Review: All Of Us Villains by Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman

So, when is book two coming please? Asking for a friend* who really, really wants to read it!!

Title: All of Us Villains
Series: All of Us Villains #1
Authors: Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman
Pages: 400
Publication Date: 11th November 2021
Publisher: Gollancz, Orion Publishing Group
Ownership: eARC

Rating: 4.5 stars

This is being marketed as a darker Hunger Games, and it’s not far off. Every twenty years the Blood Veil falls on Ilvernath and the children of seven families duke it out on the battleground outside of town (with magic and curses) to gain control of high magick for their family for the next generation.

The only difference is, each family’s champion can be chosen, honed and trained for death (either their own, or someone else’s) their entire life. And that is going to create some messed up children. Especially when some families seem to be more successful than others. Each competitor is desperate to prove themselves – to their families, to those who who doubt them, and to prove that they are the monster here.

The tournament has been Ilvernath’s best kept secret, but this year’s competition will be a little different. The press are here and they want to interview the competitors. Someone has published a book spilling the horrible lengths that these children will go to for their families. And the government would rather have access to the high magick themselves.

This is a twisted, nasty, unhappy story in some of the best possible ways. It’s grim and violent and you desperately hope that these problem children will sort themselves out so that they can just stop killing each other off (!)

I found the pacing a little slow at the beginning – it took until about the 40-50% mark for me to get properly hooked. But once I was – phwoar.

There are secrets within secrets here, some delicious twists before the end and a whole bucket full of misery (which definitely won’t suit everyone). This is also some proper English village casting-curses-in-the-pub magical fantasy and that’s a lot of fun too.

And that ending – I can’t wait for the next book!

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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