Thank you Netgalley and publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

All of Us Villains follows 4 competitors in a fierce competition over control of high magic in a world where the magic was believed to be extinct. More than that, it is the story of how these children grow up in a world ruled by the blood moon, and controlled by their families' expectations of them, and most severely the knowledge that they will very likely die.

From the start, there is a dark air in the book, with references to monsters and death and vicious spells. It left me feeling a sense of doom as I grew more attached to each character. The unique family dynamics were, in my opinion, one of the main driving forces of the first half of the book. While I enjoyed this, it is a slower start than some might anticipate. Things really pick up as our cast enters the competition and begins to understand the cost of everything they're fighting for. It is clear that no one will make it out unscathed and no one is going to leave a hero.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the character dynamics. Everyone is morally grey, and guided by their desires, willing to fight for all of it. Even if you don't like Alistair, isobel, Gavin, or Briony, you will come to understand them.

My only complaint is that some of the lager plot twists fell flat for me, and I was able to guess what was happening. The ending left me excited for book two though, and I will definitely be continuing the series!

<i>All of Us Villains</i> is everywhere being compared to <i>The Hunger Games</i>, but I was strongly reminded of Tamsyn Muir's <i>The Locked Tomb</i> series while reading. Granted, the plot is much closer to <i>The Hunger Games,</i> but the depth of the characters and world-building made me think far more of Muir's work.

There's quite a bit of set up in the early chapters, but events pick up quickly and soon I was racing through the pages to see what happened next. I'm greatly looking forward to the next instalment.

Received via NetGalley.

Happy Monday y'all! And happy almost release day to All of Us Villains! Thank you so much to Tor Teen and Netgalley for letting me read an eARC of this book. All of Us Villains comes out tomorrow, November 9th, so make sure y'all go out and grab it then!
All of Us Villains 5/5 Stars
Summary from Goodreads:
The Blood Moon rises. The Blood Veil falls. The Tournament begins.
Every generation, at the coming of the Blood Moon, seven families in the remote city of Ilvernath each name a champion to compete in a tournament to the death.
The prize? Exclusive control over a secret wellspring of high magick, the most powerful resource in the world--one thought long depleted.
This year, thanks to a salacious tell-all book, the seven champions are thrust into worldwide spotlight, granting each of them new information, new means to win, and most importantly: a choice - accept their fate or rewrite their story.
But this is a story that must be penned in blood.
Oh man y'all. I really loved this book. I mean I really like all of the books I've read by Amanda Foody, so I didn't really expect anything different with this one, but OMG it was so incredibly amazing. The characters, the setting, the whole idea behind the tournament during the Blood Moon- it was all so great! I really enjoyed our four main POVs- Alastair, Briony, Isobel, and Gavin. Each of them brought something great and different to the tournament- lots of baggage and different training, all for the same end goal- staying alive through the tournament and providing high magick to their family. I loved the alliances that were formed and broken throughout the journey that they were on and I also loved how there were secrets alluded to that were revealed at different points (like who said that Isobel was her family's champion, for example). Plot wise, I really loved everything about the book. I finished it in less than a day, so I was definitely hooked from the beginning. I am so excited to see where the authors take book two because there's so much more to be done and so many more consequences for our main foursome to live through!

3.5

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan for providing me an e-ARC to review!

This was a fun read: definitely violent and brutal, and an interesting concept in terms of trying to break this ages old curse but there being a very fine line between saving and killing everyone. I think for someone like me, though, for whom The Hunger Games is just such a foundational text for my whole being, I can't help but look at this and how it doesn't quite live up to the behemoth that is that trilogy in my mind. The use of four perspectives in a book where there are only seven people in the competition makes it feel pretty easy to guess who is going to be picked off first, and the magic system definitely removes some of the tension with regard to bad things happening to the main characters. There's some insta-love, but I liked how some of these characters had known each other before and how those dynamics played into this competition. I think my favourite was Alistair (because I'm a sucker for sad boys), but I think all the characters we got POVs from were interesting in their own ways.

I think you would enjoy this a lot more if you were a little young for the Hunger Games era (like think Tomato Town wipe-outers), but it was an enjoyable read and there's definitely potential for book 2!

I honestly picked this up mainly because of the title and cover. But when I saw someone pitch this as "hunger games with magic" I was totally SOLD.

Every twenty years the blood veil sets over Ilvernath and starts the tournament where seven families each send one champion to compete for the rights to high magick. The rhythm and rules of the tournament seem to have changed thanks to someone publishing a book about the murderous curse that drives teens to kill each other to gain their family power; and the town is filled with paparazzi, curse chasers and people that each have their own agenda.

This book is told in the point of view of four different champions:
Alistair Lowe, whose family is feared for being cruel, growing up with monster stories and without real contact to anyone that isn't their blood. They are also the current keepers of high magick.
Gavin Grieve, who is doomed to lose in this game, his family nothing more than a joke in town.
Isobel Macaslan who is the favorite of the press.
Briony Thorburn who has always seen herself as the champion of her family.

The different POV give us so much insight into the different facets of the story and characters and I honestly got attached to all of them (Briony maybe the least out of all the four). Every character is able to stand on their own but they also all have interesting relationships with each other, no matter if it's hate, friendship or love. Their goals and struggles are clear and interesting and they drive the story.

The storytelling and writing in this is great, it's a compelling story and world that doesn't let you go. The characters definitely drive the story in my opinion, but that doesn't mean that the magic system isn't amazing either. The question of what is good and bad, what is a villain and what is a hero is greatly explored and leaves you thinking and questioning even after reading.
This story has a lot of suspense, twists and turns that one might suspect and others that came as a total surprise to me. I got especially attached to Alistair and Gavin, how they felt, how they were perceived and how they acted in response. (Let me just scream: ALISTAIR LOWE MY MAN.)
The second half of the book goes STRONG and especially the last 10% had me on the edge of my seat wanting more. Honestly, I need the sequel NOW.

This is definitely one of my favorite reads this month (and year) and I can't wait to read more of this story and world, since the ending has me needing more information!
This is also a perfect book for the darker months and for people that enjoy magical tournaments, complex and morally grey characters and a great cast.

✨ARC Review✨

“The blood moon rises. The blood veil falls. The tournament begins.”

“Every twenty years, we send seven teenagers into a massacre and reward the one who comes out with the most blood on their hands.”

“Seven rotten families in an insignificant city, fighting over the most powerful magic left in the world.”

The Blood Moon signifies that the tournament is approaching, and the Blood Veil begins. A long time ago, seven families fought over who would control Ilvernath’s high magick. The curse brought forth meant that for every generation, each of the seven families has to put forth a champion to compete in a tournament to the death. The prize is a secret wellspring of high magick.

What I Loved:
-the morally grey characters in this book (you will find reasons to like and dislike Alistair, Isabel, Gavin, and Briony)

This is the first book I have read where two authors worked together to make one collective piece. While I think it worked well, I feel like my expectations were high on this one, and I didn’t love it as much as I had hoped. I think I would potentially give the next in the series a try, just to see if I find them more enjoyable as a whole.

✨Rating✨
⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

A special thank you to NetGalley and Tor Teen for this eARC! All Of Us Villains is out November 9th!

Seven families with ancient magick are each cursed to send one of their teen children into a battle-to-the-death every time a Blood Moon appears--but not all of the chosen warriors are willing to be pawns in a magical power struggle.

I am so obsessed with this world and these characters! A thrilling blend of the Hunger Games and the Triwizard Tournament, the battle between the four morally gray protagonists features a balance of magic and bloodbaths, calculating strategy and hopeful idealism. My only complaint is that the sequel isn't out yet! A fun page-turner for YA fantasy readers who can stomach a bit of gore.

Though this book was slow at the beginning, as I got further and further into it, I couldn't stop reading it. All of Us Villains is reminiscent of The Hunger Games, but it is most definitely its own book. The magic(k) system was so interesting, and I had never read anything like it before. I really enjoyed how dark this was, but it still made me empathize with all the characters. I would say most of the characters are just morally grey with some villainous tendencies rather than straight up villains, but that's okay. I love morally grey!

I do wish that we had been introduced to each POV and spent more time with them before the next one. It would've made sense to go between Alistair and Isobel for a little bit before bringing Briony and Gavin. While I didn't mind most of the POVs after I was introduced, sometimes Gavin's POV felt a little disjointed and disconnected from the main plot of the story until later on.

Thank you NetGalley and TOR Teen for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

You know that feeling when you pick up a book that seems familiar and you start to get a little nervous about it? Is this something I've read before? Will this live up to the hype? These feelings were strong with this read, and it really came out strong on the other side! I really enjoyed this one! I loved how this book mashed magic, fantasy, mystery, and adventure all into one. It really is Hunger Games meets the world of magic. It's intense and jaw dropping - it's wildly entertaining! The worst part about this read? It leaves you hanging on a vine. It sets-up for the next book in this new series, but it left me really wanting more. I wanted just a tad more of a pretty bow-type ending, but I guess I just need to wait to see what's coming next!

I am not even kidding when I tell you guys this book is THE BOMB. OH MY GOD ITS AMAZING. I was hooked from the very beginning and finished the book in one sitting. I just could not put it down. It's defo one to read. The characters, the setting, the plot, I just fell in love with EVERYTHING about it!

2.5 stars

I wanted to love this so much more than I did. A hunger games style death match plus magic?? I was so pumped going in.

First the good: I loved the magic system and the whole premise. I loved the differences between the families and the rivalries and all the snippets of the tournament book. I also loved the setting and how it was described.

Now the bad: one or two too many POVs. And they all began to read too similarly about halfway through. It made it hard to truly connect with the characters or even care about any of them.

Here’s my biggest issue with this book: I am a firm believer that books in a series should be able to stand on their own. This book absolutely could not. It ended so abruptly that I had to keep swiping back and forth to make sure I didn’t miss pages. There was no satisfying resolution to anything in this book. And yes I’m aware of cliffhanger endings, this wasn’t that. It just ended. Like to the point where I was convinced a chapter was left out.

If I had read this when book 2 was out and could go directly into book 2, I probably wouldn’t have been so harsh when reviewing it but as it stands I was left annoyed and confused.

Let me start off by saying fall of 2022 can not come out soon enough for the sequels release. I will be getting book 2 as soon as I can because I can't wait to see where this story goes. Now back to this book, I loved it I was hardly able to put it down it had a nice pacing and I wanted to know what was going to happen next. An ancient curse has forced 7 families to send one child of theirs every 20 years to fight to the death and the last one alive wins high magic for their family until the next game. This has created some unique family dynamics and some truly villainous characters. After centuries of this happening in secret someone writes a tell all book and that attracts intrest from the outside world and puts more pressure of this 7 contestants. There are 4 main characters that tell their tell in first person perspective and some I liked a lot more than others. Some types are villains just appeal to me more. ;) The ones I didn't like as much were because they were not a villian I wanted to cheer for because I didn't liek their motivies. Talk about having some great written baddies where you get uncomfortable when they appear. This wasn't a perfect novel but hey nothing really is. Some characters made persnality changes a little quickly but hey they are facing almost certain death, that's bound to make people act unpredictably. Kinda spoilery the book was getting near the end and the story seemed to have so much to tell and lo and behold it had a nice dramatic ending but it was a cliff hanger if I ever read one. Hence, my mentioning that book 2 needs to come out asap! I will be reccomending this to others for sure!

* I received an eARC/e-galley of this book via Netgalley. All opinions in this review are my own.

I have been hyped up for over a year to read All of Us Villains. I’m not super familiar with Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman’s previous works, but I didn’t need a lot of convincing to pick up their joint project after I read the premise. If you’ve ever wanted a magical Hunger Games, look no further and pick your champion before the Blood Veil falls.

In the city of Ilvernath, a secret curse has been affecting seven magickal families for generations. Every 20 years, a champion from each family enters a tournament under the red tinge of the Blood Veil. The survivor grants their family control over the supply of a mysterious and powerful high magick. Except now, this violent game is no longer hiding in the shadows. Someone has written an expose on the families’ dastardly deeds, shocking violence, and selfish hold on high magick. The book sends the media into a frenzy and the once anonymous champions have been outed and thrown to the wolves. As four teenagers begin to prepare for the tournament, the government and people in town are making their own moves. But the choices these teens make will have everlasting effects on this bloody family curse.

Cheers to Foody and Herman who combined their writing powers to create an engaging, plot-driven story. The curse that encircles the families is brutal and unique, making it a great centerpiece. The magick in Villains is also intriguing because it’s so varied, and there’s a whole system to how it’s used and created. The spells and curses are created by collecting raw magick and combining it with the necessary ingredients on a septogram. The spell or curse is then housed in a jewelry piece called a cursering. A cursering can be as simple as a cosmetic spell or as dangerous as Dragon’s Breath. And everyone’s abilities with magic differ, too. One champion may be a powerful spellcaster, but can’t craft the high-level spells needed to win. It’s a dynamic magic system and it’s awesome to see which powers our characters lean towards.

The tournament is obviously the focal point of this story, but the build-up to the event is where Villains was strongest. This is where Foody and Herman set the stage, and they devote a lot of effort to setting up the world. Although we barely scratch the surface of the four characters, their backgrounds are interesting and we get a behind-the-scenes look at their family and tournament preparation. I enjoyed seeing the choices these characters made as the event approached. Their desperation led to many mistakes and horrible revelations, and it had me excited for what the tournament would bring. But once the game began, I feel like the story lost its steam. Those shocking moments I experienced earlier outshined the tournament’s play-by-play. I had a lot of anxiety leading up to the event, and ultimately the story unfolded in a different way that diffused my fear. However, I still really enjoyed this story and was interested in the new direction.

If there was anything I struggled with in Villains it was the characters because they don’t have much personality outside of their tournament goals. There was a moment ¾ into the book where I stopped and realized I didn’t know a thing about these people. The only knowledge I had was if a champion wanted to be in the tournament or not and what they were going to do about it. I can confidently describe to you one person out of seven, this person being Alistair, who is the only one that has another facet of their personality that isn’t “I’m in a death tournament and it sucks.” It should come as no surprise that Alistair is also my favorite character but given the shallow character builds, I can’t help but gravitate towards him even if he’s as deep as a puddle.

I was expecting a violent, ruthless story of survival and while All of Us Villains certainly had its moments, it was not the brutal book I hyped it up to be. Instead, I encountered an interesting curse and a group of teenagers looking to change the history that defines their family. It was certainly not the story I expected but it was one I found to be engrossing in its own way.

Rating: All of Us Villains - 7.0/10

All of us villains was an quick and thrilling read with its intriguing of atmosphere of hunger games with magic along with aspects of generational familial pressure. The backstory and system of magic and curses were relatively easy to follow along with each of the seven families' histories of champions and losses on how that affects the present day teen champions. Being multi-perspective made this story fly by much faster in my personal reading experience, but honestly two out of the four point of views carried. It was a bit slow paced towards the beginning but expected with a fantasy series first novel, but it definitely picked up once the tournament started. Alistair Lowe, son of the infamous deadly Lowe family who have had the most winners of the tournament, is of course the most multi-layered character we get to see ranging from his boundless power to the spin of his mind to the grief he is put through. Isobel Macaslan, is one quite interesting as she was thrust into the spotlight as her name was thrust into the media as champion though she had never wanted. She deals with the most fighting much internal battles but also external with her split parents, her father expecting perfection as their family champion meanwhile her mom wants the exact keeping her safe from all harm along with complicated past friendships and new ones. The development of the dynamic between Alistair and Isobel was one well done with its slow burn and one could see it coming with how they met and how their story would could with all the foreshadowing. After the chaos and plot twists of the last ten percent, I'd be fascinated to pick up the sequel and see where Foody and Herman take this story!

Oh. My. Gosh.

All of Us Villains is your next favorite blood-bath tournament. Think The Hunger Games with magic, where the families of the town put forth a champion to bring high magic to their family until the next tournament cycle.

This world and its magic system was so unique and incredibly written, I couldn't put it down. I loved the idea of the stones they wore containing the spells, and I really enjoyed how many spells were actually included throughout the story. There were so many really cool ones, I couldn't wait to see what else the authors came up with. And the world--it was so dark! It made for the perfect fall, spookytime read.

The characters were by far my favorite part of the book, and I loved how many POVs we got! I immediately knew Alistair was going to be my favorite, and boy did he not disappoint. It was so great seeing all of the different perspectives of the characters, and though they all thought they were so alone, they don't know just how similar they are. Tortured souls and all.

They aren't kidding around with the "All of Us Villains" title, no matter how much you may want to think otherwise by the end of this novel.

Sign me up for book two! I can't wait to get my hands on it already!

The Hunger Games mixed with magic? Yes please!

I thought this was a fun book to read. Unlike The Hunger Games (which this will be compared to) in this story we actually get to know all of the champions and see all of their personalities along with their redeeming qualities and their flaws (the story is told from the points of view from four of the champions). You end up rooting for just about all of them. My only problem with the book is the magic system. I feel like it wasn't really explained that well so I would have liked a little more information on that. Otherwise, I am very excited to read the 2nd book to see how this all ends.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Okay, I think I'm in the minority here, but I didn't love this as much as I was hoping - I loved the set up of The Hunger Games with 7 families championing young family members for control of the High Magick in there town/area/ect. I didn't love the magic system in the book and that did make it a little hard for me to enjoy the magic set-up overall. This also follows four different characters and I found it got a little convoluted as there were 7 families to keep track of. I did like some of the characters and of course the tension of them in these "games" together is interesting - I liked their moral greyness and made it interesting. Then there was their families and additional characters and it was a lot. I did like the writing and it was interesting, but I'm not sure if I would carry on the series personally.

📖 What a story! I love a good villian story and this book didn’t disappoint.

All of Us Villians by Amanda Foody & Christine Lynn Hernan is a YA Sci-fi-/Fantasy book. First installment in the series. If you loved the Hunger Games, you will enjoy this one. Though, instead of following the “good” characters, we follow that of the “villians” in a world of evil magic ✨

Every generation at the coming of the blood moon, seven families name a champion to compete in a tournament of death for a chance to control the secret high magic, which is the most powerful resource in the world that was thought long gone. Hence, it being a secret.

We get four perspectives as the story progresses even though seven compete. We follow their struggles for survival and their gruesome acts. Yet, we still root for them. At least I did, and if you’re anything like me, always rooting for the darker side, so will you 😁

Overall, the story is compelling and intriguing. The magic system was unique and the writing was enthralling. It was quite the adventure, for sure.

The book is set to publish November 9th. Don’t forget to grab your copy!

One thing to note: This book does end in a sort of cliffhanger for those that prefer disclaimers on topics such as these.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book.

All us villains is like a brutal version of Hunger Games. Though any book that pits teens against each other to the death is brutal... but this was even more so. There were almost too many characters for me, but they were what made the book. Seeing their perspectives and their families expectations etc really made me feel for each and everyone one. I think it would be more fair to say that these kids are more like martyrs than villains. Most of them are there because of their families and the curse-- not because they have a thirst for all things evil... they're just trying to survive.

This book was dang good. Hunger Games vibes with some shady characters (and even shadier families) along with a tell-all book that opens the small town to the public. Seven families send a champion into a kill-or-be-killed tournament with the winning family getting control of the high magic that the town is known for. But when a tell-all book is published by an anonymous writer, there is an increased focus on this generation’s tournament. As the champions are named and thrust into the tournament, will they keep playing by the same rules the curse has laid out, or will this be the tournament everything changes? So much goodness here. Fantastic world-building, morally grey characters, and twists and turns that keep you guessing. I highly recommend this book and cannot wait until book 2!