BOOK REVIEW: LONG LIVE EVIL by SARAH REES BRENNAN

Shane | 30 September 2024 | Reply

BOOK REVIEW: LONG LIVE EVIL by SARAH REES BRENNAN
Orbit through Hachette Australia, July 2024
Paperback, rrp AU$32.99
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
86%

Where would fantasy literature be without those two magical words, “what if…?”

Here, bestselling YA author Sarah Rees Brennan asks a deliciously enticing question… “what if… a terminally ill young woman were magically transported into the pages of her favourite novel?”

Not only that, but what if she were the villain of the story, rather than the hero?

It’s a wicked concept and one which yields many rewards through this engaging and exciting tale of a world on the brink of magical disaster.

Rae – or Lady Rahela as she becomes – may play up being the evil villain of the story she wakes up inside of, but of course she’s still OUR hero, and works hard – and ever more frantically – to set this fantastical world to rights, even though her every machination is deemed villainous in the eyes of the sexist, pompous vainglorious leaders of the court she finds herself a part of.

As the fantasy world she inhabits spins out of control, and the chances of her returning to the real world – with the magical flower of life and death to cure her of the cancer which is killing her – becomes slimmer and slimmer, a climax rushes at the reader at full force.

Long Live Evil is a gripping read, a world very easy to get caught up in, and very hard to put down at times. It also poses some fascinatingly philosophical questions worth pondering deeply –

“Which came first, being treated as unworthy or being unworthy? In the end, it didn’t matter. If others believed she was evil, or beautiful, or guilty, they made that true.”

“What hurt me was the truth. Some people aren’t that special. I used to think I was, but I learned. When nobody believes in you, it’s too hard to believe in yourself…”

That Long Live Evil ends with a maelstrom of events and an epic cliffhanger is either thrilling or extremely annoying, depending how you view these things. Suffice to say we’re waiting for the sequel!