A review by woodglimm
Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan

adventurous funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

 To dive into the world of your favourite book can be a dream for many – for Rae it becomes reality, with a chance to save her own life because she is dying with a cancer diagnosis.
 With the help of magic she finds herself in her favourite book, in the body of Rahela – the villain who is about to be executed. Thanks to Rae’s knowledge about the story she can manipulate some events. But since her memory isn’t the best anymore, her unreliable knowledge can cause some trouble. 

The premise of the book sounds pretty interesting, and the story starts strong. I really liked the writing style, but there were some passages that stood out negatively and “bumpy” which I would put to the fault of the translation (I read a German copy). For some words I would have preferred to not have been translated, since they really didn’t sound great (“Schurkenhintergrundgeschichte” for villain origin story or something similar, again, I haven’t read the original, so I don’t know the exact words that were used). There were also a couple of typos, which in this case weren’t the author’s fault but after the third one… you just keep noticing them… 

About the story: I have to agree with some other comments I read – a couple of scenes felt too long and dry, about midway through the book I struggled with progressing, and so did the story, in my opinion. But the beginning and ending definitely caught my attention. There were characters I liked, and others I didn’t like so much, but that is truly subjective, as well as liking the romantic plotlines. I can understand that people like to read those, but in the case of Long Live Evil I’d rather not read it
(you’ve known each other for what??? A week?? Hello??)

 But very positive: the way queer characters are included. It made me very happy because it’s so casual and not made into a huge deal – it’s just normal! 

I want to speak about the ending as little as possible, to not spoil anything, but I will say this one thing: I wished it was a standalone. But since I’m too curious, I’ll probably go on and read the next book sooner or later – but definitely not in German. I will 100% choose the original English version again. 

Despite my points of criticism I still enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it! 

Some thoughts about the appearance of the book: 

I really love the cover (dtv paperback version), the art style is all I need and more, and I would definitely have picked up this book in a store – if I hadn’t won it on Lovelybooks. The sprayed edges are on the thin line between pretty and… too much, there is a lot going on and I feel like (one colour or gradient) sprayed edges simply look nicer on hardcover books in general. But that is also a very subjective opinion. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings