I feel like I need 7-10 business days to get over the ending because I was personally caught so off guard.

Aside from being a victim of this cliffhanger ending this book had me in stitches with every 21st century phrase used and watching these medieval fictional characters wonder what possessed these strange people. Rae had my heart from the jump and damn her for making me fall for everyone she inducted into her little band of misfits or should I say vipers.

This felt like such a fresh fantasy book and truly like nothing I have ever read before. The villains finally get their spot light because it’s good to be evil baby. These characters will turn you over to the dark side before you know it.

Disappointingly, I did not really jive with this book. The writing didn't work for me, the reliance on tropes and very meta-ly calling out those tropes... I just couldn't get into it. I can see why some people might enjoy it, but I was let down. Still, as a librarian, I'm sure some of my patrons will end up liking it!

After receiving an arc, I unfortunately dnf’ed this book around 50 pages in. I just wasn’t feeling connected to the story or any of the characters.

Ultimately not for me--while I loved the Easter eggs to other media I'm a fan of, the heroine (villainess) had a juvenile voice that I couldn't get into. Some people will find this fun and funny! Was not my cup of tea--which is extra disappointing, since IN OTHER LANDS is one of my favorite books of all time!

I got about 13% of the way through this book. I really wanted to like it. It's not the author; it's honestly me. The book description sounded like it had a lot of potential. A magical bargain that gives a dying person the opportunity for life in her favorite fantasy series? Yes, please! However, the world-building based on a book series felt tedious. I didn't care about Rae at all. I think I might circle back around once the book releases. Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit for the opportunity to review this book.

Thank you Orbit and NetGalley for the ARC.

I really wanted to like this one but it was a DNF for me.

The book description sounded like it had a lot of potential. A magical bargain that gives a dying person the opportunity for life in her favorite fantasy series? Yes, please!(?)

My biggest obstacle in reading this was that I didn’t find the main character likable and a lot of the jokes fell flat. I didn’t feel connected to the characters or invested in the story. It also read as if it was for a younger audience (as far as I read).

Overall, it wasn’t what I was expecting. I wouldn’t say that it was bad…just not for me.

This is a tough review to write. In Other Lands is legitimately one of my favorite books of all time, and I'm very aware that Long Live Evil is a very emotional return to writing for SRB, so I really wanted to love this. Unfortunately, I was just sort of bored? (I actually kind of started relying on it to put me to sleep at night—I rarely read more than a chapter at a time, which is partly why it took a full month to finish.) While I liked the characters, I found them to be quite flat (perhaps purposefully), though Rae's experience as a cancer patient was very personal and successfully rendered. However, I overall found her to be a very frustrating MC. She's knowingly ignorant and haphazardly dim, and, yeah, a lot of the humor and modern references were cringey. The Cobra was my favorite character, but he didn't have enough to do. For such a long book, not much of consequence actually happens. The genre meta and ~feminist messaging~ felt outdated and tired, and the plot was incredibly predictable. The pacing was glacial, bogged down by paragraphs and paragraphs of repetitious internal monologue and exposition. This desperately needed to be edited down, scenes made punchier, action more dynamic, and themes delivered in a less heavy-handed manner. This is supposed to be Adult Fantasy, but it read very YA to me, especially since Rae is younger than the book character she inhabits. SRB's extended acknowledgments were lovely... I wish I'd liked this better. 1.5 stars

TW: cancer, hospitalization, murder, torture, flogging, misogyny, sexual harassment, homophobia, infidelity, past death of parent figures, parental abandonment

I wanted to like this, but unfortunately had to DNF about 20% of the way through. The worldbuilding was heavy handed at best and sloppy at worst. To be fair, it would take an extraordinarily talented author to be able to drop a character into the middle of a book series and build out two sets of characters and worlds at once. There was a good bit of hand waving to explain why the main character loved the books but had never read the one that she's dropped into. I had trouble distinguishing the characters from one another, and I never felt connected to any of them. Ultimately just a miss for me.

Long Live Evil tells the story of Rae, who is dying of cancer and receives the chance of a lifetime: to enter the world of her favorite fantasy series for a second chance at life. The bargain is simple: if she can obtain the Flower of Life and Death from the Imperial greenhouse, she will have the opportunity to live, but should she fail, she will remain in the world of Eyam forever. However, Rae finds herself not in the body of the hero, but in the body of the villainess on the eve of her execution.

This sounded so promising, but this story didn't vibe with me. It took a long time for me to get into the book and I almost quit after 50 pages due to boredom. The main character Rae was just so insufferable and annoying. As someone whose life is supposedly all about books, I find it hard to believe that with this fantasy series being her favorite, she never bothered to read the first book and was completely unprepared for many things. I mean, really? This ended abruptly which was surprising, so I know there'll be a sequel. The book was ok, but it definitely could have been better.

4/5

listen this book isnt a life changing piece of literature but if you know how to read something that doesnt take itself too seriously, you'll enjoy this one. the mc is a bit of a millennial at heart but if you look past that... its a funny read

This book was a fun read and very interesting. I was intrigued from page one. When I received this ARC I was so excited. I’d seen others talking about it and just knew it was going to be something I loved and it didn’t disappoint. Can’t wait to pick up more.

I was so excited to read Long Live Evil as soon as I saw the title and the description. Rae is sick and gets a chance to live by being dropped into her favorite fantasy book. She ends up being dropped in as the villain, and the story goes from there. The pacing was a little slow for me but the book went from 3 stars to 4 stars over the last 100 pages. The last 100 pages tied everything up and I CANNOT wait until the next book. This book is dramatic, campy, funny as hell, and has great meaningful love throughout (not your typical romance focused plot but that made it great). I thought Rae could've been stronger and quicker on the uptake but I genuinely enjoyed her relationships with all of the characters. I also highlighted so many good quotes that had me rolling: "she schemed better in her hot tub. She was starting to think of it as her plot tub", "Are we chivalry bros?", "You'd better be sad for at least twenty pages!", and "So this is my noble steed, Google Maps?".

If you're looking for a fun book with a unique storyline, a snake named Victoria Broccoli, a kick ass FMC, and some laughs in every chapter then this book is for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for the ARC!

📚 Book Review 📚

Long Live Evil
by: Sarah Rees Brennan

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

From the first page to the last, I couldn’t put it down. I found this book utterly unique, and there were so many quotes that had me laughing out loud! Rae is such an interesting MC, and the ensemble cast is full of mystery and complexity that hade second guessing who was on the “evil” side versus the “good” side.

Simply put, this may be the most unique fantasy book I’ve read this year; I am very much looking forward to seeing what happens in the next book!

A must read if you like:
📚 Sassy FMC
🗡️ Killing as a Love Language
📚 Fantasy Tropes Thrown on Their Head
🗡️ Morally Grey EVERYONE

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books for providing me an ARC.

thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books for providing me of an advance copy of this book to review.

I truly don't know where to begin with this one. I can't decide whether this is 2.5 stars or a true 3. there's a lot. this is going to be very disorganized!

ever since I heard about this book, even though I didn't like In Other Lands and even though I recognize the synopsis is basically just an isekai, it was one of my most anticipated books of the year. I was stupidly hyped. BUT! I was a bit wary because of the "it's time for your villain era!" stuff on the cover. turns out I should have been right to be wary.

first, and this was my main problem with In Other Lands, I am so sorry but this author cannot pace books for shit. every scene goes on so gd long until you start completely losing interest.

but what makes this so much worse are the CONSTANT modern-day quips. a character's horse getting named Google Maps? that's funny. Rae saying "yes bestie" and "powerful AF" and "sorry, but the old Rae can't come to the phone right now"? that is just, and I am sorry to use this word, cringe. this would be bearable if the book was a breezy 300-ish pages but it's unbearable at 450.

Long Live Evil wants to be taken seriously quite a bit of the time. when it comes to Rae's cancer, I believe Brennan herself is also a late-term cancer survivor, and you can tell the pain and realness in what she's writing there. it's very effective and poignant. but when Brennan is doing twice-microwaved 2012 Tumblr feminism and equally lukewarm musing on who's the REAL villain in stories (has "likes to Go Downtown" been a sign of treacherous villainy since like, 1991????? I knew this book wasn't going to take any real risks with genuinely unforgivable behavior from the moment Rae told the villains to unionize), that emotion does not come through whatsoever. and the constant quips and snark and references only make it even worse. this book has no consistent tone and like 90% of the time I wished T. Kingfisher had had this idea first because god she would've killed it!

random gripe: Key is the most villainous character here, but he also commits the cardinal sin of being extremely boring and annoying.

okay. okay. this book is not all bad. the premise is just SO damn good it couldn't be. there are moments of great fun and great tension. while I didn't like the alternating POVs at first, I ended up liking the characters who had those alternating POVs the most. so it did work in some ways. as I said, the parts about Rae's cancer are genuinely powerful. there is also one ship out of three in this book that makes me feel kwazy already (unfortunately it's the one that gets like literally 3 pages to talk about it.).

I loved the worldbuilding and snippets we got of Time of Iron itself. honestly wish someone would just write that book instead. at least it had a consistent tone!

I also think this author knows how to write ONE HELL OF A TWIST. it must be said. there is one early on that actually made me go "WHOAHHHH" out loud, like all dramatically, and then the ending is absolutely bonkers and has me... unfortunately... very excited for the next book in this series. but I'll be going into it with MUCH more cynicism.

also yes. there IS a scene where an entire musical theater number is performed, and the reader experiences this through the narrative. see like I WANT to give the book extra credit for this because it takes balls to do that, but unfortunately no, it really is as excruciating as it sounds. and that's this book in a nutshell.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an e-copy of this book!

I feel like this is going to be a polarizing book. I absolutely loved it and would consider it one of my favorite books of the year (maybe one of my favorite book ever?), but I have a feeling that for every person who loves it, there will be another who hates it. While this book is marketed as adult it satirizes a lot of YA fantasy tropes (and a few adult fantasy tropes). As someone who read a lot of YA fantasy books in my youth, I had a blast reading about Rae trying to navigate this fantasy world. However, if you aren't a fan of (or never have been a fan of) YA fantasy you will likely be annoyed by the basic character archetypes and story.
I also really liked the characters. There were so many great character moments. I feel like I never get enough character moments, so I loved how there were so many scenes with the characters just talking and getting to know each other. It just added so much depth and it was great.
There were a couple things about this book that I struggled with. Firstly, I found the writing style a bit too wordy at times. However, this might have been because I read an ARC, so the writing might be tightened up a bit in the published edition. I also didn't fully understand the fantasy world. There were some details and reveals that just completely went over my head and made no sense to me. That said though, neither of these aspects hindered my reading. I still had a blast reading this book and will likely read it again so that I fully grasp the world.
If you are thinking about reading this book, I recommend reading the first couple chapters and seeing if you enjoy the humor. While there are a lot of great aspects to this book, I think you will struggle to enjoy it if you don't enjoy (or at least not mind) the humor.

Sometimes family doesn’t mean blood. Sometimes chosen families are who really take on as your family. Rae’s the antihero we all want to know and we all love. Sometimes the villain does win and it’s just fine. Can’t wait for publishing day for this one.

I'd never heard of this author before, but the premise caught my attention. What reader doesn't want to be pulled into their favorite book? However, there were things about this book that didn't work for me, though I did have a good time overall. My actual rating is 3.5, but I"m rounding up to 4 because of what it does well and I know A LOT of people will enjoy this one.

Rae is dying of cancer, but then gets thrown into the world of her favorite fantasy series when a mysterious stranger offers her a deal. She enters the word in the body of the books villain and she must figure out a way to navigate the world and collect her target, all while struggling to remember the details of the book. (Cancer and its treatments take a toll on memory and focus.)

There was a lot that this book did right, but some of the things that I struggled with were things that I"m very passionate about. So I know that that influences my review. All this to say, this book will be a 5-star read for a lot of people, depending what you're looking for.

Pros:
- fun premise
- While Rae wasn't my favorite character, there were some great side characters! (Marius and the Golden Cobra were my favs)
- I really enjoyed the book world. (I wouldn't mind having that book to read, too!)

Cons:
- Too many characters with multiple names were introduced too quickly
- I didn't buy Rae's personality switch so fast. She was her, but the minute she entered the villain's body she wanted nothing but to be evil all while still being 'Rae'. I'd have like to have seen her grow into that.
- General inconsistencies. Ex. Book characters wouldn't recognize words from hundreds of years ago but would know some modern slang/words.

The general tone of this book was campy, sarcastic, and fun, and for me, some of that got lost in translation. I think this book would make an AMAZING miniseries. (In face, the entire time I was reading I could see the CW picking this up.) Especially the big musical number that happens at 50% through would be fantastic to watch and experience.

If the premise of this book sounds intriguing to you, consider reading a sample. If you are okay with the tone/writing style, I think you'll love it. Many thanks to the publisher for the arc. All thoughts are my own.

DNF @ 4%

I thought the premise was interesting but found out quickly this book just wasn't for me.

The lead in to the world building being based on a book series was tedious. I didn't really care about Rae at all. Her leaving because it would "save her family" because she'd just "die anyway" was both harsh and made her a martyr, which is one of my least favorite things in YA.

Basically I didn't make it through the first chapter because I knew it wasn't for me very quickly.

When I first started this book, I really didn't know what to expect. It was a little confusing at first, trying to keep names/characters straight, and at times I found it was a little hard to keep track of who was speaking to whom. However, I REALLY enjoyed this book! I love when I keep thinking about a book when I have to put it down, and I absolutely did that with this. About 100 pages in I was hooked. It's a really interesting concept, a few of the characters I adored, and I loved how it poked fun at itself sometimes. I laughed, I got teary-eyed, and I gasped aloud! Very fun read, can't wait for more!

DNF around 20% ish.

I will be coming back to this book at some point, but I'm just not sure when. I was really excited for this book and even enjoyed the 'cringy' parts others didn't. However, I have a lot on my plate right now and the characters having multiple names they could be called was so confusing. I couldn't keep them straight. I'm still not even sure if the king and the emperor are the same person or two different people. Hopefully, when things at work lighten up, I can come back to this and follow it better.