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Time of Iron #1
Long Live Evil
Rae hat sich schon immer in die Welt von Büchern geflüchtet, selbst während ihr reales Leben aus den Fugen geriet. Als sie im Sterben liegt, ergreift sie eine zweite Chance zu leben: Ein magischer Handel, der sie in die Welt ihrer Lieblings-Fantasy-Buchreihe eintreten lässt. Dort steht sie plötzlich dem lebenden und atmenden Objekt ihres Schwärmens gegenüber – dem »Einstigen und Ewigen Kaiser« – und dieser würde sie am liebsten tot sehen. In einem Reich am Rande des Krieges ist sie die Schurkin in seiner Geschichte und muss die Kontrolle über die Handlung übernehmen, bevor diese und der Kaiser die Kontrolle über sie übernehmen – auf die tödliche Weise. Rae glaubt zu wissen, wie die Story verlaufen wird, aber schon bald muss sie erkennen, dass Geschichten ein Eigenleben haben können.
Für alle, die schon einmal in den Schurken eines Romans verknallt waren und deren Lieblingsfarbe Morally Grey ist
Für alle, die schon einmal in den Schurken eines Romans verknallt waren und deren Lieblingsfarbe Morally Grey ist
592 pages, Hardcover
First published August 27, 2024
3131 people are currently reading
60853 people want to read
About the author
Sarah Rees Brennan
71 books5,987 followersSarah Rees Brennan is Irish and currently lives in Dublin. She's been writing YA books for more than ten years, which is terrifying to contemplate! She hopes you (yes you!) find at least one of them to be the kind of book you remember.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 5,456 reviews
July 26, 2024
This was weird.
I don't believe this is a good book: the pacing isn't great, the characters are archetypes and lack complexity, you can see the plot twists coming from miles ahead, etc.
But still I had a fantastic time!
I was invested in the story, got attached to some minor characters and overall really enjoyed it.
So 3.5 rounded up, and I will definitely check out the next one.
Thank you Orbit Books.
I don't believe this is a good book: the pacing isn't great, the characters are archetypes and lack complexity, you can see the plot twists coming from miles ahead, etc.
But still I had a fantastic time!
I was invested in the story, got attached to some minor characters and overall really enjoyed it.
So 3.5 rounded up, and I will definitely check out the next one.
Thank you Orbit Books.
August 7, 2024
for every person that can’t decide if they want to be or be with the villain
this was just so campy, meta, and an absolute ball of a time. i haven’t been this entertained by a book in awhile and the ending only has me more excited to read it all over again!
Read my review here
thank you to orbit books for providing the arc!
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this was just so campy, meta, and an absolute ball of a time. i haven’t been this entertained by a book in awhile and the ending only has me more excited to read it all over again!
Read my review here
thank you to orbit books for providing the arc!
Follow me on Instagram
Want to read
May 16, 2024"For everyone who's ever fallen for the villain??"
Villain romance? Killing as a love language? Fantasy battles??
SIGN ME TF UP
Coming 30 July 2024
Villain romance? Killing as a love language? Fantasy battles??
SIGN ME TF UP
Coming 30 July 2024
October 3, 2024
Perfection. From start to finish, this story was nothing but perfection.
Even if the ending might need a stronger word.
To explain my thoughts we’ll need some context: Rae is a badass twenty-year-old who's fighting cancer and who really loves only two things, her sister and her favorite book trilogy.
One night a strange woman tells her she will live if she’ll be able to take a healing flower that blooms once every year, in her favorite book.
This is how she ends up waking up in the boy of Lady Rahela, the Beauty Dipped In Blood, the villainess of her favourite book, who's going to be executed the very next day.
But she'll live not only because she's smart, but because she reasonably thinks everything is fake. She already knows what's going to happen, she knows what's her spot in the story, and she knows how much fun she can have without changing the narrative.
Except she doesn't because, as the villainess she is, even when she got everything wrong, she believed she was right.
In what could be the feverish dream of every reader, we follow Rae and her vipers in the discovery of how - unlike the real world - villains might be like that because they hadn't a choice, and heroes are considered as such because too many time we stop at appearances.
One thing is sure: from now on, I'll look at villains with a new glare.
↠ 5 stars
Thanks to Orbit Books and NetGalley, who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.
Even if the ending might need a stronger word.
To explain my thoughts we’ll need some context: Rae is a badass twenty-year-old who's fighting cancer and who really loves only two things, her sister and her favorite book trilogy.
One night a strange woman tells her she will live if she’ll be able to take a healing flower that blooms once every year, in her favorite book.
This is how she ends up waking up in the boy of Lady Rahela, the Beauty Dipped In Blood, the villainess of her favourite book, who's going to be executed the very next day.
But she'll live not only because she's smart, but because she reasonably thinks everything is fake. She already knows what's going to happen, she knows what's her spot in the story, and she knows how much fun she can have without changing the narrative.
Except she doesn't because, as the villainess she is, even when she got everything wrong, she believed she was right.
In what could be the feverish dream of every reader, we follow Rae and her vipers in the discovery of how - unlike the real world - villains might be like that because they hadn't a choice, and heroes are considered as such because too many time we stop at appearances.
One thing is sure: from now on, I'll look at villains with a new glare.
↠ 5 stars
Thanks to Orbit Books and NetGalley, who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.
May 12, 2024
“Don’t listen to stories encouraging you to be good, telling you to shine in a filthy world and patiently endure suffering. Screw suffering. It’s too hard to be good. Do the easy thing. Do the evil thing. Grasp whatever you desire in your greedy bloodstained hands.”
this is for every fantasy fan who wants to be or be with the villain. preferably both.
this is HANDS DOWN one of my favorite reads this year yet. an epic quest portal fantasy with heart, guts, & laughter, and a girl who gets to say fuck you, i'm choosing myself.
She was Lady Rahela, the Beauty Dipped In Blood. She was the heroine’s evil stepsister. And she was due to be executed tomorrow.
“Ambition is wicked, and I want so much. If I want to live that makes me a monster, if I want a man that makes me the harlot of the tower, if I want a throne that makes me an evil queen. Fine. I’ll be a wonderful monster. I trust my own wickedness. I will never believe in someone else again.”
brennan manages to take every well-worn (read: worn out), stereotypical, anticipated fantasy archetype cliché and throw it into delightful subversion with rae's introduction into the world of eyam. it's reminiscent of the magicians for me (at least the tv show, i haven't read the book) - rae stepping into the very fantasy world she's loved her whole life and knows (well, almost) every detail about, cleverly manuevering it to the bewilderment of her enemies. but, a drop in the ocean causes a ripple effect throughout the rest of the sea...
the self-awareness and meta element of the storytelling allows brennan to directly confront and critique the sexist tropes not only in fantasy media, but of society at large (bc what are stories, but a reflection of ourselves and our existing world?). s/o to her for also bringing in the queer rep and letting typically two-dimensional side characters become so much more real and loveable.
Relationships with no mistakes and no obstacles had no bite. Reading them was like consuming soggy salad for every meal and calling that healthy eating.
“What’s reality, except something that really affects us? If enough people believe in something, doesn’t it become real?”
“Sometimes women writers got discussed as if they ran a fictional vampire dating agency, while clearly men writing green bare-breasted tree women burned with pure literary inspiration.”
“But the poets don’t write about heartless wanton women because they hope never to meet them.”
rae's journey starts from the all-time low point of her life; the nearing end of it. while i felt incredible sympathy from rae's vivid recollections of her experience through sickness and its devastating alienation and loneliness, i also got to delight in brennan's incredible gift of wit and delight around every corner of her story.
“All this slut-shaming. Where’s the slut-praising? Quick, someone tell me I’m wicked cute and have great time management.”
“I’m supporting him.”
“You’re blackmailing him!”
“In a supportive way!”
She fixed an expression of extreme interest on her face, as if at a party with a college guy telling her about film studies.
i could honestly give you more quotes to convince you to read this (i have over 300 highlights in my arc) but i shan't spoil all the fun for you!
i am fully sat for the next book, i cannot WAIT to see where this series goes next!
Choose wrong. Choose evil.
this is for every fantasy fan who wants to be or be with the villain. preferably both.
this is HANDS DOWN one of my favorite reads this year yet. an epic quest portal fantasy with heart, guts, & laughter, and a girl who gets to say fuck you, i'm choosing myself.
She was Lady Rahela, the Beauty Dipped In Blood. She was the heroine’s evil stepsister. And she was due to be executed tomorrow.
“Ambition is wicked, and I want so much. If I want to live that makes me a monster, if I want a man that makes me the harlot of the tower, if I want a throne that makes me an evil queen. Fine. I’ll be a wonderful monster. I trust my own wickedness. I will never believe in someone else again.”
brennan manages to take every well-worn (read: worn out), stereotypical, anticipated fantasy archetype cliché and throw it into delightful subversion with rae's introduction into the world of eyam. it's reminiscent of the magicians for me (at least the tv show, i haven't read the book) - rae stepping into the very fantasy world she's loved her whole life and knows (well, almost) every detail about, cleverly manuevering it to the bewilderment of her enemies. but, a drop in the ocean causes a ripple effect throughout the rest of the sea...
the self-awareness and meta element of the storytelling allows brennan to directly confront and critique the sexist tropes not only in fantasy media, but of society at large (bc what are stories, but a reflection of ourselves and our existing world?). s/o to her for also bringing in the queer rep and letting typically two-dimensional side characters become so much more real and loveable.
Relationships with no mistakes and no obstacles had no bite. Reading them was like consuming soggy salad for every meal and calling that healthy eating.
“What’s reality, except something that really affects us? If enough people believe in something, doesn’t it become real?”
“Sometimes women writers got discussed as if they ran a fictional vampire dating agency, while clearly men writing green bare-breasted tree women burned with pure literary inspiration.”
“But the poets don’t write about heartless wanton women because they hope never to meet them.”
rae's journey starts from the all-time low point of her life; the nearing end of it. while i felt incredible sympathy from rae's vivid recollections of her experience through sickness and its devastating alienation and loneliness, i also got to delight in brennan's incredible gift of wit and delight around every corner of her story.
“All this slut-shaming. Where’s the slut-praising? Quick, someone tell me I’m wicked cute and have great time management.”
“I’m supporting him.”
“You’re blackmailing him!”
“In a supportive way!”
She fixed an expression of extreme interest on her face, as if at a party with a college guy telling her about film studies.
i could honestly give you more quotes to convince you to read this (i have over 300 highlights in my arc) but i shan't spoil all the fun for you!
i am fully sat for the next book, i cannot WAIT to see where this series goes next!
Choose wrong. Choose evil.
September 22, 2024
“a tale for everyone who's ever fallen for the villain” -
_
the review in a nutshell: this book is what happens when you cross cringey millennial humor that would give even ali hazelwood’s galaxy leggings a run for her money and infodumping in the form of talking to the audience themselves whilst making an abysmal amount of references to real life.
_
anyway, WELCOME BACK to everyone's favourite game show: “let’s laugh at saffiyah’s suffering as she is catfished again and again by every arc on netgalley” where i read literary abominations before their release date and forget to review them until weeks after the review was due so that YOU don't have to.
tonight's contestant is *drum roll please* long live evil!
(which is really quite sad, because that's a lovely title.
it also has a lovely cover.
and a reallyy good premise.
but a very, very, very shit execution.)
holly black said this was “brilliant”. leigh bardugo said it was “audacious and supremely satisfying”.
so who am i to dispute some of the greatest minds?
i am a nitpicky bitch who is tired of wasting her time on shitty reads that aren’t even that fun to hate on.
and i didn’t even want to hate on this! if you tell me there’s “an axe wielding maid, a shining knight with dark moods, a homicidal bodyguard, and a playboy spymaster with a golden heart and a filthy reputation” then i’m obviously going to want to enjoy it. but how the author managed to fuck up what could have been a masterpiece at only 12% is something i will never understand.
also i really don’t think this should be categorised as an adult fantasy.. especially not a high fantasy with the way it was written:
“she recalled an internet manifesto” moments after describing the “ruddy orichal gold” pillars - when i tell you the whiplash was severe, i mean it
“rae was currently stacked like the library of alexandria! nobody had this kind of upper body strength. fiction was absurd.”
this random dude: “did i not please you, my lady?”
her in her head: “her team member needed positive reinforcement!”
“rae had never realised before how much pop culture featured in day-to-day conversations. in soap operas, when a twin shows up they're usually evil. in horror movies, if someone keeps their double in the attic, it’s because their double is evil!
“this was not problem-solving. this was creating an entirely new problem!” - oh for fucks sake
and this was all up to 12%. ask me why i dnfed. i dare you.
thank you to netgalley + the publisher for an arc <3
ps: this is my last review on gr for the time being and i apologise for the relatively short rant review
_
the review in a nutshell: this book is what happens when you cross cringey millennial humor that would give even ali hazelwood’s galaxy leggings a run for her money and infodumping in the form of talking to the audience themselves whilst making an abysmal amount of references to real life.
_
anyway, WELCOME BACK to everyone's favourite game show: “let’s laugh at saffiyah’s suffering as she is catfished again and again by every arc on netgalley” where i read literary abominations before their release date and forget to review them until weeks after the review was due so that YOU don't have to.
tonight's contestant is *drum roll please* long live evil!
(which is really quite sad, because that's a lovely title.
it also has a lovely cover.
and a reallyy good premise.
but a very, very, very shit execution.)
holly black said this was “brilliant”. leigh bardugo said it was “audacious and supremely satisfying”.
so who am i to dispute some of the greatest minds?
i am a nitpicky bitch who is tired of wasting her time on shitty reads that aren’t even that fun to hate on.
and i didn’t even want to hate on this! if you tell me there’s “an axe wielding maid, a shining knight with dark moods, a homicidal bodyguard, and a playboy spymaster with a golden heart and a filthy reputation” then i’m obviously going to want to enjoy it. but how the author managed to fuck up what could have been a masterpiece at only 12% is something i will never understand.
also i really don’t think this should be categorised as an adult fantasy.. especially not a high fantasy with the way it was written:
“she recalled an internet manifesto” moments after describing the “ruddy orichal gold” pillars - when i tell you the whiplash was severe, i mean it
“rae was currently stacked like the library of alexandria! nobody had this kind of upper body strength. fiction was absurd.”
this random dude: “did i not please you, my lady?”
her in her head: “her team member needed positive reinforcement!”
“rae had never realised before how much pop culture featured in day-to-day conversations. in soap operas, when a twin shows up they're usually evil. in horror movies, if someone keeps their double in the attic, it’s because their double is evil!
“this was not problem-solving. this was creating an entirely new problem!” - oh for fucks sake
and this was all up to 12%. ask me why i dnfed. i dare you.
thank you to netgalley + the publisher for an arc <3
ps: this is my last review on gr for the time being and i apologise for the relatively short rant review
July 29, 2024
This book was definitely an experience, still trying to decide if it was a pleasant one.
The beginning was pure torture to get thru, it was too many things at once and idk what was going on. Later it got better in the middle, when I started to understand the world building I could enjoy it more.
Really liked the court intrigues and trying to outsmart people who want you dead. And basically everyone wanted her dead. There was too much modern language in fantasy setting. Like I get it, she's from "real world", but it felt forced, like older people trying to write in slang.
Honestly writing “Seriously, you will be powerful A.F.” or “May I speak in tongues at nature’s treasury?” during romantic scene should be banned. Many times I cringed so hard I needed to close the book and take a breather, cus my eyes were bleeding.
The povs other the main character were boring, plain and unnecessary, would be better if it was single pov. The ending was predictable, but nice.
Thank you Netgalley for providing digital advanced copy in exchange for honest review.
The beginning was pure torture to get thru, it was too many things at once and idk what was going on. Later it got better in the middle, when I started to understand the world building I could enjoy it more.
Really liked the court intrigues and trying to outsmart people who want you dead. And basically everyone wanted her dead. There was too much modern language in fantasy setting. Like I get it, she's from "real world", but it felt forced, like older people trying to write in slang.
Honestly writing “Seriously, you will be powerful A.F.” or “May I speak in tongues at nature’s treasury?” during romantic scene should be banned. Many times I cringed so hard I needed to close the book and take a breather, cus my eyes were bleeding.
The povs other the main character were boring, plain and unnecessary, would be better if it was single pov. The ending was predictable, but nice.
Thank you Netgalley for providing digital advanced copy in exchange for honest review.
August 11, 2025
This book means everything to me and if you don’t like it you can suck my non-existent dick!
Key
The Golden Cobra at any given point
“Can I kneel at the altar?”
“Sorry, what?”
He lifted his head to kiss her mouth, deep and filthy. “May I speak in tongues at nature’s treasury?”
She smiled bewilderment into the kiss. She didn’t know what he was talking about and didn’t care, as long as he didn’t stop.
“What is the point of the king?” Key sighed, and slid down along her body to his knees.
“Oh, you mean going down.”
“Villains,” she announced. “Let’s unionize.”
“I love you as a knife loves a throat,” he murmured as the dead overwhelmed her. “I crawled out of hell to fall at your feet.”
Welcome to the Golden Brothel!
The king about to go down
Biblically accurate Lia
“Apparently, the Cobra had made yet another fortune inventing ‘sunglasses’ last summer. ”
Biblically accurate Emer
At the market
Eric with his little meow meow
Rae wearing red to get in the zone
Two theater kids in their favorite book that happens to have a musical adaptation
Key
The Golden Cobra at any given point
“Can I kneel at the altar?”
“Sorry, what?”
He lifted his head to kiss her mouth, deep and filthy. “May I speak in tongues at nature’s treasury?”
She smiled bewilderment into the kiss. She didn’t know what he was talking about and didn’t care, as long as he didn’t stop.
“What is the point of the king?” Key sighed, and slid down along her body to his knees.
“Oh, you mean going down.”
“Villains,” she announced. “Let’s unionize.”
“I love you as a knife loves a throat,” he murmured as the dead overwhelmed her. “I crawled out of hell to fall at your feet.”
Welcome to the Golden Brothel!
The king about to go down
Biblically accurate Lia
“Apparently, the Cobra had made yet another fortune inventing ‘sunglasses’ last summer. ”
Biblically accurate Emer
At the market
Eric with his little meow meow
Rae wearing red to get in the zone
Two theater kids in their favorite book that happens to have a musical adaptation
November 14, 2024
3 stars
'evil's just sexier' YESS ı loved this book.
The whole concept was something i would def want myself in it.The writer carried it so well.
'evil's just sexier' YESS ı loved this book.
The whole concept was something i would def want myself in it.The writer carried it so well.
June 16, 2024
I had never read a musical scene occuring live in a book before, nor do I want to again after this
July 25, 2025
A brilliant mess
The publisher's blurb for Sarah Rees Brennan's Long Live Evil makes it sound like a funny book about a real-world character who slips into a book and finds herself the villain. And it IS that! There were many laugh-out-loud moments, such as this one
But there's another side to this that the blurb barely hints at. Rae, when we meet her, is dying of cancer. There's a lot of pain and anger in her -- there's a reason why, when she's plugged into her sister's favorite fantasy series, she is the villain. Brennan is herself a late-stage cancer survivor. When she writes,
So, there you have Long Live Evil. It's one laugh after another, and also a portrait of gut-wrenching pain and loneliness. A brilliant mess. It won't be for everyone. But I loved it.
Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit for an advance reader copy of Long Live Evil.
Blog review.
The publisher's blurb for Sarah Rees Brennan's Long Live Evil makes it sound like a funny book about a real-world character who slips into a book and finds herself the villain. And it IS that! There were many laugh-out-loud moments, such as this one
Books often described kisses as ‘searing’ which made Rae think of salmon, but characters seemed to enjoy the seared-salmon kisses.or this
“You saw this horse born,” Marius reminded ... “I told you his bloodline could find their way anywhere. You named him.” “That was a joke,” ... Marius didn’t see what was humorous. He’d thought it was a nice name. ... “So this is my noble steed, Google Maps?”Rae, our heroine/villainess, is a fantasy book lover, who knows all the plot tropes, not to mention the movies and songs. Plugged into a fantasy novel (à la Inkworld or Thursday Next -- both are referenced in the Acknowledgments) Rae reacts like the thoroughly modern young woman she is, with sense and never-ending incongruity. It never gets old, or at least it did not for me.
But there's another side to this that the blurb barely hints at. Rae, when we meet her, is dying of cancer. There's a lot of pain and anger in her -- there's a reason why, when she's plugged into her sister's favorite fantasy series, she is the villain. Brennan is herself a late-stage cancer survivor. When she writes,
A neighbour had taken Rae aside when news of her diagnosis spread, counselling her to take a blanket to her first appointment. Rae didn’t understand until she found herself on a reclined chair having chemo, every warm organ in her body turning to frozen grapes. She clutched her blanket as the last rope to a warmer world. When she got home, she plunged into a scalding hot bath, but once you knew such cold existed it was impossible to ever really be warm again.it's obvious she knows what she's talking about.
So, there you have Long Live Evil. It's one laugh after another, and also a portrait of gut-wrenching pain and loneliness. A brilliant mess. It won't be for everyone. But I loved it.
Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit for an advance reader copy of Long Live Evil.
Blog review.
September 7, 2025
I’m so disappointed 😩
July 22, 2025
Finished this back in April but I’ve been neglecting my Goodreads. My apologies. Anyway, this was delightful, delicious, campy fun and I enjoyed every minute of it. It is very meta and very self-aware and able to laugh loudly at itself and the genre while also giving us some wonderful characters and scenes. Brava all around. Can’t wait for book 2!
dnf
April 30, 2025DNF after ch 3, ~50 pages in
Idk what's up with me and Orbit 2024 releases, but I've not been vibing. Normally they're my most reliable publisher, so I wonder if they've had internal shake-ups in curation/editing/branding/etc.
Poor Pacing:
To start with, this book reminds me a lot of How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying, but unlike Dark Lord Davi, it absolutely doesn't know where to begin the story. For one thing, the entire first chapter should have been axed. The information presented there was repetitious and can easily be inferred through later chapters without even having to change the material as it is. And it's so dull and honestly made the MC seem less likable. Start the story where it's truly interesting: when she's in the world of the book.
Writing:
unsubtle and repetitive:
But I also didn't like the writing. It was working so hard to spell things out for me that I had inferred pages ago; just trust the reader sometimes!
cringe:
Humor is subjective, but this didn't gel for me. It had all the right components of humor I should like, but the execution just wasn't it.
Edit: When I first read this I complained to some friends who previously liked other books by the author and said they love her humor. Since this was my first book from her, I couldn't really comment on if it's similar or not. But I've since had one of those friends pick up the ARC and they're definitely struggling with the writing and humor here.
exposition heavy, but in an inelegant way and largely about details that don't matter:
And there was a lot of info-dumping but it was the most random things that held neither importance nor intrigue so it was just like... the author has thought about some world-building details, I guess? Cool.
Example in Chapter 2: A character says they wanted one thousand gold leaves as a reward for doing a grand act for the kingdom. This is interrupted by the narration to say that there are 4 metals and 4 shapes for their coinage, the FMC can't remember any of the other ones "but a thousand sounded like a pile of cash." And then the story resumes as normal.
Not only can I already infer based on the roughly medieval European, classic Fantasy setting that "one thousand gold [anything]" is a lot of money, and the fact that he wanted to claim it as a reward for a heroic act means that it's an amount worthy of that compensation, but... I didn't learn anything about the world -certainly nothing of importance nor interest- and even though it was only the beginning of chapter 2 I swear I'd already been told >8x that the FMC doesn't remember most of the details about this book series and book 1 in particular (ch 1 really beat me over the head with it). -_- From what I can tell from reading ahead, this type of "info"-dumping/hand-holding is continued throughout the book.
Assorted Complaints (probably nitpicky-- not internally consistent/believable):
I was going to read a few more chapters tomorrow and see if I still felt sour, but decided to skip ahead tonight. Around 67% in she's commenting on a creature and says it looks like a lion x hyena but enormous, and someone else tells her lions are imaginary. And I... hate that, actually? Like if someone in our world said something looks like a unicorn or a griffin and someone else tells them it's not real. Buddy, we know it's not real but clearly we have a shared vocabulary and can both conjure images of this animal. Imagine that your sole contribution to the conversation is to remind grown-ass adults that the creature they mentioned is imaginary. This is the kind of "world-building" that doesn't feel wholly internally consistent because the characters are forced to behave unnaturally to make sure information is delivered to the reader. Bleh. Grumble.
Overall:
All that to say-- these are very "me" issues and I think a lot of people will be able to turn off their brains and just enjoy a silly story. But I think it genuinely gave me a headache.
Thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for granting me an ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Idk what's up with me and Orbit 2024 releases, but I've not been vibing. Normally they're my most reliable publisher, so I wonder if they've had internal shake-ups in curation/editing/branding/etc.
Poor Pacing:
To start with, this book reminds me a lot of How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying, but unlike Dark Lord Davi, it absolutely doesn't know where to begin the story. For one thing, the entire first chapter should have been axed. The information presented there was repetitious and can easily be inferred through later chapters without even having to change the material as it is. And it's so dull and honestly made the MC seem less likable. Start the story where it's truly interesting: when she's in the world of the book.
Writing:
unsubtle and repetitive:
But I also didn't like the writing. It was working so hard to spell things out for me that I had inferred pages ago; just trust the reader sometimes!
cringe:
Humor is subjective, but this didn't gel for me. It had all the right components of humor I should like, but the execution just wasn't it.
Edit: When I first read this I complained to some friends who previously liked other books by the author and said they love her humor. Since this was my first book from her, I couldn't really comment on if it's similar or not. But I've since had one of those friends pick up the ARC and they're definitely struggling with the writing and humor here.
exposition heavy, but in an inelegant way and largely about details that don't matter:
And there was a lot of info-dumping but it was the most random things that held neither importance nor intrigue so it was just like... the author has thought about some world-building details, I guess? Cool.
Example in Chapter 2: A character says they wanted one thousand gold leaves as a reward for doing a grand act for the kingdom. This is interrupted by the narration to say that there are 4 metals and 4 shapes for their coinage, the FMC can't remember any of the other ones "but a thousand sounded like a pile of cash." And then the story resumes as normal.
Not only can I already infer based on the roughly medieval European, classic Fantasy setting that "one thousand gold [anything]" is a lot of money, and the fact that he wanted to claim it as a reward for a heroic act means that it's an amount worthy of that compensation, but... I didn't learn anything about the world -certainly nothing of importance nor interest- and even though it was only the beginning of chapter 2 I swear I'd already been told >8x that the FMC doesn't remember most of the details about this book series and book 1 in particular (ch 1 really beat me over the head with it). -_- From what I can tell from reading ahead, this type of "info"-dumping/hand-holding is continued throughout the book.
Assorted Complaints (probably nitpicky-- not internally consistent/believable):
I was going to read a few more chapters tomorrow and see if I still felt sour, but decided to skip ahead tonight. Around 67% in she's commenting on a creature and says it looks like a lion x hyena but enormous, and someone else tells her lions are imaginary. And I... hate that, actually? Like if someone in our world said something looks like a unicorn or a griffin and someone else tells them it's not real. Buddy, we know it's not real but clearly we have a shared vocabulary and can both conjure images of this animal. Imagine that your sole contribution to the conversation is to remind grown-ass adults that the creature they mentioned is imaginary. This is the kind of "world-building" that doesn't feel wholly internally consistent because the characters are forced to behave unnaturally to make sure information is delivered to the reader. Bleh. Grumble.
Overall:
All that to say-- these are very "me" issues and I think a lot of people will be able to turn off their brains and just enjoy a silly story. But I think it genuinely gave me a headache.
Thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for granting me an ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
September 9, 2024
4.5 stars rounded up
This is such a smart book that is subversive in a really fun way! Long Live Evil follows a young woman dying of cancer who is given one chance to save her own life, but must enter the world of her favorite book series as the female villain. Suddenly in a strong, curvaceous body that she never had in the real world, she relishes the opportunity to be wicked.
It's doing so much to subvert ideas about suffering being connected to goodness, and of what it would mean for someone with chronic illness and pain to suddenly be thrust into a healthy body. Not to mention what changes when we begin to see people in stories as real rather than fictional- what if you had an actual villain rather than one we can romanticize from afar?
This book is also very funny and has great hidden references to all kinds of things from the real world. Part of the humor is playing on the fact that this fantasy is taking place in a created world filled with tropes and ideas from the author. It's very meta and I loved it. I will say, there were a couple points that the story dragged for me and I do think it could have been a little bit shorter, but in general I had a great time and I love what the book is doing! I received a copy of this book for review from the publisher, all opinions are my own.
This is such a smart book that is subversive in a really fun way! Long Live Evil follows a young woman dying of cancer who is given one chance to save her own life, but must enter the world of her favorite book series as the female villain. Suddenly in a strong, curvaceous body that she never had in the real world, she relishes the opportunity to be wicked.
It's doing so much to subvert ideas about suffering being connected to goodness, and of what it would mean for someone with chronic illness and pain to suddenly be thrust into a healthy body. Not to mention what changes when we begin to see people in stories as real rather than fictional- what if you had an actual villain rather than one we can romanticize from afar?
This book is also very funny and has great hidden references to all kinds of things from the real world. Part of the humor is playing on the fact that this fantasy is taking place in a created world filled with tropes and ideas from the author. It's very meta and I loved it. I will say, there were a couple points that the story dragged for me and I do think it could have been a little bit shorter, but in general I had a great time and I love what the book is doing! I received a copy of this book for review from the publisher, all opinions are my own.
July 9, 2024
I'm sorry to say that this was a DNF for me, at around 25%. I was so thrilled to receive what was one of my highly anticipated reads. The premise sounds unique and exciting (I LOVE the villains) and that cover?! Stunning.
Initially, it did not disappoint. We're introduced to our FMC, Rae, in hospital as she battles cancer. Dying, she strikes a magical bargain that transports her into the world of her favourite fantasy book series as the villainess. The ultimate escapism! So far, so excellent! I adored Rae. She's sassy, pragmatic and irreverent despite her pain and struggles. Her relationship with her sister was portrayed beautifully - so protective and loving. I couldn't wait to see our bitter, wounded, snarky, modern-day FMC with her heart of gold become the villain of an epic high fantasy world.
Once we made that transition though, the wheels started to come off (for me). This is marketed as an "adult epic fantasy" but it felt more like a parody. Consistent dialogue such as "seriously, you will be powerful A.F" / "I'm a heartless monster with a strong character and stronger eyeliner game" and "i'm totally evil, and I want you to be my evil minions." was just not landing with me the way I think it intended. It completely diluted all of the depth and stakes established in the beginning. Rae and the secondary characters began to feel like caricatures who I wasn't supposed to take seriously anymore and I lost that sense of connection to her. I kept putting it down and coming back to it at a later time/date in the hopes it would start to click with me again, but unfortunately, despite revisiting it on multiple occasions, it just wasn't working for me.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Little Brown Book group for an arc in exchange for an honest review.
Initially, it did not disappoint. We're introduced to our FMC, Rae, in hospital as she battles cancer. Dying, she strikes a magical bargain that transports her into the world of her favourite fantasy book series as the villainess. The ultimate escapism! So far, so excellent! I adored Rae. She's sassy, pragmatic and irreverent despite her pain and struggles. Her relationship with her sister was portrayed beautifully - so protective and loving. I couldn't wait to see our bitter, wounded, snarky, modern-day FMC with her heart of gold become the villain of an epic high fantasy world.
Once we made that transition though, the wheels started to come off (for me). This is marketed as an "adult epic fantasy" but it felt more like a parody. Consistent dialogue such as "seriously, you will be powerful A.F" / "I'm a heartless monster with a strong character and stronger eyeliner game" and "i'm totally evil, and I want you to be my evil minions." was just not landing with me the way I think it intended. It completely diluted all of the depth and stakes established in the beginning. Rae and the secondary characters began to feel like caricatures who I wasn't supposed to take seriously anymore and I lost that sense of connection to her. I kept putting it down and coming back to it at a later time/date in the hopes it would start to click with me again, but unfortunately, despite revisiting it on multiple occasions, it just wasn't working for me.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Little Brown Book group for an arc in exchange for an honest review.
June 28, 2024
look ok the good is that this is written with enough clear love of the high fantasy genre that it is buoyed by a certain natural charm if you also love high fantasy. there's a sincerity underneath the memes and quips. even though the memes are so, so old. oh my god. none postdate 2015, generously. when the protagonist, perfecting her villainy, thinks "shoulders down neck long think murder" i had to put the book down for a good 20 minutes. but to be clear i did pick it back up and finish it in one day so there's that. even though it has an extended description of a musical number, with filk lyrics and everything.
the character writing is overall punchy and fun, particularly if you liked galavant, which i didn't. except that the rendering of the token black character (btw the tokenism is not an attempt at subverting a trope it is genuinely insanely 2014ely something srb doesn't seem to have noticed she did) is, by way of well-meaning white-person-who-saw-spiderverse brainworms, comically racist. introduced with the word "bling". closing my fucking eyes.
but here's the thing about putting out this book in the 2020s — it is written with a ton of affection and familiarity baked into the plot and archetypes but it's still mostly concerned with turning to the audience and tutting through the fourth wall: women have agency! not ALL women with big knockers are evil! everyone thinks women are sluts and no one thinks men are sluts! posting live from 2012! (2012 "AF", you might say, and certainly, someone does, in dialogue.)
like aside the fact that the takes were covered to exhaustion BEFORE game of thrones went ignobly off the air: let's think about the market shift. who is writing, unquestioningly, "the king is seduced by an evil big knocker sorceress, recognizable as evil by her big knockers" in the 2020s. in the 2010s even. we have total post-takes market capture. we've done this and redone this; it has influenced the politics of the writing AND the forms of popular sff. people are frankly afraid point blank to write fun stylish villains (certainly -esses) because they're constantly looking over their shoulder trying to do 4d chess about Reclaiming the Tropes as opposed to just writing complete characters with full interiority and it's in fact very frustrating to read a fun take on fantasy pastiche that asserts "everyone becomes a full character when written with full interiority" and then go back to girlboss knockerposting. to get REAL about the present market if you want to find a mean bitch slut on the fantasy-adjacent shelves these days you're far more likely to find her being written secondarily by a woman doing a school-of-madeleine-miller ~reclamation of a woman who's ~just misunderstood. BUT ANYWAY. let's be so fucking serious. who are you talking to. who is disagreeing with you. do we have a clamoring market for white person isekai or are you just afraid to write genre fiction, even lighthearted genre fiction, without a veil of the kind of fourth-wall irony that went out of fashion when whedon stopped being allowed to write for tv. the evil, you might say, has been defeated, but i'm sure she's saving that one for the next book.
also straight up two (2) out of three (3) of the ships get the 'i am your dog' devoted knight beat. yeah it's a classic but if you have three ships you can drum up more tropes than joe biden thinks there are genders.
the character writing is overall punchy and fun, particularly if you liked galavant, which i didn't. except that the rendering of the token black character (btw the tokenism is not an attempt at subverting a trope it is genuinely insanely 2014ely something srb doesn't seem to have noticed she did) is, by way of well-meaning white-person-who-saw-spiderverse brainworms, comically racist. introduced with the word "bling". closing my fucking eyes.
but here's the thing about putting out this book in the 2020s — it is written with a ton of affection and familiarity baked into the plot and archetypes but it's still mostly concerned with turning to the audience and tutting through the fourth wall: women have agency! not ALL women with big knockers are evil! everyone thinks women are sluts and no one thinks men are sluts! posting live from 2012! (2012 "AF", you might say, and certainly, someone does, in dialogue.)
like aside the fact that the takes were covered to exhaustion BEFORE game of thrones went ignobly off the air: let's think about the market shift. who is writing, unquestioningly, "the king is seduced by an evil big knocker sorceress, recognizable as evil by her big knockers" in the 2020s. in the 2010s even. we have total post-takes market capture. we've done this and redone this; it has influenced the politics of the writing AND the forms of popular sff. people are frankly afraid point blank to write fun stylish villains (certainly -esses) because they're constantly looking over their shoulder trying to do 4d chess about Reclaiming the Tropes as opposed to just writing complete characters with full interiority and it's in fact very frustrating to read a fun take on fantasy pastiche that asserts "everyone becomes a full character when written with full interiority" and then go back to girlboss knockerposting. to get REAL about the present market if you want to find a mean bitch slut on the fantasy-adjacent shelves these days you're far more likely to find her being written secondarily by a woman doing a school-of-madeleine-miller ~reclamation of a woman who's ~just misunderstood. BUT ANYWAY. let's be so fucking serious. who are you talking to. who is disagreeing with you. do we have a clamoring market for white person isekai or are you just afraid to write genre fiction, even lighthearted genre fiction, without a veil of the kind of fourth-wall irony that went out of fashion when whedon stopped being allowed to write for tv. the evil, you might say, has been defeated, but i'm sure she's saving that one for the next book.
also straight up two (2) out of three (3) of the ships get the 'i am your dog' devoted knight beat. yeah it's a classic but if you have three ships you can drum up more tropes than joe biden thinks there are genders.
April 16, 2024
“Don't listen to stories encouraging you to be good, telling you to shine in a filthy world and patiently endure suffering. Screw suffering. It's too hard to be good. Do the easy thing. Do the evil thing. Grasp whatever you desire in your greedy bloodstained hands."
When being evil is just too good!
When Rae thinks her life is over, when her illness slowly consumes her remaining strength and her days are spent in a hospital bed, she gets the chance to do what all book lovers can only dream of, enter her favourite fictional world. It starts with a bargain. A mysterious woman tells Rae that if she can obtain the Flower of Life and Death from the Imperial greenhouse then she will have the chance to live, but should she fail, she will remain in the world of Eyam forever. The kingdom of Eyam is a fictional place that is well known to Rae being as it’s from her sister Alice’s favourite book series, Time of Iron. In fact her sister is so obsessed with the books that in sharing her love for them she has also drawn Rae into loving its narrative and beguiling characters. So of course Rae takes the chance and enters Eyam but immediately all is not quite what it seems—for one she’s not in the body of the hero, she’s Lady Rahela, the evil stepsister due to be executed the very next day. Yet Rae is determined to succeed in her quest and so she gathers a team of villainous characters to aid her and change the course of their lives. But for how long can these villains really survive?
Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan is a novel which hits you in the face with its fun factor and drags you down into the depths of a dark and twisted tale where evil triumphs in the most delicious ways.
Immediately Brennan draws you into Rae’s journey from the real world to the world of Eyam and gives us such outrageous scenes that I couldn’t help but read this novel with a large smile on my face. Now, the use of contemporary slang and idioms in fantasy is not usually something I like to see but here it works so well. Essentially Rae is a contemporary young adult and so Brennan uses that in a brilliant comedic way. We learn that Rae has lost so much due to her illness, she’s isolated, angry and left with very little options but given the chance at life, she seizes it in the most dramatic of ways. Once in Eyam, the rest of the characters within that world do not know where Rae is really from and therefore their confusion at her modern turns of phrases actually made me laugh, as did all the references to pop culture such as Rae’s story of Lord Ross and Lady Rachel, which was obviously a nod to the show Friends! We are then treated to an abundance of other charming and alarming scenes including a fantastic musical number which I adored, chaotic scenes of fighting with ghouls and a manticore and some pretty evil twists.
As we delve further it becomes clear the prominent point of this novel is to look at villains, the art of storytelling and stock characters such heroes, villains, kings, princesses and so on, in a tongue in cheek kind of way, looking at them in different lights, turning them on their heads in surprising ways and Brennan achieves that so cleverly here. I did feel a touch overwhelmed with all the characters and their narratives as there is a lot to get your head around, however there came a point where everyone started to fall into place and from then on the book couldn't be prised out of my hands. The epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter helped as they gave snippets from various chapters of the original story of Time of Iron giving us some context into its characters yet it also punctuated how Rae’s influence was greatly changing the narrative.
This is definitely a more character driven book with the plot unfolding slowly and in my opinion, quite unpredictably. Every character is so unhinged you never quite know what they’re about to do next, but each captured me in their own devious ways. This book explores villain tropes and subverts their ideals in fascinating ways, for example Rae throughout calls herself a villain because she’s in the body of one but looking closely, she never really does anything truly villainous. She’s just a woman trying to shape her own story, to survive in a world that doesn’t want her in it. Whereas in contrast her sidekick Key is a psychopath, a killer with no remorse, a deceiver, a thief and a man who will do whatever benefits him regardless of the consequences. Yet Brennan makes him likeable, she makes us sympathise with his backstory which is something we come across rarely, a villain isn’t always given a solid reason for their behaviour. Key is ultimately one fucked up impulsive character but he was without a doubt my favourite of them all.
‘She curled her fingers in under the blood-slick straps of his armour.
His cracked leather gloves caught on her hair.
"You don't have to kill if you don't like it," Key promised. "I'll kill them for you."
"Kill who?"
Against her hair, she felt his mouth curve. "Everyone."’
From the supporting characters Brennan treats us to an array of eclectic delights. Most notably here is the Golden Cobra, who is absolutely nothing like his name suggests. Cobra quickly became one of my other favourites as his passion for performing arts and his flamboyant personality was something that I just loved. In a weird kind of way Cobra felt very much like a cinnamon roll, especially in his close but turbulent friendship with Lord Marius, the Last Hope, who was one hell of a complicated mess. Lord Marius hated and loved Cobra much like he hated and loved himself. He was a man who had sworn to never kill but every fibre in his being was bred to be the ultimate warrior. Then there was Emer, Lady Rahela’s maid and Lady Lia who was Rahela’s shining sister. Both of these were a touch tricky to warm to at first as they represented more moral characters, (which strangely wasn’t as fun!) but even then they were prone to betraying those they should have been loyal to, so there was that. Another interesting character was King Octavian who was supposed to be the just and upstanding hero but in Time of Iron is fated to become a tyrant emperor. Yet through Lady Rahela’s eyes we see he’s just a horny man who is too used to getting his own way, and oh how I loved seeing others put him down.
The entirety of Long Live Evil took me on an unexpected and strangely enchanting ride and so chef’s kiss to Brennan for reveling in playful banter and unhinged escapades. I have never rooted for the villains as much as this novel made me.
‘The world was hard and cruel. It bore down and broke you into a thousand pieces. When nobody believed in you, when even you couldn't believe, you must arrange your broken pieces into a terrifying new shape. You could believe in the fantastic recreation of yourself.
In the end, she was lucky. She'd been granted her dying wish.
If the ending couldn't be happy, at least it would mean something.
She would do something great before she died. She would be an unforgettable part of the story.’
ARC provided by Nazia at Orbit Books in exchange for an honest review—Thank you for the copy! All quotes used are taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.
Long Live Evil will be out 1st August 2024
When being evil is just too good!
When Rae thinks her life is over, when her illness slowly consumes her remaining strength and her days are spent in a hospital bed, she gets the chance to do what all book lovers can only dream of, enter her favourite fictional world. It starts with a bargain. A mysterious woman tells Rae that if she can obtain the Flower of Life and Death from the Imperial greenhouse then she will have the chance to live, but should she fail, she will remain in the world of Eyam forever. The kingdom of Eyam is a fictional place that is well known to Rae being as it’s from her sister Alice’s favourite book series, Time of Iron. In fact her sister is so obsessed with the books that in sharing her love for them she has also drawn Rae into loving its narrative and beguiling characters. So of course Rae takes the chance and enters Eyam but immediately all is not quite what it seems—for one she’s not in the body of the hero, she’s Lady Rahela, the evil stepsister due to be executed the very next day. Yet Rae is determined to succeed in her quest and so she gathers a team of villainous characters to aid her and change the course of their lives. But for how long can these villains really survive?
Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan is a novel which hits you in the face with its fun factor and drags you down into the depths of a dark and twisted tale where evil triumphs in the most delicious ways.
Immediately Brennan draws you into Rae’s journey from the real world to the world of Eyam and gives us such outrageous scenes that I couldn’t help but read this novel with a large smile on my face. Now, the use of contemporary slang and idioms in fantasy is not usually something I like to see but here it works so well. Essentially Rae is a contemporary young adult and so Brennan uses that in a brilliant comedic way. We learn that Rae has lost so much due to her illness, she’s isolated, angry and left with very little options but given the chance at life, she seizes it in the most dramatic of ways. Once in Eyam, the rest of the characters within that world do not know where Rae is really from and therefore their confusion at her modern turns of phrases actually made me laugh, as did all the references to pop culture such as Rae’s story of Lord Ross and Lady Rachel, which was obviously a nod to the show Friends! We are then treated to an abundance of other charming and alarming scenes including a fantastic musical number which I adored, chaotic scenes of fighting with ghouls and a manticore and some pretty evil twists.
As we delve further it becomes clear the prominent point of this novel is to look at villains, the art of storytelling and stock characters such heroes, villains, kings, princesses and so on, in a tongue in cheek kind of way, looking at them in different lights, turning them on their heads in surprising ways and Brennan achieves that so cleverly here. I did feel a touch overwhelmed with all the characters and their narratives as there is a lot to get your head around, however there came a point where everyone started to fall into place and from then on the book couldn't be prised out of my hands. The epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter helped as they gave snippets from various chapters of the original story of Time of Iron giving us some context into its characters yet it also punctuated how Rae’s influence was greatly changing the narrative.
This is definitely a more character driven book with the plot unfolding slowly and in my opinion, quite unpredictably. Every character is so unhinged you never quite know what they’re about to do next, but each captured me in their own devious ways. This book explores villain tropes and subverts their ideals in fascinating ways, for example Rae throughout calls herself a villain because she’s in the body of one but looking closely, she never really does anything truly villainous. She’s just a woman trying to shape her own story, to survive in a world that doesn’t want her in it. Whereas in contrast her sidekick Key is a psychopath, a killer with no remorse, a deceiver, a thief and a man who will do whatever benefits him regardless of the consequences. Yet Brennan makes him likeable, she makes us sympathise with his backstory which is something we come across rarely, a villain isn’t always given a solid reason for their behaviour. Key is ultimately one fucked up impulsive character but he was without a doubt my favourite of them all.
‘She curled her fingers in under the blood-slick straps of his armour.
His cracked leather gloves caught on her hair.
"You don't have to kill if you don't like it," Key promised. "I'll kill them for you."
"Kill who?"
Against her hair, she felt his mouth curve. "Everyone."’
From the supporting characters Brennan treats us to an array of eclectic delights. Most notably here is the Golden Cobra, who is absolutely nothing like his name suggests. Cobra quickly became one of my other favourites as his passion for performing arts and his flamboyant personality was something that I just loved. In a weird kind of way Cobra felt very much like a cinnamon roll, especially in his close but turbulent friendship with Lord Marius, the Last Hope, who was one hell of a complicated mess. Lord Marius hated and loved Cobra much like he hated and loved himself. He was a man who had sworn to never kill but every fibre in his being was bred to be the ultimate warrior. Then there was Emer, Lady Rahela’s maid and Lady Lia who was Rahela’s shining sister. Both of these were a touch tricky to warm to at first as they represented more moral characters, (which strangely wasn’t as fun!) but even then they were prone to betraying those they should have been loyal to, so there was that. Another interesting character was King Octavian who was supposed to be the just and upstanding hero but in Time of Iron is fated to become a tyrant emperor. Yet through Lady Rahela’s eyes we see he’s just a horny man who is too used to getting his own way, and oh how I loved seeing others put him down.
The entirety of Long Live Evil took me on an unexpected and strangely enchanting ride and so chef’s kiss to Brennan for reveling in playful banter and unhinged escapades. I have never rooted for the villains as much as this novel made me.
‘The world was hard and cruel. It bore down and broke you into a thousand pieces. When nobody believed in you, when even you couldn't believe, you must arrange your broken pieces into a terrifying new shape. You could believe in the fantastic recreation of yourself.
In the end, she was lucky. She'd been granted her dying wish.
If the ending couldn't be happy, at least it would mean something.
She would do something great before she died. She would be an unforgettable part of the story.’
ARC provided by Nazia at Orbit Books in exchange for an honest review—Thank you for the copy! All quotes used are taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.
Long Live Evil will be out 1st August 2024
August 16, 2024
DNF bei 38%, weil ich es einfach nicht mehr aushalte. Es hätte so gut sein können: Protagonistin gelangt aus der "realen" Welt in eine Buchwelt und nimmt dort die Rolle einer Schurkin ein, die gleich zu Beginn exekutiert werden soll. Wie cool, oder? Aber ich habe jetzt über ein Drittel dieses ewig langen Buches gelesen und es passiert einfach nichts. Es wird nur gequatscht. Erst mit der Dienerin, dann mit einer Wache, dann mit dem König, dann mit einem Spion, dann mit den Hofdamen. Zugegeben quatscht sich die Protagonistin dabei auch aus ihrer Exekution, aber ansonsten sind alle Gespräche Aneinanderreihungen "witziger" Bemerkungen und das ist einfach nicht auszuhalten. Nichts wird hier ernst genommen und warum sollte mich dann irgendwas davon ernsthaft interessieren? Vom Schurkenthema oder gar einer Schurkenromanze habe ich auch noch nichts weiter mitbekommen, vielleicht kommt das später aber noch. Insgesamt ist es irgendwie wie schlecht geschriebene Fanfiction, die jedoch nicht auf liebgewonnene Charaktere oder eine interessante Geschichte und Welt zurückgreifen kann, und damit für mich einfach nicht weiter lesenswert.
October 14, 2024
I NEED THE NEXT BOOK NOW!
Rating: 4.5 ⭐️
AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! I feel like I've been having such good luck lately because this book was everything I wanted and more! Tell me why this book had me gasping and kicking my feet like a schoolgirl. All the relationships just hit so well.
Okok, so Long Live Evil follows Rae, whose body is failing after years of cancer. She's given the choice of either dying, or being transported into a fantasy novel with the possibility of saving her body and returning home. So, of course, into the fantasy novel she goes. There she is placed in the body of a villainess with great boobs. She makes some new friends, gathers some evil minions, and overall wrecks havoc on the story around her. And it is just so much fun.
I'll be honest, the first hundred fifty-ish pages, I liked it, but wasn't super into it. And then BAM I was so invested that I couldn't stop reading until it was done. And I just had to soak in every page so it took me sooooo long to read those last 30 pages.
The characters are just so fantastic! And Brennan manages to subvert stereotypes and tropes and OH MY GOD THE ENDING! So good! I want to read the sequel so bad! Could I get an arc or something please? That would be really helpful.
Overall, if you want a funny story with evil minions, great one-liners, hot villains, and queer protagonists, look no further, folks!
P.S. For anyone that has the Fairyloot version, READ THE BONUS CONTENT. It was FANTASTIC!
Rating: 4.5 ⭐️
"You don't have to kill if you don't like it," Key promised. "I'll kill them for you."
"Kill who?"
Against her hair, she felt his mouth curve. "Everyone."
AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! I feel like I've been having such good luck lately because this book was everything I wanted and more! Tell me why this book had me gasping and kicking my feet like a schoolgirl. All the relationships just hit so well.
Okok, so Long Live Evil follows Rae, whose body is failing after years of cancer. She's given the choice of either dying, or being transported into a fantasy novel with the possibility of saving her body and returning home. So, of course, into the fantasy novel she goes. There she is placed in the body of a villainess with great boobs. She makes some new friends, gathers some evil minions, and overall wrecks havoc on the story around her. And it is just so much fun.
I'll be honest, the first hundred fifty-ish pages, I liked it, but wasn't super into it. And then BAM I was so invested that I couldn't stop reading until it was done. And I just had to soak in every page so it took me sooooo long to read those last 30 pages.
The characters are just so fantastic! And Brennan manages to subvert stereotypes and tropes and OH MY GOD THE ENDING! So good! I want to read the sequel so bad! Could I get an arc or something please? That would be really helpful.
Overall, if you want a funny story with evil minions, great one-liners, hot villains, and queer protagonists, look no further, folks!
P.S. For anyone that has the Fairyloot version, READ THE BONUS CONTENT. It was FANTASTIC!
March 19, 2025
Thanks to NetGalley, Hachette Audio, and Orbit for the ARC. It hasn't affected the contents of my review.
Okay, so I loved this, even though it wasn't perfect, and I kind of want to bump my 4.5 stars up to five. I feel like it might be one of those cases where after I read future books and re-read this one, it will be a full five. I want to get a physical copy and annotate! There are a LOT of people who are not getting what this is going for, which is fine if sad. But it's important to go in knowing it's not just a campy, fun time. I think this book is a smart, fun send-up of fantasy as a genre with actual pathos behind it. I can't wait to see what happens with these characters once the author really gets a chance to do things with them.
Update: nah, you know what, fuck it. Five stars.
[4.5 stars]
Okay, so I loved this, even though it wasn't perfect, and I kind of want to bump my 4.5 stars up to five. I feel like it might be one of those cases where after I read future books and re-read this one, it will be a full five. I want to get a physical copy and annotate! There are a LOT of people who are not getting what this is going for, which is fine if sad. But it's important to go in knowing it's not just a campy, fun time. I think this book is a smart, fun send-up of fantasy as a genre with actual pathos behind it. I can't wait to see what happens with these characters once the author really gets a chance to do things with them.
Update: nah, you know what, fuck it. Five stars.
[4.5 stars]
June 25, 2025
Pre-review: So Brennan wrote a "I got a second life as a fictional villainess" story? Is she copying the Japanes light novels!?
To be honest, I have never been interested in those "I reincarnated as a villainess in my favorite manga series" stories because there are just so many of them the whole genre seems to become tiring and uninteresting, but for Sarah Rees Brennan's sake I am gonna read up.
Fingers crossed!
Still, kissing handsome young men was standard villainess behaviour.
(1) Interesting to see theheroine villainess gathers her gang of evildoers, although they don't look evil enough in my book so far.
(2) Good to see the white lily heroine has another side of personality too!
(3) Villain gets the girl/the boy is totally my thing 🤣🤣🤣
(4) Well well well that ending part, isn't it just fucking romantic?
(5) Key, Lia, the Cobra and Marius/the Last Hope do grow on me quite a bit throughout the story!
(6) I need the sequel now! What do you mean I still need to wait till 02/2026!?????
To be honest, I have never been interested in those "I reincarnated as a villainess in my favorite manga series" stories because there are just so many of them the whole genre seems to become tiring and uninteresting, but for Sarah Rees Brennan's sake I am gonna read up.
Fingers crossed!
Still, kissing handsome young men was standard villainess behaviour.
(1) Interesting to see the
(2) Good to see the white lily heroine has another side of personality too!
(3) Villain gets the girl/the boy is totally my thing 🤣🤣🤣
(4) Well well well that ending part, isn't it just fucking romantic?
(5) Key, Lia, the Cobra and Marius/the Last Hope do grow on me quite a bit throughout the story!
(6) I need the sequel now! What do you mean I still need to wait till 02/2026!?????
September 7, 2024
I know the main praise everyone sings about this book is that it's fun, but that's BECAUSE IT IS. Long Live Evil is a fun send up of fantasy and romantasy, an isekai that explores fantasy romance tropes and wreaks havoc on the world it takes place in with them.
Rae is a fun character to follow, especially as she approaches being sucked into the world of this book series as a fun escapade, a quest that her very life depends on completing. Her character growth as she starts to feel like the world around her is more and more real and not just fictional is great to follow, as is how her being in the story affects the story itself.
One isekai comparison I'll make here because it's also a favorite of mine is My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Vol. 1. Both main characters in these stories end up as a villainess who has to ensure she doesn't meet a horrible end, and ends up changing things drastically - and in some ways they don't even realize, though we as the audience do. It's one of the things that makes isekai so fun for me, and Brennan plays with so many fantasy and romance tropes on top of it.
I will say that there were times that the over the top campy fun of some scenes were pushing waaaayyyy to campy for my non-theatre-kid brain, but overall this was such a damn fun time that I have a hard time rating it anything other than 5 stars.
I enjoyed my time with this book SO MUCH, and that ending had me gooped, gagged, stunned, shook, etc. I swear I didn't see it coming, and I attribute that to not reading much romantasy.
Fuck me, when is book 2 out? I HAVE TO WAIT NOW??
=======
UM???? HELLO?????? THE LAST 80 PAGES???
=======
I'm still reading this but I feel compelled to give a very clear content warning because the synopsis says only that the main character is dying, but not how: if you have any sensitivity to cancer, take great care going into the start of this.
Rae is a fun character to follow, especially as she approaches being sucked into the world of this book series as a fun escapade, a quest that her very life depends on completing. Her character growth as she starts to feel like the world around her is more and more real and not just fictional is great to follow, as is how her being in the story affects the story itself.
One isekai comparison I'll make here because it's also a favorite of mine is My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Vol. 1. Both main characters in these stories end up as a villainess who has to ensure she doesn't meet a horrible end, and ends up changing things drastically - and in some ways they don't even realize, though we as the audience do. It's one of the things that makes isekai so fun for me, and Brennan plays with so many fantasy and romance tropes on top of it.
I will say that there were times that the over the top campy fun of some scenes were pushing waaaayyyy to campy for my non-theatre-kid brain, but overall this was such a damn fun time that I have a hard time rating it anything other than 5 stars.
I enjoyed my time with this book SO MUCH, and that ending had me gooped, gagged, stunned, shook, etc. I swear I didn't see it coming, and I attribute that to not reading much romantasy.
Fuck me, when is book 2 out? I HAVE TO WAIT NOW??
=======
UM???? HELLO?????? THE LAST 80 PAGES???
=======
I'm still reading this but I feel compelled to give a very clear content warning because the synopsis says only that the main character is dying, but not how: if you have any sensitivity to cancer, take great care going into the start of this.
October 20, 2024
3.5 stars.
I struggled with how to rate this and decided that this rating is for the first half and the romance.
I had a mixed experience with the book, enjoying the first half but feeling let down by the second.
The first half was so much fun, the characters were likable, and the plot kept my interest.
Sadly the second half got on my nerves a lot.
Rae starts to become annoying, and after you realize that she is not that funny, you start to realize that she is kind of stupid.
In the first half, I could withstand the cringe moments, but it got tiring by the time the second half started.
The overuse of modern language in a fantasy setting, combined with repetitive and unnecessary details (like the constant mention of her breasts or her claims of being a villain), definitely took away from the immersion.
The inconsistent balance between humor and seriousness also disrupted the story’s flow, making the second half less engaging for me.
The side characters were somewhat interesting, but even they got on my nerves once it became apparent that they were infected with Rae's stupidity too.
On the other hand, I appreciated some aspects, like the romance between Rae and Key, I found certain parts of the plot fun, and the ending was quite brilliant.
The side pairings had great chemistry too, and they were even more interesting than the main one since the author left their feelings more ambiguous.
Cobra and [Spoiler] frustrated me a lot, but theirs was the relationship I was most excited to read, and when Cobra wasn't trying to pair [Spoiler] with someone else, they were one of the highlights of the book.
Lia and her supposed love partner don't interact much, but from the flashbacks that we get, it seems that, for now, there is just one-sided love from the supposed love partner.
The book had potential but struggled to deliver on that promise, especially as Rae's character became harder to tolerate.
I'm torn if I will read the second book, given how much the second half affected my enjoyment.
I struggled with how to rate this and decided that this rating is for the first half and the romance.
I had a mixed experience with the book, enjoying the first half but feeling let down by the second.
The first half was so much fun, the characters were likable, and the plot kept my interest.
Sadly the second half got on my nerves a lot.
Rae starts to become annoying, and after you realize that she is not that funny, you start to realize that she is kind of stupid.
In the first half, I could withstand the cringe moments, but it got tiring by the time the second half started.
The overuse of modern language in a fantasy setting, combined with repetitive and unnecessary details (like the constant mention of her breasts or her claims of being a villain), definitely took away from the immersion.
The inconsistent balance between humor and seriousness also disrupted the story’s flow, making the second half less engaging for me.
The side characters were somewhat interesting, but even they got on my nerves once it became apparent that they were infected with Rae's stupidity too.
On the other hand, I appreciated some aspects, like the romance between Rae and Key, I found certain parts of the plot fun, and the ending was quite brilliant.
The side pairings had great chemistry too, and they were even more interesting than the main one since the author left their feelings more ambiguous.
Cobra and [Spoiler] frustrated me a lot, but theirs was the relationship I was most excited to read, and when Cobra wasn't trying to pair [Spoiler] with someone else, they were one of the highlights of the book.
Lia and her supposed love partner don't interact much, but from the flashbacks that we get, it seems that, for now, there is just one-sided love from the supposed love partner.
The book had potential but struggled to deliver on that promise, especially as Rae's character became harder to tolerate.
I'm torn if I will read the second book, given how much the second half affected my enjoyment.
June 26, 2024
This book, and I cannot stress this enough, is so much fun.
Anyone who knows me will tell you that I adore villainess manhwas. Are they all the exact same plot? (Girl from human world dies and wakes up in the body of a villainess in a story and either decides to become good and accidentally gets with the hero OR keeps being evil and gets with an equally handsome side character) Yes! Are they predictable? (Trust me when I say I’ve read 100 of these and they all go the same way) Yes! Do I still keep reading them? (YES!!!)
I heard about this book from an Instagram ad way before it was even up to request an early copy, and I RAN to get one when the time came. I swear I would have finished this sooner if I didn’t start it at the same time that I was going through my worst reading slump yet (senior finals and graduating will do that to you).
Everything about this — from the premise to the characters to the plot — was incredibly enjoyable. I am infamously a characters over plot person, and I’m happy to say that neither disappointed. It was camp! It was weird! The people were fun to read about!
My biggest complaint, and I do need to point it out, is that the writing is rather immature at times. As in, it feels sort of amateur-ish. Something will get brought up in one paragraph and dropped in the next in a way that’s a bit awkward. But I’ve read worse written stuff, so it didn’t bother me too much.
I love how bitchy Rae is. We don’t get a lot of genuinely sardonic and mean female characters anymore. Which is sort of the point the book is trying to make, I suppose. Key was fucking insane (like, the type of insane where even other villains think he’s weird), and I loved it. Insane and freaky men have my whole heart. The Cobra was mildly cringey at times, but I forgive him considering his background Which I Shall Not Name. Marius was confusing and brooding and wildly homoerotic and I love him. The characters are a treat.
I can only hope after reading this that Western authors decide to make isekais the next big thing. I would kill to read more full length I’m-a-normal-person-trapped-as-a-character-in-a-fantasy-story-and-I’m-probably-also-evil? books. The manhwas have been feeding me for years, but I can’t survive off of them alone!!! If you enjoy camp and a bit of doomed narrative, read this. And if you don’t end up liking it, please stay away from me.
Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.
Anyone who knows me will tell you that I adore villainess manhwas. Are they all the exact same plot? (Girl from human world dies and wakes up in the body of a villainess in a story and either decides to become good and accidentally gets with the hero OR keeps being evil and gets with an equally handsome side character) Yes! Are they predictable? (Trust me when I say I’ve read 100 of these and they all go the same way) Yes! Do I still keep reading them? (YES!!!)
I heard about this book from an Instagram ad way before it was even up to request an early copy, and I RAN to get one when the time came. I swear I would have finished this sooner if I didn’t start it at the same time that I was going through my worst reading slump yet (senior finals and graduating will do that to you).
Everything about this — from the premise to the characters to the plot — was incredibly enjoyable. I am infamously a characters over plot person, and I’m happy to say that neither disappointed. It was camp! It was weird! The people were fun to read about!
My biggest complaint, and I do need to point it out, is that the writing is rather immature at times. As in, it feels sort of amateur-ish. Something will get brought up in one paragraph and dropped in the next in a way that’s a bit awkward. But I’ve read worse written stuff, so it didn’t bother me too much.
I love how bitchy Rae is. We don’t get a lot of genuinely sardonic and mean female characters anymore. Which is sort of the point the book is trying to make, I suppose. Key was fucking insane (like, the type of insane where even other villains think he’s weird), and I loved it. Insane and freaky men have my whole heart. The Cobra was mildly cringey at times, but I forgive him considering his background Which I Shall Not Name. Marius was confusing and brooding and wildly homoerotic and I love him. The characters are a treat.
I can only hope after reading this that Western authors decide to make isekais the next big thing. I would kill to read more full length I’m-a-normal-person-trapped-as-a-character-in-a-fantasy-story-and-I’m-probably-also-evil? books. The manhwas have been feeding me for years, but I can’t survive off of them alone!!! If you enjoy camp and a bit of doomed narrative, read this. And if you don’t end up liking it, please stay away from me.
Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.
August 12, 2024
What the FUCK
(More coherent review to come)
(More coherent review to come)
January 2, 2025
Joa. Das war ... etwas. Nur leider nicht das, was ich mir erhofft hatte.
Was ich mir erhofft hatte
Das, was beworben wurde: Eine Villain-Story, und zwar eine verdammt Gute. Eine Story mit böser Protagonistin mit großen Plänen und wenig Reue. Allerhand badass Charaktere, die mir Gänsehaut bereiten. Ein Fantasy-Buch, das mich wie versprochen in meine villain era versetzt.
Was ich bekommen habe
Eine Story voller Sarkasmus, cringy Pop-Referenzen und mit einer Protagonistin, von der andauernd gesagt wird, wie böse sie sei, aber eigentlich nichts Böses tut. Ich dachte, das hier wird episch - aber für mich hat es sich leider eher albern angefühlt.
Die Handlung ist gleichzeitig nichtssagend und verwirrend, obwohl ich mich wirklich bemüht habe, habe ich immer wieder den Faden verloren. Dazu trug aber glaube ich auch die für mich etwas anstrengende Erzählart bei. Die Mischung aus dem Wissen Raes über das Buch, das sie gelesen hat, und der Geschichte, in die sie reingeraten ist, war für mich nicht so aufgearbeitet, dass ich mich wirklich mitgenommen fühlte. Es wurden viele coole Konzepte und Ideen aufgegriffen, auch einige moralische Dilemma angeschnitten, deren Bearbeitung so verflucht interessant hätten sein können. Aber leider wurden sie entweder nur halbherzig behandelt oder mit einem bemüht frechen und "coolen" Spruch abgetan. Keine Tiefe, kein interessanter Plot, nur eine weirde Erzählung voller für mich nicht funktionierender Witze, die dem Buch alles an möglicher Wucht und epischem Ausmaß genommen haben. Ich konnte das Buch einfach nicht ernst nehmen. Eigentlich konnte ich nicht einmal Rae als Protagonistin ernst nehmen.
Dieses Buch soll wohl eine Art Satire sein, doch für mich war es leider größtenteils Quälerei (ich bin selbst unfassbar sad, das so sagen zu müssen). Der Humor war einfach nicht meins und entsprach auch nicht dem, was ich gemäß Klappentext und Vermarktung erwartet habe. Klassischer Fall von: Abbrechen wäre besser gewesen.
Was ich mir erhofft hatte
Das, was beworben wurde: Eine Villain-Story, und zwar eine verdammt Gute. Eine Story mit böser Protagonistin mit großen Plänen und wenig Reue. Allerhand badass Charaktere, die mir Gänsehaut bereiten. Ein Fantasy-Buch, das mich wie versprochen in meine villain era versetzt.
Was ich bekommen habe
Eine Story voller Sarkasmus, cringy Pop-Referenzen und mit einer Protagonistin, von der andauernd gesagt wird, wie böse sie sei, aber eigentlich nichts Böses tut. Ich dachte, das hier wird episch - aber für mich hat es sich leider eher albern angefühlt.
Die Handlung ist gleichzeitig nichtssagend und verwirrend, obwohl ich mich wirklich bemüht habe, habe ich immer wieder den Faden verloren. Dazu trug aber glaube ich auch die für mich etwas anstrengende Erzählart bei. Die Mischung aus dem Wissen Raes über das Buch, das sie gelesen hat, und der Geschichte, in die sie reingeraten ist, war für mich nicht so aufgearbeitet, dass ich mich wirklich mitgenommen fühlte. Es wurden viele coole Konzepte und Ideen aufgegriffen, auch einige moralische Dilemma angeschnitten, deren Bearbeitung so verflucht interessant hätten sein können. Aber leider wurden sie entweder nur halbherzig behandelt oder mit einem bemüht frechen und "coolen" Spruch abgetan. Keine Tiefe, kein interessanter Plot, nur eine weirde Erzählung voller für mich nicht funktionierender Witze, die dem Buch alles an möglicher Wucht und epischem Ausmaß genommen haben. Ich konnte das Buch einfach nicht ernst nehmen. Eigentlich konnte ich nicht einmal Rae als Protagonistin ernst nehmen.
Dieses Buch soll wohl eine Art Satire sein, doch für mich war es leider größtenteils Quälerei (ich bin selbst unfassbar sad, das so sagen zu müssen). Der Humor war einfach nicht meins und entsprach auch nicht dem, was ich gemäß Klappentext und Vermarktung erwartet habe. Klassischer Fall von: Abbrechen wäre besser gewesen.
August 16, 2024
3.0 Stars
This is a fun premise that is executed in a lighthearted, romantasy kind of way. I personally love reading from the villain's perspective in books although this one never feels evil.
I appreciated this one, but I will admit that I should have anticipated how cutesy the tone would be. There is a heavy emphasis on romance, but I did not find myself particularly engrossed in that aspect.
I would primarily recommend this one to readers who enjoy the emerging romantasy subgenre or are looking for a lighter palette cleanser between darker stories.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher
This is a fun premise that is executed in a lighthearted, romantasy kind of way. I personally love reading from the villain's perspective in books although this one never feels evil.
I appreciated this one, but I will admit that I should have anticipated how cutesy the tone would be. There is a heavy emphasis on romance, but I did not find myself particularly engrossed in that aspect.
I would primarily recommend this one to readers who enjoy the emerging romantasy subgenre or are looking for a lighter palette cleanser between darker stories.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher
July 10, 2024
EDIT: if you want to read an isekai story that does the “villain x isekaier” trope, read “Concubine Walkthrough” by bongbong. it does this trope so much better.
This makes me so sad because this has so much potential. However, with bad writing, inexcusable switch-ups, and awful characters this made for a slog of a book. I literally couldn't progress in this because every couple seconds there was a glaring mistake. No matter what, that sucked the enjoyment out of this read.
Let's go through the hate list. (I'm sorry if I'm especially hate-y here, the hater in me is really unlocked now).
The Writing
The writing here was TRULY elementary. It tried way to hard for literally nothing. Instead of being somewhat tolerable flowery writing, it was horrible writing that reminded me of a 13-year-old's creative writing assignment. Here are some of my favorite examples:
"Alice's rosebud mouth"
"Being nice was nice, being nasty got shit done."
"The books were grim and also dark. The series title might as well be Holy Shit, Basically Everyone Dies."
"The Emperor loved like an apocalypse."
"It just makes me feel understood when nobody in my life understands me" (talking about a fantasy series with a psychopathic murderer as the main character)
"By the time I'm done with it, the story will beg me for mercy."
"...and cheekbones so angled they were like hexagons."
"'I'm a treacherous, power-hungry bitch, and honestly? It feels amazing.'"
"'Everything they say about Lady Rahela's enormous... tracts of land is true."
THE Inexcusable Switch Up
I can excuse a lot of things in writing. I can brush stuff off as silly little mistakes, especially when I get an ARC. What I cannot excuse is the author giving us a huge lesson in court hierarchy and then messing it up right after that.
For those who don't know, noble ladies and ladies-in-waiting are ENTIRELY different people.
Noble ladies are aristocrats. They have a high status in court, and in some places they are one of the highest status, right below the king/queen. They're usually from a long line of people who have been nobles forever, and experience special privileges.
Ladies-in-waiting are the noble ladies' personal attendants. They are usually very personally connected to the noble ladies they attend to, and are sometimes raised with them since birth or since both people were very young. They get a higher status than normal servants, are often dressed in nicer clothes, and get special privileges as well.
Ladies-in-waiting are different than maids as well, as maids often did menial, housekeeping tasks. They were not dressed as nicely, and did not form extremely personal connections with the nobles they served.
HOWEVER, despite the CLEAR differences between these 3 categories, right after we got the whole lecture on court hierarchy, we got this:
"Her guard must've bolted from his alcove when he saw her at the window. Every lady-in-waiting had a bodyguard and a maidservant."
What the hell. What. The. Hell. That is INSULTING. You give us a whole lecture on court hierarchy, and then do THIS? Later, the author even calls the lady-in-waiting a maid. She isn't a maid, she is a prime example of a lady-in-waiting, but you STILL use the wrong terms. I couldn't read any farther after that. It made me so mad.
The Characters
Rae was INSUFFERABLE. She claimed she was a "reader" and that books were her entire life, but she's only read 2 books and didn't even read the first book in the series. She then proceeds to act like an entitled brat. She tries to be a baddie, but it flops so hard she seems like a gacha club "baddie".
I'm sorry, but I literally couldn't finish this. It was awful, a slog, and just... unoriginal to be frank. Read the isekais that did it better.
bottom line: i'm disappointed and my day is ruined
————————————
interested to see how well received this is bc this sounds like a lot of isekai plotlines
got the arc!!! now I’m even more interested in how the plot is structured because again this sounds like a lot of isekai
- thank you publisher for the arc -
This makes me so sad because this has so much potential. However, with bad writing, inexcusable switch-ups, and awful characters this made for a slog of a book. I literally couldn't progress in this because every couple seconds there was a glaring mistake. No matter what, that sucked the enjoyment out of this read.
Let's go through the hate list. (I'm sorry if I'm especially hate-y here, the hater in me is really unlocked now).
The Writing
The writing here was TRULY elementary. It tried way to hard for literally nothing. Instead of being somewhat tolerable flowery writing, it was horrible writing that reminded me of a 13-year-old's creative writing assignment. Here are some of my favorite examples:
"Alice's rosebud mouth"
"Being nice was nice, being nasty got shit done."
"The books were grim and also dark. The series title might as well be Holy Shit, Basically Everyone Dies."
"The Emperor loved like an apocalypse."
"It just makes me feel understood when nobody in my life understands me" (talking about a fantasy series with a psychopathic murderer as the main character)
"By the time I'm done with it, the story will beg me for mercy."
"...and cheekbones so angled they were like hexagons."
"'I'm a treacherous, power-hungry bitch, and honestly? It feels amazing.'"
"'Everything they say about Lady Rahela's enormous... tracts of land is true."
THE Inexcusable Switch Up
I can excuse a lot of things in writing. I can brush stuff off as silly little mistakes, especially when I get an ARC. What I cannot excuse is the author giving us a huge lesson in court hierarchy and then messing it up right after that.
For those who don't know, noble ladies and ladies-in-waiting are ENTIRELY different people.
Noble ladies are aristocrats. They have a high status in court, and in some places they are one of the highest status, right below the king/queen. They're usually from a long line of people who have been nobles forever, and experience special privileges.
Ladies-in-waiting are the noble ladies' personal attendants. They are usually very personally connected to the noble ladies they attend to, and are sometimes raised with them since birth or since both people were very young. They get a higher status than normal servants, are often dressed in nicer clothes, and get special privileges as well.
Ladies-in-waiting are different than maids as well, as maids often did menial, housekeeping tasks. They were not dressed as nicely, and did not form extremely personal connections with the nobles they served.
HOWEVER, despite the CLEAR differences between these 3 categories, right after we got the whole lecture on court hierarchy, we got this:
"Her guard must've bolted from his alcove when he saw her at the window. Every lady-in-waiting had a bodyguard and a maidservant."
What the hell. What. The. Hell. That is INSULTING. You give us a whole lecture on court hierarchy, and then do THIS? Later, the author even calls the lady-in-waiting a maid. She isn't a maid, she is a prime example of a lady-in-waiting, but you STILL use the wrong terms. I couldn't read any farther after that. It made me so mad.
The Characters
Rae was INSUFFERABLE. She claimed she was a "reader" and that books were her entire life, but she's only read 2 books and didn't even read the first book in the series. She then proceeds to act like an entitled brat. She tries to be a baddie, but it flops so hard she seems like a gacha club "baddie".
I'm sorry, but I literally couldn't finish this. It was awful, a slog, and just... unoriginal to be frank. Read the isekais that did it better.
bottom line: i'm disappointed and my day is ruined
————————————
interested to see how well received this is bc this sounds like a lot of isekai plotlines
got the arc!!! now I’m even more interested in how the plot is structured because again this sounds like a lot of isekai
- thank you publisher for the arc -
December 11, 2024
I really wanted to love this but I just couldn’t understand the point of it and wasn’t connecting!
The writing itself is very funny and there’s definitely a level of cleverness it takes to write a book like this. The thing is though - my brain couldn’t handle it right now. I don’t know that I’ll ever pick it up again - may even gift it to someone or drop it in a little free library?
The writing itself is very funny and there’s definitely a level of cleverness it takes to write a book like this. The thing is though - my brain couldn’t handle it right now. I don’t know that I’ll ever pick it up again - may even gift it to someone or drop it in a little free library?
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