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A review by luluwoohoo
Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan
☀️☀️
A seriously confused fantasy book that confounded me from start to (I almost didn't) finish.
I'm going to break this review into good and bad, mostly because I'm still so confused by the contrasts here.
Good:
The world-building is pretty ambitious for a story of this type, and it's mostly logical and coherent. The writing was sometimes hit and miss but did have nice one liners across the prose of this book. The cover art is stunning!
Bad:
The heavy handed themes explored throughout this novel feel at odds with the parody style and cheap laughs. These warring aspects mean I spent most of the book in a state of whiplash, never quite knowing what I was supposed to take away from it.
The premise itself is old enough to have been done significantly better a hundred times over. The references, slang and preachy tangents on women's empowerment and body autonomy feel seriously dated too, to the point of being cringe-worthy (I felt like I was reading from an early 00's Tumblr)
The supporting characters are all one-dimensional archetypes simply ticking trope boxes, which might have been the point but left me not caring about anyone. The length was significantly too long; I honestly think the same plot could have been achieved in half the page count if it was edited well.
I barely finished this, and I'm positive I wouldn't revisit it, but I don't inherently think it's a shit book...it's just very clearly not for me.
☀️☀️
A seriously confused fantasy book that confounded me from start to (I almost didn't) finish.
I'm going to break this review into good and bad, mostly because I'm still so confused by the contrasts here.
Good:
The world-building is pretty ambitious for a story of this type, and it's mostly logical and coherent. The writing was sometimes hit and miss but did have nice one liners across the prose of this book. The cover art is stunning!
Bad:
The heavy handed themes explored throughout this novel feel at odds with the parody style and cheap laughs. These warring aspects mean I spent most of the book in a state of whiplash, never quite knowing what I was supposed to take away from it.
The premise itself is old enough to have been done significantly better a hundred times over. The references, slang and preachy tangents on women's empowerment and body autonomy feel seriously dated too, to the point of being cringe-worthy (I felt like I was reading from an early 00's Tumblr)
The supporting characters are all one-dimensional archetypes simply ticking trope boxes, which might have been the point but left me not caring about anyone. The length was significantly too long; I honestly think the same plot could have been achieved in half the page count if it was edited well.
I barely finished this, and I'm positive I wouldn't revisit it, but I don't inherently think it's a shit book...it's just very clearly not for me.
"Being nice was nice. Being nasty got shit done."