Long live dislikable female main characters with this flip on traditional fantasy tropes.

I love the idea of flipping the script on fantasy tropes, where our main characters are fundamentally good or working towards good. Our main character Ray, is pretty dislikable the entire time. She is selfish, and self-absorbed. She leans into being a villain so hard that she calls her guard Key "minion" regularly.

The writing is witty, and there were a few laugh out loud moments for me, although that's not the whole vibe of the book. There are a lot of characters, and I got a little confused between them as they all have names, titles and then nicknames.

My favourite character Key, really shone through. I picked this book up specifically because of him, and he did not disappoint. When he was in a scene I was fully invested.

This book is long, and I wish it was a little shorter, or the pacing a little faster. That said, we're setting up a word for a series, so I understand needing to lay the foundation. The book really picks up for me after the 50% mark.

Let's take a moment to recognize the amazing narration by Moira Quirk. I started listening to her with Dark Water Daughter (the Winter Sea trilogy) by H.M Long and Moira has this way of making you feel like you're right there along side her. She also does amazing voice acting to differential between the voices, which is especially important in this book. There are a lot of characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Audio | Orbit for this advanced listener copy.

I will definitely be keeping up with this series.

This book is best read on a throne, while wearing a crown tinge in blood.

-Thank you to Hachette Audio and Netgalley for an Advanced Listening Copy of this book.-

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year so I was very disappointed that I didn't enjoy it.

It has one of the most interesting premises I have ever heard of: a young woman with a terminal cancer diagnosis gets sucked into her favorite fantasy novel. If she can get a treasured object in the novel, she will be cured. The catch? She's sucked into the body of the book's evil, wicked harlot who is sentenced to be executed the next day. She decides to lean in to her role and embrace evil!

The Good:
-The writing was really strong. Creative, inventive, and lots of lines that made me think "ooh that's a good line!"

-Several of the supporting characters are very interesting, especially her maidservant and the "gutter rat" guard she recruits to be one of her evil minions.

-The meta, self-referential fantasy jokes were really great.

-The audiobook performance was very good. Lots of fun voices and accents!

The Bad:
-I don't understand what the tone of this novel is supposed to be. The main character is over-the-top "funny" with lots of silly, campy lines and quips. They were very rarely actually funny and were mostly just cringey. She's constantly dropping on-liners that made me roll my eyes. Contrast that with most of the other POVs in which the characters are so serious and bland that it makes her seem even more ridiculous. The back and forth between the two tones was jarring.

-This is touted as an Adult novel, but it reads like YA. Like young YA.

-The supporting characters. Two of them I loved, and literally all the rest were so painfully boring I doubled the speed of the audiobook during their POVs just so I could get through them. They are unidimensional, have little to no believable character growth, and don't add anything to the story. I usually love a book with multiple POVs, but they did not add anything good to this story.

-The "story within a story" The whole plotline is basically how she comes in and mucks up the story and changes things, and we get glimpses of the original plotline in the opening of each chapter. But there was no explanation of HOW the characters actions changed the story and that really frustrated me.

-The Evil! THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN SO EASY! She wasn't evil. She didn't do evil things! She was generally kind and helpful? I wanted her to be evil!

-An unsatisfying ending. Always such a bummer when the book ends and you're annoyed that the story didn't wrap up. It felt like there needed to be two more chapters.

Overall while this book has a strong and creative premise, unfortunately I found the execution to be extremely lacking.

This is an absurdly genius book. Humorous, very meta and we'll executed. It is truly a reading experience, with many intentions.

The only problem with this book is that it is absurdly long and quite a heavy read. But boy oh boy, was it well worth it.

It took me a very long time to write this review. It also took me a very long time to read this book. I can’t figure out if that’s because of the book, or if I was in a terrible slump, or both. Overall, the story was good and a very interesting concept. I liked the characters and game of thrones meets campy vibes. I did definitely guess the plot twist but I also think that was the point? I don’t want to spoil too much but thinking back, it was probably supposed to be obvious to us, the reader, when it wasn’t obvious to Rae, who tuned out boring parts of the book she’s in. Anyway, overall 4 stars, and I will be reading book 2.

I received an eARC of this audio book for review from Hachette Audio via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

I'm conflicted on this one, and I'll do my best to explain why. Given the summary, I expected meta-humor and satire. I wasn't disappointed on those points. There are many times when I laughed out loud at the subtle and obvious pop culture references. It really worked for me, although I know there are people that don't like that kind of thing. But the first 30% didn't really draw me in due to the initial POV character. I found her inner monologue was exhausting and unrelatable given her obsession with the Emperor. That comes down to personal preference, though. Many people love characters like the Emperor. It picked up for me after other character POVs became important, and the political intrigue gained momentum. I didn't anticipate the last reveal, but I did see the foreshadowing and wonder about a certain story element so it made sense within the plot. That could have revealed much earlier if one POV character had told the other that they were wrong about an important fact... so bad communication? The audio book narrator did a pretty good job with the various POVs, but it was not well produced. There were several obvious and distracting edits and cuts. Overall, it was a rollercoaster experience. I nearly rated it at 3.5, but had to rounded up for the many laughs.

Every person has that one book growing up that was there world but when the get a change to improve it wouldn’t you take it. Well I would for sure. Because how doesn’t want to be a hero or the villain in there favourite story. And okay maybe you didn’t pay that much attention to the first book because in later books it always gets more interesting.

I think that this story is a great example of what everyone wants to happen in there story. It the writing was super original and the way that the story is weaved with the new and old makes a truly gut wrenching read that keeps you engaged from beginning to end.

As I have listen to the audiobook I must say I’m not that greatest fan of the different accent used for different characters but at least the narrator was consistent with the accent she didn’t waver. I’m just more a fan of straight narrator with minimal accent. Maybe if I read I would have given it 4.5 stars instead off 4.

I absolutely love this story, and the narrator did a fantastic job bringing each of the characters to life. If you listen closely to the accents from each POV, you'll be able to hear a clever easter egg. I don't want to give too much away! I just thought it was a neat detail. I was blessed with the ability to read Long Live Evil as an ARC, and again to listen to it in audio format. I was not disappointed. It was good enough for me to read - again - within a short time period! I'm so eager for the second book to come out.

As a warning, you do have to have a tiny sense of humor to be able to enjoy this book. It does pull from romantasy elements, and it does tease the stereotypes. For me, it was an enhancement. I love the genre, and I am able to laugh at some of the quirkiness that comes with it.

Long Live Evil is an adult fantasy debut novel by Sarah Rees Brennan, featuring Rae who makes a magical bargain to enter the world of her favorite fantasy series. There’s a catch though, she enters not as the heroine but as the villainess. Rae embraces her her evil role and assembles the villains of this world, all working together to change their fate. Will they succeed?

This book was entertaining and impossibly funny. But along with the fun, there’s an emotional side tied to the fact that Rae was dying of cancer prior to making the magical bargain. The novel is topped off with a host of enjoyable side characters.

Long Live Evil releases on August 27. Huge thanks to orbit for providing us this arc!

I originally read the digital ARC of this book and now had the chance to listen to the audio!
This book gets even better on a reread! The narration was excellent. I started off being puzzled when I read the digital version but the audio grabbed me from the start and pulled me into the storyline and engaged me in the characters and their motivations.
The plot is convoluted and complex, with unreliable narrators, a large cast of characters and fantasy elements blended into reality.
It's fun, it's engaging, it's adventure and intrigue and love and self acceptance and character arcs and growth and self reflection.
Can't wait for book 2 of this series!

ahhHh i REALLY don’t know what i feel about this??!

did i enjoy the chaos? hell yes

did i *fully* understand the chaos? hmMmm

i really loved every scene with rae in it (she has absolutely no self preservation, she is THE dramatic queen) but i also struggled so much trying to get my head around all the other plots?? i think the story was a bit too meta for my small brain to handle (aka this is a me & me only issue) so i don’t think i was able to enjoy it to it’s full potential 😭😭

this sort of reminds me of those times when i was 15 where i was reading percy jackson & divergent & throne of glass & relied on ✨fandom wikia✨ like it was a lifeline bcos i just couldn’t remember all the world building and side characters 🫣

i think if i approach this like watching lectures (aka repeat repeat repeat) 👀 if i reread this, i should be able to understand it better!

thank you so so much for the arc!!

Going into this book I knew it was going to be a good time, the synopsis for me definitely gave the impression this is not a serious book but a good fun take on the genre. I had similar feelings about this as I did with Assistant to the Villain, but I rated this slightly lower as I sometimes found the long chapters and plot a little overkill.

What I liked: i liked the character dynamics, though some were definitely forgettable for me. Emer in particular I kept forgetting existed and I had 0 attachment to her. I also enjoyed the pop culture references which obviously in the fantasy setting made no sense to any of the book characters except Rae and anyone else like her. The narration was brilliant! I really enjoyed how the narrator played each character and that was done really well. I really enjoyed the concept of a real person finding themselves in their favourite book and basically just changing the plot constantly and being confused about what was and wasn’t supposed to happen. I particularly liked the relationships between Rae, the Cobra, Key and Marius.

What I didn’t like so much: i found the chapters and the book as a whole too long, and therefore it felt a bit dragged out which is funny considering how quickly the pace actually moves. Because of this I did find myself distracted when listening a lot which took away from my experience. If I had read the physical version this would likely have put me off and led me to DNF. It just wasn’t quite engaging enough for the length.

Overall I did enjoy the audio of this book and it was a fun listen. This is the kind of book I’d recommend if you need a break from the heavier fantasy books. I gave this a 3.5⭐️ mainly as with the length it sometimes felt a bit of a slog to get through but will definitely give the audio of the next book a go.

DNF at 18%. This is supposed to be adult but definitely reads as YA. also, all the awkward names and places and memes, that i hope was supposed to be ironic - though it definitely doesn't feel that way.

And this is on me but I only saw the "villain's pov" and didn't realise she's been put in the world of a book series and is just playing the villain.

Narrator Moira quirk is always a good idea. She has a nice voice and does good character voices. I would probably have preferred different narrators for the different POVs just to make it clearer whose head we're inside.

Thank you NetGalley and Orbit for giving me an arc in exchange for my honest review.

When I read the synopsis I was interested in the book but I was definitely not ready for the rollercoaster that it was.
I loved Rae and I really loved that although that she’s inside a story we as readers never forget that she is actually dying and her motivation to be the villain is due to the bitterness she feels for the world.
I also love her character development and I honestly cannot wait to read more about her.
I honestly loved all the side characters, they were all so well written and is just amazing how you cannot help but rooting for all these villains.
There was so so much that happened after the first half and those last 100 pages were just amazing! I went from being sad, upset to shocked because I was really not expecting that ending.
I honestly don’t know how to feel right now. I have been left speechless and without book 2 already out so I can find out how Rae is going to clean her mess.

4.5 stars

I loved this book, and I loved the story. I just couldn't get into it as an audiobook.

I went into this audiobook really excited. To read a book where the villains win? Yes please. But as I was listening to this book I kept finding my interest and focus wavering.

This could be a me thing, maybe the way it was recorded just wasn't speaking to me. I didn't have any obvious faults with the voice artist. It just wasn't for me unfortunately.

I am however going to pick up the book and try reading it as a physical book to see if ill enjoy it!
If the story is something that interests you, 100% give it ago. I loved the idea and the story.

𝘿𝙤𝙣’𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙜𝙤𝙤𝙙, 𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙖 𝙛𝙞𝙡𝙩𝙝𝙮 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙥𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙡𝙮 𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙨𝙪𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜. 𝙎𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙬 𝙨𝙪𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜. 𝙄𝙩’𝙨 𝙩𝙤𝙤 𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙜𝙤𝙤𝙙. 𝘿𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜. 𝘿𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜. 𝙂𝙧𝙖𝙨𝙥 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙚𝙙𝙮 𝙗𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙙𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙨.

When Rae is transported the “fictional” land of her sister’s favorite books, she wakes up as the villainess, and so she embraces it!

Moira Quirk may be my favorite audiobook narrator of all time. Her performances are always amazing, and her performance here was definitely a HUGE reason I loved this book so much.

It was such an entertaining romp, with laugh out loud moments, and a fun story.

I was a dummy, and did not realize this was NOT a standalone, but the first in a series, and I was NOT prepared for that ending. (One of those, “What are they going to do?? There’s only 3 minutes left! 😱” They’re gonna leave me like THAT, that’s what! 😭)

I loved Rae and the other characters’ journeys during this book, and I may have kind of guessed what would happen at the end, but yeah, I still gasped. 🤣 I will DEFINITELY be tuning in for Book 2!!

What this book is giving:
✅ Isekai Fantasy
✅ Must survive to live
✅ Humor
✅ Fictional Stereotypes
✅ Embrace the Evil
✅ NOT a Standalone!

Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5

If you’ve ever thought that the villain of the story is more interesting, if you’ve ever thought it would be fun to actually be in your favorite fantasy series, if you ever thought it would be cool to enter and change the story, or if you’ve thought all three of those things then this book is for you.
Rae is a 20 year old fighting cancer and losing when a stranger enters her life and offers her the opportunity to escape into her sister’s favorite fantasy series. All she has to do is enter and find the prize to escape the story and be cured of cancer. Soon Rae finds herself as the infamous villainess of the story and she inadvertently starts making changes. What will be the happy ending and whose will it be?

Thank you NetGalley, Orbit, and Hachette Audio for this ARC of the audio book!

The narrator did a great job and I loved how she subtly shifted her accent for the different characters.

I do not think this was the book for me. While I thought the premise sounded interesting, it ended up being way too silly for me. The writing and characters were good but I couldn't connect with the story at all. The written musical number pushed it into a extra level of silliness that had me rolling my eyes. While the discussions on cancer and escapism were great and there were some hard hitting one-liners, I had to put this one down. DNF @60%.

Well, that was fucking incredible! I love so much about the ways Long Live Evil was in conversation with fantasy books and the idea of evil and how much perception determines who someone is. These characters were all so amazing and complex and GOSH that ending. I need the sequel as soon as possible because while I had some suspicions on some elements, in the end this was not the story I anticipated! So fun, so amazing, so interesting!

Moira Quirk is an amazing narrator and I loved the tones that really got across a lot of personality for all the characters.

My favorite book of the year! Perfect for fans of My Lady Jane, Shrek and Charming by Jade Linwood! Full review on TikTok, below!

This started really strong. The concept is fantastic but soon the plot turned and became quite gimicky and to be honest childish, a seasoned edit would have done a world of good.

Points for originality but needed heavy edits on tone and dialogue.

Thank you to the publisher for the eARC all opinions are my own.