Long Live Evil (Time of Iron, #1)
Sarah Rees Brennan
A TALE FOR EVERYONE WHO’S EVER FALLEN FOR 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 favourite 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. This adult epic fantasy debut from Sarah Rees Brennan puts the reader in the villain's shoes, for an adventure that is both 'brilliant' (Holly Black) and 'supremely satisfying' (Leigh Bardugo). Expect a rogue's gallery of villains including an axe wielding maid, a shining knight with dark moods, a homicidal bodyguard, and a playboy spymaster with a golden heart and a filthy reputation.
Your rating:
0 0I know the main praise everyone sings about this book is that it's fun, but that's BECAUSE IT IS. Long Live Evil is a fun send up of fantasy and romantasy, an isekai that explores fantasy romance tropes and wreaks havoc on the world it takes place in with them.
Rae is a fun character to follow, especially as she approaches being sucked into the world of this book series as a fun escapade, a quest that her very life depends on completing. Her character growth as she starts to feel like the world around her is more and more real and not just fictional is great to follow, as is how her being in the story affects the story itself.
One isekai comparison I'll make here because it's also a favorite of mine is [b:My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Vol. 1|42373006|My Next Life as a Villainess All Routes Lead to Doom!, Vol. 1|Satoru Yamaguchi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554342412l/42373006._SX50_.jpg|66030226]. Both main characters in these stories end up as a villainess who has to ensure she doesn't meet a horrible end, and ends up changing things drastically - and in some ways they don't even realize, though we as the audience do. It's one of the things that makes isekai so fun for me, and Brennan plays with so many fantasy and romance tropes on top of it.
I will say that there were times that the over the top campy fun of some scenes were pushing waaaayyyy to campy for my non-theatre-kid brain, but overall this was such a damn fun time that I have a hard time rating it anything other than 5 stars.
I enjoyed my time with this book SO MUCH, and that ending had me gooped, gagged, stunned, shook, etc. I swear I didn't see it coming, and I attribute that to not reading much romantasy.
Fuck me, when is book 2 out? I HAVE TO WAIT NOW??
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UM???? HELLO?????? THE LAST 80 PAGES???
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I'm still reading this but I feel compelled to give a very clear content warning because the synopsis says only that the main character is dying, but not how: if you have any sensitivity to cancer, take great care going into the start of this.
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