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Time of Iron #2
All Hail Chaos
Not yet published
Expected 12 May 26All Hail Chaos is Sarah Rees Brennan’s wicked, unmissable sequel to Long Live Evil.
"Delicious, subversive." —Leigh Bardugo, NYT bestselling author of The Ninth House
One of the New York Times "Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2024"
THE EMPEROR IS HERE. AND SHE MADE HIM WORSE.
Rae is a fantasy reader who’s been transported to her favorite fictional world of swords and sorcery, castles and monsters. Playing the villainess, she thought she could change the narrative, but this version of the plot is far more deadly than the one she knew. Her friends are on the the Cobra shelters in an eerie manor haunted by dark secrets, while Emer and Lia stoke a revolution in the gutters. Undead armies roam the kingdom, raiders camp at the city gates, and the all-powerful Emperor—Rae’s favorite character ever, now possibly the greatest monster in the land—wants her to be his evil queen.
Romantic in fiction, complicated in reality. What’s a villainess to do? Time for wicked bargains and fake engagements, in a fantasy where the most dangerous thing you can do is believe in someone.
"Delicious, subversive." —Leigh Bardugo, NYT bestselling author of The Ninth House
One of the New York Times "Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2024"
THE EMPEROR IS HERE. AND SHE MADE HIM WORSE.
Rae is a fantasy reader who’s been transported to her favorite fictional world of swords and sorcery, castles and monsters. Playing the villainess, she thought she could change the narrative, but this version of the plot is far more deadly than the one she knew. Her friends are on the the Cobra shelters in an eerie manor haunted by dark secrets, while Emer and Lia stoke a revolution in the gutters. Undead armies roam the kingdom, raiders camp at the city gates, and the all-powerful Emperor—Rae’s favorite character ever, now possibly the greatest monster in the land—wants her to be his evil queen.
Romantic in fiction, complicated in reality. What’s a villainess to do? Time for wicked bargains and fake engagements, in a fantasy where the most dangerous thing you can do is believe in someone.
Audible Audio
Expected publication May 12, 2026
75 people are currently reading
9245 people want to read
About the author
Sarah Rees Brennan
72 books6,070 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 87 reviews
Want to Read
June 17, 2025I told the author on instagram that her book made me cry and SHE LAUGHED
Want to Read
October 31, 2024me checking everyday for this sequel release date has paid off. Cannot wait WOOP
Want to Read
October 29, 2025October 28, 2025
FYI, release is now showing May 12, 2026 on retail sites…
Sept 9, 2025
Release date got pushed back to April 2026 😵
May 22, 2025
Not all of us waiting for September to come just to see the release date get pushed back to Feb 2026 😭
But hoping Sarah's surgery goes well and she makes a full recovery!
FYI, release is now showing May 12, 2026 on retail sites…
Sept 9, 2025
Release date got pushed back to April 2026 😵
May 22, 2025
Not all of us waiting for September to come just to see the release date get pushed back to Feb 2026 😭
But hoping Sarah's surgery goes well and she makes a full recovery!
Want to Read
March 21, 2025Gimme this book, I need to know what next for my wicked boy (it's Key, okey, he's my wicked, murderous boyfriend and I will fight everyone for him) 😭😭
Want to Read
October 31, 2024I AM READY. SEPTEMBER CAN'T COME SOON ENOUGH!!
Want to Read
August 14, 2025i legit can’t stop staring at the cover and i NEED this NOWWWW
Currently Reading
January 1, 2025I crave this. Give me fresh villainy. Give me more sly references to Shakespeare, Taylor Swift and memes.
April 23, 2026
“I CAN FIX HIM!!” I scream as they take me out the back and shoot me.
this was delightfully wicked and deliciously chaotic. I love these characters so much through all their terrible decision-making and unhinged dysfunction.
we pick up with Rae following the events of the last book: she has accidentally brought about the rise of the Emperor a bit too soon in the story, and also she may have egregiously messed up his character development a bit (or a lot.) however she quickly hatches a new plan to fix the story. will she be successful? if the last book is anything to go by, probably not.
I love Rae in all of her scheming and plotting, despite how misguided some of her decisions might be. she’s learned from the lessons of the last book but at the same time still making similar mistakes. she still thinks she can use her knowledge of tropes to “gameify” the story, just this time with the intention of fixing it. she realised how much of a mistake she made last time in not seeing Key as a person, however this time around she’s still not really thinking of him as a person, just as a character that matters rather than one that doesn’t. BUT. I still adore her. characters who make an absolute shitty mess of things with the best of intentions >>>>
Key is as entertaining as ever, but even more unhinged and insane this time around. his yandere tendencies are on full display now and he’s quite terrifying with his newfound godlike powers, but at his core he’s still just as desperate to be loved and eager to please. to say that his and Rae’s relationship is complicated would be an understatement. however I am rooting for them despite it all!! please give them a happy ending sarah 😭
I also loved following the adventures of Marius and the Cobra. Marius is so desperate to serve it’s insane!! honestly this whole book is filled with characters whose love language is acts of service. sarah rees brennan clearly knows what’s up because it is the SEXIEST love language.
will be forever mad about that cliffhanger ending and the emotional devastation I have been left with.
thank you to netgalley for the arc!
this was delightfully wicked and deliciously chaotic. I love these characters so much through all their terrible decision-making and unhinged dysfunction.
we pick up with Rae following the events of the last book: she has accidentally brought about the rise of the Emperor a bit too soon in the story, and also she may have egregiously messed up his character development a bit (or a lot.) however she quickly hatches a new plan to fix the story. will she be successful? if the last book is anything to go by, probably not.
I love Rae in all of her scheming and plotting, despite how misguided some of her decisions might be. she’s learned from the lessons of the last book but at the same time still making similar mistakes. she still thinks she can use her knowledge of tropes to “gameify” the story, just this time with the intention of fixing it. she realised how much of a mistake she made last time in not seeing Key as a person, however this time around she’s still not really thinking of him as a person, just as a character that matters rather than one that doesn’t. BUT. I still adore her. characters who make an absolute shitty mess of things with the best of intentions >>>>
Key is as entertaining as ever, but even more unhinged and insane this time around. his yandere tendencies are on full display now and he’s quite terrifying with his newfound godlike powers, but at his core he’s still just as desperate to be loved and eager to please. to say that his and Rae’s relationship is complicated would be an understatement. however I am rooting for them despite it all!! please give them a happy ending sarah 😭
I also loved following the adventures of Marius and the Cobra. Marius is so desperate to serve it’s insane!! honestly this whole book is filled with characters whose love language is acts of service. sarah rees brennan clearly knows what’s up because it is the SEXIEST love language.
will be forever mad about that cliffhanger ending and the emotional devastation I have been left with.
thank you to netgalley for the arc!
Want to Read
December 29, 2025I sort of love this cover.
Want to Read
December 10, 2024WAHHHH I'm waiting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 5, 2026
Huge thanks to Orbit for the advance reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review!
If Long Live Evil (which I loved with my whole heart) was a campy, sparkling piece of costume jewelry, All Hail Chaos is a darkly glimmering black diamond. This picks up right where LLE left off, and Rae (and the reader) is deeply unsure how darling murderous puppy Key feels about her after she feigned nonchalance during his murder to save herself. This uncertainty — and the knowledge that her misunderstanding of the original novel led to this predicament — mean that Rae is on edge throughout the book, constantly trying to figure Key out and stay one step ahead of everyone else, and she can't exuberantly play with the story the way she did in LLE.
One thing that hasn’t changed is Rae’s metafictional awareness: heroines have demurely sized breasts, fake engagements lead to falling in love for real, readers will forgive all sorts of villainous deeds if committed by someone attractive. Sarah Rees Brennan is also clearly marvelously well-read, and sprinkles paraphrases of famous lines from classic literature — from Kerouac to Tennyson to Marvell — throughout the story. You’d have to have been an English major to catch all the references, but they (and Rae’s gimlet awareness of romantasy tropes) are delightful Easter eggs.
Our intrepid cast of secondary characters spend most of the novel away from all but their love interests: Emer and Lia are hiding in the Cauldron, the Golden Cobra and Lord Marius are off to the Valerius estate to save Marius' little sister, and Rae of course is at the Palace on the Edge with Key. The Cobra and Rae exchange letters, though, as they piece together how the original story has changed and figure out what does and does not work to as they try to fix it.
The romance that had me kicking my feet the most (to my surprise!) was Eric / Marius. We got just a hint at the end of LLE that Marius might have caught feelings, and those feelings have put down deep roots at this point. He doesn't yet seem to have admitted his feelings to himself, however, despite Eric doing his best to nudge him in that direction.
Lia… Lia I have thoughts about! Really intrigued to see where her character goes in Book 3.
Speaking of book 3… Sarah Rees Brennan has once again ended the book on a MASSIVE CLIFFHANGER (immediately following a pretty big unexpected reveal), and I am simply beside myself at how long I'll have to wait for it 😭
***
“Book boyfriends: you get older, they stay the same age. It gets awkward.”
“some readers defined “morally grey” as “a remorseless murderer who is good-looking”.
“It’s nice in a way, how books change. If the magic and illumination isn’t in the story any more, the magic and illumination was always in you. The story caught a reflection of you at the right time.”
“Treating everybody in the world as if they mattered would be disastrous for the economy.”
“Despite the horrors, people fell back into living their lives in the same old way. They wanted to talk about change but remain comfortable. Surely a true king or a just god would come soon, but tomorrow, not today. The enemy might be at the gates, but they surely wouldn’t get inside. No matter who sat the throne, surely those in charge had everything under control.”
“She loved the wolf-souled, who saw everything except for reason, who knew the only thing to do in a senseless world is start a howl of defiance echoing through the sky. The only ones for Rae were the wild ones, burning with a fire that would light up or burn down a world, but never go out.” (This is a paraphrase of Kerouac!)
“This type of heroine was never like the other girls. Ironically, this made them all very similar.”
“Heroines were always showing an anachronistic disregard for social class!”
“She held her brother’s sword as close as a childhood toy, and whispered, “I am half sick of waiting, Marius.” (Tennyson!)
“Mention of small breasts was perfectly acceptable and overlooked in books, while any character who happened to have a large chest was regarded as obtrusively pneumatic. Heroines didn’t get their tits out.”
“Half agony, half hope” (Austen!)
“That was the problem with a villain who would kill anybody, Rae thought with terrible clarity. You could pretend this was a video game, with every victim a faceless nonentity, but a villain who would kill anybody would eventually kill somebody you cared about. Someone brave and beloved, and that death would cast a light on all the other deaths and show their horror.”
“Listen, I wanted to make one thing clear. I know how fake engagements usually go, but please do not fall in love with me. I don’t mean that as a fun challenge. I have enough to deal with.”
“Had we but world enough and time” (Marvell!)
“I saw the red flags and I said red’s my favourite colour.”
“What a generous heart this woman had. Affection to spare for all the countless men to whom she was betrothed.”
If Long Live Evil (which I loved with my whole heart) was a campy, sparkling piece of costume jewelry, All Hail Chaos is a darkly glimmering black diamond. This picks up right where LLE left off, and Rae (and the reader) is deeply unsure how darling murderous puppy Key feels about her after she feigned nonchalance during his murder to save herself. This uncertainty — and the knowledge that her misunderstanding of the original novel led to this predicament — mean that Rae is on edge throughout the book, constantly trying to figure Key out and stay one step ahead of everyone else, and she can't exuberantly play with the story the way she did in LLE.
One thing that hasn’t changed is Rae’s metafictional awareness: heroines have demurely sized breasts, fake engagements lead to falling in love for real, readers will forgive all sorts of villainous deeds if committed by someone attractive. Sarah Rees Brennan is also clearly marvelously well-read, and sprinkles paraphrases of famous lines from classic literature — from Kerouac to Tennyson to Marvell — throughout the story. You’d have to have been an English major to catch all the references, but they (and Rae’s gimlet awareness of romantasy tropes) are delightful Easter eggs.
Our intrepid cast of secondary characters spend most of the novel away from all but their love interests: Emer and Lia are hiding in the Cauldron, the Golden Cobra and Lord Marius are off to the Valerius estate to save Marius' little sister, and Rae of course is at the Palace on the Edge with Key. The Cobra and Rae exchange letters, though, as they piece together how the original story has changed and figure out what does and does not work to as they try to fix it.
The romance that had me kicking my feet the most (to my surprise!) was Eric / Marius. We got just a hint at the end of LLE that Marius might have caught feelings, and those feelings have put down deep roots at this point. He doesn't yet seem to have admitted his feelings to himself, however, despite Eric doing his best to nudge him in that direction.
Lia… Lia I have thoughts about! Really intrigued to see where her character goes in Book 3.
Speaking of book 3… Sarah Rees Brennan has once again ended the book on a MASSIVE CLIFFHANGER (immediately following a pretty big unexpected reveal), and I am simply beside myself at how long I'll have to wait for it 😭
***
“Book boyfriends: you get older, they stay the same age. It gets awkward.”
“some readers defined “morally grey” as “a remorseless murderer who is good-looking”.
“It’s nice in a way, how books change. If the magic and illumination isn’t in the story any more, the magic and illumination was always in you. The story caught a reflection of you at the right time.”
“Treating everybody in the world as if they mattered would be disastrous for the economy.”
“Despite the horrors, people fell back into living their lives in the same old way. They wanted to talk about change but remain comfortable. Surely a true king or a just god would come soon, but tomorrow, not today. The enemy might be at the gates, but they surely wouldn’t get inside. No matter who sat the throne, surely those in charge had everything under control.”
“She loved the wolf-souled, who saw everything except for reason, who knew the only thing to do in a senseless world is start a howl of defiance echoing through the sky. The only ones for Rae were the wild ones, burning with a fire that would light up or burn down a world, but never go out.” (This is a paraphrase of Kerouac!)
“This type of heroine was never like the other girls. Ironically, this made them all very similar.”
“Heroines were always showing an anachronistic disregard for social class!”
“She held her brother’s sword as close as a childhood toy, and whispered, “I am half sick of waiting, Marius.” (Tennyson!)
“Mention of small breasts was perfectly acceptable and overlooked in books, while any character who happened to have a large chest was regarded as obtrusively pneumatic. Heroines didn’t get their tits out.”
“Half agony, half hope” (Austen!)
“That was the problem with a villain who would kill anybody, Rae thought with terrible clarity. You could pretend this was a video game, with every victim a faceless nonentity, but a villain who would kill anybody would eventually kill somebody you cared about. Someone brave and beloved, and that death would cast a light on all the other deaths and show their horror.”
“Listen, I wanted to make one thing clear. I know how fake engagements usually go, but please do not fall in love with me. I don’t mean that as a fun challenge. I have enough to deal with.”
“Had we but world enough and time” (Marvell!)
“I saw the red flags and I said red’s my favourite colour.”
“What a generous heart this woman had. Affection to spare for all the countless men to whom she was betrothed.”
March 10, 2026
A four if I'm thinking with my head, a five if I'm thinking with my heart.
This definitely feels like a second book, in that it's laying a lot (a lot) of groundwork that will see its pay off in a future instalment. It felt a little like Rae lost track of her braincells for a second there, in order to rally them all in the final third. I'm not trying to critique her for being stupid or acting unideally, it more just felt the book had to keep her in a plateaued state for longer in order to achieve its plot goals. I missed the genre savviness of Book 1, but that's bc genre savviness is my favourite thing.
But the character work still shone through so hard. And.... the good news is that this must mean there's a third book. Goodreads doesn't know that yet, but I do 💕✨️
This definitely feels like a second book, in that it's laying a lot (a lot) of groundwork that will see its pay off in a future instalment. It felt a little like Rae lost track of her braincells for a second there, in order to rally them all in the final third. I'm not trying to critique her for being stupid or acting unideally, it more just felt the book had to keep her in a plateaued state for longer in order to achieve its plot goals. I missed the genre savviness of Book 1, but that's bc genre savviness is my favourite thing.
But the character work still shone through so hard. And.... the good news is that this must mean there's a third book. Goodreads doesn't know that yet, but I do 💕✨️
Want to Read
January 7, 2026My motivation to survive until September 2025 tbh
upd: now it’s February 2026?? Girl, I’m already tired of surviving
upd2: well, now the book comes out in May 2026, and I’m not sure I can keep holding up, but that’s fine, no rush
upd: now it’s February 2026?? Girl, I’m already tired of surviving
upd2: well, now the book comes out in May 2026, and I’m not sure I can keep holding up, but that’s fine, no rush
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
that man is in leopard print armor you cannot change my mind.
April 23, 2026
I really wish this would’ve just been a duology. This book felt very much like a filler. The first half half was very drawn out and repetitive and the second one very convoluted. I still had fun, but honestly mostly cared about Eric and Marius. Still looking forward to the last book in this series.
May 6, 2026
After being transported into her favorite book series, Rae thought it would be easy to complete one task and reclaim her life in the real world before the cancer that's been ravaging her body for years finally kills her. Instead, Rae was alarmed to find that the characters she knew as fictional were painfully real people.
Now Rae has to deal with the catastrophic consequences of her own actions.
Rae's favorite character the Once and Future Emperor is here. But he's come into his power too early and he is far too angry--especially at Rae. As she keeps trying to fix him and get him the happy ending he deserves, Rae is forced to admit that she made him worse. Which makes things worse for everyone else in the kingdom.
Rae's friend The Golden Cobra is in hiding with Marius Valerius, the Last Hope. The Cobra hopes to change things for the tragic Valerius line. But all Marius wants is for someone else to take charge instead of forcing him to acknowledge uncomfortable feelings he can't even name. Emer and Lia hide in the poorest parts of the city but although they are together they have very different goals with Emer struggling to help their friends while Lia grasps at the power that keeps eluding her.
In a world where the dead walk and lies travel through the court faster than beasts can take to the skies, the truth is a very dangerous thing. Especially when telling the truth means revealing your heart in All Hail Chaos (2026) by Sarah Rees Brennan.
All Hail Chaos is the second book in Rees Brennan's Time of Iron trilogy, picking up moments after the dramatic conclusion of book one, Long Live Evil. The story shifts perspectives between the main players as they are scattered throughout the kingdom dealing with the aftermath of the emperor's return. Epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter once again highlight the differences between the narrative before Rae's arrival began to shape the story into something new.
Dismayed to find herself still within the pages of her favorite book, Rae observes "Great sequels took risks and got complicated. Great sequels did everything great first books did, backwards and in high heels. Great sequels upped the stakes, the tension and especially the body count." Which All Hail Chaos does admirably with a repeat of the Queen's Trials from book one but this time in a bloodier form all while the Emperor runs riot through a court that knows they need his power as much as they despise his presence.
With a cast bumbling through their interpersonal relationships with mixed results, All Hail Chaos continues to explore themes of agency and feminism within a fantasy framework. The story also asks, repeatedly, what it means when a reader is changed by a story and, given the magic system at play, what it means when those same readers try to change the story in turn. With sky high stakes and danger at every turn, Rae has her worked cut out for her as she tries to save her favorite character and herself. Rae continues to lean into her villainess persona even as she works heroically to get the narrative back on track reminding readers that even the blackest hearts can sometimes change with the right plot devices at play.
All Hail Chaos is everything a reader could want in a sequel. Come for the beloved characters, stay to see everything blow up in their faces and anxiously wait for the sequel. Highly recommended.
Possible Pairings: The Witch Who Trades With Death by CM Alongi, This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews, The Empress by Kristin Cast, Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah S. Dawson, Mistress of Lies by KM Enright, The Deathless One by Emma Hamm, Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore by Emily Krempholtz, The Half King by Melissa Landers, The Scarlet Throne by Amy Leow, Assitant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer, Anji Kills a King by Evan Leikam, The Awakening by Caroline Peckham, Going Postal by Terry Pratchett, Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis, Starter Villain by John Scalzi, Fang Fiction by Kate Stayman-London, How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler
*An advance copy of this title was provided by the publisher for review consideration*
Now Rae has to deal with the catastrophic consequences of her own actions.
Rae's favorite character the Once and Future Emperor is here. But he's come into his power too early and he is far too angry--especially at Rae. As she keeps trying to fix him and get him the happy ending he deserves, Rae is forced to admit that she made him worse. Which makes things worse for everyone else in the kingdom.
Rae's friend The Golden Cobra is in hiding with Marius Valerius, the Last Hope. The Cobra hopes to change things for the tragic Valerius line. But all Marius wants is for someone else to take charge instead of forcing him to acknowledge uncomfortable feelings he can't even name. Emer and Lia hide in the poorest parts of the city but although they are together they have very different goals with Emer struggling to help their friends while Lia grasps at the power that keeps eluding her.
In a world where the dead walk and lies travel through the court faster than beasts can take to the skies, the truth is a very dangerous thing. Especially when telling the truth means revealing your heart in All Hail Chaos (2026) by Sarah Rees Brennan.
All Hail Chaos is the second book in Rees Brennan's Time of Iron trilogy, picking up moments after the dramatic conclusion of book one, Long Live Evil. The story shifts perspectives between the main players as they are scattered throughout the kingdom dealing with the aftermath of the emperor's return. Epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter once again highlight the differences between the narrative before Rae's arrival began to shape the story into something new.
Dismayed to find herself still within the pages of her favorite book, Rae observes "Great sequels took risks and got complicated. Great sequels did everything great first books did, backwards and in high heels. Great sequels upped the stakes, the tension and especially the body count." Which All Hail Chaos does admirably with a repeat of the Queen's Trials from book one but this time in a bloodier form all while the Emperor runs riot through a court that knows they need his power as much as they despise his presence.
With a cast bumbling through their interpersonal relationships with mixed results, All Hail Chaos continues to explore themes of agency and feminism within a fantasy framework. The story also asks, repeatedly, what it means when a reader is changed by a story and, given the magic system at play, what it means when those same readers try to change the story in turn. With sky high stakes and danger at every turn, Rae has her worked cut out for her as she tries to save her favorite character and herself. Rae continues to lean into her villainess persona even as she works heroically to get the narrative back on track reminding readers that even the blackest hearts can sometimes change with the right plot devices at play.
All Hail Chaos is everything a reader could want in a sequel. Come for the beloved characters, stay to see everything blow up in their faces and anxiously wait for the sequel. Highly recommended.
Possible Pairings: The Witch Who Trades With Death by CM Alongi, This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews, The Empress by Kristin Cast, Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah S. Dawson, Mistress of Lies by KM Enright, The Deathless One by Emma Hamm, Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore by Emily Krempholtz, The Half King by Melissa Landers, The Scarlet Throne by Amy Leow, Assitant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer, Anji Kills a King by Evan Leikam, The Awakening by Caroline Peckham, Going Postal by Terry Pratchett, Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis, Starter Villain by John Scalzi, Fang Fiction by Kate Stayman-London, How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler
*An advance copy of this title was provided by the publisher for review consideration*
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
One thing about me is I am actually god's favorite etch a sketch so you better beliiiiiieeevvveee I don't recall that much from the first book. Luckily, for me at least, this book spent a bit of time rehashing events from the first book. I don't know how others who remember things better than I do or recently read the first book would feel about this, but for me and my memory, I was grateful.
I ended up liking this book way more than the first book, it felt like a really funny satire of high fantasy novels. So for me, I knew enough to know what was a good hearted ribbing of typical fantasy tropes and also probably simultaneously not enough of fantasy tropes to still be entertained by anything that wasn't satirical.
I guess what stopped this for being a five star read for me is I didn't really care enough about Emer's and Lia's side plot. (Though the twist about Emer was BONKERSSSS!) Similarly I wasn't into Caracalla's chapters either. I liked her enough, like she was perfectly funny, but I really just wanted to flip between my four favorite characters: Eric, Marius, Rae, and Key. Plus I sort of feel like flipping to certain character's POVs that didn't exactly further the plot which led to a lot of pacing issues and bloating of the story. Like, sorry, but I didn't need Pio's POV. All his chapters could have been cut and the story would have been absolutely fine. But I can't deny the worldbuilding in this book absolutely rocked, we see a lot more in this book than the first and that really worked in its favor. And man, can the author end on an absolute CLIFF HANGER that keeps me coming back to this series every. single. time!
Currently sitting outside Sarah Rees Brennan's house, silently crying and waiting for the third book.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.
I ended up liking this book way more than the first book, it felt like a really funny satire of high fantasy novels. So for me, I knew enough to know what was a good hearted ribbing of typical fantasy tropes and also probably simultaneously not enough of fantasy tropes to still be entertained by anything that wasn't satirical.
I guess what stopped this for being a five star read for me is I didn't really care enough about Emer's and Lia's side plot. (Though the twist about Emer was BONKERSSSS!) Similarly I wasn't into Caracalla's chapters either. I liked her enough, like she was perfectly funny, but I really just wanted to flip between my four favorite characters: Eric, Marius, Rae, and Key. Plus I sort of feel like flipping to certain character's POVs that didn't exactly further the plot which led to a lot of pacing issues and bloating of the story. Like, sorry, but I didn't need Pio's POV. All his chapters could have been cut and the story would have been absolutely fine. But I can't deny the worldbuilding in this book absolutely rocked, we see a lot more in this book than the first and that really worked in its favor. And man, can the author end on an absolute CLIFF HANGER that keeps me coming back to this series every. single. time!
Currently sitting outside Sarah Rees Brennan's house, silently crying and waiting for the third book.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Want to Read
February 15, 2025September cannot come soon enough 😭 (KEY MY BELOVED I MISS U ALREADY)
April 27, 2026
This review is for All Hail Chaos by Sarah Rees Brennan which releases in the UK on the 12th May! Thanks so much to Netgalley and Orbit/Little Brown Books for giving me an eArc copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
I absolutely loved the first book in this series and was so excited to get my hands on this early copy of the second. It lived up to every single expectation I had, and I ate up every bit of it.
The thing I loved the most, which was the same as the first, was the characters. Rae will always have a special place in my heart and I truly hope it works out for her, she truly deserves someone that will appreciate her loyalty. As per usual, I had a love/hate relationship with the rotating POV structure. Don’t get me wrong, I get why it’s there and it does show all aspects of what’s happening to all the various characters but it always moves at the most ANNOYING TIMES. But it works so well here and every single character feels so compelling, I found myself equally invested in all of them.
I was always left guessing where the story might go next, it’s so full of twists, turns and drama that genuinely caught me off guard. The storytelling and pace was perfect, just like the first, and there always something happening. Taking the story into a different direction and making the whole book feel like a little bit of chaos (see what I did there).
It does definitely fall under the curse of second book syndrome where you can see and feel a lot of the plot is readying up to the next one, but my god what a ride. And that ENDING??? I need the next one ASAP pls and thank you! Honestly cannot recommend this series enough and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do!
I absolutely loved the first book in this series and was so excited to get my hands on this early copy of the second. It lived up to every single expectation I had, and I ate up every bit of it.
The thing I loved the most, which was the same as the first, was the characters. Rae will always have a special place in my heart and I truly hope it works out for her, she truly deserves someone that will appreciate her loyalty. As per usual, I had a love/hate relationship with the rotating POV structure. Don’t get me wrong, I get why it’s there and it does show all aspects of what’s happening to all the various characters but it always moves at the most ANNOYING TIMES. But it works so well here and every single character feels so compelling, I found myself equally invested in all of them.
I was always left guessing where the story might go next, it’s so full of twists, turns and drama that genuinely caught me off guard. The storytelling and pace was perfect, just like the first, and there always something happening. Taking the story into a different direction and making the whole book feel like a little bit of chaos (see what I did there).
It does definitely fall under the curse of second book syndrome where you can see and feel a lot of the plot is readying up to the next one, but my god what a ride. And that ENDING??? I need the next one ASAP pls and thank you! Honestly cannot recommend this series enough and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do!
April 28, 2026
Long Live Evil was an instant favorite for me, so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book. I’m thrilled that the author kept the elements that I loved including how meta this book can be at times. While this won’t work for all readers, I am absolutely here for it. I loved the commentary on book boyfriends and morally grey characters. This book has so much heart and soul to it. One moment I’d be kicking my feet and giggling while the next moment I’d be shocked or hit in the feels. The characters are everything in this book. I love how well developed they all are. This book is 100% setting up for an epic finale to Rae’s story, and I can’t wait.
eARC courtesy of Orbit Books
ALC courtesy of Hachette Audio
eARC courtesy of Orbit Books
ALC courtesy of Hachette Audio
May 3, 2026
Long Live Evil was one of the most clever and unique fantasy novels I’ve read in a long time, and one of my top reads of 2024. I naively thought this would be a duology so that’s on me for not looking into it, and All Hail Chaos definitely has a bit of middle child syndrome. The story meanders throughout the middle, with the end ramping things up for book three. Which I need, immediately.
Thank you to Little Brown Books for the advanced review copy!
Thank you to Little Brown Books for the advanced review copy!
May 1, 2026
Immaculate sequel! Absolutely incredible follow up, hooked from the get go. The characters are so easy to love and thoroughly engaging. Marius and Eric stole the show for me, once again. I wish I could scrub both these books from my brain to experience them for the first time again.
Want to Read
October 2, 2025Ahh this has been pushed back to April. The disappointment 🤌
Want to Read
February 2, 2025I need this immediately 😍
Want to Read
December 2, 2025I can't wait to read this and I think about it ALL THE TIME
April 12, 2026
This series is my guilty pleasure. I need more key all the time, yes I’m the problem and I don’t care. I can fix him
Want to Read
December 28, 2024🕯🕯🕯 For September to come tomorrow.
Want to Read
November 6, 2024i need this book in my life T-T
Want to Read
June 26, 2025i. cant. freaking. wait CAN WE SKIP TO 2026 PLEEAAASSEEE
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
*I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.*
Highlights
~twist after twist after TWIST
~if treasuries don’t contain actual treasure what is even the point
~a surprisingly insightful mother
~a distinct under-use of truth potions
~‘Let us pray’ INDEED!
I couldn’t have loved Long Live Evil, the first book in this series, more; it would not have been humanly possible.
But All Hail Chaos…I found underwhelming.
And I think most of that is because the story did not go where I was hoping it would go, rather than because it was badly written or anything like that. Every other early review I’ve seen for this is glowing, and I get why! But I’m left not at all sure I want to read the finale when we get it.
After the events of the first book, Rae has realised that the people around her are very real, and so her cavalier attitude about them getting hurt or killed has gone out the window. This confuses Key – now risen from the abyss as the Once and Future Emperor – greatly, not least because he saw her appear not to care when he was killed. Something which Rae both feels hugely guilty about, and is terrified of: she’s (very fairly!) afraid that Key holds a grudge. Despite saying he wants her to marry him, she’s worried Key might be planning to kill her instead.
The relationship between Key and Rae was the heart of Long Live Evil for me, the thing I was most excited for in All Hail Chaos. Which made it…really disappointing that almost the first thing Rae does is decide she can’t be Key’s true love (granted, a god does tell her that she isn’t) and it is now her job to find his actual true love and bring them together. Within Rae’s context, with the information she has, it makes perfect sense, but wow that was not where I wanted the story to go, and I was very, very bored of it very quickly. Especially because it is obvious that Key remains devoted to her, in all his new dark glory – I wanted her to be embracing that, not trying to put distance between them!
What I found even worse was that Rae – again, very understandably! – becomes more and more horrified by what Key has become, what he’s willing to do. He kills people constantly, often horribly, often casually, and Rae retreats from him rather than try to talk to him about it. HE’D STOP IF HE KNEW YOU HATED IT, RAE! We know this, she knows this, because in the Once and Future Emperor books Rae read, Key was not going all homicidal while he had Lia – she was a good influence on him, she had no interest in bloodshed, and he didn’t go all darkside because she didn’t like it, didn’t want it. It was only after Lia died that all of Key’s dark impulses got let loose, the first time around.
But it does make sense that Rae believes she can’t be a similar good influence on Key. This is the thing: I hated what Rae was doing, but I cannot argue that any of it did not make sense for her to do. It’s ridiculous to an outsider, but from inside Rae’s head…she’s internalised the idea that she is not a good person, not a lovable person, and memories from her old life – specifically how horrifically most of the people she knew, including her dad, treated her when she got sick – are a constant reminder to her and to the reader of why. At 18, with the life experiences she’s had, how could she NOT believe these things? Maybe if she got to have another decade of normal life before coming to the Time of Iron world it would be very different – she would have realised that the people who abandoned her when she was sick were terrible people, that she was never the problem, and have the confidence and self-assurance in her own worth and awesomeness to handle the situation, and specifically Key, very differently.
But she doesn’t. It makes sense that she doesn’t. It is not bad writing! It’s just not what I wanted.
(The whole truth potion thing… I might be willing to call that bad writing. If truth potions have existed in this world this ENTIRE TIME, why didn’t you take one and tell Key all the things, Rae?! Ask HIM to drink one and tell you all the things! GAH. Yes, the truth potion thing does genuinely infuriate me.)
At the end of the previous book, all our couples were separated: Rae and Key remained in the palace, but Emer and Lia ran off into the Cauldron, and Marius and Eric left the city entirely. Although Emer+Lia and Marius+Eric’s plotlines both contain really important character moments and fantastic reveals and twists, I found them really dull. Caracalla, Marius’ younger sister, becomes a POV character that I didn’t feel added anything to the story, although her perspective allowed Brennan to hide some things and set red herrings for us that made for very cool LE GASP moments later. Emer and Lia don’t really do much until near the end; Marius and Eric are travelling to Marius’ ancestral home, and then they are at it, and nothing much happens there until near the end either. Marius and Eric’s interactions and Intense Feels were excellent, but there just wasn’t much plot pushing their part of the book forward. Whenever the book moved away from Rae and Key, it was a fight not to skim or outright skip pages until I could get back to them.
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!
Highlights
~twist after twist after TWIST
~if treasuries don’t contain actual treasure what is even the point
~a surprisingly insightful mother
~a distinct under-use of truth potions
~‘Let us pray’ INDEED!
I couldn’t have loved Long Live Evil, the first book in this series, more; it would not have been humanly possible.
But All Hail Chaos…I found underwhelming.
And I think most of that is because the story did not go where I was hoping it would go, rather than because it was badly written or anything like that. Every other early review I’ve seen for this is glowing, and I get why! But I’m left not at all sure I want to read the finale when we get it.
After the events of the first book, Rae has realised that the people around her are very real, and so her cavalier attitude about them getting hurt or killed has gone out the window. This confuses Key – now risen from the abyss as the Once and Future Emperor – greatly, not least because he saw her appear not to care when he was killed. Something which Rae both feels hugely guilty about, and is terrified of: she’s (very fairly!) afraid that Key holds a grudge. Despite saying he wants her to marry him, she’s worried Key might be planning to kill her instead.
Why does every death matter to you except mine?”
Yours taught me all the rest mattered.
The relationship between Key and Rae was the heart of Long Live Evil for me, the thing I was most excited for in All Hail Chaos. Which made it…really disappointing that almost the first thing Rae does is decide she can’t be Key’s true love (granted, a god does tell her that she isn’t) and it is now her job to find his actual true love and bring them together. Within Rae’s context, with the information she has, it makes perfect sense, but wow that was not where I wanted the story to go, and I was very, very bored of it very quickly. Especially because it is obvious that Key remains devoted to her, in all his new dark glory – I wanted her to be embracing that, not trying to put distance between them!
“No more blood on your hands,” the Emperor murmured, almost tenderly. “Unless it’s mine.”
What I found even worse was that Rae – again, very understandably! – becomes more and more horrified by what Key has become, what he’s willing to do. He kills people constantly, often horribly, often casually, and Rae retreats from him rather than try to talk to him about it. HE’D STOP IF HE KNEW YOU HATED IT, RAE! We know this, she knows this, because in the Once and Future Emperor books Rae read, Key was not going all homicidal while he had Lia – she was a good influence on him, she had no interest in bloodshed, and he didn’t go all darkside because she didn’t like it, didn’t want it. It was only after Lia died that all of Key’s dark impulses got let loose, the first time around.
But it does make sense that Rae believes she can’t be a similar good influence on Key. This is the thing: I hated what Rae was doing, but I cannot argue that any of it did not make sense for her to do. It’s ridiculous to an outsider, but from inside Rae’s head…she’s internalised the idea that she is not a good person, not a lovable person, and memories from her old life – specifically how horrifically most of the people she knew, including her dad, treated her when she got sick – are a constant reminder to her and to the reader of why. At 18, with the life experiences she’s had, how could she NOT believe these things? Maybe if she got to have another decade of normal life before coming to the Time of Iron world it would be very different – she would have realised that the people who abandoned her when she was sick were terrible people, that she was never the problem, and have the confidence and self-assurance in her own worth and awesomeness to handle the situation, and specifically Key, very differently.
But she doesn’t. It makes sense that she doesn’t. It is not bad writing! It’s just not what I wanted.
(The whole truth potion thing… I might be willing to call that bad writing. If truth potions have existed in this world this ENTIRE TIME, why didn’t you take one and tell Key all the things, Rae?! Ask HIM to drink one and tell you all the things! GAH. Yes, the truth potion thing does genuinely infuriate me.)
At the end of the previous book, all our couples were separated: Rae and Key remained in the palace, but Emer and Lia ran off into the Cauldron, and Marius and Eric left the city entirely. Although Emer+Lia and Marius+Eric’s plotlines both contain really important character moments and fantastic reveals and twists, I found them really dull. Caracalla, Marius’ younger sister, becomes a POV character that I didn’t feel added anything to the story, although her perspective allowed Brennan to hide some things and set red herrings for us that made for very cool LE GASP moments later. Emer and Lia don’t really do much until near the end; Marius and Eric are travelling to Marius’ ancestral home, and then they are at it, and nothing much happens there until near the end either. Marius and Eric’s interactions and Intense Feels were excellent, but there just wasn’t much plot pushing their part of the book forward. Whenever the book moved away from Rae and Key, it was a fight not to skim or outright skip pages until I could get back to them.
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!
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