This book is so funny and unserious. I had so much fun watching our main character plot and scheme while she tried to remember the events that happened in the book she falls into so that she can get back home. It was so unique to anything I’ve ever read before.
I relate to Rae so much. She feels like she wasted so much time and now it’s too late to do anything she wanted before she got sick. She lost all of her friends and normal life, but falling into the world of her favorite books was like the second chance at life that we all dream of.
This isn’t your typical “main character gets sucked into another world” book. The characters from the book aren’t reading off a script. They have POVs with real thoughts and feelings. This isn’t just the main character watching predestined events play out.
I loved when the lines between good and evil started to blur, and had me questioning who the real heroes and villains of the story are.
As soon as I seen the character art of Key, I thought: “I want him.” And then as soon as he appeared in the book, I said out loud: “I NEED HIM!” Key is so bloodthirsty it’s hilarious. I just love the way he was written. He’s somehow a golden retriever and simultaneously a serial killer. Also, what do you mean? He wanted to WHAT at the night market?! He’s a FREAK. I love him. Some of the things he said and did had me actually screaming. He’s a brutal assassin that can hold her and kill someone without looking at the same time. He gave her a pat on the back with a knife. He has a tragic backstory. What more convincing do you need?
Marius’s chapters were very boring at times and felt unnecessary for the most part. I do like his dynamic with the Cobra, but I feel like his chapters told from the Cobra’s POV would’ve been way more entertaining.
I absolutely loved the way this book ended. Romance and characters (especially Key): infinite stars. Book as a whole: 4.5 stars. I’m really excited to see where this series goes from here.

I have been waiting for another series from Sarah since I started reading “unspoken” in 2012- pregnant with my first kid. Now here we are, he’s 11 and off to summer camp and I get this beauty of a book!!

I’d consider this NA- not necessarily YA, not quite super “adult”

Campy is something someone wrote and I agree/ it’s camp. But in a good way. Fast paced, looking forward to the second installment!


Thank you NetGalley for an arc in exchange for a review!

This is one of the most fun reading experiences I've had all year. I always love stories involving a character who gets pulled into their favorite book and so naturally I fell in love with this one as well - especially because I think it's brilliantly executed. Upon finishing I wanted to immediately reread it and the wait for the next installment may kill me. The ending is exciting, unexpected, and satisfying (it's always fun when you develop a theory in between chapters and want it to happen because you think it'd be a great plot twist and it does, in fact, end up being a great plot twist).

Long Live Evil is chaotic and epic. It's a story that simultaneously pokes fun at classic high fantasy tropes and involves a lot of silly moments (including a musical number) but also takes itself seriously and involves a lot of high stakes (the last 3rd of this book in particular had me on the edge of my seat). In some ways I want to say the experience feels like what you would get if the movie Scream was a high fantasy novel? There's lots of self-referential humor and it feels like a love letter to the fantasy genre (and fandom) as a whole.

Sarah Rees Brennan employs standard fantasy tropes throughout this story and expertly deconstructs them (just as the protagonist, Rae, (un)intentionally ends up deconstructing the plot she's familiar with when she enters the story). This allows the story and characters to provide some interesting perspectives on what it means to be a hero/villain, the authorship of a story, and the agency/motivations characters (especially side characters) have within a story.

I really enjoyed the cast of characters and I especially loved Rae, our protagonist turned villainess. She's one of my favorite kinds of female protagonists - an angry girl willing to do anything to survive. The other main characters are fantastic too but I think it's best to not know much about them until you experience the story yourself (though if you want some teasers I recommend checking out the author's instagram which features some excellent character art/descriptions).

It's not a 100% perfect book - occasionally the contemporary dialogue/jokes don't land for me, there's a lot of infodumping moments that slow the pace down (particularly in the first third of the book), and some of the POV changes cause the story to lose momentum at times. Overall though I think Long Live Evil is an excellent start to a new portal/high fantasy series and definitely one of my favorite books of the year so far!

Dnf @ 17%

honestly, i think the idea was fantastic but it felt so messy. i kinda wish this was a little more serious and a little less of a confusing comedy-fantasy. The vibes are not what i expected and it turned me off. The characters were cringe and the dialogue even worst. i really wanted to love this, i was so sure this was going to be a 5 stars but i’m sorry, i have to DNF, i’m too bored.

This is a book that knows its tropes and hard leans in to them, to varying success. Main character Rae wakes up one day to find she's suddenly living in the world of her favorite book series. Cool! Until she realizes she is now filling the role of a minor villain and has arrived the night before her character is executed. In a lot of transmigration type stories, the main character tries to cheat a preconceived death while keeping the plot on track and laying low, they often end up surprised when the plot changes around them. Instead, Rae fully embraces villainy, running off to take full advantage of her knowledge from the book (no matter how incomplete it is). Role secured, Rae turns to acquiring minions to help her reach her goal: stealing the flower of life and death and returning home. I liked most of the characters, though many did seem a bit surface level but given Rae treating them as not real for most of the book, i'd chalk that up to a narrative tact done on purpose, given the small glimpses we get from other povs. The plot does sputter at points, with some scenes being confusing and left me wondering why they were included, but everything came together in the last third and the ending was amazing. There were some moments I felt were cringe, but I typically don't enjoy pop culture references in books, and overall it didn't detract from the plot. This was a hugely fun read and I can't wait to see where the series goes next.

3.5 stars rounded to 4.

My main takeaway - if you go into this book preparing to take it at face value and not too seriously, it’s an entertaining ride.

As a person who has always found the “heroes” to be a bit boring, I loved the concept of a villain focused book. To fall into your favourite novel as a villain… it caught my attention immediately.

There were definitely points that were a bit too “over the top” with the cringe levels, and a key plot point that doesn’t quite make sense with how obsessed our main character is meant to be with a certain fictional character (which made the ending confusing) but overall this book was a fun read!

Our main character, Rae, has a compelling backstory and is a relatable character. The opening scenes are well done to immediately become attached to her. Once in the fantasy setting, her modern phrases still made sense to the character, even though they were naturally out of place on the setting. (Though I will say some pushed the boundary of cringe too far… I had to step away from the book for a minute after “Sorry, but the old Rahela can’t come to the phone right now” came out in the middle of a battle scene…)

I think this book is a great read to bridge the gap between YA and adult. While the main character is a bit older than you’d usually find in a YA book, her attitudes and phrases definitely tend to land on the younger side. But you do see a large character growth throughout the book which I think helps the book itself grow into the adult space.

If you’re picking up this book, prepare to go along for the ride and you’ll have a fun time!

Wow, what a powerful, intense, and yet extremely silly read! I've long enjoy Sarah Rees Brennan's work and was thrilled she was stepping into adult fantasy fiction - I'd say this still reads as having one foot in YA (the main character is 20 but due to cancer treatment she's not lived fully as an adult and still reads pretty teen) but I was still fully swept away and read it very very quickly. Unfortunately for me, because I hadn't noticed that this was book one in a series and I was a little blindsided by that fact! But due to the engrossing nature of the read, the humor, and the surprising depth, definitely would recommend this book.

The premise of this book was so interesting and I think that, for the most part, it really lived up to that. It was overall a really fun book - the characters were sharp and witty (and likeably unlikeable), there was plenty of outlandish action, the world was fascinating, and the writing definitely leaned into the overall humor. I’m not sure I was the right reader for this book but I do think it will find its audience that will absolutely love it.

this was a slow start for me, but i was locked in by the third act.

the premise of this is so unique. rae is dying, but if she can enter the world of her favorite fantasy series and reach a magical flower on the one night it blooms, she can come back to her body, fully healed. she has to navigate this fictional world, but she already knows everything that’s going to happen. the meta commentary about fantasy tropes and fiction writing, alone, was enough for me to stick around. but soon, rae realizes she’s changing the story.

at first, i was stuck on one thing: if rae’s going to ultimately return to her body, i only care about if she succeeds, and not the trail of destruction she leaves behind her. rae felt the same way too. i guess it’s just a testament to sarah rees brennan’s writing because when rae finally realized that the characters felt real and that she cared about them, i realized i did too.

expectations started being subverted and tropes started turning on their heads and i realized i was so so wrong. i went into the third act biting my teeth. long live evil was so much more than i could’ve hoped for.

the commentary is witty, the plot writing is phenomenal, and you can tell through the pages that miss brennan has such a solid grasp on the fantasy genre. rae’s lived experiences with chronic pain and bitterness were so grounded and human. the “fictional” characters that first felt very shallow, like caricatures of their fantasy archetypes, turned out to be incredibly complex and dynamic. literally no notes.

i’m seated for the rest of the series. the bookstore employees are scared and begging me to leave because “it hasn’t even been written yet” but i’m simply too seated.

ty orbit and netgalley

I was drawn to this book based on its description, and of course, Holly Black's endorsement didn't hurt. Unfortunately, the description didn't do the book any favors. This should be described as a YA fantasy comedy.

The book's premise was very interesting. Rae, a woman dying of cancer, is offered the opportunity to save herself by escaping into a book. Who among us wouldn't love the chance to go into our favorite book? Unfortunately for Rae, she is cast as the story's villain.

Sadly, the story's premise is the only high point, as most aspects of this book didn't work for me. It managed to both info dump and lack world-building at the same time. The fantasy novel Rae goes into is introduced in bits and pieces at the beginning of each chapter and through her memory, so you get short snippets of what feels like disjointed story parts. This ended up being overwhelming and confusing because I never got to the point where I understood the basis of the story. While I imagine this is partially intentional, it was confusing enough to me that it prevented me from getting invested. I could not keep the characters straight when I didn't understand the story, and they all had incredibly long titles like "The Beauty Dipped in Blood" or "The Last Hope."

This book also commits one of the biggest crimes in fantasy fiction of overusing modern language, the usage of phrases like "minions" and "Rae made it her b*tch" really distracted from the mood and the plot, it felt too immature and cheesy, and instead of achieving a comedic tone, it seemed more like a caricature or fanfic.

In the end, I couldn't get invested in the book because of its confusing structure, distractions from modern language, and overly silly tone.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

There's a part of me that just wants to leave a long "AH" scream about this book and call it a day for this review because I'm not sure how I can explain how much I love this book. Maybe you think I'm being overdramatic, but I think this book is absolutely fantastic. It's well paced, I was invested in all of the characters, it was even laugh out loud funny in a few spots, while also making me deeply care about what happens.

Rae, on her death bed from a terminal illness, gets a chance go into her favorite book series to find a flower that will heal her in real life. Rae is clever and funny and I was rooting for her from the beginning. There are two other POV characters (Emer, Rae's maid, and Marius, one part of the original major love triangle in the original book series) and, as I started their first chapters, I was just eager to get back to Rae, but by the end, I was desperate to see all of them safe and happy. I loved all the major characters really. They felt complex and fully realized.

While this is a comedic book, it's also just a straight up great book. The comedy is obviously part of that, but Long Live Evil is also extremely well written, both in prose and plot. I never felt like it flagged, it was very funny seeing the difference between Rae's modernity verses the book series fantasy setting, and this really felt like the author understood fantasy romance and had fun poking at bits of it.

I will eagerly wait the sequel and really anything else Sarah Rees Brennan. It you are at all interested, I would highly recommend reading Long Live Evil.

Let’s set the scene. Our Heroine, I mean Villainess: Rae. Teenager with cancer who is isekai-ed into her sister’s favorite fantasy novel. The Goal: escape fantasyland, return to the real world, and maybe change the villainess’s fate along the way. The Problem: everyone wants her dead—after all, she’s evil with a capital E. So why not embrace it?

Long Live Evil is surely a love it or hate it book. I think whether you love it directly correlates to having a soft spot for villains—especially the comically over-the-top sort in tight spandex. All I can say is keep turning those pages, because it’s a chaotic fever dream before everything starts coming together… Sarah Rees Brennan gives us campy, teenage drama, the vilest villainy, and some sneaky plot twists; making for a delightful romp that stampedes over typical fantasy tropes. The dialogue is A LOT. The characters are meta and unafraid of messing up the plot for personal gain (see above – villainy). And Rae may not remember the book quite as well as she should…

Overall it took a bit to immerse myself in this one, but once it got its claws in me I couldn’t stop. The ending had me re-reading for foreshadowing, the cliffhanger made me curse the fact that I read an ARC and the sequel isn’t even close to published yet. I got so much secondhand embarrassment that at times I had to straight-up stop reading, but tons of laughs as well. As someone who made it through, I strongly suggest suspending your disbelief from the beginning, don’t even try to read it seriously, and just enjoy the fun. 4/5 Stars, can’t wait for the next one Ms. Brennan!

Thanks again to Orbit Books for providing me with an ARC of Long Live Evil. My review is, as always, truthful and unbiased, and I hope it helps introduce readers to new books they will love!

This was certainly interesting. The main character, Rae, is dying and is given a chance to change that by being transported into the world of her favorite fantasy series, as the villainess who gets executed in book 1. If you've read any manga/manhwa/manhua withing the last few years, this kind of premise isn't unfamiliar, but it's still fun. At least, on the surface.

In terms of execution, I don't think this book worked completely. For starters the way it was written was very heavily info-dumping. That, and the book couldn't seem to decide how it wanted to be perceived. I feel like there are two routes you can go with a premise like this: lean full-in to the comedy of the situation or take a harsher look at the realities of a world like that, especially when it shores up against more modern sensibilities. This book tried to do both and didn't exactly hit the mark with either. (Like, there's a full-on, written out Disney-style musical scene--which may be fine in a full cast audiobook or y'know, as an actual viewing experience, but as a reader? Not fun. Reads very fanfic (in a negative way)) Some of the issue surrounding this is that Rae, as a character, is very quippy. She has a goal (which, fine, I can appreciate that) and doesn't see the people around her as anything more than characters. The way she talks and interacts with the world directly clash with the more serious moments. If that were intended to be the case, then sure, lean into the comedy--make it dark!--but that didn't quite seem like the intent. The author had a particular way of writing these moments where it would be like "quirky info-dump, a more serious look at the world or a certain issue, punchy line that's meant to hit hard, right back to quips". This had the effect of making those more serious moments feel like a joke. Not to mention that this way of writing didn't just happen every once in awhile, but sometimes multiple times within the same chapter. It just got tiring to read.

As for the characters, I sort of wish the author had just focused the POVs on Rae and one other in-world character. Mostly because, despite the Rae-backstory-infodump in the extra-long prologue at the beginning of the book, Rae still never felt like a character that I connected with.

Overall, this just wasn't for me, but I can definitely see why people like it. I just think the author should have either gone full-comedy or more serious instead of dancing around both.

Thank you Orbit for the arc!! Your books usually hit perfectly in my scope of interests, and this one was pretty damn close!

I really loved the premise and the plot was absolutely intriguing! I do look forward to the sequel!
My only real issue I found, was it was hard to get in to at first. This reads more YA adjacent than adult. And being such a mood reader, I wasn’t mentally prepared for that.

You had me at the title. The description was just cake... and the actual book? Frosting.

Definitely do not think this book is for everyone but I had a great time. There definitely need to be more villain-focused stories and I am here to support, encourage, and push for more.

4 stars!

Thank you to Sarah Rees Brennan and Orbit for this ARC in exchange for my full, honest review!

Good god, what a ride. This meta-epic fantasy had it's highs and lows but I absolutely have to read the second book after that ending. Following Rae as she escapes her death from cancer in the real world by traveling to the world of her favorite book series in the role of the villain, this book is packed with action and humor.

First, the good. The cast of characters is very lovable and I just love an ensemble cast with multiple POVs. The premise is awesome and I really connected to Rae's grief over her illness and the freedom and friends she lost because of it. I know the author fought cancer herself and I think that comes through in the rawness of Rae's experience. This book is absolutely a love letter to books and readers alike, including a bit of a fun focus on fandom. I loved that two of the characters from the real world had different opinions on the love triangle and kept trying to get their ship together, it was so charming. There are also a lot of really beautiful meditations on good vs. evil and the role of privilege in how stories are told. Admittedly, I did kind of guess the big twist at the end but it was executed so awesomely that I didn't even care.

Now for things I had some issues with. Especially towards the end, characters occasionally internally flashback to past events and sometimes I didn't feel like there was enough indication of where their thoughts fell on the timeline and it got a bit confusing. I felt that it dragged at the 50-75% mark a bit just as we were waiting for the culmination of a lot of set up. The writing and the meditations mentioned earlier can be a bit repetitive at times which made the writing feel a little juvenile. In that same vein, this really feels more like YA to me other than some allusions to sexual content (though nothing graphic on page). I hope the series will get more adult as it continues. This is also just a personal preference but I don't enjoy action so I skimmed those sections and that slowed down the momentum for me a bit.

I think if you go into this with the expectation of a more upper-YA feel, you will enjoy it more. If you like C.S. Pacat's Dark Rise series, this is more humorous but the kind of tension and arc of the novel gives me the same vibe (which makes sense since I know the authors have worked together). All in all, I really liked it even if it was a bit slow for me. I'm definitely looking forward to the next book!

Happy reading!

When I saw this on Netgalley, I was pretty excited, because I love one of Brennan's YA books, In Other Lands. And this seemed like it had a similar vibe, but for adults (and I was correct). And I'm an adult, so bully for me or whatever. But anyway, I'm glad I grabbed it, because the book was delightful. The main character, who has terminal cancer, gets a chance to heal herself by obtaining a magical object from her favorite fantasy series. But, when she wakes up, she finds herself in the role of villainess...and she decides to own it. And own it she does! She pretty quickly surrounds herself with a diverting cast of rogues and shenanigans commence. So yeah, this had pretty much everything I look for in a book: likable characters, an engaging story, sexytimes, and, as an added bonus, it was hilarious (this is also a thing I love about In Other Lands in case you are looking for another book by this author). I laughed out loud more than a few times. Sure, the twists were pretty transparently telegraphed, and some of the characters were a little one-note but who cares when the book is so much fun? I never read sequels (should a publisher be magically reading this, please put recaps in the front of sequels), but I'll definitely read the next one in this series. 4 stars - I really liked it!

Thanks to Orbit and Netgalley for the eARC which I received in exchange for an unbiased review. Long Live Evil is out July 30.

It took me a bit to get into this novel, but in the end I enjoyed it. The writing at the beginning was a bit confusing and hard to follow. After I trudged through the beginning, the rest of the story flowed pretty well. This was a really cool, new concept that I hadn’t read before. I loved that Rae was the villain and truly reveled in it. A villains love story? PERFECTION.

This one may have not been for me.

I really like the premise, but the writing style was maybe a bit to YA. Would totally give to any of my nieces and nephews though. The character work is incredible, and plot unique. Would 7/10 recommend for any YA readers.

This was a very interesting concept, but I feel like the arc still needs a lot of polish to feel complete that I don't think is possible with the release window of the final novel. The beginning is tragic but an interesting setup, but once the main character is in the novel the pacing feels meandering and slow. The excerpts at the beginning of each chapter felt unconnected and unnecessary. The climax is better paced and packed with action, but at the finale it drops the twist and then just ends abruptly. It overall felt like a first draft, There's a lot of potential here and I look forward to seeing this author grow as she prefects her craft.