Thank you to Netgalley for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a solid three and a half for me; I'm rounding it up to four stars, just because despite the flaws, I did think it was a lot of fun! I did unfortuately not realise it was going to be part of a series (warning if you're expecting a standalone: this ends on a massive cliffhanger!), but I'm not going to fault it for that - just something to be aware of going in!

Long Live Evil centres on Rae, who is given a chance to save herself from her terminal illness by entering the world of her favourite (well . . . her sister's favourite, and hers, kind of!) book series. The only catch is that she will not know what life exactly she will be born into in this universe . . . and unfortunately for Rae, she ends up taking the place of the villainess, only a little while before canonically she ought to be dead!

Rae was a fun character. She's deeply flawed, which works very well here (it's hard to imagine a paragon of moral goodness taking to her new place so well!) - but she does love her sister, and that love is what drives her through the whole book. She's a little embittered from the hand that life has given her, too - she wants that second chance, and she'll do anything to get it.

The side characters are all plenty of fun, too - it made me wonder terribly what the original book series was like, if Rae was not there! They're funny and charming and interesting - but the book unfortunately wanders around perspectives a bit too much for my liking, I don't mind a dual narrative book at all, if that's what I think it is coming in - but the dual narratives don't begin until well past halfway through the book, by the time you've really gotten to grips with Rae herself and you kind of just want to continue spending time with her!

My other big problem with this book is the prose. At times it just . . . seems to be trying too hard to be witty and deep, and it kind of ends up feeling like you're being banged over the head again and again with the 'point' of it. I lost count of the number of metaphors we encountered about how evil is about being out for oneself. It's not bad prose (well - I'm not personally a fan of super-trendy cool modern terminology that will feel dated in ten years, but I get that lots of people are, and this is something that Rae does a lot), but it just . . . doesn't always mesh with the kind-of-comedy-kind-of-deep vibe that this book is trying to get going for it.

That being said, I probably will pick up the second one. It's a really big cliffhanger, and I'm attached to the characters enough to overlook the other flaws!

Con Long Live Evil esperaba encontrarme una lectura subversiva, que pusiera por delante al malvado, que diera otro enfoque a la historia. Sin embargo, me he encontrado una novela sobreactuada, previsible y ciertamente aburrida.


La narración comienza con la joven Rae, enferma de cáncer, que en su lecho de muerte recibe la oportunidad de viajar al mundo de fantasía que le leía su hermana durante su larga convalecencia buscando una salvación mágica que parece imposible. Esta primera parte ya es bastante insufrible, pero ni punto de comparación con lo que llegará después. Se puede tratar esta premisa de una manera muchísimo más elegante como Alix E. Harrow en A Spindle Splintered pero es que Harrow rebosa talento.

La excusa que utiliza Sarah Rees Brennan para que Rae se acuerde de unas cosas del mundo y de otras no es que se dormía mientras su hermana le leía, así que puede hacer de pitonisa de Hacendado con sus pronósticos sobre el futuro. Y aquí ya empieza a caer en barrena, porque nos encontramos con un desfile de arquetipos fantásticos tan previsible como aburrido, con unos elogios a la “maldad” directamente risibles y con la mención constante a la “narrativa” que recuerda a Redshirts, pero en peor. ¿Se pueden escribir libros meta? ¡Pues claro! Pero entiendo que hace falta algo más que referencias poco sutiles al Mundo real TM dentro de tu mundo de fantasía para que tu lector entre en el juego.

Además, el humor es entre poco sutil y basto, con constantes referencias al pecho de las candidatas a reina (se me había olvidado mencionar el detalle del harén del rey en espera de que escoja cónyuge entre las “afortunadas”). Me puedo reír de una broma zafia, de dos… pero una detrás de otra pues me acaba cansando. No lo recomiendo para nada.

DNF @ 70%

It really bums me out to DNF an ARC but I've been trying to read this one for a few weeks now but everytime I open it up there's always something that makes me decide to pick up another. I tried to give it a fair chance though so I got up to the 70% mark before finally deciding that I could spend my time reading another.

This has one of the most interesting concept I've ever seen, which is the reason why I had decided to request it here. It's definitely very meta and camp-y. I probably went into this book thinking it'd be something else (something more in the lines of high fantasy) and I'm not a huge fan of pop culture/stan twitter slangs in fantasy books - honestly, not even in contemporary but I can justify a few - so this was really hard for me to read. I also had a hard time with the writing and the dialogue. Plot-wise, it was fun? but I feel like there was so many parts where I was just confused by and I felt like there was so much info dumping about the world and the characters.

I’ll be brutally honest, I have very mixed feelings about this one. And, thats’ purely because it wasn’t my cup of tea which I think was a combination of several factors.

I started reading it - got to 19% and couldn’t remember much about anything so I started again because I wanted to give it a fair go.

I loved the whole premise - what bookish girly doesn’t imagine what it would be like to get transported into a book and live within the pages of a story? Except the fun twist is that you’re the villain instead of the hero. But it took me a little while to wrap my head around the world building and I kept forgetting who was who. The bouncing between what happened in the books (the main character had read and was now within) and what was actually happening was incredibly confusing. There was a lot of instances of repetition too. I didn’t find any of the main characters particularly interesting - the only character I felt had real promise was only featured in one chapter before she was unalived. The pacing in the middle was incredibly jumpy and by 75% I was toying with DNF’ing (which I hate doing)

That being said, there were a lot of humourous, fun and suspenseful elements and I’m sure there will be a lot of people that really enjoyed this one, I’m just sad that I wasn’t one of them.

Thank you to Netgalley for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I'm giving this a 4.5 rounded up to 5 to combat some of the very low reviews. I really, really liked this. It's a great idea with some really fab writing. Is it a bit of of a manic mess? Yes, but I kind of liked that about it.

This is the story of a dying girl who gets a second chance at life with the opportunity to enter the world of her favourite book. There's a catch, however - she turns up as the villainess.

I loved Rahela/Rae, but I REALLY loved the side characters. Usually flat secondary characters were given life and body in a way that's often missing in fantasy. The relationship between The Last Hope and The Cobra was easily my favourite thing in this novel, and I'm excited to see it develop if the writer continues this story as the ending suggests.

And onto that ending...

Until the last twenty percent, this was a 4 star read for me - 5 in places, 3 in places. The final fifth of this book makes it, and turns it from a fairly light, amusing bit of madness to a book I'll be thinking about for a while.

Overall, a really excellent read. If you like unusual ideas and an interesting execution, you might like this, but be warned - this is not your standard fantasy novel, and I don't think it will be for everyone. If it does catch you, though, you might just love it. I look forward to seeing what the author does next.

DNF at 14%

I’ve really loved some of Sarah Rees Brennan’s YA books so I was thrilled by the idea of an adult debut and the synopsis of this one, but I struggled to click with it. I ended up waiting for release day and switching to the audiobook and that hasn’t worked for me either. I think that maybe it’s just right book wrong time with this one so I’ll be back to it! But a soft DNF for now.

i really loved the premise for this book but I honestly couldn't get over the fact that the main character just starts talking in pop culture references and when she referenced rihanna, i knew i had to stop and read something else. it is probably for other people but this book isn't for me.

The concept of long live evil is somewhat similar to the Jumanji movies.
Instead of a game, a book 'invites' them to play ..

The two sisters Alice and Rae (our FMC) love a specific book named 'Time Of Iron' and Alice reads this book to Rae as she's battling cancer in the hospital. Due to her illness, there are gaps in her memory of the story but she loves it regardless. She is dying and she knows it. When a strange lady visits her and offers her a chance out, a chance of survival, Rae reluctantly accepts this weird invite.

When she is surprised the magical bargain was actually real, and she is no longer in the hospital but in a new (rather curvy) body.. her story begins. However, she is not the heroine, she is the villain - in the world of her favourite fantasy series. And she is about to be executed.

"𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘭, 𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘩𝘴."

The concept of this all sounds super intriguing. Who doesn't want to jump in their favourite fantasy book? I know I'd like to go on some of the adventures I've read about! And as a villain? Colour me intriguuueeeeed! I LOVE a good villain story!

Another thing that had me interested in this was the fact that our fmc was battling cancer. Not too long ago, my mother was declared terminally ill (but miraculously somehow healed), my dad got cancer in that same year and I had a surgery myself to remove pre-stage cancerous spots. So it hit 'home', you can say. I wanted some bad ass story about beating that b'tch!

But, I'm sad to say that I struggled.
The beginning lured me in, but the second she finds herself in the realm things fall flat for me. It was confusing and both annoying to read her story and then fall back to the story as she read it from 'the real world'. I understand this is the author's way of explaining things as she goes, but it took away from the pace of reading for me and it just felt like info dumping.

I found myself to put the book aside - quite a bit - and then talk myself into picking it back up again, maybe it would get better? I've managed to read half of the book and I'm still really bored out of my mind.

"𝘕𝘰𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘯. 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘐 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘷𝘦. 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐'𝘮 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦, 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧: 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳. 𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘷𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺. 𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘥."

I've no connection to the characters, I feel like I already know where the story is heading. It's again infiltrated with words like "A.F." and comes across as immature (with jokes like 'the bone house' when it's called The Room Of Memory And Bone. Understandably, she talks like this because the worlds are very different and Rae is from the real world. Maybe it's a generation thing, ha. But it was still a thing I disliked about the book, so name it, I shall.

There's quite a bit of repetitiveness; Rae has curves, a big bosom, is wicked and evil (I don't find her that villainous at all, it's nearly as she has to continue to convince herself that she is 𝘚𝘖𝘖𝘖 evil.). Lia is perfect and innocent and.. perfect. There's only so many times where you can state these things before it becomes utterly annoying.

"𝘐'𝘮 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘥-𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘴."

So, sadly…
I DNF'ed this at around the 50% mark - I just don't feel like struggling through a book anymore, when I could also spend that time reading something I enjoy and actually can't wait to dive back into.

I'd like to thank the publisher for providing me with an eARC though, much appreciated! ♥️
Just sad to say my honest opinion wasn't too positive this time.

Chaotic and original story.
Many fantasy readers have dreamed of it, but for Rae, it's really happening. She takes the place of one of the main characters in her favourite book. The story has an intriguing beginning right away because of this.

However, the story is written a little too comically and too chaotically for my personal preference, especially when you are expecting an epic tale. The contrast between Rae's contemporary language and the rather medieval atmosphere of the story she finds herself in really bothered me. More towards the end you do get more used to it, but it remains an element that for me really takes me out of the story. That somewhere it also stems from the coping mechanism of the main character, I agree, but still... It also feels more like a children's book than an adult book. Furthermore, I also find it very difficult to keep my attention on the story while reading and be completely on board with everything. A story within a story is always a little harder to follow, but here the main plot just disappears regularly, making it harder to follow. It is also often unclear to me why certain things are happening, a lot could easily be scrapped in these 500 pages. It's just all chaos. Then add to that the fact that I don't really feel a connection with any of the characters, and you already understand why this book will not make my favourites list.

What I do really like about this story are the action scenes. They are numerous throughout the book and each time very engagingly written. It almost feels like you are tagging along for the fight. The smooth pen (even though the style used is not my thing) makes for a fluent reading experience. The fact of being a person from the real world, ending up in a book, is in itself also very cool I think. There are also a lot of strong female characters in this book, fortunately they are not all damsel in distress. Not only there are several great female characters, the Cobra is also one of my favourites in this story. The aspect of Rae and others being the bad guys, could have been played out a bit more for me. But at the same time, in this way it is shown that even in fairy tales there is not always a clear line between good and evil, that even the heroes have a dark side and the villains can be fully committed to something good. So does evil win in this story? For that you will have to read Long Live Evil yourself.

Being honest, I really struggled to get into this book initially. I picked it up and put it down several times before I made it to a point where I was engrossed. I read some of the reviews and stuck with it and I'm really glad I did. The beginning is difficult to get through but once you get used to the writing, it's a really fun enjoyable read and a really great story.

Since the story follows Rae, who given the choice to live in the world of her favourite book series or die in ours, it offers up some really funny fourth wall breaking scenarios. In places it's like you share a secret joke with her that no one else is aware of. This mainly comes from all the modern language and colloquialisms that we are familiar with being used in front of characters that have no clue what she's talking about. Pair that with the fact that Rae thinks she knows the characters and story inside out before becoming a part of it, and you've got a recipe for a fantastic story.

Overall I'm really glad it stuck with it, because it does pick up and you will get to that point where you need to know what happens next.

"Long Live Evil" takes readers into the world of a new fantasy series, but with a twist—the heroine Rae, becomes the villain.
After a deal to escape her terminal illness, Rae wakes in a kingdom on the brink of war, filled with dangerous creatures and Marius, the Once and Forever Emperor.
The story is a blend of humor, meta-commentary, and classic fantasy tropes.
Rae's witty modern dialogue contrasts hilariously with the fantasy world's characters, creating laugh-out-loud moments. While the world-building and character connections falter at times, the clever plot twists and exploration of good versus evil kept me engaged. I can’t say I loved it all but once I left all my preconceptions about what I should expect in a story like this, I actually enjoyed the book.
Despite some imperfections, "Long Live Evil" is a fun, unpredictable read that leaves you eager for the sequel because this is the first book in a trilogy and ends in a brutal cliffhanger.

Very grateful to the publisher for my copy, opinions are my own.

"Long Live Evil" seemed like it would be a fun, campy read, but it just didn't hit the mark for me. The concept was great, but I often found myself completely lost. The writing was confusing, and I had to re-read sentences that still didn't make any sense.

The language was another issue. It felt like it was stuck in 2012, and some parts were just plain cringe. The main character's obsession with her "new asset" was especially annoying. Seriously, we get it, you have boobs now, but do we need to hear about them in every other sentence? Lines like "Rae moved to the music, her new assets jiggling" and "Abundant flesh was a thrilling shock every time" were over the top and awkward (not in a good way).

Pacing was another major issue. The story dragged, and even moments that seemed promising quickly fizzled out. Despite occasional glimmers of excitement, I found myself overwhelmingly bored for most of the book. I had no feelings for the characters; I had no idea who they really were.

All in all, "Long Live Evil" had potential, but the confusing writing, cringe language, and bad pacing made it a major letdown.

DNF at 40%.
I haven’t DNF’d a book in a long time but I just couldn’t get in with this. I wanted to like this book. I really enjoyed Brennan’s In Other Lands. And Long Live Evil promised a fresh take on the fantasy plot of a girl plucked from the real-world and placed into the world of a book.

Our heroine is dying of cancer. Which really should have been mentioned or given a trigger warning, and Brennan should know that. But aside from Rae’s illness, she is simply just indiscernibly infuriating! She's shoved into the world of her favourite book series by a woman who offers her the chance to steal what will apparently cure her in real life. Rae wakes up and has to figure out how to not get killed basically.

What made this unreadable for me? Mainly the dialogue. The dialogue leaves a lot to be desired, but also the writing is just … not good. Rae insists on using modern colloquialism and references at any given time, like some Taylor Swift reference thrown out before hitting a zombie … what?
Then theres the tropes. Brennan was clearly trying to explore classic fairytale/fantasy tropes and them twist them into something modern and new but it was pretty unsuccessfully done.
Also no book needs to acknowledge the size of someone’s tits that often.

In addition to the writing, the plot and characters are exhausting to follow. Such a big cast should not have so much names, and then the reader is expected to absorb the plot, with little context.

Basically, it’s a fanfic self insert and I didn’t have time for it. I’m sure it’s everything to someone, but it wasn’t for me.


Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit/Little, Brown for the ARC.

DNF at 34%. I really, really wanted to like this book. Leigh Bardugo blurbed it for goodness' sake. It promised a fresh take on the time-worn fantasy plot of a girl plucked from the real-world and shoved into the world of a book. Labyrinth did it right. Long Live Evil unfortunately did not.

Our heroine is dying of cancer. Sucks for her - and yes a death sentence immediately makes you feel sorry for Rae but it doesn't last long because she's indescribably annoying. She's shoved into the world of her (and her sister's!) favourite book series by an unexplained woman who offers her the chance to steal a moonflower (or something, I wasn't paying attention) that will apparently cure her in real life. Waking up in a locked room in a castle tower and in the body of the book's main villainess, Rae has to think quickly and figure out a way a) not to get executed right away; b) get allies and c) get that flower.

So what didn't hit the mark for me? Mainly the dialogue but also the writing isn't great. Rae insists on using modern vernacular and pop references at every opportunity, despite nobody knowing what they mean and probably giving giving up the bit. There was a Taylor Swift line that absolutely sent me, delivered in a action-hero offhand way just before hitting a zombie. The tropes get hit hard, and I appreciate that the author was trying to explore and then subvert them in a fresh way but I just couldn't wade through to see if they achieved it. The CONSTANT references to the size of her new body's boobs also added to the huge cringe factor. Oh, and she frequently refers to her employees as minions.

In addition to this is a writing failure that is unironically complained about BY THE MAIN CHARACTER at the start of the book - all the fantasy-land characters have two or more names and it gets very confusing. Rather than simplify the way each is referred to (and there's a largish cast), you guessed it, they are referred to by multiple names throughout. I found it not only annoying but tiring. On top of that, the reader is asked to absorb the epic plot details of this book world along the way, with little introduction. It doesn't help that Rae admittedly DOESN'T REMEMBER THE FIRST BOOK OF THE SERIES. Cancer-brain is blamed here but surely we could have had some kind of primer? Perhaps this is important later on - I guess I'll never find out.

All in all, it felt like a Wattpad self-insert fanfic where the author had attempted to cast themselves as Amarantha, give her a plausible backstory and a redemption arc for good measure and merrily create some make-believe mayhem in a world with magic, heroes and lurking evil.

DNF at 5%

I could not for the life of me get past the first chapter. The writing is HORRIBLE. I can't read a single letter more of this book. Nope nope nope.

Excuse me, what??

I was not expecting this book to play out like it did at all. The ending had me slack-jawed.

This is a weird book, and at the beginning, I was convinced that I wouldn't like it. I'm happy that I kept reading, because I ended up really enjoying myself. The storyline is incredibly meta, and at times that works excellent. It has its moments where it is super funny and timely and you can just picture the character looking at the camera Jim from The Office style. There were some points where the meta-ness didn't really hit and was kind of annoying, but the pros definitely outweighed the cons on this one.

I wouldn't say that the writing is great, but if you go in thinking this book is just going to be a fun time and not some work of literary genius, I think you'll have a good time. It's fun, but also emotional and you come to really care about the characters and their arcs throughout the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars rounded up.

I devoured this book and had an amazing time doing so. I laughed out loud, twirled my feet, screamed and cried. I cannot wait to see what comes next for this series.

The style, plot and humour is so specific and unique that I definitely think this book will be divisive. I don’t think everyone will like it. Less skit like than Assistant to the Villain and in someways as ‘tropey’ as powerless, but I do think if you like that you should like this.

It’s very meta and breaks the fourth wall in a way, sort of what Deadpool is to superhero movies but without the crude humour.

This is at its core a love letter to fantasy genre and everything readers love and hate about them, the predictable plot and premise and characters all being part of that. The commentary from the main character things you have probably thought yourself.

While I always thought Assistant to the Villain’s closest comparison was Shrek. Long Live Evil’s is Once Upon a Time when emma enters the fairytale lands.ish. It’s not a perfect comparison but you get the idea.

The book opens with our main character and her sister who love this book series. Who have opinions on love interests and ship certain characters. But the main character gets sick and a ‘witch’ or some mysterious women offers her the chance to go into the book and try her hand at getting the flower of life and death, which only blooms once a year.

As you can imagine while in the book, Rae (our fmc), can a constant narrative of in a book x, y, z happens and uses common modern language and phrases including pop culture. That the characters don’t understand. What it leads too is extremely humours dialogue that had me literally laughing out loud at times. Some may find this book silly but I loved it and it was the perfect fun book for me right now. At times the dialogue is how I imagine boomers must feel when they hear gen z/ millennials say they are doing something for the plot 😂


I won’t leave any spoilers but Key might possibly be one of my favourite characters ever for the joy his dialogue gave me 💜 I love him.

I need book 2 like yesterday

Alright, so the first few chapters of this book had me severely doubting whether I’d like it or not, but I am so happy I held on because oh was this such a fun read. Sarah Rees Brennan has written every fantasy readers dreams in this story, and she managed to find the perfect balance between the fun and the seriousness of this narrative.

‘Long Live Evil’ has the relatively straightforward plot of a character falling from our own world into their favourite fantasy novel—except in Rae’s case, she’s forced into the shoes of the villainess of the narrative and faces her imminent execution. What starts from there is an absolute wild ride of a story. Rae as a character first approaches her situation with a kind of carelessness that I found to be very frustrating, and she treated the story-world she had entered as unreal and something to not take seriously. Her apathy to both the people around her and dismissal of their issues was something I found quite grating for her character when I started reading, but upon reflection (and also later on in the narrative) I realised this was an intentional choice from Brennan and was an aspect of Rae’s character that was slowly going to be dismantled as the narrative dragged along. Once I got past that initial hurdle, the story became a lot more enjoyable, and I found the entire cast of characters to be so fun to follow and learn about. Brennan shows you the ins and outs of all of these characters, and by the end of the story, you can’t help but loving (or hating) them all.

The amount of twists and turns this story goes through is also incredible, and by the end of the story you are facing a number of plot twists that are both surprising but also make sense to the plot. It’s been a good while since a book delighted with its sheer unpredictability, and I loved ‘Long Live Evil’ all the more for it. Brennan also explores themes of good and evil quite cleverly in this book, and what starts off as quite clear cut lines between who’s good and bad quickly turns blurry as the narrative draws to an end. It was only as I got to the end of the book that I fully appreciated all the careful notion Brennan was placing in our heads, and how spectacularly she broke them as the book ended. ‘Long Live Evil’ isn’t a perfect book—the world could’ve been more fleshed out and some of the characters definitely needed to have more defined backstories—but it is one hell of a fun one, and I am eagerly anticipating what comes next (especially with THAT cliffhanger).

If I could, I would give this book more than 5⭐️!

“He was tall, dark and handsome, which Rae found suspicious. Normally when fictional characters were good-looking, they turned out to be important. Were side characters allowed to be randomly handsome?”

It’s been 3 days since I finished this book and I am STILL thinking about it! What a phenomenal book, it deserves all the starts and let’s just say it’ll be part of my top 10 of best books read in 2024!

The writing is very compelling, the plot feel refreshing and charming and all characters are relatable one way or another and feel so genuine. There’s scheming, prophecies and a will to survive - no matter what! There are fun plot twists, heartwarming scenes, heart wrecking scenes too - in fact, I did cry and iykyk - and a slow burn romance that I just LOVED!

I had a great great time reading - or more like, devouring - this book, I can’t believe it’s a debut! And the last and biggest plot twist completely left me breathless, I did not see that one coming at all! Oh, how I wish to have its sequel with me right now…!

Many thanks to the publisher for this galley 🫶🏻 and all opinions are my own!

The book starts off a little muddy, but I quickly got into the book and loved the characters' development. Who doesn't love a good villain? I loved how entertaining this book was! It was definitely a page Turner, and I finished it so fast! Did I figure out the plot twists yes, but it didn't diminish the storyline for me!



Thank you, netgalley, for the ARC