Every generation there is a tournament. Marked by the Blood Moon in Ilvernath, seven families offer a champion to compete for a chance at immense power. High magick has been gone from the world since it was used up thousands of years go. The only remaining source resides in Ilvernath, tied to these seven families. Only one family may claim the magick after defeating the other six competitors by winning a fight to the death tournament. All involved have promised to keep this a secret… until now.

When I heard that this book was described as The Hunger Games with magic, I was immediately sold. And let me tell you right off the bat, I am not disappointed. Foody and Lynn write an amazing cast of characters, a deep and vicious world, and a high-stakes plot that left me staying up all night to finish. I was completely and utterly obsessed right from the start.

There are four perspectives in this book, even though there are seven champions. I was really impressed with the way Foody and Lynn wrote their characters. Each character had a distinct voice, so I never had an issue about telling whose story it was at the time. I give the authors a lot of credit because four unique perspectives is definitely difficult to write and balance. I didn’t expect my loyalties to change as I read, but they did. I am extremely impressed with the character development in All of Us Villains.

Something that worried me going into this book was that I was 1) expecting really dark characters and 2) I didn’t know how dual perspective from two authors would be. To address the first thing, I wish the characters were just a little more villainous. They were morally grey, at best, and I wanted to read about really ruthless characters. I hope this changes in the second books. Second, I loved reading the two writing styles. While different, they flowed so well together that it worked perfectly. I was pleasantly surprised, and I am absolutely going to pick up the next book.

If you read All of Us Villains, you shouldn’t be prepared for extremely dark characters. You should be expecting to fall in love with all of them for a different reason. I think anyone could find a character they loved in this book, simply because they were all so unique and different with deep, well thought out backstories.

A potential warning: this book ends on a MASSIVE cliffhanger. So, if you don’t like cliffhangers, I would wait until the sequel comes out. I know I will be buying as soon as possible because I need to know what happens.

It so hard to rate this book. I have tried over and over to pick it up and try to read this and it’s just not for me. I tried the audiobook and that didn’t help either. So I will not be reviewing this book. I was not the audience for it. It was hard for me to read the way this book was written. There was not a lot of dialogue between characters and that is just hard for me to get through.

Great characters who have well developed personalities and motives. AMAZING atmosphere, as well as shocking twists. The multiple perspectives were all interesting. I liked seeing the characters’ inner conflicts.

Immediately, this story gave me such Hunger Games meets Shadowhunter Chronicle vibes with a dark twist. Sounded ideal to me! I'll start with what I did enjoy. The only character I cared for at all was Alistair Lowe. I mean it was automatic love at first read on my end. Instantaneous. I also loved the inclusion of the excerpts from A Tradition of Tragedy included at the beginning of each chapter. Such a great idea to introduce characters and their families but also explain the world and the magic system. Really smart and intriguing move.

Now, what I took issue with. I did not care for any characters but one, as mentioned. And even with Alistair, the authors messed up when writing him. They kept bringing up his hyper-fixation with monsters and being a monster in a very juvenile way. It was just poor writing. I know this sounds weird because its a character that they wrote, but it felt like an established character I love being messed with by authors that don't know how to handle him tactfully. He had the most potential though aside from that major annoyance. The switching POVs with no main character did absolutely nothing for me. In fact it hurt the experience. I need some semblance of focus to reel me in. The voices were not distinct enough to differentiate and stand on their own.
This book could really have been something if we had maybe 2 mains and then great side characters. Also, the names of the curses and much of the dialogue was simplistic and not creative. It all felt very middle grade.

Overall, this book just lacked a level of depth and connection. Characters are so important to a book whether its the inclusion, development, or editing down of them. And this is probably the biggest critique I have. I care enough about the story and Alistair to read the next book so we'll see how that goes.

Amazing! I'm so glad this is the start to a series as one book just isn't enough.

Thank you too NetGalley, the publisher and then author for my copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is definitely a binge-worthy story that keeps the reader hooked from beginning to end.

Characters: I think the characters of All of Us Villains were the highlight of the story. Alistair and Gavin are the typical tortured souls of YA fantasy, and are exactly what a reader is looking for when they dive into this genre.

Plot: The plot is full of jaw dropping twists, adventure, and moments leaving you death gripping your book or device thinking Holy Crap! The story keeps you engaged and wanting to know what comes next. I loved watching the chaos unravel.

Craft: Foody and Herman have a talent for YA character development that keeps the reader hooked and emotionally engaged throughout the story. I cannot wait to read the second story in this series!

Critique: The title makes it seem like it will be more villainy then it was. I would've liked less tortured souls and more true, twisted, dark Villains that leave me emotionally challenged.

Wasn't as villainous as I was hoping, but then again it is YA not adult. I liked most of the characters, I liked Alistair for most of the book till he became stubborn, liked Isobel till she became stubborn, liked Gavin till he started making stupid choices, and hated briory for the whole book. I guess unlikeable characters are fine for me but not narcissistic ones lol (briory is a textbook narcissist)

Okay my only critique is that I put off reading this!!! This book is AMAZING and I needed the sequel before I even finished reading this. No character is fully good or evil, and all have their own problems they need to reckon with. I was worried this would feel like a hunger games rip off and it did not at all! This style tournament is completely different and the plot is going in an entirely different direction (or at least I think it is...) I absolutely recommend this to fans of dark academia/fantasy, especially I think fans of The Atlas Six - this should absolutely be up your alley. Loved this book, wish I could give it more than five stars!!

=Hunger Games-esque, but with magic and more blood. Every 20 years a Blood Moon calls for the start of a tournament to the death. 7 prominent families have to select a champion from the younger generation to fight for the family's control of High Magick. Whoever is the last champion alive wins control of it for the next 20 years. Following 4 champions (out of 7 total), we see the prep before the tournament and have a front row seat to see what the Blood Moon tournament is all about. This year is even more difficult after a tell-all book is released and the secret of the tournament is announced to the world! It really makes you ask, who are the real villains in this story? Violent, but could be for grades 7 +

Okay so this gave me absolutely everything I wanted. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about these characters since I finished reading.

I went in blind to this book and think you should too so I won’t give away any of the plot.

I mean, talk about a page-turner!

This book was not a good read for me. I did finish the book however, I can truly say I was not entranced by the plot nor the story to fully keep my attention. In full transparency, I was going through finals week in college as well as working full time so this may have been why I was not focused on this book but I could not see myself in any of the characters. I did not connect with even one character and that connection means a lot to me. Its what makes a good book, a great book.

Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman’s All of Us Villains is perfect for fans of dark fantasy and morally gray characters. Alistair, Isobel, Briony, and Gavin are complex characters, and each has their own reasons for their questionable actions. I easily found myself emphasizing with each character’s situation. The book was everything I expected and more.

If I did not have previous life and work commitments, then I would have finished this book in one setting (in the end, I finished reading the book in 3 days). Fair warning, though, All of Us Villains’s ending will leave you wanting to read All of Our Demise to find out how the story ends. Thankfully, the publication date for All of Our Demise has been pushed up, and we’ll have our answers in August!

Many thanks to the NetGalley and Tor Teen for the e-ARC. All opinions are my own.

This book was what I wanted Hunger Games to be. Magical and morally grey characters that you loved to hate. I didn't know who I loved or hated more. Very excited for the next installment.

All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody & Christine Lynn Herman - 4 ⭐️

This YA fantasy with a Fight to the Death Tournament was everything I wanted it to be! It is multi-perspective with lots of Magical elements.

The story was really character driven, and I thought the choice of narrators was great as they all gave a good balance of personalities. There wasn’t any morally grey or completely evil characters, which I thought suited well because the authors really showed just how young and scared these teenagers are (something I think always lacks in fantasies like this), you’re not left thinking “Wait, how old are these characters?!” every few chapters.

One downfall I had was I didn’t think the magic system was introduced properly, and it took until about 50 pages for me to get invested in the story. Despite this, it delivered a perfect amount of unsettling creepiness while still staying within magical realism.

*4.5 stars* This book was really great! It was gritty, had a super interesting premise, and moved relatively quick. The characters were all unique and I definitely found myself rooting for them, which was conflicting at times. I can't wait for the next book in the series as I'm really invested in what happens to all our POVs!!!!

This was an amazing Halloween read! So thrilling so creepy and a fabulous introduction to thriller books for teens and young adults. I am personally not the biggest thriller fan but I absolutely adore this book! The partnership between Amanda and Christine created literary genius! I cannot wait to see what they come up with next

Hmm. This is one of those books where I reeeaaallyyy wish we could give half stars. This is a solid 3.5 for me. The world was impressive and interesting but honestly I could have used a little more world building. The atmosphere was great but I don’t think we got enough backstory - I still don’t fully understand why the tournament is a thing and why it has to end in death? Hunger Games but darker and with Magic is what everyone keeps describing this as and honestly the best explanation for the tournament seems to just be for the sake of making this a hunger games rip off. Hopefully we learn more in the sequel, along with a better ending because this one was very unsatisfactory and wrapped up nothing.

I did really love the characters, the moral ambiguity, the trauma of being raised for slaughter by their families. This is a really interesting world, I just think some of it is still too ambiguous. I definitely will read the sequels.

Well this was a fun romp! The magical system and world-building for the story was very fascinating and the Hunger Games-esque set-up of the trials faced by the characters in the Toiurnament definitely upped the stakes. Among the characters, I really liked Isobel and Alistair and that last few chapters had me screaming because I did not expect THAT. However, I am super excited where the rest of the story goes, now that the true nature of the Tournament has been exposed.

Books with multiple authors I think sometimes suffer from some inconsistency, but in this case, the multiple POVs helped mitigate a lot of those discrepancies. The different families made for an interesting conflict, though Isobel was easily my favorite character. Parts of the story felt a bit half-baked at times, but I was still entertained. It was a super fun YA book, though not anything particularly groundbreaking, and I'm excited to see where they take this story next.

this was stunning! although i didn't connect with the characters, and i certainly thought their dark, villainous sides could be darker, i did enjoy this for what it was: an atmospheric, thrilling, fun book!