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.

Chaotic and original story.

Many fantasy readers have dreamed of it, but for Rae, it's really happening. She takes the place of one of the main characters in her favourite book. The story has an intriguing beginning right away because of this.

However, the story is written a little too comically and too chaotically for my personal preference, especially when you are expecting an epic tale. The contrast between Rae's contemporary language and the rather medieval atmosphere of the story she finds herself in really bothered me. More towards the end you do get more used to it, but it remains an element that for me really takes me out of the story. That somewhere it also stems from the coping mechanism of the main character, I agree, but still... It also feels more like a children's book than an adult book. Furthermore, I also find it very difficult to keep my attention on the story while reading and be completely on board with everything. A story within a story is always a little harder to follow, but here the main plot just disappears regularly, making it harder to follow. It is also often unclear to me why certain things are happening, a lot could easily be scrapped in these 500 pages. It's just all chaos. Then add to that the fact that I don't really feel a connection with any of the characters, and you already understand why this book will not make my favourites list.

What I do really like about this story are the action scenes. They are numerous throughout the book and each time very engagingly written. It almost feels like you are tagging along for the fight. The smooth pen (even though the style used is not my thing) makes for a fluent reading experience. The fact of being a person from the real world, ending up in a book, is in itself also very cool I think. There are also a lot of strong female characters in this book, fortunately they are not all damsel in distress. Not only there are several great female characters, the Cobra is also one of my favourites in this story. The aspect of Rae and others being the bad guys, could have been played out a bit more for me. But at the same time, in this way it is shown that even in fairy tales there is not always a clear line between good and evil, that even the heroes have a dark side and the villains can be fully committed to something good. So does evil win in this story? For that you will have to read Long Live Evil yourself.

In addition to the ebook, I also read and listened to the audiobook. The narrator does a really good job of bringing all the different characters to life. However, I don't always find her clearly understandable. Even though she sounds very motivated, there are moments here and there where I find her narration style and intonation don't quite fit the story. Perhaps duet narration or full cast could add value to this audiobook. All in all however, it does make for a smooth listen.

I went into this not knowing anything about it. It’s definitely a unique read for me. The story revolves around two sisters who bond over their shared love for a book series, which was one of the most relatable aspects for me. From the onset, we learn that our main character, Rae, is dying of cancer. She's approached by a strange individual who offers her a chance to visit a fictional world from the book series she’s read. Now, her only chance at life hinges on finding a flower in this fictional world, or she risks never waking back up in her own body in the real world.

The premise was fascinating and reminds me of the transmigrated manhwa that I love. The story unfolds through multiple POVs, including our main protagonist Rae. I really loved Rae’s character throughout the book; her attitude and behaviors were very relatable, especially her bluntness and straightforwardness regarding her situation. She's the kind of character I most love reading about, one who tells it as it is and doesn’t sugarcoat anything.
While there wasn’t much romance involved, I did not mind it. I loved the inclusion of a sapphic relationship; it was charming and adorable. One of my favorite aspects of this book was the use of contemporary slang and terms from the real world in a fantasy setting. This was the one time I was not bothered by this, as the setting reminded me a lot of my favorite transmigrated manhwas where the main character travels back into the body of the villain of a novel and tries her hardest to change her fate.

I am pleasantly surprised that I loved this more at the end than I originally thought I would at the start. It’s a slow start, but hang in there. Give it a chance! I think I perferred this book better the second time listening to this audiobook vs reading it on my own. The narrator did a great job with the voicing of the characters and the production was amazing.

Thank you, NetGalley, Orbit Books and Hachette Audio, for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

3.5⭐️

It is a truth universally acknowledged that being villainous is way more fun. The concept of being dropped into a story and interacting with characters you’ve read about while embarking on a quest to change the trajectory of your life in the real world was incredibly intriguing. The vibes were definitely vibing and I thoroughly enjoyed how the entire cast was packed with deeply flawed, unlikable, morally gray characters. Not going to lie, the dialogue was a bit wacky with its modern references, awkward pickup lines and attempts at seduction, and a musical number… so just know, anything goes and it’s chaos, but also a fun time.

The world building was interesting as we get brief glimpses of this world, it’s characters, history, and politics sprinkled throughout the story - at the beginning of each chapter and as Rae encounters new characters from the book. Because there isn’t substantial world building at the beginning of the book, I felt like I was playing catch up trying to understand what was happening, why there was tension between the characters, and strife in the kingdom.

My main qualm was the length. This book is long (the audio was seventeen hours!) and there were so many characters, who were each contributing to and attempting to influence the plot. I think the story could have been more effective if it hadn’t tried to do all the things. I applaud the author for being so ambitious, but I frequently lost track of what was happening and characters having multiple names and personas didn’t help.

The audiobook was a good time and Moira Quirk never misses. Superb narration!

Overall, this was a good time and a bit wild, but the story needed a some polishing to help with the meandering, murky middle.

🗡️🐍😈Long Live Evil😈 🐍🗡️
“An antihero is just a villain with good PR.”
If you like:
⚔️Adult Fantasy
⚔️Found Family
⚔️Multi Worlds
⚔️Villain Centric
⚔️Morally Grey
⚔️Magic/Magical Items
⚔️🔪 to Throat
⚔️Camp Af
⚔️Multi POV
⚔️All The Chaos/Unhinged
⚔️LGBTQ+ Rep
⚔️Pop Culture References
⚔️Plenty of Cackling/Laugh out Loud Moments
⚔️Devious Shenanigans, Traitorous Lies, Schemes
⚔️Character Driven:
🩸Rae- “She’s a traitorous witch whose sins scream to the sky for the gods to strike her down.”
🩸Cobra-Flamboyant, Sneaky 🐍, “He’s a filthy, debouched, and irredeemable villain!” (Another fave)
🩸Key- Diabolical, Insane, Cut Throat (my fave)
🩸Marius - Broody, the golden boy/the last hope, only wants “justice”
🩸Emer- Perpetually Confused/Concerned Ladies Maid
🩸Lia-Damsel in Distress, Too Trusting
⚔️Banter
⚔️Poking Fun at Romantasy/Publishing
⚔️Book 1 of 3
⚔️Amazing Narration
Then you’ll fall in love with Long Live Evil just like me! I loved this book so much. It’s def going on my faves list. I ate the theme up. Anything villain centric is my bread and butter. Add a FMC with an illness, tired of their failing body & transported to another world. Sold! Spectacular! Give 14 of them! Bc that’s my constant day dream fighting with my dumpster fire of a body.
“I love you as a knife loves a throat. I crawled out of hell to fall at your feet.”
Narrators: Moira Quirk (does a phenomenal job with character distinction and breathing emotion into them)
Format: 🎧Audio
Time: 16hr 52min 1.2x
Listened on: NetGalley🎧
Pub Date for Audio: 8/27/24
“I did what I must to survive. Then I did many other things bc I thought they were funny and made me look cool.”
“Books often described kisses as ✨searing✨. Which made Rae think of salmon. But, characters seemed to enjoy the seared salmon kisses” I’m not gonna be able to think of the searing ones any other way now. Thanks Sarah!
#longliveevil #ALC #netgalley #sarahreesbrennan #vilianromance #fantasy

Thank you so much NetGalley, Sarah Rees Brennan, Orbit books, and Hachette Audio for the opportunity to listen to this phenomenal ALC.

3.5/5 stars. This book was a lot of fun. Am I totally sure of what happened? No, not really. But sometimes the journey is better than the destination. This book was campy, meta, and at times a little cringy. I think there is a lot of potential to build upon the world that we have found ourselves in and I for one cannot wait to see what happens next.

I didn't like this as much as I'd hoped after reading the ARC, so when I saw the ALC available and narrated by my favorite narrator I decided to give it another try. Moira Quirk definitely helped improve how much I enjoyed it overall. The premise is interesting and fun, I didn't find myself thinking any of it was funNY though.

I still think it was too long, and though I usually like more than one POV, I felt the Marius POV was unnecessary and without it I'd probably feel the length was better. I was prepared not to read the second book until the ending, and now I think I'll definitely pick it up to see what happens next, because I see the potential for sure. I'm glad I gave it another shot. It wasn't what I was expecting, and maybe that's why I had a hard time getting into it.

3.5 rounded up after listening thank you Hachette audio for the ALC!

this was a slow start for me, but i was locked in by the third act.

the premise of this is so unique. rae is dying, but if she can enter the world of her favorite fantasy series and reach a magical flower on the one night it blooms, she can come back to her body, fully healed. she has to navigate this fictional world, but she already knows everything that’s going to happen. the meta commentary about fantasy tropes and fiction writing, alone, was enough for me to stick around. but soon, rae realizes she’s changing the story.

at first, i was stuck on one thing: if rae’s going to ultimately return to her body, i only care about if she succeeds, and not the trail of destruction she leaves behind her. rae felt the same way too. i guess it’s just a testament to sarah rees brennan’s writing because when rae finally realized that the characters felt real and that she cared about them, i realized i did too.

expectations started being subverted and tropes started turning on their heads and i realized i was so so wrong. i went into the third act biting my teeth. long live evil was so much more than i could’ve hoped for.

the commentary is witty, the plot writing is phenomenal, and you can tell through the pages that miss brennan has such a solid grasp on the fantasy genre. rae’s lived experiences with chronic pain and bitterness were so grounded and human. the “fictional” characters that first felt very shallow, like caricatures of their fantasy archetypes, turned out to be incredibly complex and dynamic. literally no notes.

the narrator moira quirk, was such a delight, too. maybe i just loved her soft voice. the voices she had for the characters were so good, it was easy to tell each one apart. she was great at conveying the dry humor of the narrative. she can whisper a story in my ear anytime.

i’m seated for the rest of the series. the bookstore employees are scared and begging me to leave because “it hasn’t even been written yet” but i’m simply too seated.

ty hachette audio and netgalley

I could not get into this book based on the content. The narrator did a good enough job, but this book just wasn’t for me. I couldn’t get behind the modern terminology the FMC used and the whole “I’m a villain and I’m evil!” montage was cringe. I believe the narrator worked with what they had.

Sigh....I had to dnf. The writing style was just not for me. I restarted the audiobook several times and I just couldn't get into it.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to listen to this book

*Thank you NetGalley and Orbit for this ARC Audiobook*

I was so interested and excited for the concept of this story- but the audiobook felt quite confusing. I did not even know it was multi POV for a while as I don't think it was ever indicated when switching POVs. The "Time of Iron" blurbs were also a bit unclear as to what exactly they were.

Because our main character knows this world pretty well already, as the reader we do not get to gradually learn with our character. Instead we kind of get info dumped. It doesn't necessarily feel bad/wrong- considering the circumstances, BUTTT as I received the audiobook of this- I struggled. To preface; 40% of my reads this year have been audio books and 100% of those have been sci-fi or fantasy- I am no stranger to audio book world building. I felt like I needed the physical book for Long Live Evil so I could go back and reference those info dump pages. Because I got confused so early on I felt quite disconnected throughout...

I love the concept, like the characters and the fact no one is really all good or all evil, enjoyed the writing style, and I could really tell Sarah Rees Brennan has dealt with cancer first hand with the depth and parallels shown throughout the story- it was really well done and interesting to see compared to a fantasy setting. The pacing felt pretty slow as well, but that could be due to the confusion I had with the audiobook.

Review specifically about the audiobook:

I recently listened to Dark Water Daughter and Black Tide Son and was pleasantly surprised to see that one of the narrators of those books, Moira Quirk, was narrating Long Live Evil. I think she is excellent at her job. She gives different voices to different characters, has excellent intonation, and is pleasant to listen to. I really have no negative comments on the audio production of this book.

Review of the book itself:

What did I just read? This was such an odd book, but it managed to pull it off.

The main idea is that Rae is young and dying of cancer but gets the chance to save herself by being transported into a fantasy book and completing a task while there. (Maybe it's just because of my ties to people dying of cancer, but this storyline produced a lot of tears. Especially while reading the acknowledgements, good god.)

The story is incredibly meta, which is sometimes very fun, witty, and hilarious, and other times comes across as cringe. Is this story beautifully and wonderfully written? Honestly, no I wouldn't say so. As I first started reading it my thoughts were "oh no, I'm going to hate this." Luckily, I thought that it got substantially better as the story progressed. I think it was a fantastic idea for a story, but could have maybe gone through some more rounds of edits to add more details. I know that some of the storyline is left out on purpose, but at times it felt like too much was left out that I felt like I didn't do the required reading and was missing important information.

All that being said, I think it's a fun time; I laughed a lot, I definitely cried, and I didn't see the ending coming at all. I kind of wish that this was a standalone and that we end the story here, but hopefully the sequel will prove me wrong.

3.5 stars rounded up.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.