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."
Long Live Evil is a clever and entertaining twist on the epic fantasy with a portal fantasy style and where the protagonist takes on the role of the villain. Sarah Rees Brennan embraces and provides a self-aware take on stereotypical fantasy tropes, offering a fresh perspective highly entertaining story.
Rae is dying in her hospital when she's met with a choice: continue on her current path or have a chance at life by entering the world of her favorite fantasy book and completing a specific quest. As one might expect, her grim reality was pushed aside and a trip to the fantasy world was in order. Once Rae is plopped into her new fantasy world, Rae discovers she's actually the villain of the story and must embrace her new role in order to outwit her opponents, forge alliances, and be clever enough-and more importantly, evil enough-to complete her quest.
Rae's is easily the highlight of this book as she embarks on this new journey, and I loved following along with her development. She is cynical and general resigned to her fate, but her sharp wit, dry humor, and sarcasm leave her with threads of defiance that prompt her to continue trying at every turn. Rae is someone with a bit of a hard outer shell who tends to keep things close to her chest, as well as someone who possesses plenty of anger at everything that's happened, and her journey throughout the book really allows her to explore her own emotions and undergo some great growth and development along the way. I felt that Rae's journey added some much-needed depth to the narrative and made this a much more compelling story.
There are a lot of other equally engaging characters in this book that made it that made it an even more enjoyable experience. I was particular taken by Key, Rae's (or rather, Lady Rahela, her villain counterpart) bodyguard of sorts, and was fully entertained by his somewhat psychopathic-leaning tendencies. Scenes with Key always made me laugh, even though he is technically not a great person. In addition to Key are a variety of different characters (including one known as Cobra who is a true delight to meet), from evil to 'good' to everything in between, and I had an incredible time meeting all of them.
The self-awareness of Long Live Evil allows for clever engagement with traditional fantasy tropes, as Rae directly addresses them and often critiques them with sarcasm and often a good deal of exasperation. This 'meta-commentary' can feel overdone or overutilized at times, but overall it made for a really entertaining time and really lets us as readers feel like we're in on the joke.
This book is well written, but I struggle with whether I think this is really a "good" book. I found the pacing was really hit and miss, often times going really quickly and other times it felt like we were just dragging along with a lot of extraneous content added in. Things are honestly a bit messy at times, but somehow it fit with the story so I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. I think the only way this book really works is because of the meta/self-aware aspect that makes it somewhat campy and therefore makes the sometimes weird or awkward dialogue and predictable story beats work. Without this, this book simply wouldn't work, and I think that's sort of what makes this such an entertaining and successful book, because Brennan hits those notes excellently.
Overall, I've given Long Live Evil 3.75 stars! This is an excellent choice for readers who enjoy a campy, self-aware story with a focus on deconstructing fantasy tropes and plenty of laughs along the way. This is also a perfect book for anyone who loves villains and would love to follow someone along as they embrace their role as villain and have a lot of fun doing it.
Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org
