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A review by beckykphillips
Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan
adventurous
emotional
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
An isekai-inspired novel where our heroine/villainess is also processing the grief associated with being chronically ill? Yes, I'm 100% in.
Long Live Evil starts off in a way that feels almost like the Princess Bride. Rae has been hospital-bound with a terminal illness, she and her sister Alice read their favorite novel, Time of Iron, a sprawling fantasy full of intrigue, dastardly villains, beautiful love interests, and a god of an emperor. After a particularly rough period with illness, Rae meets a mysterious old woman and finds herself waking up in the world of Time of Iron as one of the villains and has to work to survive in the fictional world and her own.
We get heists, we get love stories, we get the inside scoop into how the "side characters" actually feel about all of the momentous events that they end up being swept up in. I want to avoid spoilers, but this book is a great romp through an incredible fantasy realm, while also expertly dealing with the emotional trauma that is having a chronic/terminal illness. I really appreciated how Sarah Rees Brennan was able to balance so much humor and fantastical elements while grounding Rae in reality and allowing her to process what is happening to her in the real world.
I will say that at times the pacing felt off with the events occurring and how some of the later parts of the book come together. However, I had a great time nonetheless and recommend this novel . Thank you so much to NetGalley and Orbit Books for the advanced copy of this book.
Long Live Evil starts off in a way that feels almost like the Princess Bride. Rae has been hospital-bound with a terminal illness, she and her sister Alice read their favorite novel, Time of Iron, a sprawling fantasy full of intrigue, dastardly villains, beautiful love interests, and a god of an emperor. After a particularly rough period with illness, Rae meets a mysterious old woman and finds herself waking up in the world of Time of Iron as one of the villains and has to work to survive in the fictional world and her own.
We get heists, we get love stories, we get the inside scoop into how the "side characters" actually feel about all of the momentous events that they end up being swept up in. I want to avoid spoilers, but this book is a great romp through an incredible fantasy realm, while also expertly dealing with the emotional trauma that is having a chronic/terminal illness. I really appreciated how Sarah Rees Brennan was able to balance so much humor and fantastical elements while grounding Rae in reality and allowing her to process what is happening to her in the real world.
I will say that at times the pacing felt off with the events occurring and how some of the later parts of the book come together. However, I had a great time nonetheless and recommend this novel . Thank you so much to NetGalley and Orbit Books for the advanced copy of this book.