Our family has an annual Winter Solstice family book exchange. A mere week before the solstice I read a write up of Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan and added it to my wish list of books. I’m glad I did because this book was so much fun I read it twice back to back. Not only was it enjoyable to read the story again, this time I recognized all the clues that led up to the surprise at the end, giving the book a new angle to appreciate.
Rachel (Rae) is twenty and has spent the past three years of her life fighting cancer. Over the years she’s become more isolated and living with a quiet rage over the sickness that is destroying her life. To comfort Rae during her current hospitalization, her younger sister, Alice, reads to her from their favorite fantasy book series, The Time of Iron book one. After being surprised by key events, Rae guiltily hides from Alice that she never read the first book.
Alice read her the first book during a round of chemo and Rae only had a fuzzy recollection of the overall story, but strong memories of battles and action sequences. Falling for the Emperor and admiring his ruthless violence. “Book characters were dangerously attractive in the safest way. You didn’t even know what they looked like, but you knew you liked it.” She devoured books two and three and memorized all the songs from the musical but never went back to read book one for herself. This oversight will prove problematic for Rae.
That night a strange woman appears in Rae’s room with a wildly fantastical offer. Rae would be transported to the realm in the Time of Iron and inhabit a character. If she is able to infiltrate the palace, gain access to the King’s private green house on the day the flower of life and death blooms, she can take the flower to cure her cancer. A magical portal will then open back to the real world and Rae can live a healthy life again.
Desire flew through Rae sharp and bright as a burning arrow. What if the offer was real? Her lips curved at the wild sweet notion. Imagine a door could open as a book does, right into a story. Imagine a big adventure instead of hospital walls closing in and life narrowing down to nothing. Being not an escape artist but an art escapist, running away to imaginary lands.”
Rae awakens to find herself as Rahela, the Beauty Dipped in Blood, and it is the night before her execution. Thinking quickly on her feet, Rae begins to make alterations to the story and avoids execution but there is so much more to be done. Taking inspiration from the dark Emperor, Rae decides to embrace the evil side to accomplish her goal. After all, they’re just fictional characters. There is no consequence to being a villain.
I’m a treacherous, power-hungry bitch, and honestly? It feels amazing. Don’t listen to stories encouraging you to be good, telling you to shine in a filthy world and patiently suffering. Screw suffering. It’s too hard to be good. Do the easy thing. Do the evil thing. Grasp whatever you desire in your greedy blood stained hands.”
And she has to make sure that the story stays intact. Alice would be furious with her if any major changes were made. Thus begins Rae’s quest to navigate a story, that she doesn’t remember well, to save herself from death and return to our world.
First of all, f*ck cancer. Brennan writes Rae from experience as a stage four cancer survivor.
Long Live Evil is, in a way, two books in one. First it is the book as you are reading it, Long Live Evil. Then, within the book you also get the story of Time of Iron. Each chapter opens with a quote from Time of Iron which adds a fun element as it relates to what is happening in Rae’s version of the story. I especially liked how Brennan would twine the stories together with the quotes. Later in Long Live Evil some of the quotes from Time of Iron would be part of the text of Long Live Evil as events that Rae is experiencing are the same as happened in the Time of Iron book. As Rae’s story progresses you learn more and more about a Time is Iron as she navigates the book. By the end of Long Live Evil, Time of Iron felt like a real book to me.
I highly recommend Long Live Evil and I can barely stand to wait to wait for the sequel.
Note: Cinna is a very good girl without a single evil bone in her body.
