All of Our Demise – All of Us Villains #2
By Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman
Pub date: August 30, 2022
Narrated by: Billie Fulford-Brown and Raphael Corkhill

This is, indeed, an epic conclusion, and one I couldn’t wait for. The morally gray villains of All of Us Villains are the first to partake with the whole world watching and when the tournament breaks and a new member enters, lives will end in an attempt to end the curse.

Picking up immediately after the first book, there’s a little less action to begin with but things don’t take long to get rolling. The character arcs are more in depth and I enjoyed this aspect because each one is so valid. There’s one character I grieved and others I shipped but the most fun is the intertwining of personalities and the high magic! And dare I say, the rebellion!

I loved this dramatic and twisty conclusion to a truly epic duology! It’s read beautifully by the narrators and I felt every bit of the nail-biting tension!

Nothing more from me on this aside from READ THIS duology, especially if you’re a fan of the genre!

My thanks to @MacMillan.Audio for this gifted ALC

All of Us Villains was one of my favorite YA books of 2021! So, I was ridiculously excited to get an audio-arc of the final book, All of Our Demise, from Netgalley.

In the conclusion to the Tournament, we have new alliances, new players, and new curses. Book two picks up right where book one leaves off, and we’re thrown back into the Tournament as our champions try to end the bloody curse that has held their town and families hostage for decades. They have a fight ahead of them as not everyone wants the Tournament to end, and each champion has their own reasons for wanting the High Magic for their own. This was such an amazing conclusion to our champions’ stories. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time I listened!

I listened to the audio of the first book and the narrators for book two are the same. They do an amazing job of voicing each character and making sure each one has a distinct sound.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc! All opinions are my own.

3.5 stars

Overall, the story was fine and it was a decent conclusion to the story. There was some twists that I didn't see coming, but I felt like it took a while to really get going. Once it did, it was a lot of fun.

I listened to the audiobook and found a hard time paying attention to it. Mostly it was due to the male narrator who tended to start whispering to add to the dramatic effect. However, it became really hard to hear and I was missing a lot of what he was saying.

Great next book in the series, it had a lot of build up in it and sadness. The characters were hard not to love and hate all at the same time.

I found this duology to be really fun, I enjoyed my time reading it. I loved the arc with Alastair and Gavin in particular!

This is one of those rare instances that the sequel is better. I had a hard time with the first book since a lot of it felt like info dumping. This one was able to focus more on the characters and the story as they raced to the finish. I highly enjoyed seeing the changes in the characters as the story progressed and the plot kept me more entertained since I wasn't spending so much time trying to figure out what was happening.

The Audio for this story is fantastic. I also listened to the first one and the narration for both was clean, articulate, and engaging.

Wow, did I love this duology! I loved book one and was super nervous going into book two! What a satisfying conclusion, and then some!
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As the book said, nightmares lurked there. This book was equal parts brutal, thrilling, all engrossing with a touch of romance, and a magic system that is perfection. Billed as The Hunger Games with magic, it lived up to the hype. Many tears were shed and led to a satisfying conclusion where I like to think that those who survived are living their own happily ever after.
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Thank you @macmillan.audio and @netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

In terms of sequels, this one ranks on the higher end. Despite a bit of tedious back-and-forth in terms of the plot, I found myself thoroughly entertained and excited about what was going to come next. The magic system is still very intriguing to me and there were a few points in the book where it seemed like the authors were trying out a backdoor pilot for a potential spin-off series... and the open-ended ending kinda makes me hope they do actually do that!
Speaking of endings, based on the vibe of the book it really wasn't what I was expecting... again another reason why I think there could be an upcoming spin-off.

This is a story about the heroes of their own story.

I really loved All of Us Villains, and whenever I love a book I’m super nervous about reading a sequel because you never know. I’m so happy to say this was even better than book 1, and I’m only sad that it’s a duology so there won’t be further entries. The magic system is so much fun- one of my favorite aspects is that the authors show a wide variety of examples (vs have a character use the same party trick over & over à la Harry Potter). I feel like this must have been so much fun to write! I also loved the romance (not usually my favorite part of grimdark!) & in my head, they went on to a happily ever after life somewhere better.

Be warned though, I rate this 5 tissues- the tears were shed!

Thank you so much @macmillan.audio for the advanced audio!

ARC review - Expected release August 30, 2022.

This story picks up immediately where All of Us Villains ends, making you wonder if this was an author or publisher decision to spilt the story into two books.

That being said it doesn’t suffer from the same slow start as the first book, it’s a lot more action packed, and there is significantly more character development across the board.

It’s hard to give a synopsis of this story without getting into spoilers from book 1, but it takes the things the first book got right and then adds to them. You still have the different surviving family’s vying for the chance to control high magic, there are conflicting ideals on how the tournament should end. There are a couple new elements added to the story, kind of like mini-games within the larger tournament.

The characters remain morally grey, or at least morally conflicted, and the story does keep you guessing at the outcome right until the end.

While well written and enjoyable the magic system is extremely soft. Which is not a huge deal, i just prefer at least a semblance of rhyme or reason instead of just catchy names. I also feel like the darkness doesn’t live up to the advertising campaign. Again I realize it’s being published by Tor Teen but it’s pitched as R rated but they’ stay in the PG13 range.

While I think both books could have been edited down and combined into one longer book for better effect, I still enjoyed the story and would recommend it to others.

Narrated by Billie Fulford-Brown and Raphael Corkhill, they give a solid performance and do a great job of giving the characters distinct voices without being overly dramatic about it.

Big thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with a chance to get in on this book early. I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I was riveted, by the story and by the narrators. Character voices felt distinct without being affected. There was one scene I personally found very difficult to listen to read aloud due to the graphic violence (torture, in this case) so be aware that if you usually skim through particularly graphic scenes, this might be one to read yourself rather than listen to. But if you have the stomach for some violence, this is a great audiobook for older teens and adults.

I love this series. It was so good! My only problem with this book was it felt so much longer than it needed to be. I felt like it kept dragging on and got a little bored halfway through. But once I pushed through, I really loved this. The first book is definitely better to me but this was a great conclusion!

I was so incredibly excited to get this book! After reading All of Us Villains, I was hooked, and I needed to know how this fight-to-the-death was going to end! This is the final book in the All of Us Villains duology, and it is not a stand alone. If you haven’t read book 1, you need to because it’s amazing, and then come read All of Our Demise!

This story picks up right where we left off with Villains. The competitors have been pushed into two thought-processes. One group is fighting to bring down the curse while the other players are individually trying to become the victor. As the story progresses, there’s magic, danger, friendships, romance, and twists to keep you on your toes!

I thought All of Us Villains was so fast-paced, and I just couldn’t put it down. With this book, I felt the pace slowed a little. The champions each seem to have a few moments to step back and try to figure some things out. I enjoyed the secrets that were revealed, and the surprises I wasn’t expecting. I also enjoyed how the different relics and locations were destroyed. I loved those scenes of excitement and danger!

I would definitely recommend this for readers who have read the first book! If you haven’t read the first book, but you enjoy books like The Grace Year, The Hunger Games, or Red Rising, I think you would like this magical villain-centric duology!

As the curse teeters closer and closer to collapse, the surviving champions each face a choice: dismantle the tournament piece by piece, or fight to the death as this story was always intended.

The intricacies of the tournament are well explained throughout the book. The relationships are also much stronger in book two than the first book.

All of Our Demise immediately starts right where it left off, not necessarily in the most eloquent way. I wish that there would have been some type of build up back into the action with a chance to recap what happened in the last book. However, the same abruptness was mirrored in the ending of the last book.

Overall, I found this book to be a bit underwhelming.

Listening to this book as an audiobook was absolutely game changing for this book. The different voices for each character helped keep the POV's straight. There was genuine emotion in all POV's narrations.

What an ending!
When I first started this book, I didn't realize it was a duology (I thought it was going to be longer), but I think it worked well as one. It felt like a well rounded story and had a definite ending with things you could imagine for the future of these characters if you wanted to.
When I first read All of us Villains, I found myself not connecting with any characters and having a hard time with all the POVs. I did a reread before reading this one (both audio) and I think that was a very good choice personally. I reacquainted myself with everyone and had a better feel for them going into this book. I did enjoy the characters more in this book than the first one. I liked that most of the characters were morally grey.
I loved the romance. When it was first kind of hinted at, I was like "man, if this happens I will be so happy" and it happened! I don't want to give anything away, but I really liked the way this ended up going and I thought it was done well.
This book was LONG. It was almost 19 hours long. I do think it could have been shorter, I found myself thinking it was lagging at some points. In the first book we find out that instead of all the champions killing each other until one is left, there may be a way to keep everyone alive AND destroy the contest so no future generations of kids have to go through it. Finding the relics as they fall and trying to destroy the landmarks were the parts that really stood out to me. They moved the plot along and were really exciting. What I thought was kind of cool in this one was that at the beginning of the chapters (I can't remember if it was all of them or not), we would get a little news bulletin about what was happening outside of the competition. That was a great way to kind of pull in things that weren't happening with the champions, but keeping us in the loop of what was going on in the outside world.
In the first book, the magic system confused me. I felt like it wasn't explained as well as it could have been. In this book I continued to be a little confused by the magic system. I understood it well enough to get by, but I felt like I needed a little bit more explanation.
I really enjoyed both of the narrators of this book. There were a male and a female since we had 2 male POVs and 2 female POVs. At the same time, each were narrating 2 characters and sometimes I forgot whose chapter I was on. Both of the narrators had British accents, but it was never hard to understand them and they did great dialogue voices.
Overall, this was an incredibly fun duology any fan of The Hunger Games and magic would like!

I really enjoyed this sequel and it went in a direction I didn’t expect but I gladly welcome. I like book 1 which I loved for the plot but not the characters, book 2 made me fall in love with most of the characters and the story went to the background. This book managed to make me cry, laugh and cringe in pain, and I think it was a great wrap up for the story, even if some characters deserved better and others got better than they deserved, but I guess that’s just life.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the audiobook copy. I absolutely adore these narrators. And this is going to be very niche but they still sound great sped up. 😂

I highly enjoyed this duology. And I’m so glad that they made this a duology instead of trying to stretch it into a trilogy like so many other young adult series do. All of us villains was one of my favorite books of the year, and I couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen with these characters.

Something occurs at the beginning of All of Our Demise that had me literally pumping my fist in the air. I just love a vindictive girl who gets her revenge, and it was so satisfying. However, after that the first 20 to 30% did get a little bit slow as the book focused a lot on the families and the media, and the things going on outside of the tournament. What does it say about me that I just wanted to see some teenagers fight to the death? But at that 30% mark, things got crazy. I love it when plans are made and schemes are hatched and girls are ruthless and the story gets flipped on its head. And that’s exactly what happened. Things got intense and brutal and I was here for every minute of it.

(view spoiler)

Overall I’m so glad I read this Duology. I definitely recommend it. And I highly recommend the audiobook.

All of Our Demise was absolutely brutal. The second in the All of Us Villains duology, this book was so well written that you find yourself rooting for morally gray characters to do despicable things to one another. For me, the second book certainly lived up to my high expectations. The story just kept getting better and better--the stakes were higher and as the tournament evolved, so too did the characters. I was so pleased with how somethings worked out and then completely gutted the next moment. The ending was well done and completed the duology nicely. I won't give anything away, but the way it was written was done so well, I could actually picture it in my mind's eye. Pair that with the brilliant narration and call me one happy reader.
*I received an advanced reader's copy from NetGalley, but my opinions are my own*

While this book did not quite live up to the expectation set by the first, I would still recommend finishing out the duology. The writing is superb and the characters are well plotted, but the second book took a turn for the sentimental. If you enjoyed the villain aspect of the first book, you will be let down a little with this one. For those that were looking to see the champions grow, change and evolve over the course of the tournament, you will be pleased. For those simply looking for escapism, who don't care about the individual characters' lives, you won't be as thrilled. Still, there is plenty to entertain you should you open it up. Overall, I still think it is solid, but whereas the first book was easily 5 stars, I would said this is a MAYBE 4 star book. 3.5?

For those looking to pick up the audiobook, I can say that the narrators were fantastic.

All of Our Demise did not live up to All of us Villians.
The story is good but the pacing is off. What took hours later seemed to magically take minutes. The beginning of the book takes its time with relics and landmarks and works with the characters. But the closer you get to the end of the story the faster everything happens even when it shouldn't.
This was a fabulous story and should have been broken into three books. I loved the characters and their multitude of relationships. I love the idea of breaking the curse of the tourney. So yes I loved it but it could have been better by slowing down and taking each step with the same seriousness as the beginning,

The narrators were amazing! They gave each character their own voice and always matched the tone of the scene. Bravo!