Scan barcode
A review by blandrea_reads
Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I am in shock and the brilliance and darkness of all this.
The story starts out with Rae, who is seriously ill and facing down death, being given a chance to visit her favourite story (A Grimmdark fantasy) to get a flower to come back to her life healthy. The problem is she wakes up as the Villain in the story. Rae, as a spectator of the story, loved the dark cruel “burn the world” characters in theory, but when she starts to have to live in it, things get more complicated.
There are a lot of poking fun at Romantasy as a genre, all the Something and Something names, the Court of Air and Grace, the Flower of Life and Death. There is also some poking at character tropes, and you can see people straining slightly at their roles. What do you do when tears are your only weapon, what does it actually meant to be the Good Guy when you can’t figure out how to balance truth and mercy. And while the story starts off light, it goes to some really dark places.
I enjoyed the twists and turns, and there were a few places where I full out gasped is shock and needed to take a minute to get myself back together. I found myself swapping back and forth between the book and the audio, because I needed to be able to process different parts in different ways.
The narration of the audiobook was fantastic. The accent choices really worked for me. To have Rae with a more US accent, and the rest of the court and narration in a variety of accents from across the UK really worked to help reinforce the subtle otherness of Rae. I particularly liked Marius (the Last Hope) with the slight Sean Bean vibes.
This was brilliant and heart-breaking and amazing and I am now DESPERATLY hoping that it will be a series!
The story starts out with Rae, who is seriously ill and facing down death, being given a chance to visit her favourite story (A Grimmdark fantasy) to get a flower to come back to her life healthy. The problem is she wakes up as the Villain in the story. Rae, as a spectator of the story, loved the dark cruel “burn the world” characters in theory, but when she starts to have to live in it, things get more complicated.
There are a lot of poking fun at Romantasy as a genre, all the Something and Something names, the Court of Air and Grace, the Flower of Life and Death. There is also some poking at character tropes, and you can see people straining slightly at their roles. What do you do when tears are your only weapon, what does it actually meant to be the Good Guy when you can’t figure out how to balance truth and mercy. And while the story starts off light, it goes to some really dark places.
I enjoyed the twists and turns, and there were a few places where I full out gasped is shock and needed to take a minute to get myself back together. I found myself swapping back and forth between the book and the audio, because I needed to be able to process different parts in different ways.
The narration of the audiobook was fantastic. The accent choices really worked for me. To have Rae with a more US accent, and the rest of the court and narration in a variety of accents from across the UK really worked to help reinforce the subtle otherness of Rae. I particularly liked Marius (the Last Hope) with the slight Sean Bean vibes.
This was brilliant and heart-breaking and amazing and I am now DESPERATLY hoping that it will be a series!