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

All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman is a Young Adult Fantasy with magical elements and death. This is book one in the All of Us Villains Series. The story is The Hunger Games meets Harry Potter’s Triwizard Tournament. A player must kill everyone else to win, and all the players are teenager of magicians famlies, the playing field is full of enchanted items and enchanted locations. What makes this novel is the four angsty teenagers who deal with society, death, media, and hormones. Their are seven champions but only four are followed, I almost feel like we could have followed all but that makes some characters wild cards. The relationships are strong, when alliance’s are broken you know the reason why, even if you’re a little sad it did not work out. I enjoyed the pace of the novel even though it takes a really long time for the champions to start doing what they were put into the tournament to do, which is try to kill each other. As much as I did like this book I was disappointed with the ending, because this story did not have any real ending it just stops with you the reader knowing there’s another book. There were a couple of twist towards the end but no closure in the story or characters. I think there is enough to hang out with the villains again, but that ending was a big step in a great book.

The Plot Summary: Every 20 years 7 reigning families of magicians have a tournament to the death to decide who holds the horde of the most powerful magic. But this tournament is different one of the lowest families has written an anonymous book all about the tournament that has drawn media attention, which has complicated things for the small village. Every winner has committed suicide one to two years after the tournament not being able to live with what they did while competing. We follow Allister who’s family has won for the last 100 years, has all the pressure to be as vicious as everyone expects him to be. Isobel The first champion announced and receives the most of the media attention. Briony former best friend to Isobel has been training her whole life to be champion. Gavin the poorest and lowliest champion, will give anything to win even his life, his family is suspected of writing the anonymous book, telling all the families secret to give his family some kind of advantage. All champions could be villains, but it is there choice. Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for teens. All of Us Villains was published on Nov. 21 2021

What I Liked: the character’s are all really great, I loved when they were being wicked, and loved them even more when they resisted. The moral dilemma of having someone you are crushing on, or is you former best friend that you then have to kill is pretty brutal, to paraphrase A Streetcar Named Desire, It’s tearing them apart. I think it took the Hunger Games/Battle Royale formula and made it more intimate, with having all the families know each other and having the low number of 7. Each attempted death feels personal, and we feel each time it happens or is attempted. A really good start had me intrigued early.

What I Disliked: Saw the major twist at the end coming a mile away, it can kind of change the tournament but only one person knows before it ends. The ending killed a lot of momentum there was only the smallest bit of any closure for one out of the 4 characters. I took a little too long for the first death attempt.

Recommendation: This book is good and worth your time I wish the ending landed, but I did read the advanced reader’s copy so maybe it got fixed. There is still a lot of potential in this series and these amazing characters. I will recommend you read this devilishly fun YA novel. I rated All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman 4 out of 5 stars.