Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan – Review

Published: August 27, 2024

Publisher: Orbit

Series: Time of Iron #1

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 464 (Kindle)

My Rating: 4 Stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
A TALE FOR EVERYONE WHO’S EVER FALLEN FOR THE VILLAIN…

When her whole life collapsed, Rae still had books. Dying, she seizes a second chance at living: a magical bargain that lets her enter the world of her favourite fantasy series.

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.

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I love the trend of main characters being bad guys this year! It’s about time all those dramatic, brooding villains stepped into the limelight. Long Live Evil definitely satisfies a number of fun villainous tropes and even manages to satisfyingly twist some of these.

Long Live Evil follows Rae, a 20 year old on the brink of death after a years long battle with cancer. She’s just had a fight with her dear younger sister over something silly – the book series they both love. As Rae falls asleep that night, a woman appears and tells her she can go into the world of her favorite book and pick a flower that will heal her. But she only has one chance and when Rae appears as Rahela, the Beauty Dipped in Blood, she has to think fast because it’s the night before her execution. Now Rae has to win over her guard, Key, and ladies maid, Emer, so she can formulate a plan to live AND get to the magical flower on time.

While I found this tough to immerse myself in at first, by the halfway point I was pretty invested in the characters and plot. Rae isn’t the only person on the brink of death to be magicked into this story and it seems each time the tale is altered in unpredictable ways. Rae herself is letting loose a bit after years of being on death’s doorstep and is enjoying her new deadly-as-sin body and her good health. She’s a tough character and I could appreciate her ‘fuck ‘em all’ attitude, but she does mellow this a bit and starts thinking more strategically. She’s got a flower to pick and a sister to return to after all. 

While Rae may be the star of the show, the side characters are quite memorable as well! Key is a murderous sociopath who latches on to Rahela and practically worships her after a few shows of kindness and understanding. There’s a mysterious figure known as The Cobra who deals in information and brothels and boy, does this guy have a lot to unpack. There’s Marius, a man who’s laid down his blade to prevent his family’s violent curse from overtaking him. And of course, there’s the beautiful heroine of the story, Lia. Lia is Rahela’s sister and she’s out for her own vengeance thanks to Rahela’s devilish machinations to keep the King’s attention for her own. This is truly a vibrant cast of characters and I enjoyed learning more about them and watching how their stories twisted and changed throughout the book.

Overall, this was an entertaining story but fair warning, the cancer, treatments, and even the emotional toll for both patient and family aren’t glossed over or prettied up. The beginning was honestly pretty tough to read, especially after having watched someone close go through that. This is a short though very impactful section and I think it sets Rae’s characterization up well for the following action and this book seems to have been cathartic for the author to write, as she recently went through that. I was a little surprised to find that Long Live Evil is the first in a series and I’ll definitely be picking up the next one!