What did I just read? This was such an odd book, but it managed to pull it off.

The main idea is that Rae is young and dying of cancer but gets the chance to save herself by being transported into a fantasy book and completing a task while there. (Maybe it's just because of my ties to people dying of cancer, but this storyline produced a lot of tears. Especially while reading the acknowledgements, good god.)

The story is incredibly meta, which is sometimes very fun, witty, and hilarious, and other times comes across as cringe. Is this story beautifully and wonderfully written? Honestly, no I wouldn't say so. As I first started reading it my thoughts were "oh no, I'm going to hate this." Luckily, I thought that it got substantially better as the story progressed. I think it was a fantastic idea for a story, but could have maybe gone through some more rounds of edits to add more details. I know that some of the storyline is left out on purpose, but at times it felt like too much was left out that I felt like I didn't do the required reading and was missing important information.

All that being said, I think it's a fun time; I laughed a lot, I definitely cried, and I didn't see the ending coming at all. I kind of wish that this was a standalone and that we end the story here, but hopefully the sequel will prove me wrong.

3.5 stars rounded up.

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

Rating: Absolutely Loved It, 5 Stars

"The story wasn't real, but love made it matter."

Long Live Evil follows Rae, a young woman who is in the hospital dying of cancer. She is given a second chance at life when a mysterious woman comes to her and gives her the opportunity to go into her favorite book series to retrieve a flower that holds the power of life and death. She ends up in the body of the villainess who is destined to die the next day. Rae must fully embrace her villainy and assemble a band of minions in order to survive until the flower blooms. Absolute shenanigans ensue from there.

Long Live Evil was a rollercoaster of delightfully absurd hijinks that initially drew me in with the acerbic wit and sarcasm and wound up completely captivating me with the character explorations and endearingly dysfunctional found family.

"It was uncomfortable to consider how much heroism was based on point of view."

I thought this was a really fun take on the world within a book. The book series that Rae enters is setup to be a very classic good versus evil with the chosen one who ascends to become emperor and a damsel in distress who every male character falls in love with. However, the world that Rae enters is very different. I loved the exploration of storytelling craft, different writing conventions, and literary devices. Probably my favorite thing was how Rae came to have a deeper understanding of the story and the characters that she had previously dismissed as one-note type characters. One of my favorite thing about stories is how they resonate with everyone differently and how they can resonate with you differently depending on when and how you consume them, and I feel like this really captured that well.

I also just really, REALLY loved the characters.

"She believed he wasn't a monster. He lacked empathy, went into a dissociative state and killed people serially, that was all."

The sense of humor in this book was absolutely perfect for me. The characters are so irreverent and just fun to be around. I loved seeing the different characters interact with each other and the fact that they all felt so real. They all had different and distinct personalities, and I loved getting the perspectives of other characters. Key and the Cobra were two favorites, but I really ended up loving everyone.

"I did what I must to survive. Then I did many other things because I thought they would be funny, and make me look cool."

Even when things got dark, or deep, the character interactions made it feel like a lighthearted romp. And it does get dark and go deep. We look at how characters ended up the way they do, and Rae starts to process some of her trauma and anger surrounding her illness and lack of agency in her real life. I felt like this was extremely well done and commend the author for putting so much of her own story into those pages.

This was definitely a character driven story, and the plot was absolutely unhinged in the best way. It did bring me to tears at several points. And the ENDING. Oh my word, the ending absolutely sent me. I need the next book immediately, and this one isn't even released yet!

I also received an audiobook copy of this for review, and I have to say that Moira Quirk did a fantastic job with the narration. She really brought the story to life and delivered on the comedic timing. Highly recommend the audio if that is your thing.

Overall, this is easily a favorite book of the year, and I will definitely be picking up Brennan's backlist. I cannot wait to see what happens next and will really enjoy rereading this!

Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit for an early copy of this. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Quotes are taken from the eARC and thus subject to change - they will be verified with the finished copy. Long Live Evil releases on August 27, 2024.

I finished Long Live Evil a couple weeks ago and apparently freaked out so hard I forgot to review it. Here's the deal, I read widely in a pretty narrow slice of fiction, sort of an adult literary-bent fantasy area that bleeds over into specific types of genre SFF and romance, and a lot of the stories I love best are connected to manga and anime tropes, danmei novels and obscure non-Western mythologies, and Chinese dramas and how this related to Long Live Evil is that isekai has a very special place in my heart and that I long for more Western takes on concepts I was raised with from childhood that still aren't really popular here...yet.

So one day on Instagram, this book appeared and I took one look at the blurb (transmigration! super-meta perspective! hijinks ensuing but deep, powerful themes being explored with intelligence and heart!) and thought OH MY GOD I NEED THIS RIGHT NOW. I was tremendously lucky to get my hands on it (legally, I'm not evil!) and I fell into Rae's story (and Marius's and Eric's and Emer's) like I'd been waiting for a book like this since first reading Scum Villain BECAUSE I HAD BEEN WAITING. And longing.

It's absolutely brilliant.

I really, really wanted to love this. A fantasy romance where the villains fall in love?? Uh, yes, please!

However ... this was so difficult to get through.

In Long Live Evil we are following Rae, an 18 year old girl dying of cancer. Rae and her sister share a special bond over a popular fantasy series and one night, Rae is given the opportunity to live her life, cancer-free, in this fantasy world. However, she won't be living in this world as the heroine but the villain. She must rewrite the story so that the villain lives and she must assemble a crew of minions to help her plan succeed.

See, the book was genuinely funny. It was so self-aware and transporting someone from present day into a fantasy world is always a fun time. The problem with this book was how boring it was. I found the pace to be very slow and drawn out. It was also super confusing. There were too many names for all of the characters and not enough explanation for who everyone was.

I definitely did not hate this book, I was just disappointed. With better execution, I really could've seen myself being obsessed with this. It was by no means a "bad" book and I would encourage anyone interested to at least give it a shot. It just didn't end up being my cup of tea.

Thank you so much to Orbit and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What happens when the beloved classic fairytale type story gets twisted and turned until you’re rooting for the villains and side characters rather than the hero? Long Live Evil sweeps in with its wickedly delightful ways to shift even the best reader’s moral compass slowly towards morally grey before taking a steep turn towards full on villainy. I am 1000% the target audience for this book, and I loved every minute of it including how meta it is with dropping someone from the ‘real world’ into a story. The characters are a huge selling point for this book. You’re going to have instant favorites that will keep you in a chokehold to see how their story turns out. Cobra and Key had me hooked from the first moment they graced the page with their presence. I also loved watching Rae develop as she progressed and understood the story’s rules. However, I would recommend checking trigger warnings as Rae’s cancer is a prominent part of the story especially at the beginning. Brennan did well with the world building and setting the scene for readers. I also felt that Brennen did well with the overall plot pacing and dropping some major mind-blowing plot twists on readers. The ending will leave you sitting in absolute stunned silence or like me you’ll flip back to make sure what you read is really what you read. I combo read this as an ebook and audiobook; however, I gravitated more strongly towards the audiobook due to Moira Quirk’s excellent narration. Quirk fully understood the assignment and seemed to truly have fun with this over the top delight of a book. Quirk’s narration was easy to follow with the changing viewpoints and made the characters easy to distinguish. I can’t recommend this book and audiobook enough if you feel like this might be even the slightest bit in your wheelhouse.

I really really enjoyed this one! I wasn’t originally sold on the concept of a sick girl finding her way into her favorite fantasy series, but ultimately the story pulled me in. The opening chapter was one of the strongest I have read in a long time and the main characters banter kept me interested. I can’t wait for the next one, I need to know what happens next.

I really, really wanted to like this one, it was one of those books I put away for when I finished my other ARCs as a reward. I’m going to have to DNF at 14%, the first problem for me right now is the cancer focus at the beginning and kind of throughout, this is why I appreciate trigger warnings.

Also, I don’t know the name for this trope but ‘I’m from the real world and sucked into a pretend world’, I don’t like this trope. Lastly, using modern language in a fantasy setting really grinds my gears. I can probably put this one in the ‘it’s not you it’s me category’, other people seem to really like it.

This might be my favorite book of the year!

This book was such a fun-meta fantasy read. It’s sharp and intriguing, but also doesn’t take itself too seriously. There wasn’t a single character I didn’t take at least some interest in.

I flew through this book, only my physical need for sleep stopped me from finishing this book in one day.

Rae is such a fun character. If you’ve never read a isekai manga where the heroine is just trying to stay alive after being turned into the villainess without entirely altering the plot then this will feel a touch familiar. But for me the familiarity worked in its favor rather than to its detriment.

Also, the plot twist at the end? I did not see that coming!

I love a good twist. And I’m already dying to read the sequel! Which is a shame because the book isn’t even technically out yet. But hey a girl can dream.

If you like quick-paced fantasies where the serious aspects of the plot are balanced out by a bit of humor, then do yourself a favor pick this book up.

All the stars!

The story takes off with Rae getting the opportunity to save herself from cancer by going into her favorite books to find the flower of life. We don’t know how or why, but she gets thrown into the world and quickly begins to scheme her way through the story to fit her needs. And the story goes on from there…

I hesitate to rate Long Live Evil because I’m slightly torn on if I liked it or not. There were a lot of things that I did like, but then there were a lot of things that I didn’t.

I really loved the banter between the characters. The author really brought each of them to life through their povs and dialogue. And I feel now that we got to the end, book 2 might be easier to enjoy. At times, the other character povs felt like it was slowing the plot down.

There was unnecessary filler in this book, some of it was funny and necessary to character development but it slowed the plot down a lot. At times I felt like the story felt so disconnected from the plot that I’d forget what the end goal was.

-I really loved how unique this story was and I love the possibility of what the books can be. I’ll definitely be reading the 2nd when it comes out, but I just felt like this one could’ve been better with a little more time editing and really combing through to clean and tighten up the plot.

This was such a wildly fun and trope-busting ride! Who among us avid fantasy readers hasn't wanted to climb into our favorite series and live as our favorite characters. Especially during difficult times in our lives. This is a story where the protagonist embarks on a journey where she knows all the plot twists and yet the plot twists out from under her. Add to that the gravitas of a young adult watching her life slowly eaten away by cancer, given a quest in her favorite book series which might cure her, you already have SO MUCH potential for meta commentary, and the author does not miss any of it. While there's wall to wall hilarious banter and hijinks as Rae and her growing Viper Gang of Evil keep breaking the known narrative of the books, it is not without heavy and brutal consequences. There is much sneaky introspection on illness, agency, personal narrative, morality, and power, and yet it rarely feels preachy or like a slog. Because this is NOT a short book. Which brings me to my Sarah Rees Brennan shaped annoyance at fantastic lengthy "first book" in a series with no follow up in sight (looking at you In Other Lands). This ended with me being as invested in the fate of the central characters as possible, all literally in the middle of a battle, separated and in peril. I'll be real upset if a sequel doesn't materialize in my lifetime.

I have so many thoughts about this book. I’ve been sitting and thinking about it for hours since finishing. A story within a story that is actively changing into the story we’re reading (defiantly meta). This flexed my brain a bit. Life is doing it's thing for me, and my comprehension skills aren’t up to snuff where they usually are. I think I’ll be rereading this prior to book 2 coming out (it is definitely a series) to make sure I understand as much as I can.

I love the villainous characters this story creates. I LOVE THEM. Key and Cobra, with Marius joining in as well, are all of what I love about morally grey characters. You have no idea what they’re up to or what you’re in for. They make you fall for them, then rip your heart out - or do they? - and you’re freaking happy about it. They stole the show for me. The MC, Rae, is good. Her character is lovely, and does she does her job well narrating the adventure. However, I’m not here for her (sorry sister). If you don’t have opinions/feeling/thoughts/tingles/ANYTHING for Key, I don’t think we read the same story. He delivers this book for me. I don't want to say much, but man, I'm in deep.

I have so many questions. Some are basic plot line eyebrow raises that I don’t think are meant to have answers. This book’s concept is very complex. There are just going to be things that are unanswered to keep from bogging down the reader. Some questions I expect to have answers for on page 4 of book 2 because I need to know the tea NOW! I have ships that need to be shipped!

I do think it’s important to know that there is strong call for a cancer trigger warning in the beginning of this book. Depending on one’s experience with cancer; if you’ve seen it up close with a loved one, the first handful fo chapters may be difficult. It is not a graphically detailed theme throughout the storyline but is detailed in those first few chapters.

I have the pleasure of having an eARC and audiobook ARC for this book. The audiobook was really good. I enjoyed the narration throughout. I do think the complexity of the meta concept here may be difficult for readers who don’t have great auditory processing abilities. I strongly prefer audiobooks to eyeball reading and still had a hard time keeping names straight. I think ideally, this would be a fantastic combo read. Having both definitely helped me.

Thank you to NetGalley, Sarah Rees Brennan, Orbit books, and Hachette Audio for the opportunity to dive into this world within a world!

3.5/5
Cawpile: 5.86/10

This unique book about books, may have you afraid of stepping into your favorite stories. The story follows Rae as she goes through her favorite story to find a cure to save her life. Rae is pessimistic, confident and full of sarcastic commentary. All of the characters had a lot going for them, but I had a hard time liking them based on the dialogue - I felt it to be a little cringy and annoying in my head.

As the story stems from a modern day person stepping into a fantasy story, there is a lot of crossover of pop culture references as well as your typical fantasy world of royal courts. It felt a lot like the TV show Once Upon a Time. With the culture clashes, I had a hard time getting into the story and felt like the modern references really took me out of the world. I couldn’t get immersed and I felt that the plot was very slow as we spent a lot of time analyzing book tropes.

I didn’t vibe well with this story but feel like others may like it. If you’re looking a fantasy book that feels like once upon a time but with an angsty and sarcastic main character this will be for you. This book was very meta feeling as it was a book about books analyzing book tropes.

I’d like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of the book. All opinions are my own.

What would you do if you ended up in your favorite fantasy book world, but as the villain and not the heroine? If you're Rae, embrace evil, scheme for your survival, and acquire a band of villainous hench-people, of course! However, Rae quickly finds out that the world she thought she knew isn't quite what she remembers from the stories her sister read to her. And her only way out of the world of the books is to pull off a very villainous scheme. While not changing the story... too much.

Long Live Evil is a wicked romp full of characters we all know, twists we should all see coming, and a delightful skewer of genre staples that we have all come to embrace. It also lets us see that even evil can have moments of moral quandary and that maybe it is better to pay closer attention when someone is telling you something, lest you forget an important piece of information that will later come back to bite you.

From the end, we can hopefully expect more from this world, as it is wide open for evil to have a redemption arc. And for some new heroes to come out of the supporting characters. Maybe.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an eARC. Couldn't put this book down, laughing and loving it. Highly recommend.

📚Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan📚

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✨Summary✨
Rae is dying of cancer at only 20 years old. Life is cruel like that, she’s discovered too early in her life. After years of enduring physical and emotional pain, she has become desensitized. Mostly. Her younger sister reads their favorite fantasy series to Rae. While Rae can mostly follow along, her illness makes it difficult to fully retain everything. When Rae comes to terms with the fact that she will not make it to hear the ending of the series, a strange woman comes into her hospital room. Rae is offered the chance to enter her favorite fantasy series to complete a mission in order to save her life in the real world. Easy right? Perhaps not so much when she enters the body of the villainess of the story. But all the better for the cute outfits and one liners. Rae must navigate the fantasy world she has come to love to complete her mission before time runs out, literally. Will she be able to do it or will she die trying?

✨Critiques✨
The world building can seem slightly chaotic and heavy in the beginning. However, it didn’t both me and it does get so much better and easier to understand. This was such an incredible book, it’s worth the temporary confusion.

✨Elements I Loved✨
The villainous one liners are so good.
Also, Key is a psycho, but he’s my psycho and I love him, even though I know the point of the story is to point out that I shouldn’t. I can’t help it.

👩🏻My Recommendation👩🏻
This book is special. There’s everything in this book; world building, intrigue, suspense, even some romance. It’s not too romance heavy, but it’s definitely there. I would recommend this to all of my friends who enjoy fantasy.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for providing the ARC.

Long Live Evil follows a dying young woman as she makes a life-saving bargain that requires her to enter her favorite fantasy series. This book is full of humor, twists (even to the character that thinks they know the story), and a slew of "evil" characters that you can't help but root for.

AND THAT ENDING?!?! I need Book 2 ASAP.

I received an ARC and ALC from Orbit Books and Hachette Audio via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Moira Quirk remains one of my favorite narrators with her incredible performance.

SUCH a fun read! Loved this perspective and didn’t seem to take itself too seriously. It did take a little to get into

I read an early ARC for this book. The ending of this book surprised me. I really should've paid more attention. I did feel that the book felt long but most of my digital copies of books for some reason feel long compared to physical books. I loved how in the acknowledgements you learn the author is a cancer survivor. Makes a bit more sense with the main character's condition. I felt a bit confused at first with all the difference POV bouncing around. It gets a bit less confusing the more you read on. I did off and on lose interest but, really wanted to finish and heard hype that this was a good book. Wasn't a bad book but, wasn't as high as some of my other books I've read and couldn't put down. My review is posted on goodreads.

Long Live Evil is a very unique story for a specific reader, let me help set you up. Also please check trigger warnings there are some heavy topics throughout.

I really enjoyed the main character and the story when it first started. However, as it went on I felt that it was really disjointed and had a hard time finding a balance between world building/ lore dropping and meaningful storytelling. It has a very unique concept, we go inside a dying persons favorite book series and she becomes a villain. On paper, this could have been a new favorite book, however it just didn't quite make it there for me. My biggest difficulty was finding it so disjointed it was hard to keep up with the story and what exactly was happening which made it hard to care and feel connected.

One plus is there were a lot of really good quotes just dropped. Quotes about life, love, meaning, storytelling, books, characters and so much more. I was quite impressed when these random quotes were dropped and felt so meaningful. I just wish I could have fully connected with the story. May be one I try to read again in the future and see how it hits.

I really thought the concept was interesting but the execution was awful. The book is very slow and the writing is jumpy. I couldn’t get into the story and gave up around 20%, hate to DNF but It was awful