Cbr17bingo Border — the main character literally crosses a border between reality and fiction, and straddles the border between good and evil; the kingdom in the story is bordered by the Dread Ravine, which is full of the undead.
This book is one of the most bonkers, crazy, fun stories I’ve read in a long time, and I thank Dome’loki for the review that turned me on to it. I think we’re all familiar with time travel stories, where a character is sent back in time and has to be careful so as not to screw up history. Sarah Rees Brennan takes that trope and makes an ingenious twist — what if you got plonked into your favorite story and everything you did threatened the plot? Long Live Evil is book one of what is going to be a 2-book series, and I can’t wait for part 2. This novel has a fantastic caste of characters, great humor, and some really interesting things to say about good and evil.
The main character is Rae, a 20-year-old cancer patient. She has been sick for three years and is in the hospital for treatment. Her younger sister Alice (16) is there with her, reading out loud from their favorite series, “Time of Iron.” “Time of Iron,” by Anonymous, is a fantasy series a la Game of Thrones, full of kings, queens, commoners, monsters, magic and blood. It is an internationally bestselling series, inspiring fan conventions with cosplay and even a Broadway musical. Rae and her sister are super fans, and Rae especially likes the character Octavius, who is King of Eyam, which sits on the edge of a deep ravine full of the undead. Rae knows how the series ends, but what we discover is that she never read the first novel. She only knows what she hears Alice reading to her in her hospital bed, and given her fragile health, she doesn’t pick up all the details. Later that night, Rae falls into a coma and is visited by a female presence that makes her an offer: she can walk through a portal that will take her to Eyam and allow her to inhabit the body of a character in “Time of Iron.” While there, Rae must pick the Flower of Life and Death when it blooms, as it does only once a year. If she succeeds, Rae will be cured in the real world. If she fails (and she only gets one shot), she will never wake again. Rae agrees and enters the world of “Time of Iron,” which is pretty great until she realizes she is in Book 1 and she is the character Lady Rahela, the Beauty Dipped in Blood, a villainess who dies rather horribly and soon.
One of the things I love about Rae/Rahela is that she immediately takes charge of her situation. She is no damsel in distress; that is the part of Lia, her perfect and beautiful “Time of Iron” step-sister who is meant to marry King Octavius. Rae is perfectly comfortable being a villainess. First of all, as a villainess she has a rocking body. In the real world she is wasting away, but in Eyam she is a total hottie — big boobs, long legs, the works. Second of all, Rae understands that it is the villains who drive the story; their desires and deeds move things along. Heroes are boring; they just to react to everything. Villains have more fun.
“I’m a treacherous power-hungry bitch, and honestly? It feels amazing.”
Rae/Rahela has power in the novel that she lacked in reality, where her body is failing, her family has suffered some blows, and her fellow cheerleader friends (yes, Rae was once a cheerleader) disappeared when she became ill.
Rae realizes pretty quickly that her ignorance about the details of Book 1 is going to be a problem. She knows how things are supposed to turn out, but how they actually got there is a bit murky, and the fact that her character is slated to die right away is another problem. The Flower of Life and Death isn’t going to bloom for a while, so Rae/Rahela has to do stuff (and accidentally does stuff) that changes the course of not just Book 1 but the entire “Time of Iron” series.
In order to accomplish her goal (get the flower, get cured and go home), Rae makes some villainous allies. Emer the ladies maid and Key the body guard are minor characters from the books who have their own side stories and are definitely not trustworthy, but then again, neither is Lady Rahela. Seeing these three deal and double deal with each other is good fun. Then there is the matter of the king, who is supposed to have been infatuated with Lady Rahela but has seen her true colors and ordered her death. And Lia, the swooning damsel, is supposed to attract his attention and devotion. Once Rae is in the story, that storyline is a disaster. Nothing is going as it was meant to. On one hand, Rae doesn’t care. She keeps telling herself none of this is real anyway; these are “characters,” not people, which is pretty much the way villains treat people in reality, too. On the other hand, Rae does care about her people and the story. Some of the so-called “good guys” in the story are having similar issues, where we and Rae see that maybe they aren’t what she thought they were. The lines between good and evil get a little blurry, which makes this novel a really riveting read.
Long Live Evil has some really great battle scenes and monster scenes. I haven’t discussed two of my favorite characters — Marius and the Cobra — but they are an odd couple whose relationship evolves in a wonderful way. And there are several strong female characters who get better development in Rae’s screwed up timeline than in the book as it was meant to be. The end of Long Live Evil had me on the edge of my seat. There are some great surprises and I can’t wait until spring of next year to find out what happens to Rae/Rahela and her friends in part 2. If you are a fan of fantasy novels and snark, pick up Long Live Evil.