ARC Review: Time of Iron #1

Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan

Publication Date: August 27, 2024

Summary from NetGalley:

ARC provided by Orbit Books via NetGalley for an honest review.

Confession:

This is going to be a hard review to write because I just so wanted to at least like this story, but ultimately I just had too many issues with it and I just can’t get past that. I almost dnf’d the book, but because it was an ARC I felt the need to give it a chance. I also looked at some reviews, and most of them said it did get better, so I kept slogging through. And it did get a little bit better, but not enough to make me want to read the next book in the series.

Let’s start with the few positives that I found in the story. There were a couple of characters that I really liked. I just adored Key and found his story to be the most interesting. I think it was his character that kept me reading the book. I knew pretty much where his story was going to go pretty early on in the book, but I needed to know that I was right. I also adored the Golden Cobra/Eric as he often added a bit of levity to the story. He was very kind and just wanted to help everyone who needed it.

Even though I found the story confusing at times, I did like how things were unexpectedly twisted by Rae’s meddling. Even when she tried to fix things, she ended up screwing things up so badly that the plot was totally changed. I kind of liked Rae at the start of the story. I think she meant well, but her lack of knowing the story as well as her sister did, really hindered her ability to make her way in this world. But I loved her eventual compassion for these ‘characters’ that were ‘not real’ and her need for them to survive her meddling.

The last thing I really liked, and it really had little to do with the main story, were the little vignettes at the start of the chapters that were quotes from Time of Iron, the book Rae is transported into. I really liked these and it made me want to read that story instead of the one I was given.

Back to the characters, there were just too many of them and there were too many points of view. I think that the book could have been better if it was told only from Rae’s view, and maybe one other character. I think some of my confusion came from these multiple points of view.

My biggest issue with the book was the writing. I just found it confusing and a bit lackluster and even at times a bit boring. The plot felt very directionless and I often felt lost and didn’t know what was going on. I found myself rereading passages several times and then just giving up because they still didn’t make sense. The sentence structures also felt quite awkward at times, especially the dialogue which was often clunky. Some of this was due to Rae talking like a 20 something most of the time, while everyone else had a very formal voice. But looking at other reviews makes me think that this was mostly on me. Many people found the book funny and campy, which made me think that maybe I read a different version? I don’t know. I just think that if I had meshed better with the writing style I would have enjoyed this more.

Overall I just thought this book was ok. It did pick up at the end, and by that I mean the last 20-30 pages of a book that was over 400 pages. I am disappointed that I didn’t enjoy it more, but this is just my opinion. There are many people out there who loved this book, and I would check out their opinions before deciding if this is for you or not.