Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan is a romantasy perfect for any villain lover (which I am!)! Our main gal is diagnosed with a deadly disease and is given the chance to change her stars by entering her favorite novel…but there’s a catch, she’s reincarnated as the villain!

I absolutely loved how the author took the villain arc seriously and didn’t try to give our main characters cop outs. They embraced their evil side and I loved it! That plus the twists were so fun and unexpected. I need book two yesterday!

Overall, I gave this book a four-star rating because the storyline was unique, the writing was well-executed, and I truly enjoyed getting to know the characters. I would recommend this book especially to those who need a palate cleanser, a fun romp, and just a good time. Loved it!

Parts of this I really enjoyed (the concept, the beginning, the ending) but other parts I didn't - there was a real lag around the middle and I had to skim a few chapters to get things going again. But a really creative concept - and I loved the humor - just wish there was more of it.

This gives the same vibes as like, Taylor Swift trying to be a bad bitch. This is the song Karma. This is her Reputation era music videos. This is the lyric "Cat's eye sharp enough to kill a man". I want to cringe so hard out of my body its not even funny. Maybe I'd wake up as an archetypal evil/misunderstood sister.

This isn't to say that it's not a fun read. When, or if, you get past the feeling of playacting edginess, there's a lovely, hopeful heart to the story. It is, after all, about a girl finding herself another life as her old one comes to an end. Literally. The main character is dying of cancer, and finds herself awoken in the fantasy world of a book series she and her sister so admire. The premise itself if interesting, though not unfamiliar to those who either a)read fantasy manga, or b) read fanfiction about the characters reacting to their books. (The last point being about breaching the perspective, switching from participant to observer, or as with this book, the reverse. The observer becoming the participant.)

People who found great fun in anachronistic historical adaptations such as the television show The Great, or Netflix's Persuasion may find the dialogue stylings here fun. I think anachronism can be fun, but sometimes I think that modern languages and references is already enough to have that fun, jarring effect, and one doesn't need to rely on "internet" speak to make that dichotomy even more pronounces. (I've literally never heard a single, human person say "AF" out loud. Never. It's so weird.) I think this bends towards more Persuasion that The Great, simply for how it deploys the use of modern phrases. The Great seems more tongue-and-cheek, and Persuasion felt like a bid to connect with the quote-on-quote youths of today.

(The thing about Persuasion that gets me going is that it didn't need to be anachronistic, because the people who wanted to watch it, the people who wanted to love it, understand that great stories can transcend modern shifts in language. But this is about Long Live Evil, not Persuasion, do I digress.)

The strongest part of this book is the truth at the heart of it. The anger and confusion in the face of disaster. The desire to live, to survive, to form connections even when everything seems hopeless and pointless. That naked heart of it is what makes this book. I can look past the faux-edge of it, because at the end of the day, I think the edge is supposed to be faux. It's a false bravado put on by the main character in the face of her world collapsing around her. What else can you do in the face of almost assured death but put on a brave face? What else can you do but make jokes and laugh and try to continue living?

Nothing.

You can just keep going, and that's what the book was getting at.

So yes, there is cringe. Yes, it still felt a bit like a pantomime of badassery, but you can't truly fault Long Live Evil for it, if it is a feature of the novel, not an unfortunate outcome of attempting to write a "badass female character" or a "strong female lead". (Anyone who's read a few books from the romantasy genre in the last few years knows exactly what I mean.) In this book, there is something to be said, and it takes a refreshing perspective on the state of popular romantasy protagonist.

Overall, it wasn't what I was expecting, but that's not the books fault. Regardless, I think it's a fun romp of a book with an unexpected, emotional heart to it.