Thoughts on : All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody & Christine Lynn Herman

Posted by Kay on February 12, 2022 5:17 pm in 4 stars reads | 2 comments

All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody & Christine Lynn Herman
Genre : YA, Fantasy
Stand alone

About the Book  :

The Blood Moon rises. The Blood Veil falls. The Tournament begins.

Every generation, at the coming of the Blood Moon, seven families in the remote city of Ilvernath each name a champion to compete in a tournament to the death.

The prize? Exclusive control over a secret wellspring of high magick, the most powerful resource in the world–one thought long depleted.

This year, thanks to a salacious tell-all book, the seven champions are thrust into worldwide spotlight, granting each of them new information, new means to win, and most importantly: a choice – accept their fate or rewrite their story.

But this is a story that must be penned in blood.

Intrigued by the premise, I went into this one with expectations to a minimum – and ended up having a really good time.

Is it as dark as the cover promises? Eh, I don’t think so. If you’re here to see these kids kill each other in various gory ways, know going in that most of these villains are quite reluctant to embrace their roles, so there’s actually very little of that. The plot is a lot of fun though and there’s plenty of other things happening.

The characters are interesting and the four points of view we get all have something unique to offer. While the voices aren’t as distinctive as they could be, I had no trouble differentiating them and appreciated their different perspective on things. I could have done without the romance though, which felt a bit forced to me.

I’ve seen the book being described as “The Hunger Games with Magic”, and it fits, but I would say All of Us Villains is much more surface level than The Hunger Games – which is fine! Sometimes it feels good to disconnect and not look for parallels with our current reality. This book is much more about vibes and a certain dark aesthetic than anything else, and in that, it certainly succeeded.

All in all, I quite enjoyed this one. Looking forward to book 2!