‘All of us Villains’ is a magical Hunger Games. Seven youths must compete in a battle to the death. They are competing for their lives and for their family’s right to yield high magic. Most have been training all their lives as their family’s champion.

The story is told through alternating points of views and it takes a little longer to get into as there are quite a few perspectives. I was hoping for a little more action and suspense. The multiple POVs made it difficult to pick a champion to root for.

I loved the concept for this book but I was definitely hoping for a glued-to-the-pages experience that I had with The Hunger Games series. I was a little bored of this book in the beginning but about halfway through I started to get into Alistair and Isobel’s storyline.

I realize that this book is the first in the series but I found the end to be very abrupt. It was as if most of the story had been resolved but it got cut off right before the end. There were things I loved and things I hated about this book. I wanted to love it so much because the concept is very appealing but the delivery was not always what I was hoping for.

Actual rating: 3.5/5

I'm not really sure what to say about this- it was one of my most anticipated books of the year, and objectively it was pretty good! A fun time with characters who are expected to be horrible but were mostly just doing their best in a shitty situation, and was entirely not what I was expecting.

All of Us Villains sports 4 character POVs, a fascinating town with ~traditional vibes, a magic system of spells and curses that can do incredible things, two bisexuals, and more plot twists than I imagined the authors could cram into 400 pages.

I really did enjoy reading this, I think my issue was the pacing and the build up. The first half of the book is pre-tournament, and it feels like the slowest week of my life. Of course all of this is world building and character building, and there's 4 POVs and relationships to build, so it's understandable that it's a little slow, but even though I know a lot happens in the first half, it didn't really feel like it.

Things start to pick up a little when we finally get to the tournament. The characters have 3 months to kill each other and provide a victor or the tournament ends and the magic will kill them all anyway. We have seven teenagers, scared out of their minds and ready to do some real damage.
At this point of course, we don't want anyone to die and things start to pick up!

Overall, I'm keen to see where this goes in the sequel. I have faith the authors will bring me something unexpected.

Thank you to Tor and netgalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

First off, Amanda Foody is one of my all time favourite authors, so I had high expectations for this. And I’m happy to say, IT DID NOT DISAPPOINT!

All of Us Villains follows 7 teenagers, from 7 different families who are all champions forced to compete in a tournament to the death. It’s The Hunger Games but with magic.

There are four POVs out of the 7 champions, and I loved each of their POVs. I really hope we get more in the sequel! I also hope there is going to be some LGBTQ relationships in the sequel, since there are LGBTQ characters.

I loved how dark this was, it’s a perfect read for fall/Halloween time. The magic system is so cool, with curses, high magic, and common magic. It’s all woven together throughout the story, which is what I love about magic systems when it isn’t dumped at the beginning, and rather talked about throughout the story.

This book is constantly referenced as a villainous Hunger Games and I don't think that really sets anybody up for the right expectations. There are seven children of the local families that must complete in a centuries old curse so that they can fight for their families right to high magick. They are all morally grey as they fight for their lives and the power that comes with controlling high magick. The stakes are high but nobody takes any risks and nearly the entire book we are in a limbo of various alliances that don't lead to a lot of deaths. A resolution is formed but not executed and one of our main characters does something irrelevant to the entire book and we get a fade to black on him at the end of the book. The end does not have a resolution I felt like I was missing chapters of the book. There will be a sequel but I wish it would have concluded more then it did. It felt weird that the book was done and there was no conclusion to the championship or any indication in the character POV's what was going to happen.

Pros:
Good magic system
A cast of morally gray characters
Complex character arcs
Potentially LGBTQ+ relationship (please, please, please)
Intricate concept to

Cons:
The ending fell very flat
Not enough death (b/c its supposed to be an evil murder championship with villains and really there is not enough death for the premise of this book)


This book is full of villains- sort of. Each character that we get a POV from is complex and has a strong personality that we get to unravel as we read their POV. It was odd that most, but not all, of the character had a POV and it sort of ends up being a spoiler as to why that is.

Alistair: Has not only trained his entire life to be his families champion but also taught to be the monster that everyone expects him to be. He is that monster until a sacrifice has gone to far and he is less villain more sad bad boy. I think it is easy to like Allastair especially with his point of view and we see the tragedy that has altered his life forever and many of decisions throughout the book.

Briony: Always knew that she would be her families champion and is a fierce advocate for the competition. That is until she isn't chosen to be her families champion and instead her young sister is. Briony is determined to take her sisters spot 1:) she is selfish 2) the selection becomes corrupt 3) she discovers there might be a way to end this bloody curse.

Gavin: The villain that I expected everyone to be. He is determined to show the world that his family is stronger than what everyone is lead to believe. He goes through drastic measures to ensure he has a fighting chance to win. He is ruthless and powerful and of course a sad softy.

Isobel: The only character that never wanted to be champion. She has been in the spotlight as her families chosen champion for an entire year and has had to become this person she never wanted to become. Honestly in the way of the true romantic relationship I want in this book. Isobel is really the only character who I didn't really enjoy.

Throughout this book I felt like I would be rating this book 4 stars (5 if the ending was good) but when I finished it I instantly wanted to rate it 2 stars. Then 1 because I knew the book could have had a better ending. I am settling with 3 stars because I enjoyed the characters and the concept of the magic and competition but the ending was lack luster. I am curious to see where the 2nd book will start us off at because I feel like we are currently in the middle of a story line that shouldn't have been severed at the end.

I think that a lot of people who enjoy morally grey characters will enjoy this book.

This book was dark, but it was dark in the best possible way. I never really put it to words, but it never sat well with me in a lot of the YA fiction (which, full disclosure) I love that kids are put into impossible situations, and oh boy does this handle this perfectly. Without spoilers, this book has a great premise, and I'm always here for a world where magic and non magic folks are written in a seamless way. It's a POV book, with each character switching off for chapters, and I think what I loved most about this book is each character is so clearly human, and just a kid trying to figure life out. It's a little bit wicked, a little bit redemptive, and a wildly engaging read. I highly recommend this to anyone looking to question who is a hero and who is a villian (and what makes one so).

I was given an ARC from netgalley for an honest review, posted to Goodreads.

I loved the storyline from reading the sampler. However, I found the pacing of the middle portion to be very slow. Pacing improved near the last quarter of the book, and I like how the tone shifted to be even darker than the opening.

I'm excited to read the next book in the series. There are a few characters I'm invested in, and I hope to see these side characters have a main role in the sequel.

Think Huger Games, but with magic.

This book definitely went hard on the Hunger Games vibe, but had enough of it's own originality to be pretty good. I enjoyed reading this book and being surprised at all the twists and turns of everything.

There are seven major families and each family selects a champion to compete when the blood veil drops. Whichever champion is left standing, that family possesses the high magic until the next blood veil drops in twenty years.

I can't wait for the next book to come out.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of All of Us Villains in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a great read! I enjoyed everything about this book: the plot, the characters, and the overall magical atmosphere. The comparison to the Hunger Games was bang on in the book synopsis, with the focus on the Villains instead of the Victors. This concept had drawn me to this book immediately, and I was super excited to receive an advanced copy of this book.

While there are seven characters that take part in the Blood Veil, as readers we are told the story through four alternating perspectives. I really enjoyed how each chapter was voiced by a different character. We get to see into the minds of each of these villains and learn the reasoning behind why they were chosen as Champions to represent their families in the Blood Veil for control over the magic in Ilvernath. I think the authors did such a great job creating a unique story for each of these villains, that played an important role in their decision making throughout the book.

I'm a big fan of reading about magic in books, and the authors did a great job utilizing magic in such interesting ways. I loved how these champions were responsible to create their own success in this tournament, by being given years to practice and perfect their crafting abilities to create spells or curses that would help them survive the tournament and beat their opponents. Each of the characters has their own strengths and weaknesses that show throughout the book, which is showcased by the level of spells and curses they create and bring with them into the Blood Veil.

I found myself flying through this book and I didn't want this book to end. I can't wait for the next one in the series to be released! I would definitely recommend this book to any fans of the Hunger Games or similar books.

Such an amazing book! Beautifully written, and it gives me hunger games, maze runner and games if thrones vibes but only bloodier. I definitely will recommend this book to all my friends once it’s out!

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was such an entertaining read. It’s described as a villainous Hunger Games retelling. Seven families each send one champion to compete in a tournament that determines who controls the high magic of Ilvernath.

I found the beginning part of the story essential but a little slow. The alternating POV’s made it interesting but it definitely was a lot of back story and build up. Once the actual tournament began I found myself not able to put the book down. The tournament was twisted. I found the villainous motives and actions exciting but I was conflicted. I started to like and connect to some of characters and definitely didn’t want some of the characters to lose.

The stakes were high and the curses and magic systems were well written. I definitely loved how dark and evil some of the characters were. I did find that many of them ended up having some less than villainous intentions but I felt it was believable. Not everyone wants to kill or be killed and just become their parents/family’s expectations. The ending was great and it is perfectly set up for the sequel. Overall I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait to see where the next book goes.

Such an amazing read! I became obsessed from page one. The characters are amazing, the setting is incredible, the writing style puts you right in the mood for it and it's overall an amazing read. Would definitely recommend for any fans of dark (very dark) fantasy and The Hunger Games!

Wow, wow, wow. I loved this book so much that I had to slow myself down while reading it just so that I could savor the words. Similar to the hunger games, everyone involved is thrown into a world where there's only meant to be one survivor. Making things even more interesting, there's legitimate magic involved and each participant comes to the event with whatever they've prepared - so not everyone is starting on the same level. To top it off, some participants in the Blood Veil have a history with each other, making the fact that they're supposed to kill each other to be the victor even harder. Talk about some baggage. A magical, bloody book filled with monsters and intrigue.

WHY DO I HAVE TO WAIT SO LONG FOR THE 2ND BOOK???? Thank you, thank you, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Macmillan- Tor/ Forge , the amazing opportunity to read an ARC of this book.

Fast-paced and gripping! Really enjoyed the twists and got attached to the majority of characters. Also a really excellent cliffhanger, which made me pumped for a Book 2.

All of Us Villains is the first book in a duology. The sequel is expected to be released next year. The book follows Allistair Lowe who resides in a remote town called Ilvernath. In this universe, high magick equals power and seven families have fought over it for hundreds of years through a tournament very similar to the Hunger Games. Each generation will put forth a champion to fight for their right to wield high magick. The tournament goes on for 3 months or until one champion remains.

Before this, the tournament has been known only to the seven families and some Cursemakers in town, but after a book about the curse of the seven families was published, Ilvernath gained a lot of attention from Cursechasers and the government.

At first, I thought this would be a handful to wrap my mind around, but the way the story was arranged made it a lot easier to understand. It's also because the tournament is 90% similar to the Hunger Games and a large chunk of this book is centred around that. So if you're expecting a complete revamp of the Hunger Games, this is not it.

To me, the world-building is average. The magic system is pretty interesting but the characters aren't as mean as I expected them to be. I wanted them to be meaner, cunning and more vicious but what I got was a very lame group of kids who relied on their families reputation to succeed. I didn't read this and thought "Oh they're *crazy* crazy!"

Overall, I feel like this really isn't up to par with my expectations. I think it relied too much on existing precedents of the genre like THG and HP. In fact, this book felt like those two combined, but you won't get anything more, which is unfortunate because there is obviously room for so much more. The enemies-to-lovers & one-bed-only tropes cannot save this one. I'm a little disappointed but not surprised. I rate this 2.5/5 stars.

I read this book in one sitting, putting off all of my responsibilities for the day. I actually didn't regret it when I woke up this morning. I'll address the biggest criticisms I see so far in the reviews.

"There aren't any true villains." Most of them have done despicable things for teenagers. That is right, teenagers. This book is YA, which means it is meant for 12-18. I didn't go into it expecting true villains. Although several of the characters are morally grey, as a reader you find it difficult to condemn a teenager who was raised for this task. Particularly one character. I find them all redeemable, which I like. I'd be sad if I found a teenager in a YA book that was unredeemable.

This is one of the many ways that it differs from Hunger Games, and makes it so much darker. In The Hunger Games there are few tributes that are prepared for the tournament. In this book, these children always know it is a possibility. They are brought up to believe it is something to be proud of. How dark is that? There are many other ways it differs from The Hunger Games, including multiple viewpoints and fantasy elements. I don't mind the similarities of this story to The Hunger Games.

I really enjoyed this book. The use of magic is very unique, the characters leave you wanting to more and the plot, which not entirely unique, has its own very unique twists. It is certainly one of my favorites, and I will have to purchase hardcopies when it releases. I have never read anything by these two authors, but I immediately went and added their other books to my TBR, at midnight. It was that good. I strongly recommend this to teens and adults, especially fans of Schwabb or fantasy. I don't know how I am going to wait until Fall 2022 for the second to come out-I have to know how it ends.

Oh my goodness but this one was incredible - I read it in a day! I enjoyed the sample, but didn't expect the whole book to be as amazing as it was. While I liked the sample chapters, they felt Vaguely Familiar and I was afraid the story was not going to be all that original. Boy was I wrong!

The story was fantastic - the characterizations were incredible, the pacing was spot-on, and the plot was full of action and twists and turns - and it all came together into a highly entertaining whole. I can't believe I have to wait a year to see how it all ends! My only worry is that I'm going to have to read the whole thing again before I can read the second book, because there are so many tiny details involved in the tournament that there's no way I will be able to hold all of them closely enough to give the second book the thorough read it will deserve. But with a story this engaging that's not really a bad thing - end with a quick and fast pace read like this, spending a day rereading it before starting the second book will certainly be no chore at all.

If you like action and intrigue and magic and betrayal and redemption, this book is definitely for you!

This book wasn't what I was expecting, but I still really enjoyed it! I found it to be a unique story, which can often be difficult to find in YA fantasy.

Every generation there is a blood moon, which signals the start of a bloody, magical, and hunger game style fight for the control over the high magic. In this story we are following Alistair, Isobel, Gavin, and Briony, all of which are part of one of the seven families that are fighting for control of the high magic. My favorite part of this book was the characters, particularly Gavin and Isobel, because they were well fleshed out and all of them had distinct motivations. Personally, I was not a fan of the romance since I'm not usually big on romance, but I did enjoy seeing how that relationship changed the characters involved and the enemy-to-lovers trope was played out well. Also, the banter between the characters was great! I also found the world to be very interesting. I expected it to be more of a high fantasy type of world, but it instead was somewhat of an urban fantasy. I do believe, however, that there could've been more worldbuilding.


One of the complaint I have about this book was the magic system. It was a great concept but just wasn't executed well. Throughout the book I kept expecting a better explanation of the magic or how it even works, but none came. So, I am still confused whether the characters had to speak a spell or just will the magic to cast in their mind.

Overall, I think this was a fun read that kept me hooked till the end and I'm sad I have to wait so long for the next book after that cliffhanger!

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Review:
The best way to describe this book is a dark, magical The Hunger Games. It is similar to the Hunger Games in the sense that we have an enclosed tournament with kids competing for their own survival. However, the cast of characters is very different. Also, there is a magical element and history to this story while The Hunger Games was more of a futuristic, dystopian society.

The characters are all flawed which makes the story interesting. There is no self-righteous hero to save the day, just a band of ruthless characters fighting for their own self-interest or the interest of their own families. This character dynamic was different than other young adult books because you don’t want to root for anyone at first. I would say Alistair and Isobel were my favorite characters, but Briony and Finely were more admirable towards the end.

I want to point out that this is a series! I didn’t know that going into it (I have made this rookie mistake so many times🤦🏻‍♀️) so I’m sad to have to wait until the next book is released.

💫Thanks @netgalley and @torteen for my ARC💫

This was … okay? It wasn’t bad but it also wasn’t anywhere near what I was expecting and unfortunately not because it turned out better than I thought it would.

All of Us Villains, the collaborative work by Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman, is a young adult fantasy novel set in a world that’s technologically close to ours but also filled with magick (yes, with an edgy k). Common magick, which can be found everywhere and within everything, and high magick, which is far rarer – so rare in fact that people thought all its sources had dried up.

Enter: The town of Ilvernath and its secret high magic source. And the centuries old curse protecting it. Because only one of the seven great families of Ilvernath can control the wellspring. And every twenty years, they fight for that control – they fight to the death. A gruesome premise, especially as the families have to choose their champions from among their children. But it is tradition and it is the curse and it is a secret no one outside the town knows about – until now.

And this is already where one of my biggest problems with the novel sets in: The world-building. This starts out with the big reveal that the whole world now knows about Ilvernath’s secrets, thanks to a scandalous book. The town is flooded by journalists and the government gets involved. However, I have no idea what kind of government it is, where Ilvernath stands in relation to the rest of its … country? Continent? World? The world-building is entirely limited to Ilvernath and even there it’s scarce.

Ilvernath has seven great families and a whole bunch of other people living in it, some of them normal (whatever that means in this world) and some of them spellmakers. I have absolutely no clue what makes a person a spellmaker. Apparently, it’s just based on … talent? And it’s a hereditary talent, as there are spellmaker families and dynasties? But other people can also make spells, as the champions demonstrate throughout the novel. They just aren’t as good? So it really has to be an innate talent, otherwise, if you grew up knowing you’d participate in a magic duel to the death, wouldn’t you make sure, you’d be able to craft all the most dangerous spells and curses?

In general, I found the magick system to be a bit underdeveloped and the whole tournament thing lacked some backstory. So, the seven families started this curse so no one but them could use the high magick of Ilvernath and they thought it would be a good idea to have some teenagers battle it out every twenty years. And, I mean, some of those families are apparently massive but others are decidedly not – which makes me wonder just how they manage to have an eligible kid ready every time the tournament happens. Also, wouldn’t you rather not have kids than send them to their almost certain death?

This irked me especially because I just could not figure out what the deal was with high magick. What does it do? What is it used for? What is magick in general being used for? What makes it so important? Yes, okay, magick can be used as a weapon and as high magick is more powerful, it can be used as a deadlier weapon, but these people have spent generations keeping the existence of their magick wellspring under wraps – so what the hell have they been using this magick for and why do they even care?!

As I said, the world-building, including the magick system, is a bit shoddy. And so was the characterization of some of the tournament champions. There is, not very surprisingly, seven of them, one from each family, ranging from 15 to … 17? 18? Not sure. But all teenagers, all equipped with a variety of plans, magick and, most of all, trauma. Really, what else would you expect, considering they were raised to be murderers for their families’ glories. However, this also means that they are way less villainous than the title led me to expect. Mostly, they are lost and traumatized kids – even those who want to be in the tournament, their main motivation is making their families proud and really, after growing up the way they did, how is that anything but the result child abuse methods honed over centuries?

At the same time, this is were the book gets interesting. Because this is all about breaking the cycle – of the curse, the tournament, their families stories and legacies, of abuse and murder. The novel shifts between the points of view of four different champions and each of them brings a completely different attitude to the tournament but they are all determined to break some cycle or other. And I liked that. I got their motivations, though one of them was a bit … well, Briony’s character and motivations seem somewhat flexible depending on what the plot needs. But the others? Yeah, I liked them – after a while, they grew on me, even though I could really, really have done without the ridiculous insta-love thing. Refining those queer yearning for your enemy vibes would have been way nicer. But at least the whole thing did get more and more grewsome, bloody and villainous.

So, despite all, I am still kinda looking forward to the sequel of All of Us Villains. I want to know where Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman take this story and whether it ends in blood or … well, I guess less blood is the only realistic option?

Many thanks to NetGalley and Tor Teen for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
All of Us Villains is the story of a town that has been thrust into the public eye thanks to a book exposing that not only does Ilvernath still have high magick, long thought to be depleted, but there is a deadly competition every 20 years to see which family controls said magick.
The competition is pretty simple; 1 champion from each of the 7 families compete to the death during The Blood Veil, a 3-month ordeal. Each comes to the tournament, theoretically, with a plethora of spell crystals to defend themselves and take out the competition.
I loved the world that this book built. I think it did a good job of explaining the magick system, while not overwhelming the reader either. The premise of this book alone was enough to get me more than captivated, and for the most part, it delivered. My only issue is the ending left off in a place I didn’t expect. I love a cliffhanger, but I really expected to have some more answers as to the end of the competition, however that may be.
Overall, I would HIGHLY recommend this book to fans of fantasy, especially hunger games. I cannot wait for book #2!