Long Live Evil seems to be one of those books that people either love or DNF. I take that to mean you will know early on whether it is the book for you. I finished. I loved it. I found it immediately engaging and interesting.
Rae has terminal cancer, and her time has run out. She is presented with a quest to the world in her favorite books, of which she cannot remember entirely due to her main interest in the action sequences and her memory issues, a result of her treatment. She emerges into the story as the villain on the eve of her execution, not at all dissimilar to her real life persona. What she does will change the story for everyone.
This is a book written by a cancer survivor, and that deep fear, desperation, and willingness to fight despite the odds is palpable as our villainess fights her way through her quest toward her goal.
Rae does suffer from being the protagonist that can't see what's right in front of her, and that can be frustrating. There is a point almost 70% through that dragged, and there's quite a lot of telling instead of showing. But the characters. I loved Key. His character was wickedly fantastic through and through. And the Golden Cobra! Fabulous.
I think this book would be great for fans of the type of humor found within Assistant to the Villain. I laughed out loud inappropriately multiple times.
I didn't see any other reviews mentioning this, so just know there is zero spice here.
I listened to the audiobook. The narrator, Moira Quirk was perfect. Not a single character in this diverse cast sounded alike, and her narrative voice was lovely. It was a joy to listen to.
Thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Audio - Orbit for this delightful ARC!

Long Live Evil is a captivating and delightfully campy read that offers a fresh twist on the fantasy genre. When Rae's life falls apart, she clings to her love of books for solace. Through a magical bargain, she is granted a second chance and finds herself transported into the world of her favorite fantasy series.

She awakens in a castle, in a kingdom on the verge of war—Rae soon discovers she is cast not as the heroine, but as the villainess in his story.

Embracing her new role, Rae takes command of the story's villains, aiming to alter their fates and defy the anticipated tragic endings. As Rae and her unconventional allies plot their survival, the stakes escalate with increasing violence and the Emperor’s growing fury.

Long Live Evil is an engaging, blending humor, adventure, and a touch of the theatrical.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the advance listening copy

THAT ENDING????? WHAT???

I loved this book so much.

"I crawled out of hell to fall at your feet"

UM BRO?

Okay but in all seriousness if you love enemies to lovers, morally gray characters, complex story lines, and endings you can't expect, this is the perfect story. I need the second book like right now?

The bi panic you will feel reading this is strong.

Thank you to NetGalley, Sarah Rees Brennan and Hachette Audio for an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review. This review is wholly my own & may not be reproduced.

Why did I not notice that this was a series BEFORE I listened to the audio? Ugh! I’ve been trying to stay away from series lately because I have too many going at the moment, but let’s just add the Time of Iron series to that list!

Leigh Bardugo backed it, so I definitely needed to read it!

Hear me out. This book was a hot mess express, especially for the length of it. The prose was average, at best. The characters were weak & lacked depth. The story was confusing at times.

Sounds like I hated it, right?

You’d be wrong if you said yes! This was one of those books that is so bad, it was good. There was never a dull moment. It was chaotic & fun. A trainwreck that I couldn’t look away from. The twist & ending were fantastic & I’ve already mentally signed up for the next two in the trilogy.

Overall, the absurdity & the badness of this one is what made me enjoy it. I didn’t have to exert heavy brain power to follow it. It was like a palate cleanser after too many thrillers that overworked my brain.

Quirky characters stuck in a fantasy series upon death? What’s not to like?

I absolutely LOVE Moira Quirk’s narration, so of course I had to request the audio arc. She slayed with the different voices and characters and the absurd situations that they found themselves in. I actually thought about DNFing this, but Moira Quirk pulled me though.

Sadly though, I didn’t like this as much as I thought I would. It felt like the author wasn’t sure whether she wanted this to have a serious tone or a lighthearted one. In one scene, there would be a serious conversation between characters, and in the next, it was off the wall weirdness (which I liked). I think if she kept the tone lighthearted (maybe not start the book with the main character’s death?), then I’d give this a much higher rating.

I was also very confused until halfway through the novel. There were too many characters with too many backstories that might or might not involve each other.

There wasn’t really a cohesive plot, so the author kept going on tangents with each character’s POV, whether I cared about said character or not.

I did really love the quirkiness and weirdness when it came to the characters and their situations, especially with the characters from the “real world” interacting with the fantasy story characters. One character from the story didn’t understand why another “real world” character was in love with “Netflix,” since they’re now in a medieval type fantasy world with no tech. It’s stupid shit like that that made me laugh.

I just wish the POV changes weren’t all over the place and that there was an actual overarching plotline to make me care about the book. I’m not sure if I’ll pick up the next book. While I liked some of the characters, I didn’t really feel drawn to the worldbuilding or the lack of plot.

Thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for this arc.

I love villain and I love Sarah Brennan. So, I think it’s a win win. I enjoyed this book so much I didn’t expect it. Of course I knew I would enjoy it, but I didn’t expect to enjoy this much!
I’m the girl who always fall for the villain, so this book feels like it would written especially for me. I’m the main character, come on!
The rhythm is so intense, this whole book is intense, I’m just so happy to have read it! Really hope for book two! Can’t wait, literary.
Sarah Brennan is back, babies!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

A big thanks to NetGalley and Orbit for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

...................I both loved this book and completely despised it.

Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan is a fantasy novel dedicated to every reader that's ever fallen in love with the villain. When her whole life collapsed, Rae still had books. Dying, she seizes a second chance at living: a magical bargain that lets her enter the world of her favorite fantasy series. She wakes in a castle on the edge of a hellish chasm, in a kingdom on the brink of war. Home to dangerous monsters, scheming courtiers and her favourite fictional character: the Once and Forever Emperor. He’s impossibly alluring, as only fiction can be. And in this fantasy world, she discovers she's not the heroine, but the villainess in the Emperor's tale. So be it. The wicked are better dressed, with better one-liners, even if they're doomed to bad ends. She assembles the wildly disparate villains of the story under her evil leadership, plotting to change their fate. But as the body count rises and the Emperor's fury increases, it seems Rae and her allies may not survive to see the final page.

Overall, this book had a really cool concept but the execution of it was....off. The pacing was weird. The characters were enjoyable, though fell into many archetypes and tropes, and the plot twists were way too predictable. Yet I still found myself enjoying this book.

It’s a total trip. Highly ambitious. Leigh Bardugo’s pull quote in support of the book does not lie. “Audacious and supremely satisfying.”

It’s like 3 styles all in one. Entirely new fantasy BUT also told from the middle of an existing (though we’ve never heard it before) story BUT at the same time shifting and changing, seemingly on the fly, too. It’s sounds chaotic but it works. So cool. Snarky and sassy. Playing with and against classic fantasy ideals. Incredibly unique, vicious but campy, self-referential but unpretentious. It’s a high energy and highly entertaining fantasy adventure. To say anything more would be a spoiler. Just read it.

Oh! Do yourself a favor and listen to the audiobook. The narrator’s delivery is everything. Captures the book and characters to perfection. Can’t recommend enough.

Thank you Netgalley and Hachette Audio for a can advanced copy of this audiobook.

Rae is dying and gets a chance to save her life by entering the world of one of her favorite fantasy book series. She wakes up the villain in the series.

That sounded awesome. Unfortunately, it was mediocre for me personally. There are a lot of little cheesy quips in this book that just pull you right out of the story. Overall it was just ok. Definitely not good enough to continue to follow this series for me. However, I really liked this narrator!

I LOVED this so much!! The isakaied as the villainess is one of my favorite new genres and I just inhaled this! The narrator was absolutely fantastic and I can not wait for the next book. I'm already ready to listen to it again. Totally obsessed

At first, I was really enjoying this book. The humour and the tone really worked for me. In hindsight, it's probably because I really like Moira Quirk as a narrator.
The more I read, the more hollow everything became. Characters, even the main one, felt like caricatures. The humour became exhausting and forced.
I recommend reading In Other Lands by this author. The books are quite similar in how the author is playing with the genre conventions and tropes.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ok so when I heard Moira Quirk was going to narrate this I had to request the audiobook too. I felt like there is no beter person to voice this amazing voice than the person who voiced the chaos that is locked tomb.

And yes, I was right. This was so fitting. I don’t know if anyone could hav made it more perfect than Moira Quirk, she embodies the characters so well and just ads the right amount of flare to it. Absolutely adored it this time around too, and I have to keep praising Moira for such a great job. I enjoyed it a lot!!

The book itself, was of course, awesome as fuck. Sarah Rees Brennan is a goddess of a writer, because to be honest the plot did not appeal to me at all in the summary, as I’m not a big romantasy fan nor a person that would normally fall or root for the villain. But Sarah Rees Brennan managed to again write in such a way that I’d love everything I’d normally hate in such a goofy yet heartbreaking way. Something so complicated yet simple. And I cannot get over key, it had me fucking sobbing. I really really hopes he becomes happy. I wish him a lot of love.


Same for all of them actually, all the character made way for themselves in my heart, even when they were annoying as fuck at the beginning like they were meant to be . I loved it this!!!

I just couldn't get into this one. I could not get over the narrator's forced southern accent. I may try this again as a physical book because the story was intriguing, but the audio did NOT work for me.

I've had to sit for a couple of days and think about this book whereas I normally fire off a review as soon as my eyes leave the last page but this book is WEIRD!! At the start of the book, we're in hospital with Rae a teenager who has a terminal disease whose sister visits and they read a series of books together then by some magical occurrence, a doorway into those books appears! Should she stay in the real world where she is stuck in a hospital bed waiting to die or try and earn her life back in a fantasy world? Well of course she steps through and is thrown into book one of the series (the book she remembers the least about) and takes over the role of a villainess (a very sexy one) who is just about to be executed (not great timing) then must try and manipulate the storyline from within the book to save herself and the characters she comes to care about. This as a premise is GREAT, no notes. However, there are a few parts where I was left scratching my head wondering why it was in the book at all (song time at the pub was a specific highlight-or not) and it was confusing at times having the actual book being quoted at the beginning of each chapter, sandwiched in between different storylines occurring due to her very presence in the book. There was a lot of High Fantasy cliches being flipped on their head and getting increasingly meta as the book went on. The references to modern day pop culture were good (the ones that registered with me at least). So yeah, it was a strange book to review! I am glad there will be more to come in this world and I'll definitely be continuing, I very much suspect that this is a book that improves vastly on a repeat reading when the overarching themes are known and you can catch more of the details. It won't be for everybody but I had a good time reading. The narration was really good, I wasn't sure why Rahela had an American accent and Rae didn't but it helped to separate them I suppose. Moira Quirk is a legend and can do no wrong!!

Con Long Live Evil esperaba encontrarme una lectura subversiva, que pusiera por delante al malvado, que diera otro enfoque a la historia. Sin embargo, me he encontrado una novela sobreactuada, previsible y ciertamente aburrida.


La narración comienza con la joven Rae, enferma de cáncer, que en su lecho de muerte recibe la oportunidad de viajar al mundo de fantasía que le leía su hermana durante su larga convalecencia buscando una salvación mágica que parece imposible. Esta primera parte ya es bastante insufrible, pero ni punto de comparación con lo que llegará después. Se puede tratar esta premisa de una manera muchísimo más elegante como Alix E. Harrow en A Spindle Splintered pero es que Harrow rebosa talento.

La excusa que utiliza Sarah Rees Brennan para que Rae se acuerde de unas cosas del mundo y de otras no es que se dormía mientras su hermana le leía, así que puede hacer de pitonisa de Hacendado con sus pronósticos sobre el futuro. Y aquí ya empieza a caer en barrena, porque nos encontramos con un desfile de arquetipos fantásticos tan previsible como aburrido, con unos elogios a la “maldad” directamente risibles y con la mención constante a la “narrativa” que recuerda a Redshirts, pero en peor. ¿Se pueden escribir libros meta? ¡Pues claro! Pero entiendo que hace falta algo más que referencias poco sutiles al Mundo real TM dentro de tu mundo de fantasía para que tu lector entre en el juego.

Además, el humor es entre poco sutil y basto, con constantes referencias al pecho de las candidatas a reina (se me había olvidado mencionar el detalle del harén del rey en espera de que escoja cónyuge entre las “afortunadas”). Me puedo reír de una broma zafia, de dos… pero una detrás de otra pues me acaba cansando.

La labor de Moira Quirk como narradora del audiolibro es loable, pues consigue dar con el tono de desdén y suficiencia justo, pero no consigue arreglar un material que me parece irritante incluso. No lo recomiendo para nada.

This book just wasn't for me. I was too confused and for too long. I understand most books like this will be a little confusing before we get really into it but I was just not feeling it.

Rae has pushed everyone away. She’s 20 years old and dying in a hospital when she’s given the chance to live her life in the world of her favorite fantasy series. She accepts that challenge & wakes up cancer-free & feeling amazing.

I won’t say the quotability made the book butttttt it made it very very fun! Sarcasm is my jam! Great book!

Some solid quotable moments!

I loved Rae’s bodyguard & their interaction. This is a fast paced crazy ride with Rae unexpectedly cast as … dun dun dunnnn … a villain … she tries to change the outcome of the story but things progressively get worse & each attempt is an epic fail leading to an ending she didn’t predict!

Great fantasy debut! I bought the hardcover already as I want to visit this again. Moira Quick did a fine job narrating!

Thank you NetGalley & Hachette Audio, I can’t wait for book 2!

First and foremost the narrator of this book was fantastic. I don't think that anyone else could have done this story justice the way that she did. This is prob one of my new go to recommendations when people are trying to get into the fantasy genre. I was caught off guard at first with the beginning but immediately fell in love in the way that this was set up. The setting is fantastic and I loved the full immersion as soon as she was through the door. I thought the story line was extremely fresh and such a neat take. The characters were super interesting and the quirkiness of it all Is sometimes so random its spectacular. Is this high fantasy and information dumping, nope. Is it a fun ride of an adventure. Absolutely and the ending has my brain spinning. I can't wait for book 2!

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Long Live Evil is an interesting fantasy with fun characters and an intriguing plot.

I had a good time with this one, but it did fall flat for me. The characters and world were fun and fascinating, but I wanted
more development overall. The plot idea was great, but the execution felt a little off: The story felt less like a fantasy and more like a contemporary with fantasy elements. I did not expect some of the final twists, and I did end up enjoying the story more as it progressed and I got to know the characters more. There were many sweet, fun moments, and I would still recommend readers give it a shot if they’ve had their eyes on it!

I have mixed feelings about the audiobook narrator for this one. I loved the voice she used to narrate the story when characters weren’t speaking and the accents she used for the characters, other than the main character, Rae. Rae’s accent resembled an American accent, and it was a little jarring to hear it alongside the other characters’ voices that did not resemble American accents. (One other character had a slight American accent, but I did not mind the accent as it was less prominent.) Rae’s voice fit the character and the story, but I didn’t love listening to it the way I enjoyed the other characters’ voices.

Thank you to the publisher for the free ALC!

4.5 rounding up to 5. I’ve yet to meet a book narrated by Moira Quirk that wasn’t a delight to listen to. I had the opportunity to listen to an advanced audiobook of Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan, and I couldn’t turn it off. I found it to be entertaining, funny, dramatic, and campy. The only thing that made this not a true 5 star listen is the language. I found that Rae repeated herself a little too often, and that the pop culture references & modern slang felt a little jarring and tacked on. All in all this was so much fun to listen to. Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Audio | Orbit for the advanced audio copy.