A review by literaryland_livin
Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan

4.0

Rae’s life as she has known it has takeing a drastic turn with each day brining new challenges as she battles the cancer attacking her body. Her one source of solace is the books she lets her mind wander to, dreaming of a fantasy world while stuck in a hospital bed. Until one day she is suddenly offered the chance to save herself, to find a cure. This leads Rae into an adventure straight from her favorite book series as she suddenly is one of the characters, however instead of the hero she’s the villain. 

Starting this book actually came with a bit of irony as I was just talking about how I wished to read more books that in the genre of Isekai(an anime subgenre where the main protagonist gets sucked into another world.)Long Live Evil is definitely in that realm as we watched Rae quickly go from her life filled with sickness and hospitals to one filled with villains and adventure.Now I can see how some may not find this book to their liking, as you can’t go into this wanting to take it fully serious. Yes the FMC is using terms/slang from the modern world that don’t fit with this fantasy one, but how else would expect someone from this time period to talk whilst being sucked into a book’s magical one.Personally this campy element made me like the book more as it added a layer of sarcastic humor that I enjoyed.The plots format of multiple POV did take a bit for me to get use too with its amount of character switches.However once I did I found myself loving getting to know this wickedly fun and diverse cast of characters. At times the book did fall into info dumping territory but again it worked considering how Rae herself is thrown into this new world and forced to acclimate quickly. And despite bits of the book coming off as meta and campy it also deals with heavier topics such as terminal illness, mental health, morality, and the impact our choices make in our lives. Brennan’s author note at the end is something I highly suggest reading as it truly shows what heart and emotion went into this books creation. Overall this was a fun fantasy read that was just what I was looking for and I can’t wait to continuing the series.