Stunning photo by @aaliyahsbookshelf._!
Hey fairies!
Welcome back to day 2 of our readalong for our August Adult featured book: Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan!
I hope you’re all enjoying the book so far! I am so excited to see what happens today!
Today we’re reading from chapter 8 to the end of chapter 14. Let’s go!
Please be warned, the following section will include spoilers for Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan from chapters 8 to 14. Please only read on if you’ve finished this section!
-!SPOILERS!-
Oooh ok, the Cobra’s story is very different to Rae’s. He changed the story, when he entered the book the Cobra didn’t even exist. It’s weird how the real world version of the story changes in time with this version… does that make sense? 👀
Bless his little heart being worried about whether readers like him ok! 😂😂😂 He’s quite shocked to learn from Rae that he is, in fact, a villain. And even more shocked to learn his best friend, The Last Hope, will kill him.
Not one for subtlety, he calls Marius right over. Before he can confront him though, Rae spills the beans that Marius dies too… that didn’t happen in the version the Cobra read which means at some point his actions have changed the course of the book. Guess he technically kills him too then?
Rae needs to steal the King’s key to get the flower and the Cobra is willing to help her do it, but he doesn’t want it. They discuss the book to work out a plan and then The Last Hope arrives!
The Cobra really doesn’t know how to play it cool, hey? He immediately mentions that Rae prophesised that Marius would kill him. I can’t help but think the Cobra’s confused about their friendship cause they don’t SEEM like best friends to me????
Oh, Marius goes for the jugular and even tells him they were never friends. Is this like a story shift that Rae caused or has he just been faking friendship the whole time? So weird!
Anywho, Marius doesn’t buy into the Cobra’s promises that he’ll stop being a villain and vows he’ll uncover his and Rahela’s plan!
Speaking of villainous plans, Rae needs a way into the ball and is attending a ladylike day of archery in an attempt to do so. These girls hate her though. Hortensia and Horatia are really wearing their hearts on their sleeves!
Rae gets interrogated again when Princess Vasilia arrives – I feel like all these interrogations would be easier if Rae had read the book like she said she had!
Oh Rahela’s sister is here too! They all come up with a rather brutal forfeit, whoever loses has to leave the palace. A risky game – if Rae loses that’s her life lost too, she’ll have no shot at getting the flower.
She does hit a bullseye, but the challenge isn’t completed andddd it’s for good reason. Ghouls. They’ve already killed and ripped out the heart of a guard.
What’s weirder is Rae comments on how the story is going off the rails, she’s sure this wasn’t supposed to happen until the end of book one. She’s got to have altered something somewhere right???
They’re short of help, with only Karine, Vasilia’s guard, and Emer to help. Emer has moves though!
They manage to get to safety temporarily and Key finally arrives. Rae seems very happy to see him too, and not just because of the ghoul situation! 
The King barges in and their safety comes to an end. Poor Karine is lost to the battle but the cavalry is here and honestly, the whole thing just turns into drama central!
Rae’s very fearful of being left alone with the King, after failing to predict the attack it’s looking quite clear she’s a fraud! Instead of coming clean, she decides to keep up the charade and tells him she CAN tell the future but the timeline can sometimes change in small ways that can be hard to predict. Nice save!
King Octavian orders Key to hang back and her fears are realised. She’s alone and inexperienced. She’s also finding it harder and harder to navigate things without actually knowing the story.
The King is certainly a cheeky devil, he makes a valiant attempt at trying it on with Rae but she uses the excuse that she can’t betray her sister, Lia, and manages to evade it. He does, however, tell he she’s not going to the ball. Welp. Plan B Rae?
When she returns to Key he’s VERY eager to know why she didn’t bed the King, clearly Rahela’s reputation differs somewhat to Rae’s! She changes the subject and tells him all about her latest scheme which involves costumes… and a great escape…? Confused and intrigued!
I’m starting to like Key more and more as the book goes on! Not so found of the sound of this Cauldron though. It sounds BRUTAL.
They both head into the Night Market and when Rae realises they’ve walked into the Death Day festival, she wishes Key a happy birthday. She WILDY misinterprets him when she asks him what he wants and ends up kissing him when what he really wanted was money. The awkwardness doesn’t last for long though ’cause Key is pulling her back in for another smooch!
Rae starts to think that her and Key might be more alike than she first realised, but when she voices that… she doesn’t get the answer she expected.
She has a theory that like her and the Cobra, Key might be real and may have walked into the book… but he has no idea what she’s talking about.
Gosh we are IN IT NOW!
Do you think Rae’s done something to change the story? It seems really weird that things are starting to happen out of sequence!
How do you feel about Key? I do have mixed feelings considering he told Emer he doesn’t plan to uphold his oath to Rahela!
Rae keeps mentioning how the characters aren’t real, but I think there’s more to it, do you have any theories?
Can’t wait to hear what you’re thinking! Catch up with me in the comments about today’s section and I’ll see you tomorrow for day three!
Love,
Shannon
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Shannon
22nd November 2024
All hell breaks loose. Is the price of Rae and Cobra being alive is being killed by a ghoul? I love how Key broke the rules and entered The Court of Air and Grace to protect Rae. I think he will fall hard for Rae instead of Lia. Seems like it’s only Rae and Cobra that came from human realm and I’m fine with that. I can’t wait to dive it to the next chapters.
I think (hope) Key will fall for Rae, too!
I’m just falling for Key even more. I don’t even care if he’s trustworthy or not (not even the FL is trustworthy in this novel! lmao). Rae and Key are the perfect deranged villain power couple!
And Cobra has such fun reactions, I’m loving his relationship with both Rae and Marius.
Marius gives me major tsundere vibes but let’s see haha
The Cobra seems sweet, I feel bad that he’s stuck but glad they can help each other. The reveal that he created the character and changed the story was unexpected and I wonder how chaotic things can get then. Obviously Rar is also going to affect the story, will things go off the rails?
Where did the ghouls come from? That part of was so sudden and dark. Whoever did that risked a lot of lives!
I do love Key, I suspected they might become lovers. There is definitely more to him than meets the eye. When Rae wonders who he is we hear girls singing about the promised emperor – red herring or foreshadowing?
I wonder will Rae succeed? Will she leave or stay like the Cobra? What if she ends up as Queen?? She is sitting on the throne on the cover…
I’m in love with this book! It has everything I love in it. Fun and villains and magic (kind of) and meta comentaries that make me cackle. Rae is amazing!
And I’m feeling like Key is an important and key character (hew hew) that Rae forgot about. He’s so much fun to be a random guard that dies in the first book and that’s it.
Also about changing the narrative, I have a feeling there is someone else (can it be Lia? Or the King?) that are also real characters and are changing things their way. But still can’t see what the ghouls were meant for.
Pitty the guard for the foreign princess though, she was tough and sexy and she seemed a suitable character for the villanous assembly around Rae!
Rae has absolutely done something to change the story and I think it was enough that she wasn’t executed as she was supposed to. I find it more interesting to the story that Rae doesn’t know everything that will happen, even if the main plot points will remain the same. I like Key, and the dynamic between Rae and him is getting spicy and I like that. I don’t care if he doesn’t plan to uphold his oath, I mean Rae doesn’t either so who cares? I would love to learn more about how real world and the book world mix together and how many of the characters actually are just from the book. Excited to continue tomorrow.
I think she changed the story already by surviving as her character was supposed to die. Probably someone wanted her to die and now there’s new storyline.
I like Key, even he’s evil and might betray her. I would rather if there’s romance between them. But then Rae will start taking characters as real people and might forget to get flower and survive. There’s probably more to it. I liked Cobra’s explanation that this is another world and they know the rules. That was so smart.
The way this story went off the rails unhinged, I actually kinda love it. And Key! I feel like the story changes with how each person interacts with it, so the fact that Cobra and Rae impact the trajectory isn’t surprising, and I bet things will continue to change outside of the story arc that Rae remembers. I’m starting to wonder whether the love triangle that Rae and her sister Alice are familiar with will actually show up in this iteration of the Time of Iron story, or if enough changes that even the emperor isn’t Octavian but Marius instead. Man, this is such a trip! And I LOVE Key!
I think the story is going to be changed so much that her prophecies may not come true. Key is not trustworthy in the slightest but not shocking since he is a villain. He definitely has some power especially when he stood on the stone and he changed complexion and lacked skill. Stressed about how brazen she is kissing him in this world
My brain hurts from trying to keep up with everything that is happening in this unhinged story, but I’m really enjoying it and deciding to just go along with the madness.
I love Rae & Keys conversations, they are so villainous and it’s awesome.
Everything Rae is doing is probably changing the story, and I am interested to see how it goes for her. I think her not knowing the first book may bite her in the butt.
I think Rae has definitely already changed the story, or someone else from the real world has realised she’s there (other than the cobra) and is changing it to try kill her so that they can get the flower first. I’m not sure about Key if he’s real or not but i don’t think he’d try hurt Rae, Key is my 3rd favourite character so far. He’d better not die later 😭
1. Do you think Rae’s done something to change the story? It seems really weird that things are starting to happen out of sequence!
I think her character not dying when she should’ve is what changed the story.
2. How do you feel about Key? I do have mixed feelings considering he told Emer he doesn’t plan to uphold his oath to Rahela!
I don’t really know yet what to think of him either.
3. Rae keeps mentioning how the characters aren’t real, but I think there’s more to it, do you have any theories?
I think they are real but don’t know they are ‘characters’ in this other world where Rae is from. Sort of a parallel world where some people from our world were able to travel to their world