What would you do if you had the chance to step into your favorite story, but in the shoes of a character doomed to die? Rae's cancer is incurable, unless she can get her hands on a magical artifact within the pages of her favorite story. The only catch is that she must do it while wearing the skin of the heroine's wicked stepsister, a minor antagonist who is punished by the story for her wicked ways. To succeed, she'll need to gather some questionably loyal evil minions and charm the story's original male protagonist long enough to survive.

Perhaps the most contentious four out of five stars I've given on a book! First, I wasn't always vibing with the writing style. It was often satirical to the point of unfunny absurdity with a juvenile edge, and the meta jokes didn't always hit. For an adult fantasy book, there was a lot of telling when it came to certain themes, and some feminist quotes were too reminiscent of the America Ferrera Barbie speech. Rae's quippiness was especially heavy-handed at the beginning, and made it hard to get into the story.

Despite all of that, Brennan really delivered some strong emotional gut-punches. Brennan used her own experience with cancer to add rawness to Rae's character, and that grit kept me grounded even as the story got wacky. Her characters are all "bad" people with many flaws, and as she toys around with our own perceptions of how they "should" behave according to the original novel versus how they behave now that Rae is changing the story, we as readers are left trying to piece together what the truth is. There's a whole web of complicated character relationships at play, which paved the way for a rollercoaster finale.

In a way, this is every Korean villainess isekai light novel/manhwa that's come out in the last few years, with a dash of MXTX's Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, all tossed up with western fantasy conventions. It's an interesting full-circle moment, given how many Korean villainess isekai manhwa are inspired by western storytelling tropes, too. Being an avid reader of the villainess genre, I was initially frustrated at how the book started off just like every villainess manhwa, only to find that Brennan's unique voice and storytelling choices really shine after the initial setup.

I can't help it, I'm hooked! I'll be eagerly awaiting the next book.

Did not finish book. Stopped at 33%. It was not for me.
I was so bored. The story was an interesting concept but execution sucked. I was excited the main character was from Oklahoma but it was like a Gen Z was dropped into a fairy tale and used present day slang. Also it's kind of fucked up to have the main character dying and offered this opportunity to be alive in a book only to be placed into a character that was being sentenced to death. Talk about morbid. I just was so bored.

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

DNF after 53%

I was really excited for this book, villains? What could be better? But in the end, I found this book to be slow, with lots of telling and very little showing or doing when it came to the plot. The "evilness" was also over the top and took away from the story. I was ready to scream if I had to read about the FMC constantly refer to her sidekicks as "minions" or hear about how good it feels to be evil.

In the present world, Rae is slowly dying of cancer... Until a mystery woman appears inside her hospital room and makes her an outrageous offer: Fulfill a daring quest in the world of her sister’s favourite book and be saved from death through the magical artifact acquired. Well, Rae thinks, she might as well try, and gets isekai’d right into the middle of second world court intrigue and fantasy politics by the side of her favourite character, who is to become The Once and Forever Emperor (as soon as he receives some more character development, just wait and see).

Unfortunately, she finds herself inhabiting the body of the villainess of the royal harem, the scheming bombshell bent on climbing the social ladder, on the very eve of her planned execution. The only thing saving Rae from dancing in hot iron shoes is her knowledge of the plot, allowing her to pose as a divinely chosen prophetess and gain the ruler's favour. Now, if only she had paid closer attention to the plot recaps her sister gave her, because some details simply haven't stuck... or might even be altered in the process of escaping the book.

Long Live Evil sounds like a whole lot of comedy potential, and it has that. Emphasis on potential. Unfortunately, this books isn’t very funny and I don’t think the cringe pop culture references the protag insists on making land the way the author intended. Yeah, for someone whose life depends on getting back in a king’s good graces and staying there, Rae sure doesn’t put a lot of effort into remaining in character. She even acts out a villainous musical number! No!!!

Then surely, you must think, the fantasy world and writing must be super interesting at least? Ummm… how do I say this without sounding mean… Well, oOoOOoooOOOOkkkkkkk. This isn’t a well-written book. When at first the secondary world started appearing about as solid as a cardboard backdrop, I thought the author might be doing this on purpose, as a tongue-in-cheek allusion to whatever is marketed as high fantasy these days. Sadly, by now I really am convinced this is a skill issue instead.

So what warrants a 3-star rating then? I can give you an answer to that: I personally really, really liked what the author did with the character work here, and I would be amiss not to mention that my very favourite of all is Key and all that he encompasses. [Honeys, I was so convinced the dumb antihero blorbo would end up being the love interest only to have my world turned upside down by the low-born sociopath killer with scars and a willingness to eat coochie on the first date, but all that was building up so slowly, the author had me doubting her intentions… We do love to see an evil duo winning, fingers crossed for them (hide spoiler)].

Brennan definitely hails from a fandom brackground and knows the rules to break, with her protagonists supporting and shipping fictional characters left and right. She truly wrote the story for everyone who ever wanted to sleep with their problematic fave. This novel ends on the most abrupt cliffhanger I have read in a while, and I can’t wait to get my hands on the sequel despite all the aforementioned drawbacks. I am a simple person. Ship and let ship.

Im giving this 4 stars for my first read, and heres why. I started this as an audiobook and I was really feeling "meh" about the whole thing. I found that I wasnt connecting to the characters or the story, I was confused, and found myself zoning out. During the last quarter I started tandem reading and ended up finishing the book by physically reading it, and let me tell you my enjoyment skyrocketed. I was laughing out loud and feeling way more emotion and connection to the characters. So initially what I was thinking would be a 3* max, now I feel like this actually could have potentially been a 5* for me. Some day I will re-read this... probably before the next book comes out in preparation, and I am so excited for that day!

Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Audio for access to this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Long Live Evil was so chaotic in the best way! This was very entertaining. And also left me pondering who the villains really are in this world.

Rae gets dropped into the world of her favorite fantasy series with a quest to retrieve a flower than can save her from dying of cancer out in the real world. Only she finds herself in the role of a villain scheduled to be executed the next morning. And as you can guess, chaos ensues.

This started off with a bang and I was immediately pulled into the story. Rae generally knows the plot and tries to use this to her advantage but is a fuzzy on some details. This is because she was listening to her sister read the books to her during her cancer treatment and the brain fog sometimes caused her not to remember parts. So sometimes she comes up with detailed schemes based on what she knows will happen and other times her plans are to just fly by the seat of her pants. I thought this was a nice balance and lended itself nicely to a lot of comedic relief. I also love that she fully leaned into being a villain.

Moira Quirk did the audiobook narration and I usually love her, but it did take me a minute to get used to that Oklahoman accent used for Rae's voice. It was just a smidge too pronounced for me at first and pulled me out of the story a few times. But I did get used to it eventually and enjoyed listening overall. Also, the story is pretty chaotic at the beginning so I did find myself going back to re-listen to parts or going to the ebook sometimes to make sure I didn't get lost. But once I found my footing, it was smooth sailing. I would recommend the audiobook if you are typically an audiobook listener.

Thanks so NetGalley and Orbit for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review. I can't wait for the next book!

Read if you like...
-villain POV (kinda)
-chaos and scheming
-where the main character goes into a fictional world
-court intrigue

I just found this book really enjoyable to listen to and I’m not exactly sure what made it stand out to me. Maybe it’s because the premise is still relatively new to me/not something very read a lot of, even though I’m seeing from other reviews that many folks feel differently/have more experience with this ‘visitor from one/the real world suddenly thrown into another/fantasy world’ and all the self awareness, biting commentary, and pop culture references clearly being thrown out for the readers enjoyment. Either way, I found it fun, humorous, and I wanted to keep listening to figure out what she’d do next to try to come out ahead. I quickly found myself invested and loved the ridiculousness/self awareness/critique of common fantasy world/story tropes. Sometimes I just need a book (and a main character) that doesn’t take itself/themself too seriously and I can just go along for the ride. I did not realize it was/is part of a series and was disgruntled when it ended without wrapping everything up nicely, but I guess it’s a good sign that I want more. If you have ever found yourself empathizing with the villain, wishing you could step into a favorite fantasy series of your own, or found yourself judging the decisions of the characters in said series and asking what if it didn’t play out like that, you’ll probably enjoy this book. Thanks for NetGalley for the audiobook - I really enjoyed listening to the narration of this book and look forward to revisiting this world to learn what happens next.

Thanks to Hachette Audio for the copy of this ALC!

LONG LIVE EVIL is the best second chance trope, reminding me a bit of how The Princess Bride starts and there's a contrast between a gloomy real world and a fantasy world with adventure and love. Sarah Rees Brennan is FUNNY - there are so many entertaining one-liners and tropes, making this a really enjoyable read. It did feel a little on the long side, but there was lots of action through until the end!

Moira Quirk did a really fantastic job of narrating all the POVs and I'm glad I listened to this one on audio!

I think this is one I need to reread with my eyeballs. I struggled with getting into/caring about the character on audio. It was a wild ride and had a lot of potential and definetly here for the vibes, but I found myself lost with the audio - which could totally be a me problem.

EDIT.
I reread it with my eyes and absolutely adored it. The audio was hard to follow though!

—-

This isn’t going to be a book for everyone, but also the right audience will go absolutely feral over it. (It’s me. Hi.)

Short Synopsis:
Rae is sick. She’s dying. And she’s gotten through some hospital stays by her sister reading to her from her favorite fantasy series - Time of Iron. But when a mysterious woman comes to Rae and sends her to the Time of Iron world on a mission and if she’s successful, she’ll be healthy, Rae can’t refuse. But she enters the would as a villainous and has to learn how to navigate it on the team of evil.

My Thoughts:
Long Live Evil is deliciously unique, creative and for lovers of fantasy (especially those morally grey villains we all love so much.) Truly one of the most unique, genius books I’ve read in awhile. I adored Rae and her scheming and one liners. The side characters were a blast and really all played their fantasy role beautifully. (Key and Cobra especially.)

It’s been a long time since I’ve laughed this much in a fantasy. It was seriously so funny.

I will say I first attempted this book on audio and I struggled with following the details and the different POVs, so picked it up again as an eyeball read and enjoyed it a lot more that way.

What You’ll Find:
🖤Morally grey characters
🐍Adventure
🖤Scheming
🐍Found family
🖤Humor
🐍Villain’s POV
🖤Real world + fantasy world
🐍Adult fantasy

What if you could save your own life by completing a quest in your favorite book series? Except when you get there you turn out to be - gasp - the villain.

Sympathetic villain perspectives in fantasy fiction aren’t exactly unusual these days, but give this one some credit for finding a creative way to get there.

The story suffers a bit from the same problem that plagues all novels that use this trope, which is that the central character villains are never actually villains. They’re only perceived as evil, or mistakenly identified as the bad guy, or some such. It’s understandable because, y’know, readers don’t actually want to root for a true villain, only a dark and mysterious, misunderstood sort.

That said, this is fun and charming and while it’s definitely too long and gets a bit repetitive, it’s a really clever idea, the characters are easy to root for, and it has some humor that doesn’t hit every time, but does land a joke often enough. And the ending is excellent.

I believe this is considered adult fantasy, but it felt more like a YA book to me. A good choice for either audience if you want a fun, rollicking adventure. I’d read another if the series continues.

Rae is dying of cancer when she gets the opportunity to go live in her favorite book series. She has to get a certain flower when it blooms, and if she does, then she will be healed and get to live. If she dies in the book, then she dies forever. When she wakes up in the book, she realizes that she is in the body of one of the book's villains. As she comes to terms with this, she finds herself figuring out how to stay alive.

I had ups and downs with this one. I think it was a little slow to get going. Then there was a lot good in the middle (and even toward the end), The best character of the book: the Cobra. A flamboyant fool with a heart of gold and lots of comic relief. The castle intrigue and outsmarting people in the middle was enjoyable. However, it was wayyyyy too long for the plot I think. Especially because it seems like this might be the first in a series. It definitely could have been condensed/things cut out. I understand why Brennan was doing some of these things, but it still just felt so slow. Part of it maybe was that I was listening to it rather than reading it, so I could not really speed read through some of the slower parts. I also wish Brennan had leaned into the being from a different world a bit more as these moments I felt added some much needed humor to areas.

Finally, the ending.... What I think would have been 3.5 stars was brought down to an even 3 because of the ending. I feel a little better if Goodreads is correct and this is book one because then maybe there will be some more resolution. When I ended it before realizing that though, I literally was like really??? I also just don't know how I feel about the twist. SPOILERS AHEAD. I grew to love Key as this rapscallion character, was super saddened by his death, and now he's a zombie emperor? Maybe not a zombie, couldn't quite tell from the audio book and didn't want to rewind. I still don't see how Rae didn't know who the emperor was in the books. There is no way that it was never mentioned and he was just called "Emperor." Especially since this was her favorite character!!!

In terms of the narrator, overall she was good, except her voice for Rae felt weirdly country/Southern? It was just kind of a strange accent to choose. Also, the writer's word choice/style at times was a little cringey.

Will I read the second (if there is one)? Yes, because now I need to know if we have resolution. Would I urge people to go run out and buy this? Probably not, no. Such an interesting premise, but just overall felt tedious to get through and then a mediocre ending.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was so fun and different! The pace was great, the narrator did a really wonderful job, and this was such a fun fantasy that left me wanting more!

This was the weirdest thing I’ve read in a long time and I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about it.

Leigh Bardugo recommended this book to me [and to the hundreds of other people that were in the crowd at her signing for <i>The Familiar</i> in April]. I immediately added it to my TBR and smashed the request button when I saw the audiobook appear on Netgalley. I was absolutely stoked to get approved for the eARC.

My experience reading the first 25% was drastically different from the rest of the book. I was <i>living</i> for this premise: a girl dying of cancer is offered a chance to be cured if she steps into the world of her favorite book series to accomplish a nearly impossible task. Considering the modern-day MC’s awareness that she is within a medieval fantasy story, you can imagine the funny hijinks she gets into. There’s a lot of meta commentary on the fantasy genre, on plot structure in general, and on tired, sexist tropes.

Right off the bat, <b>this felt more like a parody than the epic fantasy story that the synopsis pitched</b>. And, honestly, I was on board. I laughed out loud an incalculable number of times while listening to the main character, who has woken up in the body of one of the villains of the story, wax poetic about her evil schemes. The IRL references (see: Friends and Google Maps) continuously caught me off guard and cracked me up.

The problem with parody, however, is that <b>it’s difficult for any story that doesn’t take itself seriously to have any kind of gravity.</b> This was the case here. Toward the end, this book attempted to become the epic fantasy that was promised in the synopsis. There was gore, there were major character deaths, and the MC Rae dropped her jokester facade, at last deciding to take these major events with the gravity that is normally afforded in a serious fantasy story.

The issue is that this was too little, too late. Rae’s comedic insistence that nothing mattered because “it’s not real, I’m in a fictional world from a book series” didn’t feel like a character in denial, grappling with an impossible new reality; it felt like a character who is aware she’s in a parody and jokes along with it. Don’t get me wrong though—characters can be lighthearted and make silly quips. But once you veer into meta-commentary about tropes and being an evil villainess, complete with her own minions, “wicked curves,” and “the voice of a phone sex operator”—that’s where you lose me.

Another major flaw with this novel is that I couldn’t connect with the romance at all. Well over a decade ago, when the <i>Twilight</i> craze was booming, parodies abounded. We had the novella, <i>Nightlight</i> (which I read and owned), and the movies, <i>Vampires Suck</i> and <i>Breaking Wind</i>. If you read or watched any of these, I think you’ll understand where I’m going with this. The primary job of a spoof is to poke fun at the source material and make people laugh. These examples did that. What they did not do, however, was craft any semblance of a romance that felt believable.

Parodies are always more concerned with the laughs than they are with developing genuine connections. <i>Long Live Evil</i> is no exception. While Rae delivered self-aware villainess monologues and heavy-handedly refered to her co-conspirators as her evil minions, I struggled to see her genuinely connecting with the characters around her (except for the Cobra).

So, when she started a romance with Key, it always came across on the page as a farce. Rae continued calling him her minion and using him in her schemes, never allowing herself to see him as a real person. The fact that she stepped into this fantasy world, knowing it was fiction, and never took anything seriously undermined our ability as readers to feel a connection between her and the characters she interacted with.

This includes the romance with Key. The scene where they first kiss seemed more like a set up for a punchline about oral sex than an actual romantic development. Every significant interaction between these two characters involved a joke: a Friends reference as the two bond, farcical meta-commentary on magical loopholes when he saves her life—I could go on.

Key as a character has issues as well. He’s a self-admitted sociopath who states multiple times that he’s only following Rae until she bores him. He almost kills her once so he can sell her dress for coin. Yet somehow we are to believe that, in the span of a few weeks, this man becomes a starry-eyed romantic who worships the ground she walks on? Nope. None of that fits the character that was developed earlier in the story. Add to this that Rae never takes a single moment between them seriously and you’ve got a recipe for a romance I don’t care about.

Now, let’s talk about the things I liked. I loved the subversion of sexist tropes in the fantasy genre. The helpless noblewomen of the harem who always need saving? They slay beasts on their own. The man who has traditionally feminine traits so everyone thinks he’s gay? He marries a woman. The clumsy heroine who’s always falling into manly arms? It’s because she needs glasses. There are lots of fun subversions I enjoyed seeing, so I won’t spoil the big ones that I loved even more than these. But I had fun seeing Brennan develop these very one-dimensional tropes into relatively fleshed-out characters.

Overall, I had a blast reading this. It was irreverent and laugh-out-loud funny. However, I recommend going into it knowing there will be some lines that will make you want to cringe out of your skin. For one: “Seriously, you will be powerful AF.” What twenty-year-old talks like that in the modern day? You’ll also probably struggle to connect with the side characters and the relationships “developed” throughout this book. Even though these things didn’t work for me, if the comedy in this book jives with you, this may still be a fun read. It certainly was for me.


<b>Overall Rating:</b> 2.5 stars.

<b>AUDIOBOOK REVIEW:</b> Moira Quirk’s comedic timing as she delivered the funnier lines was fantastic. I’m not sure if I would’ve laughed as much if I read this physically versus listening to it. For that, definitely consider picking this one up on audio!

<i>A big thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Hachette Audio, for providing me with an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review!</i>

Campy and entertaining this was a fun book within a book type of story. 20-year-old Rae is a cancer patient who is offered a chance at a healthy life by entering into the world of her favorite fantasy books, books by an anonymous author. She must capture the flower of life and escape the story. She wakes up to realize she is in the villain's role, the day before her execution. In order to outwit everyone she claims to be a prophet and proves it by knowing the future, using her knowledge of the books. I really liked seeing Rae get to experience life as a healthy, snarky, voluptuous main character in comparison to her bed ridden, cancer treatments where she was frail and in pain. She gratefully accepted all of that even if she was to be the villain, and she embraced that too. I feel like maybe she vocally exclaimed this a little too often, very dramatically, to be believable though.
While this a fun read, there was a large cast of characters and overall they weren't very developed. It was like they all just were there to be the stereotype character of a book but not have much depth. I wished I had known the story she was in but it instead comes to us in pieces as far as world building and prophecies and the reader is often then informed, that wasn't supposed to happen. That made it hard to follow at times. There was a lot happening at once and listening on audio could also make that difficult to follow.
The narrator though was fantastic with her accents and expressions. It felt like a true performance, though with such a wide a cast, multiple narrators would have maybe helped follow the dialogue and differentiate characters.
Overall I did like the breakdown on story, and humanizing villains. Very little in the way of romance, but definitely a character driven story. I actually kept forgetting there was much more happening behind the castle doors until the end of the book when certain events occur.

I couldn’t resist Long Live Evil after reading the synopsis. I mean, who doesn’t want to see what it’s like to live out the ultimate villain fantasy? Rae’s journey—falling into her favorite series and embracing the role of the villainess—had me hooked. She’s relatable in so many ways, trying to stay ahead of the plot she already knows but quickly realizing that her decisions ripple through the story in ways she didn’t anticipate. Her humanity really shines through as she navigates this chaotic new world.

The characters? Absolutely wild in the best way. You’ve got your classic fantasy archetypes but with some major twists. Each “minion” has their own unhinged agenda, and the way they clash and work together makes the plot even more fun. I found myself rooting for Rae and simultaneously questioning everyone’s motives—just when I thought I had it figured out, the story would throw me for a loop.

The humor was right up my alley, too—campy and meta, with modern slang thrown in for laughs. And that cliffhanger? Evil. In the best way.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3
Sadly 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. This book was unnecessarily long and overall just a bit meh. It was a decent read but overall I wish it was split up into multiple books or some parts were shortened. The world building was sub par and the lack of real plot made the story feel more like a chore to read than anything else. Normally you can make up for that with a good romance but I felt like this book lacked that too. There was action and danger, but I never felt like anyone important to this story was actually at risk of dying or being seriously hurt. The book was ok I guess, but I didn’t find myself hooked or feeling too excited about what was to happen next. I still enjoyed the overall concept of the book. It was an overall an ok read and definitely a good escape and change from my normal genres of choice. I'll probably not continue with this series though.
Last but not least, I listened to an audio version and the performances of the audiobook were marvelous. The narration tipped this book from being 2 stars to almost 3 stars.

I received this audio DRC from NetGalley.

The narrator did a good job. I think the story was fun, and there was a good amount of action. The main character does announce a lot that she's a villain and evil, but in a story where she's not taking it too seriously because it's all based on some romantasy in her world, I didn't mind. I'm iffy on the use of current slang and that some things didn't make full sense, but I tried not to think about it too much.

*4.25 stars*

I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would. The recent trend of meta fantasy books have not been my favorite but this balanced the absurdity with an interesting plot and fleshed out characters.

This is what I was hoping other books would have been and I think if you’re a fan of books like Assistant to the Villain and How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying, you will really like this as well. I will definitely look forward to the next book in the series.

The audio was great. Moira Quirk is my favorite narrator of all time, everything she does is great and this was no exception.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ALC of this work. All opinions in this review are my own.

I listened to Long Live Evil twice before writing this review, and I'm glad I did. On my first listen, I almost gave up in the first half. Rae, the main character, was hard to like at first -- her constant comments about being a villain and having sidekicks, and her frequent remarks about her new figure quickly became grating.

However, the second half of the book completely turned things around for me. Rae's character became a lot more endearing as the story progressed, especially through her relationships with Lia and Key, which became some of the highlights for me. By the end, I found myself fully invested in her journey, and the cliffhanger that the book ended up on means I will be reading the rest of the series.

On my second listen, I was able to pick up on clues and nuances I had missed the first time, which made the experience even more enjoyable.

As for the narration, Moira Quirk did an amazing job. She gave each character a unique voice, and she made the characters feel real.

Overall, Long Live Evil may have had a rocky start for me, but it ended up being a rewarding and entertaining experience, especially on a second listen.

Thank you to Netgallery, Sarah Rees Brennan, and Hachette Audio for the free e-arc, provided in exchange for an honest review.