Long Live Evil

Long Live Evil
By: Sarah Rees Brennan

Blurb:
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.

Thoughts:
I received this as an arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The book comes out on August 27th.
I applied to receive this book, even though I’m not really a person that falls for the villain, because of the blurb. I’ve read a series where someone gets sucked into their favorite video game, why not read one where someone gets sucked into their favorite book? I thought it would be interesting. I think it could have been, but the main character was so focused on it being a book and the people not being real that she really annoyed me. I understand she was trying to save herself, but her insistence that none of it was “real” went against her goal of saving herself with a flower from the world. It is either real or it isn’t. If the flower works, why can’t the people be real too? It was part of making her the “villain” but it just made her seem in denial, which I guess she was, it just wasn’t something I enjoyed.

The world was definitely not one I would want to be in and I wasn’t sure why anyone would have this world be their favorite series, let alone enough people that it’s been made into a musical, but, again, I’m probably the odd man out there.

About 60% of the way through the book finally picked up for me and I started to enjoy what was happening. I could see the “twist” coming, but I still wanted to know what was going to happen. It ends on a cliffhanger. Ughhhh.

I’m honestly not sure if I’m going to continue the series. I rated it three stars and that stands. It wasn’t poorly written and the idea was interesting, and like I said I do want to know what happens next, it was just the constant confused communication between the characters that drove me crazy. The MC never tried to change her vocabulary or fit into the world around her so people were constantly confused by her actions. I have a lot of questions, but I’m not sure if I wanted them answered. I’ll wait to see what the blurb is for the second book and make my decision then.

3/5

Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell

I finished reading Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell. I was lucky enough to receive an arc of it in exchange for an honest review. Rowell is one of my favorite authors and I own most of her books in hardback. Her characters and how they talk are something I’ll never get tired of reading. They seem real, but not too real. They still have the fictional glow, if you know what I mean. I reread Attachments every couple of years because I love the characters so much. I think Slow Dance could have been like that for me, but one of the main issues between the characters was lack of communication. The two characters had different communication techniques, but assumed they didn’t, it was years of miscommunication, and that’s one of my least favorite tropes. I really can’t stand it and because of that Slow Dance was my least favorite Rowell book and I’m rating it 3.5 stars. Which is honestly not a bad rating it just stands out since every other book of hers I’ve read I’ve given five stars. Still very well written, great dialogue, interesting characters, just not always my cup of tea.

3.5/5

Website Update

It’s been a while since I’ve posted and I just wanted to say, that I continue to check the online Disney Store to see if there are more toybox figures but I haven’t seen any new since my last post over a year ago. So I think it’s safe to assume they are no more.

I’ll keep the lists up because people seem to still use them, but I’m going to try and return to being a review blog.

New Disney Toybox Action Figure Sets

For those of you with large disposable incomes, or for who Toybox collecting is a super serious hobby, Disney has some new sets for you. If you’re a Hawkguy or War Machine fan a $130 set is the only way you’ll be able to get them.

The Captain America figure really nails what I love about this series. The whole aesthetic. You can really see the Disney Infinity influence there. Honestly, it really shows how lacking and boring the other figures are IMO. Oh well, I’ll stop.

New Star Wars Toybox Figures

It’s been a while, at least it feels like it since we’ve had some new Star Wars toybox figures. I gotta say, though, I’m not super impressed with these. I’m happy to finally have an Obi-Wan figure, but the Darth Vader looks exactly the same as the one that’s already been released and since it’s two full figures in a pack that means this is $25. I don’t know about you, but inflation has hit my family hard and while a $12 purchase could be kind of justified, $25 is outside of my impulse buy limit. Oh well.

Luke looks like a deer caught in the headlights lol. It’s nice to have a different version of him, cause this is more than just a repaint job, but his face was phoned in. R2 looks the same, but this is the first time we’ve had baby Yoda (Grogu) available outside of his bassinet. Still, this one is even more expensive at $27. How have I been priced out of toys??? lol

Oh well, it’s nice to still see them coming out. I’m just going to hope that when my financial situation changes that they return to the look of the original ones that I preferred. The whole Disney Infinity aesthetic. You can see it with the Darth Vader figure, but it’s clearly a lot less visible in the Obi-Wan and Luke figures. I would say it’s harder to do that look with Baby Yoda, but I’ve got a regular Yoda that nailed it.