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A review by speculativeshelves
Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This is one of the most fun reading experiences I've had all year. I always love stories involving a character who gets pulled into their favorite book and so naturally I fell in love with this one as well - especially because I think it's brilliantly executed. Upon finishing I wanted to immediately reread it and the wait for the next installment may kill me. The ending is exciting, unexpected, and satisfying (it's always fun when you develop a theory in between chapters and want it to happen because you think it'd be a great plot twist and it does, in fact, end up being a great plot twist).
Long Live Evil is chaotic and epic. It's a story that simultaneously pokes fun at classic high fantasy tropes and involves a lot of silly moments (including a musical number) but also takes itself seriously and involves a lot of high stakes (the last 3rd of this book in particular had me on the edge of my seat). In some ways I want to say the experience feels like what you would get if the movie Scream was a high fantasy novel? There's lots of self-referential humor and it feels like a love letter to the fantasy genre (and fandom) as a whole.
Sarah Rees Brennan employs standard fantasy tropes throughout this story and expertly deconstructs them (just as the protagonist, Rae, (un)intentionally ends up deconstructing the plot she's familiar with when she enters the story). This allows the story and characters to provide some interesting perspectives on what it means to be a hero/villain, the authorship of a story, and the agency/motivations characters (especially side characters) have within a story.
I really enjoyed the cast of characters and I especially loved Rae, our protagonist turned villainess. She's one of my favorite kinds of female protagonists - an angry girl willing to do anything to survive. The other main characters are fantastic too but I think it's best to not know much about them until you experience the story yourself (though if you want some teasers I recommend checking out the author's instagram which features some excellent character art/descriptions).
It's not a 100% perfect book - occasionally the contemporary dialogue/jokes don't land for me, there's a lot of infodumping moments that slow the pace down (particularly in the first third of the book), and some of the POV changes cause the story to lose momentum at times. Overall though I think Long Live Evil is an excellent start to a new portal/high fantasy series and definitely one of my favorite books of the year so far!
Long Live Evil is chaotic and epic. It's a story that simultaneously pokes fun at classic high fantasy tropes and involves a lot of silly moments (including a musical number) but also takes itself seriously and involves a lot of high stakes (the last 3rd of this book in particular had me on the edge of my seat). In some ways I want to say the experience feels like what you would get if the movie Scream was a high fantasy novel? There's lots of self-referential humor and it feels like a love letter to the fantasy genre (and fandom) as a whole.
Sarah Rees Brennan employs standard fantasy tropes throughout this story and expertly deconstructs them (just as the protagonist, Rae, (un)intentionally ends up deconstructing the plot she's familiar with when she enters the story). This allows the story and characters to provide some interesting perspectives on what it means to be a hero/villain, the authorship of a story, and the agency/motivations characters (especially side characters) have within a story.
I really enjoyed the cast of characters and I especially loved Rae, our protagonist turned villainess. She's one of my favorite kinds of female protagonists - an angry girl willing to do anything to survive. The other main characters are fantastic too but I think it's best to not know much about them until you experience the story yourself (though if you want some teasers I recommend checking out the author's instagram which features some excellent character art/descriptions).
It's not a 100% perfect book - occasionally the contemporary dialogue/jokes don't land for me, there's a lot of infodumping moments that slow the pace down (particularly in the first third of the book), and some of the POV changes cause the story to lose momentum at times. Overall though I think Long Live Evil is an excellent start to a new portal/high fantasy series and definitely one of my favorite books of the year so far!