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.
This adult epic fantasy debut from Sarah Rees Brennan puts the reader in the villain's shoes, for an adventure that is both 'brilliant' (Holly Black) and 'supremely satisfying' (Leigh Bardugo).Expect a rogue's gallery of villains including an axe wielding maid, a shining knight with dark moods, a homicidal bodyguard, and a playboy spymaster with a golden heart and a filthy reputation.
About the Author
Sarah Rees Brennan is the No. 1
New York Times bestselling YA author of over a dozen books, both solo and co-written with authors including Kelly Link and Maureen Johnson. She was long-listed for the Carnegie for her first novel. She was born in Ireland by the sea and lives there now in the shadow of a cathedral, where she's working on among other things her series of tie-in novels with the hit Netflix show
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Her most recent standalone novel,
In Other Lands, is a tale of love, friendship and wings starring the crankiest boy to ever stumble into a magic land and was a Lodestar Award and Mythopoeic Award finalist.
Johanna The Mad is a Mexican digital artist and illustrator currently working on the sports comic series Fence (nominated for a GLAAD award under the "Outstanding Comic Book" category).
Industry Reviews
Audacious, and
supremely satisfying,
Long Live Evil is the chosen one we've been waiting for. It succeeds as both a brilliant meditation on the pleasures and perils of fiction, and a
sweeping, romantic adventure in its own right. Get ready to laugh out loud, cry in public, and cheer on the villains as S.R. Brennan smashes through tropes with witty, wild glee in this
delicious, subversive treat of a bookBrennan's brilliant
Long Live Evil harnesses clever banter, delightful turns of phrase, and epic backdrops in the service of exploring the nature of stories and
the freedom that comes with embracing being named a villain - and maybe actually becoming one. Most of all, it introduces us to Rae, who uses her quick-thinking, loyalty, and ferocity to sidestep (and do the occasional musical number around) doom
Utterly brilliant. I can't stop thinking about
Long Live Evil, which has
rocketed to the top of my list of all time favourite fantasy novels.
Pick this up immediately, S.R. Brennan will take everything you think you know about fantasy and turn it on its head
