heres why I won't be reviewing this book , the co author , Christine Lynn Herman is racist and tried to cancel Asian authors by supporting Emily a Duncan who literally made fun of Asian authors, I didn't about this for a long but I am glad I knew about this ,

This novel is hovering between 3.5 and 4 (so I have rounded up).

I won't lie, it took me a really (REALLY) long time to get into this. The blurb is stellar and the whole premise of the story hooked me but I found the first 25% of this book dull. It was well written and I could see what the intrigue should be but it felt flat - to me, and I am very aware that lots of other people will disagree!

The novel is split across four perspectives (who I have listed below in order of how much I liked them...):

- Isobel: my favourite for most of the story. I thought she was written really well until about the 80% mark when her actions seemed a bit more forced to support the plot. But, she was interesting and strong and my favourite part of the entire story was watching her try to survive after she's put in a very tricky position just before the tournament starts.

- Alistair: yep, good, bad-boy (but secret soft boi really), got to love it. He was the most consistent throughout the novel and, personally, I found his motives the easiest to follow and most believable. His relationship with Isobel was brilliant and his relationship with Hendry - the only secondary character I actually cared about - was one of the best parts of the story.

- Briony: okay, I've got a bit to say about Briony. I actually really liked her. I found it a bit jarring when she went from being the ultimate champion (literally, basically drooling over going into the tournament and killing her friend/ex/other children in the town) to deciding the tournament was awful and everyone needed to work together to end it. I wasn't against this change in character because I found her MUCH more interesting in the second half but it just seemed abrupt.

- Gavin: Nope. Not for me. Sorry... I found him whingy at the start then he just straight up turns evil. I don't know, I just couldn't get behind him.

Really, other than Gavin, I thought the characters we're really well done and Foody and Herman did a grand job at making them the perfect levels of morally grey. Which is so important because it's a very character-led story.

The story picks up a lot in the second half, I actually wish they could have halved the time spent setting up the characters before the tournament. After a couple of chapters with each character, it was clear who they were and their motives.

Once we were into the tournament, I loved this story. It took me months to read the first 30% then I raced through the last 70% in a day so... take from that what you will! I will definitely be reading the sequel when it comes out, I'm excited to see where this is going.

Oh god, you guys. What a *travesty* this doesn’t come out in time for Halloween. All of Us Villains is exactly the scheming, twisted fantasy book that I didn’t even know I needed. Think evil magic Hunger Games—smaller in scale but twice as vicious.

Every generation there is a tournament. Marked by the Blood Moon over the secluded town of Ilvernath, seven families come together and offer a champion from their bloodlines to compete for a chance at immense power. High magick has long since left the world, used up recklessly thousands of years ago….or so it was thought. The only remaining source of this long-lost resource resides in Ilvernath, tied to the seven families and their generational curse. Only one family line may claim the magick, and only after defeating the other six competitors by winning the tournament in a fight to the death. And in order to protect this bloody legacy, all involved have kept the event a secret.

Up until now. Word has gotten out about this brutal practice and the world has descended on Ilvernath, ready to observe and judge the participants. With unprecedented scrutiny, will centuries of tradition finally snap under the pressure? Will champions from underestimated houses have better odds with this new wrench thrown into the chaos?

“Our families kept this secret for centuries. Seems to me that means, on some level, we all know what we’ve been doing is wrong.”

Thorburn. Payne. Grieve. Blair. Macaslan. Darrow. Lowe.

Let the games begin.


This book was all-consuming. I could not pick up another thing while I was still reading it. There’s something completely mesmerizing and addictive about the characters in All of Us Villains. They all commit some truly heinous acts, and for a wide range of reasons, but still you’re rooting for them to succeed.

Part of that is probably based in their struggle for survival. Like The Hunger Games, each competitor’s own success is dependent on the misfortune of those around them. But the comparison would probably be more apt if instead of Katniss and Peeta the champions exclusively had the personalities of tributes from Districts 1 & 2. Some are proud to be there, others are resigned to it, but they all are more than willing and capable of killing one another.

While there are seven champions, there’s only four perspectives in the book. You’ll probably be more invested in them than the other three, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be involved in everyone’s stories. Or that you’ll end up liking those four any better. In fact, getting inside their heads might be more of a turn off than observing them from a distance. I was so impressed with the way Amanda Foody and Christine Herman wrote these characters. They can be despicable one moment and endearing underdogs the next—you’re never quite sure which version you’re going to get. Expect your own loyalties to shift just as often as the characters’ do.

At this point I do have to issue a warning to potential readers: this book ends on a massive cliffhanger. Honestly it’s such a big cliffhanger that it almost feels like they just chopped the last 25% of it off and sent it out that way. I guess I won’t be able to judge whether or not the sequel is a natural continuation of the story or not until it’s out (it’s not close to coming out), but I was totally caught off guard with how this ended. Okay, even more than that, I was ~M A D~. Like, big mad. Honestly I’m still a little mad I can’t read the rest right this second.

I know that’s probably a testament to the writing and how compelling this story was, but I’m sorry Tor Teen—you’ve created a monster. I am going to be lurking around, tapping on walls and rattling chains until you release the follow-up. As of now the page for it just says ”2022”, but I will be haunting you all until I have the resolution in hand. You have been warned!!

Ok surprisingly enough, I ended up really enjoying this book! I was not expecting myself to like it as much as I did, but i ended up reading it in a day. I enjoyed most of the main characters and I thought the premise was just a really fun concept. I will for sure be purchasing this book when it’s officially released!

Thank you, NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The world-building and characters in this book were amazing. It was a little confusing at the beginning trying to remember the various characters but overall they were all skillfully written. The betrayals and mystery made it impossible to put down. Highly recommend.The world-building and characters in this book were amazing. It was a little confusing at the beginning trying to remember the various characters but overall they were all skillfully written. The betrayals and mystery made it impossible to put down. Highly recommend.

All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman is a fantastic novel! It was so thrilling and I couldn't put it down!

A deadly tournament with seven champions, and generations-old family stories and secrets, feed the magic that binds their fates together in All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman.

In the city of Ilvenrath there are seven families who vie for an opportunity to have control over high magick, a valuable resource, for the period of time between each Blood Veil. This opportunity comes in the form of a tournament every generation with each family supplying a champion to compete to the death as part of this ancient curse. Each family has their reputation and stories that have been passed down, but one family, the reigning champions with a long-standing history of success, have a rather sinister, and highly secretive, one; however, in the wake of a mysterious publication of an anonymously penned tell-all book long-kept secret details about the tournament are made public knowledge, giving each of this year’s champions a greater possibility of winning, or at the very least changing their story, though it comes at a high, and bloody, cost.

With an interesting magic(k) system presented, the story moved swiftly as it began to build the outline of the world, revealed the historical context for the events taking place, and introduced key characters; the magic system itself was generally well-described and unique but the world in which it resides is a little sparse and difficult to fully envision. Written from the perspectives of four of the seven champions (which makes me ask why only four), the story is driven forward by the characters as they and their motivations are developed as well as the actions they take. There’s quite a bit of twisted darkness and cruel family dynamics that are fascinating to explore as revealed through the characters’ motivations and behaviors and helps to take this story beyond a mere rehashing in a magical setting of The Hunger Games, but their general aim, once revealed, may not strictly be heroic but doesn’t feel exceptionally villainous either. The pacing was a bit off, with it picking up about half way through and then end felt quite sudden as the intrigue and action were finally coming together well and at a boiling point only to abruptly halt the built momentum in anticipation of a subsequent book, in which there’s still quite a lot to be addressed.

Overall, I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

*I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘈𝘙𝘊 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸.

𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐎𝐅 𝐔𝐒 𝐕𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐒 becomes interesting around the 40% mark, when the actual tournament starts. Before that, we learn a lot - maybe too much in such little time - about the main characters. The book focuses on four people: Alistair, Isobel, Briony and Gavin. Not all of these POVs would have been necessary for the story.

It has an unique magic system that combines spells with daily needs (Pick up the Pace and etc.). While there were things I thought could have been executed better, I cannot wait to read the sequel and to find out more about the Relics and the Landmarks!

All of us villains was wonderful! If you're a fan of the Hunger Games this one is definitely for you! It takes what we know and love from the Hunger Games and makes the story even darker and took away the politics, bringing this type of story into a new light. I cannot wait to see how the Blood Veil continues in book 2! This is definitely going to be my future book club pick!

I was given an ARC of this book to read and review.
When i started this, the description seemed great. The more i read, the more i struggled. Its usually never haed for me to finish a book, but i just couldn't make it through it. First book I have quit in ages. It was too similar to the Hunger Games trilogy and really hard to get into. I had reservations from the first page.
This book wasn't for me, but others may enjoy it.
#netgalley #allofusvillians

I was given an e-arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review so thank you TorTeen!

I was personally drawn in by the premise of the Hunger Games but what if it was the "careers". I think this novel delivers on that front, just not as strongly as I would have liked. It might be that I didn't pay good enough attention but I felt like the magic system was difficult to fully understand.

One large problem that I had with the novel was the multiple perspectives. I feel like novel wasn't quite long enough in order to build 4+ characters with their own perspectives and have them be well-rounded. I will say I would fight a literal army for Alistair and the end chapter was something I routed for the whole time. I found Alistair's perspective the most compelling and am looking forward to reading more of him in book 2.

The other problem I had with this is that the true villian of this novel was heavily implied and a little bit of a let down in what we know so far about them. Overall, I found this novel to be a fun adventure and I would definitely be open to reading book 2.

** Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Teen for providing me with this eArc in exchange for an an honest review**

I really enjoyed this dark fantasy set in a cursed city of Ivernath. The story follows 7 teenagers of 7 families that are chosen to be the champion to fight in the Blood Moon. This event happens once every generation, where each champion fights to the death to become victorious. The victor gets to keep the high magic within their family until the next generation.

This is a very Hunger Gamesesque story however, it is very different. The similarities are mostly that there are children fighting and killing each other. I really enjoyed how dark this book was, it not only deals with a dark premise but the violence and magic can be pretty graphic. This is definitely on the older end of YA. I enjoyed the complexity of all the main characters/ POV's. There are 7 teenagers but we only follow 4 Alistair, Isobel, Gavin and Briony.

The lore around the trial/game unravels throughout the book but the magic system doesn't really get explained or explored. So in regards to that world building I hope it gets developed further in the next book. There is a small romance sub plot that begins in this book and I really liked how Foody and Herman handled it. I enjoyed that this book started out dark and remained dark even though there were moments when our characters could have changed.

I had never read anything by Amanda Foody or Christine Lynn Herman, but I really enjoyed their writing, it didn't seem like two people wrote it. Meaning that nothing felt disjointed or separate, the story flowed nicely. The pacing is good too, the first half established the characters their motivations, personalities, backgrounds and preparation for the trial and then the Blood Moon begins and there is a lot of action.

If you enjoy dark, morally grey, evil? characters, magic, ghosts, a trial/competition I would recommend this book!

Thank you so much to Orion Publishing Group, Macmillan-Tor/Forge and NetGalley for an e-copy of this book. The opinions below are my own.

I personally couldn’t pass up reading a book dedicated to villains, so I requested this book straightaway on NetGalley. This story is pitched as the queer version of The Hunger Games, in which seven families have to send their respective champion to fight in a brutal tournament. Only one champion will survive this tournament and access high magick. The remaining champions are destined to be killed, and die in this cursed endless tournament in the remote city of Ilvernath.

The tournament structure and the magic world are described through the eyes and experience of four champions and the first part of the book is completely dedicated to that. I think this was the best part of the book, you get to understand the motivation for each champion to join this cruel and gruesome fight, and you also get a better understanding of the most, and less, influential families involved. I appreciated how the writers give the reader the time to see these dysfunctional families without jumping straight into the battle.

However, once the tournament started, I stopped being too involved in the story. The plot had a shift in narrative and the actual tournament became slightly repetitive, with a succession of alliances, no alliances, alliances, no, maybe no alliances. My favourite character was Alistair, he was the best champion of this story and had the potential to be a great villain/fictional boyfriend. Problem is, he was not really a villain. In general none of the characters demonstrated real “villain” behaviour. It was more smoke than fire, in the sense that they don’t actually do mean stuff, there are not King-Joffrey-kind-of-actions.

Prior to the big fight, there were a few characters that were introduced and I had a feeling they also had a relevant part in the story, which were set aside during the tournament. I guess it’s the limitation of using four POV’s, you don’t get the full picture of what is going on. Probably I would need to read the sequel to see where the story will go, but unfortunately, when I arrived at the end of the book, I knew I wasn’t going to pick up the sequel.

It definitely has good stuff in it. I loved that the story takes place in the modern age and that the champions have to deal with reporters, news and so on. The magic system is very easy to grasp, with spells and curses connected to rings and crystals. As I mentioned above, the problem was that these villains didn’t feel very villain-like, and the queer representation was just hinted at, with the main romance being m/f.

Probably I had very high expectations about this story, and I wanted more from these characters, I wanted more from Alistair Lowe. The first part got me super tense and excited, but the execution of the tournament part was underwhelming and repetitive. Instead of giving me thirst for the sequel, the ending was confusing and not teasing me enough to feel I want to know where it goes. And like I always say, I have a weird taste and I’m quite difficult, so what didn’t work for me, I am sure will work for another reader. If you like magic battles and complex, messed-up families you should really give it a chance.

Wow, I really enjoyed this book! It gripped me from the first chapter, and when the town was being described, it gave me strong Tim Burton vibes. The characters are very, VERY morally grey. I liked that even the character that was trying to do the right thing was driven by selfishness to a degree. I loved the magic system that was created, I think it’s really cool that instead of needing something like a wand to cast spells, they needed stones. I didn’t realize that this book was the first in the series when I started it, and now I’m going to be in suspense waiting for the next one! Such a cliffhanger!!

~Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Tor Teen for sending me the ARC in exchange for an honest review!~

*This is a spoiler-free review, so you can read it even if you haven’t read the book yet!*

"Monsters couldn’t harm you if you were a monster, too."

My Rating: 4 stars

Plot: The actual tournament part of the book didn’t start for a while which I liked because it gave more time for understanding the characters and world. It would seem that the plot really starts with the tournament, but even before, there’s plenty of suspense and conflict. Once the tournament does start, the plot quickens but there are still some nice moments with character development so it’s not too action-heavy.

Worldbuilding: The worldbuilding in this is absolutely amazing, and by that mean it was filled with details and history and secrets, but it wasn’t too info-dumpy either. There were explanations for the rules in the tournament and for the types of magic and curses used, as well as about the seven families that enter.

Characters: Since each chapter is told from a different character’s point of view, we get a deeper understanding of them.

Each of the characters was clearly different from the others and they all had their own backstories, family histories, and struggles. I found each of them to be complex and intriguing, with some sort of villain inside them, though they had different levels of villainy. The characters were complex because even though we were morally grey, they also seemed to have good inside them, and I wondered which side of them would ultimately win.

Writing:
I think the writing was really great! The suspense was creating really well and there were so many lines that are stood out to me as I was reading.

This was an exciting and intriguing book and I'm really looking forward to the next one!

Loved this book!!! I really enjoyed the magical elements and the background about the tournament, magic and previous tournaments as well as the bio on the very different families. As an adult reader some of the high school type drama leading up to the tournament wasn’t so much for me but it didn’t really detract from the overall story. Definitely Hunger games/Maze runner meets Morrigan Crow/Harry Potter vibes. Set in a magic based town where the blood moon signals the beginning of the cursed tournament in which the seven founding magic families must enter a champion. Only when one family champion remains can will the tournament end again bestowing the highest magic and the power that comes with it upon the winning family until the next tournament. Just about died at 80% finished when I realized this was not a stand alone but the beginning of a series and I would have to wait until next year for the next one yikes :( will be marking the next one as must read for sure!

A magical story reminiscent of the Hunger Games crossed with Harry Potter. I absolutely could not stop reading this.. The changing points of view were perfectly executed, and the underlying darkness was delectable. The emotions and feelings of each character bled through the pages so completely that I found myself feeling them in my soul.

The conflict throughout the competition is harsh and raw. These kids mostly do not want to be a part of this awful tradition, but it seems they have no choice. The struggles that play out with each character really draw you in to the story. When they think they may have found a way to defeat the tradition without anymore bloodshed you feel the characters hope and you can’t help but root for them to be successful.

But that ending!! I am utterly devastated that it ended this way. I need to know more immediately! Will they break the curse? Does everyone die? I need answers and pronto!

This book has so much I was looking for and then some - with morally grey characters and enemies to (maybe) lovers topping the list.

The magic system was really straightforward. The illusions were my favourite part, and they were really vividly described as well.

The character development was beautiful. Alliances and priorities changed rapidly.

All of the characters were so unique and made me feel bad for their respective traumas in different ways.

Overall, I loved this book. The characters felt real and Foody made this world feel so tangibly broken.

This book has everything you could possibly want from a fantasy dystopian novel! Magic meets hunger games in this thrilling fantasy story. A group of seven teens are forced to be their family’s champion in a 3 month fight to the death to control the high magick of their world. This year, the media is in a frenzy about the tournament after a book is mysteriously published about the tournament. This group may be the first to challenge their fate and seek a way to break their violent traditions.

I loved the character perspectives. I was very drawn to the Lowe brothers and Isobel throughout the whole story. I loved that you could not tell where one author started writing and the other ended. I highly recommend this read for any ya fantasy lover!

This is definitely not what I was expecting. The characters' POV all sound almost identical and it's easy to forget who pov is it. The pacing was also bad, there was no action until halfway through the book. The worldbuilding is soooooo lacking. I wanted more solid worldbuilding than this. I wanted MORE from this book but this book failed to deliver what I expected from it. The romance felt rushed and forced, The plot twists wasn't even surprising either. I'm disappointed because this is one of my most anticipated reads this year.