isn’t perfect, but it’s be far my favourite attempt at the trope so far.

The book is a little hard to get into at first for two reasons.

1 - The characters all have sort of secondary titles e.g. Rae (Lady Rahela aka. The Beauty Dipped in Blood). The characters are referred to interchangeably by names and titles. This made it a little hard to get an immediate grip on the characters and, to be honest, could've been dropped.

2 – You’re very much thrown into the world of the ‘book within the book’ with a lot of characters and world-building, as well as previous plot from that story, while ‘our’ story is unravelling and altering events. This is just the nature of the concept, and I did get a handle on it, but it made the opening chapters a little confusing, and there’s some aspects of world-building I’m not sure I ever really understood (or even had to?)

That aside, LONG LIVE EVIL was such fun! Brennan knows exactly the genre she’s playing about in and managed to thread the needle of having too much of that awkward ‘no-one gets my pop culture references’ and 'out of place/world-view'. Rae comes across as clever and adaptive, but not annoyingly all-knowing or overpowered for the world she finds herself in.

Court politics and intrigues are my favourite type of fantasy, and that’s exactly what we get here, but it a fun, tongue-in-cheek way that plays off some of the suspension of disbelief reader have to have, and the fandoms that can build around popular media. It also tackles a few deeper issues too – class, terminal cancer, goodness vs niceness, and at what point we stop considering other people to be as human/ as complex as ourselves. Brennan also, in under 500 pages, gave me not one but three separate but intertwined romances to root for with my entire soul and, as someone who doesn’t necessarily tend to care as much about the (dare I say, almost always, predictable?) romances in my epic fantasy, that was a real achievement.

I don’t think this book is going to be for everyone but I personally loved it and think it’s one I’d enjoy even more on rereading. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens with the next book. This was my first Sarah Rees Brennan novel, and I’ll be interested in digging into her back catalogue.

Thank you to the publisher and author for the ARC!

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. It's a really cool concept but I just didn't get the humour and honestly I didn't really like the MC or root for her.

Others have really enjoyed this book so don't let this review put you off!

4 ⭐️
3rd person multiple POV
Villains, Villains, Villains

It was so chaotic in a good way. Nothing turned out the way I thought it would
Rae is dying and she if offered a chance to save herself, by entering a story world, with a chance to fulful a task to save her life. But in the fictional world she discovers she is the evil stepsister, a villain and due to be executed. So she decides she will embrace been the villianary and change the plot so she can survive.

Overall it was such a fun book. Such a different to what I usually read.

Thanks to Orbit and Netgalley for the eARC

I went into this expecting this to be a generic fun little isekai light novel, but it it turned out to be so much more. I had such a good time with it.

I loved the world building and all the complex characters and the ways they were presented. The writing was moving and insightful, but also very humourous, if not batshit crazy at times. Just a great mix of everything I could have possibly wished for from this book.

Storywise there as so much going on, full of unexpected twists and betrayal, I was not bored for a minute and always rooting for all the characters whose POVs were shown. It was so hard to put this down and not just binge read it in a single sitting.

My only warning would be the very abrupt open ending. Once again I was bamboozled into thinking I was reading a standalone. Nope, another series it is. I do enjoy this kind of punch in the face cliffhanger ending for dramatic effect, but I want read on so bad now!

This was the first of Sarah Rees Brennan's books I've read so far, but I will definitely be checking out her others after I had so much fun with this one.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC for reviewing purposes.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I can see how this book would be amazing for somebody who loves more of a campy vibe, but I sadly DNF-ed this book as I just couldn't get into it. The blurb sounded so interesting and like any reader it would be a dream to go into your favorite book, but the style of writing was not my cup of tea. There was so much of modern slang that it just put me off. The worst for me was "The point is, I'm totally evil and I want you to be my evil minions"

The MC went into her favorite book, but she knew almost nothing about the characters of the book and didn't even try to speak/act like she's from their world. It was just a little bit too much going on for me.

This book was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, and it did not disappoint. If you enjoyed Sarah Rees Brennan's YA books, I'm sure you'll enjoy this one, too. And if you haven't read any of her books yet, why not start with this one?

Rae, twenty years old and dying of cancer, is offered an improbable choice and wakes up as a character in her favorite fantasy book series... the only problem: the character she's inhabiting is one of the story's villains. But what do words like "hero" and "villain" even mean when it's not a story anymore, but your life?

The only thing that kept this from being a five star read for me, was that it took me a while to catch on to all the characters and rules of the world-building. And for a significant part of the book, Rae struggles with seeing the people around her as "real people" and not just "characters" - a definite villain trait, as she acknowledges herself! The effect this had on me was that it took me almost as long as it took Rae to start feeling a real connection to them. By the end, I loved all of the characters, especially... no, I can't say who I loved especially because as I was finishing that sentence in my head, I ended up listing all of them! It is a great ensemble cast of "side characters" from the story Rae had read turned into "main characters" in the story she's living.

Rae's situation provides a lot of opportunity for meta commentary on fantasy tropes. The tone of this book is fairly dark, but there is still a lot of wry humor in there. The twist at the end was a surprise, but in retrospect I really feel like I should've seen it coming. When I first heard about this book, I assumed it would be a standalone novel. But now it looks like it's the first in a series, and I can't wait to see what happens next!

I'd recommend this to fans of Leigh Bardugo or Holly Black. And to anyone who has ever wondered what it would really be like to end up actually living inside one of your favorite stories.

Thank you Little, Brown Book Group UK for providing a review copy via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

What a brilliant take I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.

Unfortunately I had to DNF this read at about 40%.

I was intrigued from the beginning as I truly went into this book blind. I really loved the unique idea behind this novel, but either it fell short for me or my reading slump has been kicking my a** far too much.

Don’t let this review deter you as I’m sure many people will adore this book!

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘖𝘳𝘣𝘪𝘵 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘈𝘙𝘊.

Genuinely one of the most chaotic books I've ever read. From the pacing to the plot to the characters, it was A LOT. Having said that, I love a bit of chaos from time to time and this had some fascinating and wonderful things to say about the role and characteristics of villains within literature. There's a solid helping of moral greyness and some interesting questions at its heart: if you don't believe the people around you are real, does it matter how you treat them?

I think the author set herself a big challenge with the framing device, and I'm not convinced it always worked. We're thrust into a fictional series (Time of Iron) that exists within Long Live Evil, as popular as something like Lord of the Rings within their present day literary canon. It's a lot to establish the ins and outs of the characters, plot, magic systems and world before our protagonist if thrust into that fictional world as one of its characters. And then plot twists and development rely on her presence as an unreliable narrator because she hasn't read the books properly? It's a lot to wrap one's head around and difficult to keep straight given we're not exactly intimate with the 'source text'. When her actions begin to alter the established plot, it's a challenge to notice those differences, let alone care about them.

Between the Golden Cobra and Key, however, there's a lot of fun to be had in villainous pursuits and the unapologetic nature of certain... sociopathic tendencies. I liked that the heroic archetypes/characters were actually kinda boring. It's a switcheroo in the vein of Once Upon a Time and as a self-confessed CaptainSwan girly, I was here for it. What happens when you give villains agency and permission to BE BAD? Or, occasionally, permission to be good and autonomous in a world that doesn't assume them capable of such things. There's a lot of interesting (and genuinely, twistedly hilarious) writing to sink one's teeth into, but the web of plot and branching consequences became a little too sticky for my liking.

[3.5/5]

Long Live Evil, Sarah Rees Brennan's debut adult novel is a whip smart foray into evil, with a delightful cast of characters along for the ride. But who is really a hero and who a villain when you start to look at actions from the other side? And what lengths would you go to if you were given a second chance at life?
The answer is a satisfying and hilarious romp with Rae as she builds her merry band of villains and upends the narrative to suit her needs, after she's dumped into her favourite fantasy series and given a desperate quest to save herself in the real world.
Don't be fooled by the excellent banter and laugh out loud lines, this novel's smile is filled with knives that will cut you if you aren't careful. Simmering just beneath the surface is a fury that could carve the world in two. Rage at a world filled with injustice - a world that leaves people behind, and that stops telling their stories when the narrative no longer suits the story we tell ourselves. For that's what we're all doing - everything is a story with each of us the hero in our own tale. And it's there that Sarah Rees Brennan excels in holding up a mirror and pushing us to examine the heroes, the villains, and all the shades of grey between the two.
What separates them, where they're indistinguishable, and where all it takes is a different perspective to blur the line between.
I gasped, I cackled, and I cried. This was a love letter to stories and the power they hold, and filled with a bittersweet and furious desire for Rae to make her story a good one.
This book was everything I hoped for and more. A triumph of storytelling, and a very welcome return from one of my favourite authors.

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