4.5 stars! I am a Key apologist this man has done and never will do ANY WRONG. I’ll fight everyone.

Without a doubt this is one of the most campy, fun and surprisingly emotive fantasies I’ve read in a while! I wasn’t intending, or expecting, to be so invested in these characters, but Brennan has a way with words, a subtle handle on her craft that spins even the side characters into some of my favourites!

Inspired by tales where the main character “falls” into a storybook world, LONG LIVE EVIL chucks us and our female lead, Rae, headlong into the world of her - and her sisters’ - favourite books ‘A Time of Iron’. Rae is dying, and she escapes her life in the hospital by living vicariously through characters in this book alongside her sister: Rae is obsessed with The Emperor, a character who embodies the idea of villainy. He carves up the world to protect his beloveds, a no-holds-barred embodiment of all that Rae wishes she could be; she loves The Emperor for doing what she - and most normal humans - cannot do in real life.

So when she’s thrown into the narrative as Lady Rahela, a villain in A Time of Iron doomed to be executed not one day after Rae’s sudden “arrival” into Rahela’s body, Rae dives headlong into a quest to change the narrative in order to save herself, find a suspected cure to her illness, and return to her own world and to her sister. What she ends up changing is far beyond her scope to handle - bringing about an entire war about three books too early.

What follows is an EXTREMELY fun, self aware and campy as all hell adventure through a novel within a novel as Rae accepts her role as villain and commits to the part wholeheartedly. When no one believes in you, you gotta believe in yourself! Villains don’t get sympathy, or happy endings, but villainy is the path that Rae chooses, for all the things she wished she could change about her own life. Brennan gives us such an immersive and bountiful story world, navigated by a contemporary teenager - and the result is an incredibly entertaining escapade filled with pop culture references, incredible character dynamics, beloved tropes and just, everything I didn’t know I needed. I read with a smile!

This book has it all. There’s liaising with the criminals of the seedy and dangerous Cauldron district outside the Palace on the Edge; there’s reanimated corpses from the dread ravine that surrounds the palace; there’s rich lore and backstory for side characters I immediately fell in love with. There’s a surprise SONG NUMBER that’s even more surprising for the fact that it works so well. There is a prophecy that foretells the arrival of The Emperor following the sacrifice the King makes; and Rae plants herself into the story as a false prophet thanks to her knowledge of the books.

There is Key, my absolute favourite character, a murderous meow meow with a narrative doomed from the start that made me cry nonetheless. He’s a remorseless killer written SO well that you can’t help but fall in love with him (a testament to Brennan’s skill). Your honour I LOVE HIM. There is the Cobra, a self named criminal with a heart of gold, and a few more secrets and things in common with Rae than expected. There is Lord Marius, the Last Hope, a Velarius, who loves and hates the Cobra as he hates and loves himself. There is Octavianus, a spoiled King who I grew to hate, and a plot that shamelessly flaunts its archetypes and accentuates all the stereotypes of its characters because that’s the point. This is an exploration of trope, and I loved every second.

There’s a duality in Rae that I found so compelling, a complexity of character that, at times, I do wish could have been fleshed out a bit more on page. She is an ode to every person who’s been kicked down in life and who wishes to reclaim power. Rae is for everyone who’s always had a wandering heart for the villains of the story, and who’s tired of following heroes. She’s complex and selfish, driven, funny, enterprising and deep-hearted as she develops, and comes to realise that the characters around her are as real as any.

My only gripe is that it took Rae around 70% of the book to accept that she’s emotionally invested in said characters. This, for me, slightly hindered the connection I felt, because for Rae the stakes were low - nothing mattered, no death or injury to the cast mattered because they weren’t real.

But that ENDING?? I NEED THE SEQUEL STAT. The last 20% of the book was so fast-paced, with all the threads that had built up during the narrative culminating in a disaster of epic proportions. I loved the burgeoning bond between Rae and Lia amongst it all.

I have no choice but to stan evil winning at last (iykyk). I need more about the Cobra and Marius (my second and third favourite characters), and I NEED to know what happens next for Rae, her Emperor, Emer, and the rest. I need it!

When you’re given the opportunity to turn your impending The End into To be continued…, you take it.

Rae, who life cruelly cast in the role of the character most likely to stop breathing by the end of the chapter, is very nearly at the end of her story when she rediscovers something she hasn’t felt for the better part of three years: hope. Rae enters the pages of her favourite series and proceeds to set about rewriting her story.

Being cast as the villain is an upgrade for this once upon a cheerleader. Rae takes her new found energy (and breasts) and runs with it. Of course, things go off script quicker than you can say ‘plot twist’ but being the villain is complicated. There’s the scheming, the management of other’s expectations, the inconvenient feelings…

“Don’t you dream of the forbidden? Choose wrong. Choose evil. Let’s do it together.”

Rae is so relatable and there were other characters I met in the pages, like Key and the Golden Cobra, who I definitely need to spend more time with. It didn’t hurt that this portal fantasy takes place in one of my book nerd dreams, the pages of a beloved book. Oh, the places I would go…

But villains. Because ethics aren’t as high on their agenda, villains tend to be more interesting, complicated characters and I’m an absolute sucker for mwa-ha-ha moments. I’ve got to be honest with you, though. I keep hoping I’ll encounter a villain that gives me Hans Gruber vibes and I don’t think I’ll be completely satisfied until I find one.

This book was a bit of a complicated read for me. I was absolutely hooked by the beginning and the end but the middle contained sections that dragged on for me. For a while it felt like the entire reason for Rae being there was put on hold to focus on the dramas playing out between other characters, but when it got going again it really got going.

It wasn’t until I was about halfway through that I realised this was the first in a series. (Apparently my attention to detail is not what it used to be.) I found this frustrating because by the time the next book is released the urgency to need to know what happens next may have faded. With how this book ends, I hope I don’t have to wait too long.

“Time to take evil to the next level.”

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Orbit, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, for the opportunity to read this book.

What would you do if you became one of the characters in your favourite book? We’ve all dreamed it, but for Rae it becomes truth. Sadly, her favourite books are dangerous and misogynistic, and she’s fallen into the role of the villain set to be executed. In her efforts to survive as Lady Rahela, Rae has to use her knowledge of the story and her scheming to change her fate but as she chooses a different path, more of the story diverges from what she’s familiar with and it’s more difficult to push ahead when she doesn’t know what’ll happen next. I enjoyed the world building and the sweet and unhinged guard, Key. I’m not sure I’ve ever wanted to give someone so bloodthirsty a hug but there’s a first time for everything.

The story within a story was interesting and there were twists and turns along the way which kept me on my toes and struggling to work out how things would go. The characters, despite Rae’s view of them as not being real, began to feel more and more real as the story moved on which messed with my head a little. I’m incredibly invested in this weird non-friendship between Marius and the Cobra too so I need some more of that.

I wanted to love this story a lot more but I think that it might be that I wasn’t quite in the mood for it, as I did find myself getting into it when I picked it up but at the same time, I wasn’t really connecting with the characters so perhaps it was a mix of things. I also didn’t realise this isn’t a standalone so that totally threw me as I got near to the end and things weren’t yet resolved.

I received a free copy of this book. All views are my own.

Whilst I enjoyed this for what it was, it definitely felt less adult and more YA in a lot of places. I don't know if it's the writing style or what, but I wasn't entirely convinced it wasn't just upper YA.

This book was the most fever dreamy book I’ve ever fever dreamt. I had so much fun reading this and it had this very nostalgic quality to it that came with our main character Rae, being a fan of the series (if she can be called a fan lmao). In a way, she was a very self-insert character but in the sense that, as an avid fantasy reader, I’ve always somewhat wanted to be a part of the fantasy world I was reading about, and Rae got to be that very thing. However, she also had an amazing and extremely witty personality that was a result of her experiences in the real world, and she was absolutely hilarious. This book is just a series of « what ifs? », taken to the extreme and turned into a parody but still with a compelling plot, a fun world-building and hilarious characters. The author used very common fantasy tropes (especially in those older fantasy published in the 80s/90s) and added their own twist to them so that they created this super refreshing storyline. My only thing was that it was maybe a bit too long and the 60 to 80% mark dragged a little in my opinion but it was still such a good time and I truly recommend. 4.25 stars

I absolutely loved loved loved this book! It's fun, it's witty, and it'll punch you right in the gut.

Also it has a horse called Google Maps and I Love That!

Okay, since no one else will, I'm going to be the bitch to give this book one star. No, I haven't made it past the second chapter, and after reading some of the other reviews, I won't be trying to. Some people did say that it gets better after chapter 9 -- and if you have made it that far, I salute you.

When I read the synopsis I thought this would be like those "a girl from this world gets mysteriously reincarnated into a villainess destined to die" isekais, but while the inspiration is there...

I obviously can't speak about the plot, but I'll speak about what I can: the prose and the absolute corniness of every single dialogue.

But let's start with the prose.

Maybe I'm still in my editing mode from having finished a novel of my own recently, but the prose is abysmal. At first I thought it was just ME PROBLEM but then I started noticing pure craft mistakes. I know this is an arc and I shouldn't comment on the prose because it can change, but I highly doubt that someone is going to do a complete rewrite this book needs two weeks before publication.

The prose its very repetitive, which you'll especially notice when you're reading the same paragraph thrice to figure out what the hell did the author mean to say. The text is full of similies, but someone control F-ed and deleted all "LIKE"s so you get sentences like these:

"Rae swept across the marble floor, her skirt a darting red snake behind her..."
Which gets tired REAL FAST.

The author also tends to repeat the same metaphors, sometimes in the very same paragraph:
"Now Rae found herself drowning in a broken pieces of the world. Fragments blue as the hearth seen from space, with cracks running through the blue as if someone has shattered the world then fitted the pieces back together."

Not one, but three different words keep repeating in this paragraph: pieces, world, blue. If I did that, ProWritingAid would have gone nuclear on me.

Not only the author can't write transitions ( character moving from a to b ) so every now and then you feel like you have skipped a paragraph or something -- but also there are outright continuity errors, things appear and disappear, parts of the dialogue appear unconnected to each other.
This book series is the MC's favorite of all time, but also it's really her sister's obsession and she never read it, or wait she did, but not the first book, and it's the only thing keeping her afloat, but also she doesn't care.

I'm not sure if these were mood swings or just inconsistencies. And oh the dialogue.
Most heroines in Isekais try their best to blend into the world they found themselves in, but not Rae. Not only does she spurs modern slang -- and not even modern slang, internet slang, because I refuse to believe someone would say some of this stuff aloud unironically -- but also talks openly about scenes, tropes, etc. And none of the characters find it strange!

I knew I was signing up for corny. Still I never thought I would read the lines "launched into a villainous monologue" or "villains unionize!" outside of a tumblr post. But that would be fine. I would forgive the corniness, as much as it made me cringe, if the prose didn't try to be so lyrical a flowery at the same time. Like the author desperately wants you to know that she is a big girl, that can write high fantasy, but that's the only part about the book she takes seriously, so we end up with this one hell of a confusing mash up.

Gosh, I can hear the author giggling at herself with every corny line. Eleven year old girls on Wattpad show more maturity in their writing. The publisher sure knew why they allowed reviews only few weeks prior to release.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for prividing me with an arc in exchange for a honest review.

If I had to describe this book in one word it would be fun.

Long Live Evil takes a refreshing twist on the fantasy genre and feels very meta - which was both a pro and con for me as sometimes it worked really well but at other points it felt a bit cringey. The side characters were great, but the main character did annoy me a bit. The plot also fell a bit short for me at points and although I enjoyed the writing this isn't a story that has stayed with me.

3.5 STARS

I had so much fun with this book! I think that its best feature is that it is refreshing in some unique ways. And I really appreciated this. It is original, it is quirky, it is a lot of fun and it was, all in all, a really enjoyable read. That said, I have to add that I was hoping for more. I think my main problem with it is that this is one of those books where the characters don’t talk to each other (meaning that they don’t talk about relevant things, not that they are giving each other the silent treatment!) and this overcomplicated the plot in some unnecessary way.

Another great thing about this book is that it is so satisfying! Our MC is strong-willed and she makes no excuses for herself. She wants it all, and she is not ashamed. And it was soooo good! Rae is evil, without being really evil, and I loved her. I think we need more of her energy around.
Go girl, go! I don’t have anything to add.

But my favorite character here was Key. He stole the scene. And okay, he is evil. Sort of.
Okay, okay, without “sort of”. But he is just soooo good! I don’t know what really made such a strong impression here, but he was my favorite. My absolute favorite and you need to meet him!
And around these two we have other interesting characters, because the Golden Cobra and Lord Marius are good characters and they are worth meeting. I really liked them both, not as much as Rae and Key, because they really were my favorite, but they are good. And some of the minor ones have good moments too.

It is also a book with a strong meta component to it, and this was great. It made for a lot of funny moments, and it made me think about How To Become the Dark Lord And Die Trying, a book that I loved to pieces.
What didn’t really work so great for me was the plot. It is overcomplicated because all the characters are scheming so nobody talks about things and this makes things more complicated, even when there is no need for it. The twists aren’t really so original or so unexpected, I seriously think that the plot is not the main point here, because it is all the rest that steal the show, but still… I think that a tad more effort into it would have been good.
Another thing that didn’t work so well with me was the ending. It is not bad, and it works well with the book but it is not the kind of end that I usually prefer, and this book is not exception.

I think that this book is worth a read, especially if you want to read something a tad different from all the rest. The “evil” perspective here is good, the meta is well done and together they made for some really good moments. And the characters are pretty good, too!
But still, even it is worth a read because it is not bad (not bad at all) and there are a lot of good things here but… but it is not a must-read.

This was a fun and chaotic read that I definitely enjoyed. Imagine being able to live in your most beloved book world and staying one step ahead of others because you already know how it ends. This was incredibly fun to read and I loved every moment of it. Definitely would recommend it.

Long Live Evil was my first Book by Sarah Rees Brennan and it was quite a ride! I did not expect to laugh this much nor the way I had to cry at the end. I liked how Rae was portrayed and how she puts her family and friends first. She is a witty and smart character that was very easy to be liked. The writing style was interesting to me but I did need some time to get used to it. I do have to say that the plottwists were a little bit predictable and didnt shock me the way I expected they would, nontheless was the book very easy to read and had a bunch of interesting and funny characters that sort of created this "found family" trope. I will overall recommend this book to my customers, especially if they like fantasy, morally gray characters and a sideplot of romance.

Will be reading more books from the author!

Thank you Little Brown Book Group and Netgalley for the Advanced Reader Copy
#NetgalleyUK #LittleBrownUK

“Brilliantly self-aware- a fantasy of the year!”
A brillianty self-aware take on being lost within the pages of a good book! Perfect for fans of the Assistant to the Villain series. Such interesting dynamics between characters and relationships as well as phenomenal plot twists in a setting usually fairly predictable. A fantasy highlight for 2024 for sure!

Holy wow, this book is so freaking good. One of the absolute best that I have read this year.

First of all, I LOVE and adore the concept. Lately, I have really been enjoying the trend of characters falling into the real life setting of books they have been reading. It's such a fun and quirky idea, and I think it works really well. However, this one elevates it even more, by the main character being the villain in the book - so a brilliant twist! Personally, I think it would be really fun to be a villain, so I'm fully on board!

Something I really loved about this book is that when you strip away the humour and the fun, there is a lot of tragedy. It's not all fun and games, there is a lot of heart, heartbreak and pain in this book, and I think it's handled really well by fusing it with the humour. It gives it more depth, while also lightening the story a little; I think it's a really good balance.

The characters are the heart and soul of the book; Rae is everything and I love her. She's such a FANTASTIC character (is she the protagonist or antagonist?) who just completely steals the show whenever she's on the page. She's fun, sassy, evil (but in a fun way); while also incredibly caring and loving. She's also such an interesting character because she has such a tragic background and history; there is depth to her character. I just think she's really well drawn. I loved Key also; he was such a fun and blood-thirsty character who added so much humour to the book. How is he such a likeable character?! Lia was possibly the most interesting character; there was so much to her that surprised me. She's not who she seems, but in the best way possible.

I will say that it did take me a little while to properly get into the book; you're thrown almost in the deep in in the first few pages, just trying to understand everything that's thrown at you. I did struggle a little at the beginning, but the story very quickly picks up!

I highly recommend this book, it is hilarious and action-packed!

How many times have you dreamt of entering the world of your favourite novel or series? Got lost in the thought of meeting that character or leading the charge against that villain? Being the one to entice that dark haired, shadow wielding … *cough* ok, let me bring it back to the point. Many of us dream of entering our favourite fantasy novel, with the usual caveats, of course. Obviously, we want to be one of the rich or powerful or beautiful characters, not the cannon fodder or poverty stricken nobodies that hover in the background, worth nothing more than a passing reference, if that. But what would it take you to actually DO it? Maybe your imminent death? That’s what happens to Rae. When a mysterious woman reveals that there’s no hope left for her, that her tumours have spread and the upcoming costs of treatment will destroy her family before she dies anyway, she’s offered one opportunity to change it all, to live. And she takes it. Who wouldn’t? Finding herself in the pages of her favourite fantasy series, Rae uses every bit of her (admittedly patchy) knowledge of the plot to keep herself alive and manipulate her way to her goal - stealing the Flower of Life and Death. It’s her only chance to live her real life again, free of disease and pain. But being a villain is harder than it looks and the real world is not the only place where death stalks the story…

There’s no doubt that this is hugely fun and one of the most innovative and memorable books I’ve read in a long time. I’m not usually a fan of modern day/fantasy crossovers, but the pop culture references in this were spot on and genuinely funny. The main character’s awareness of the ‘rules’ of fantasy, and this story in particular, had the same vibe that’s been used so effectively in horror films - there’s real comedy in the meta aspect of genre fiction and the author plays that game well here. Our main character, Rae, now Lady Rahela, leans in to her role as sexy villainess, and up first on her to-do list is preventing the execution plan that will have her dead the morning immediately following her ‘arrival’ in her new body. But Rae is a problem solver and without the heavy burden of a dying body and endless pain, she’s ready to take on the world. And boy, does she do it with style. Building a team of evil minions, she schemes her way into a whole new plot line. While Cobra (spymaster and bling extraordinaire) was a firm favourite, I quickly fell totally in love with the amoral Key (person, not inanimate object) whose love of backstabbing and all other forms of violent action was wickedly appealing. I’m a sucker for a bad boy. Or in this case, a gleeful sociopath. There may be a deck of morally grey characters in this novel, but some are pitch black - selfish and savagely cut-throat. In a novel which questions what it really means to be a hero or villain, it’s fun to see darkness walking in the figure of Key. Who doesn’t want a man who’d kill the whole world just to brighten your day?

Playfully shattering expectations from the first page to the last, this author brings us a truly original reading experience. The ending was everything that I wanted, dark and deadly and beautifully obsessive. There’s something so freeing about being able to cheer for Team Evil without any of those pesky moral qualms. Who knows what kind of death and destruction they plan next? Whatever depths of Hell they sink to, I’ll be there for the party with my own sharp smile.

ARC via Netgalley

Huge thanks to the publisher for sending me an eARC for an early review.
I must admit that at the start I wasn't a fan. At all. Honestly, I was about to cancel my pre-order of the physical copy but WHAT AN ENDING!
If you like fanfiction, if you have ever read a portal fantasy fic where the MC ends up in her favorite fantasy world this book is for you, if you love villains romance this book is definitive for you.
I absolutely loved the final plot twist even if I kinda suspect it at the start of the siege.
It's not one of the best book I ever read, not at all, but that's ok. It was a good guilty plesure. 3.5 stars.

i had to dnf this one - the writing just felt so silly and immature, which is really unfortunate as the premise sounded amazing

"Long Live Evil" seems, at first glance, to fill a special spot in my reading heart: One reserved for evil women being allowed to be evil, which shouldn't be a novelty but somehow still is. The description sounded delightful, for several reasons: There's the idea of suddenly becoming a part of your favourite fictional world, and the concept of not being the great heroine but the evil wicked stepsister when you arrive there. Sounds delicious, sounds like just my thing.

And I did have a lot of fun with Sarah Rees Brennan's adult fantasy debut. I'm not familiar with her as an author and haven't read any of her YA books, but she seems to have many fans and I'm always excited for YA authors dipping their toes in the adult fiction sphere. That being sad, this book reads very YA in many ways, just with more violence.
Good things first: I loved the way our protagonist's cancer was treated. An ongoing trauma that doesn't just disappear once she steps into this other world, but that haunts her and defines a lot of her actions. I wanted even more of that actually, instead of said protagonist, Rae, constantly talking about her "huge rack". But what was there I really thought was great, and after reading the author's note it makes a lot of sense. Brennan is a heroine in her own right, and I'm so happy she got to write a book that is so personal to her after all she's been through.
The writing was also enjoyable, and I liked most of the characters and the constant court intrigue they found themselves in. The general theme of expectations based on clichees is a good one and I wish would have been expanded on in a more serious way, and the big finale is just bonkers and super fun.

I did have some gripes with the book, though. For one, it's just way too meta in a really cringey way. Rae, our protagonist, never even tries to adapt to her new surroundings, she just plays a role and does it rather badly. There is some cringeworthy language here ("powerful AF" is only one terrible example), and her using a modern saying that some other character then doesn't understand is funny the first one, two, three times, but then the joke gets old. I just sighed and kept rolling my eyes at some point. It gets exponentially worse when she meets another character that is from her world and they both start doing it constantly. The joke is dead, please stop kicking it.
There are other instances of scenes that go far beyond the line between "funny" and "cringey", like an absolutely terrible musical number or Rae constantly telling everyone how very wicked and also sexy she is.

The character writing is also not the best. Rae has a lot of potential, but becomes very annoying due to the aforementioned meta-ness of her. She shines whenever there are moments of actual depth, often with side characters like Key or Lia, that allow her emotional complexity to show. These moments are why I overall still like her, but I also can't take her very seriously because of all the rest.
Rae's serial killer minion, Key, is a really interesting character made even more intriguing by later developments, but it's also clear that he was supposed to be a certain kind of sociopathic villain trope that wasn't used in a very nuanced way. But he has potential to become amazing.
There's also the Golden Cobra, who is a walking Flamboyant Promiscuous Bisexual clichée who starts out incredibly obnoxious, but gains a little more complexity later on. His relationship with his favourite character, Marius, is intriguing, and Marius himself seems boring at first but might turn out to become my favourite of the bunch. Yes, I'm surprised too. There are more side characters that admittedly didn't manage to really caprivate me in any way, which is sad because two of them are sapphic, but maybe they get expanded on in the sequel. Generally, I sadly don't find any of the characters very memorable.
The plot was a bit all over the place and it often just seemed like ideas plastered together in order to get to the next funny scene. I never felt any stakes. The constant back and forth of serious, emotional scenes and completely wacked weirdness gave me whiplash. The pacing felt meandering, thought at least the finale made up for it a little, even if it felt a bit rushed and confusing.

So in the end, this is a middle of the road kind of book. It's a fun time, especially if you like isekai stories, and it has some cool ideas. It lacked the exploration of evil I was hoping for and the humour got a little too much for me, but I can see why this will have many fans.

2,5 stars, rounding up to 3.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this arc! I gave this book 4.25 stars as it was amazing! I loved the plot, the characters and the world building. The FMC was just pure sass and awesomeness, and I loved seeing her grow as the book went on and I loved her interactions with other characters. The ending had me SHOOK as I did not expect it at all, but it was soooo good and I need book 2 rn. I need book 2 as we cannot have a cliffhanger like the one we had here, please send me the arc of book 2🙏🙏🙏🙏

Tropes:
- Found Family
- Love Triangle (?)
- Pining

DNF @ 20%

The premise is what initially attracted me: a story where the protagonist gets to experience reality in her favourite book series? And as a villain? Sign me up NOW.

Unfortunately, the writing style was not for me. I found the exclamatory statements to be jarring and the meta references a little cringe.
The portion of the book I read felt too YA for my taste.

I’m sure this book will be enjoyed by others - if you’re looking for something with stronger young-adult vibes, this book is for you.

Thank you to Little, Brown Book Group and NetGalley for an electronic proof of this book.
All opinions are my own.

I was blindsided by this book. I was, forgive the colloquialism, SHOOK. To my CORE.
I didn't expect this.

Long Live Evil opens on a very sad, bitter note. Rae is sick, very sick, as in dying. Of cancer. It's a bitter taste in my mouth on the best of days, but I sensed the author wrote this part out of a cruel, first-hand expierence (and upon reading the acknowledgements, I found out I was right). Having a mother currently going through chemotherapy - it was hard, reading it. But it was devastatingly accurate, and I can appreciate that.
Our heroine (or villainess, if you will), Rae, has one bright light left in her life: Her sister. Her sister, Alice, who loves to read her her favorite book series, to provide comfort and love and something to bond over while fighting this terrible disease. In-universe, it's called Time of Iron, and is written by an anonymous author. Rae also loves the books, but she loves the characters best of all, and among those, her favorite is the Emperor. We all have loved characters like this before. Remember the Darkling in the Grisha Trilogy, or the way girls went mad over Dr*co M*lfoy, or even Gale from the Hunger Games. The bad one. The not-ovious choice.

But Rae is dying, and fantasy books cannot save her, until they do. She is given the change to save herself: Step into The Time of Iron in a body that is not your own, and pluck the Flower of Life and Death when it blooms, and you will be back in your own body, cured. Done. Healthy. Alive.
Rae doesn't quite believe it's true, until she wakes up in the body of Lady Rahela, the heroine's evil stepsister, on the eve of being executed for treason. And by god, it's time to be evil to get to that magical flower.

This shouldn't work. This couldn't work, I said as I started reading. I expected a camp-y romp across a bland fantasy with some Disney's Tangled (trademarked) magic thrown in.
But no. The fantasy in this has legs to stand on. Such stable legs, in fact, that I ended up actually BITING MY NAILS. It's fantasy unlike anything I ever read, and I absolutely goddamn loved it. I haven't read characters like this in a long time, and I wanna scream and cry about some of them (Key and Marius and Emer in particular) BUT I'm not gonna take away anyone's enjoyment of reading these plot twists for themselves. Just know that I went absolutely feral over them, and I never expected this. Rae goes into this world, thinking that these people aren't real, because they're just characters in a book, and we, as readers, are strung along on that chain of belief, until we, together with Rae, slowly begin to unravel that thread and watch them become real and dimensional and achingly important. I simply haven't experienced a shift like that in fiction before. And sure, we still get the campy real-world references, from a horse called Google Maps to sunglasses being invented to Rae constantly referring to the novel feeling of having Really Big Tiddies -
But I loved it, in the end. I really, really, really loved it.

Thank you.

And now I have to suffer and wait for the next book. Ugh. I'm gonna fling myself into a ravine of screaming corpses, and hopefully look good doing it.