All of Our Demise (All of Us Villains, 2)

Überraschend gut für ein Buch, das als Sonderpreis für 0,99 Euro angeboten wurde. Hat echt Spaß gemacht zu lesen. Das Ende, insbesondere das gewisser Charaktere, war aber etwas unbefriedigend. Mir fällt des Öfteren auf, dass bei vielen Geschichten - nicht nur bei Büchern, sondern auch bei Serien - die Auflösung etwas enttäuschend ist nachdem der Spannungsbogen davor wirklich gut aufgebaut wurde. Bei vielen Büchern wirkt es etwas gezwungen, wenn ein LBTQABCDEFG Charakter vorkommt. Pseudo-beiläufig wird es in die Geschichte einbaut, weil man dem Leser verkaufen möchte, dass es doch das natürlichste der Welt sei und weil man sich nicht dem Vorwurf aussetzen möchte, dass man LBTQABCDEFG Charaktere nur aus Marketinggründen einbaut. Aber hier war das gut in die Geschichte integriert.

Überraschend gut für ein Buch, das als Sonderpreis für 0,99 Euro angeboten wurde. Hat echt Spaß gemacht zu lesen. Das Ende, insbesondere das gewisser Charaktere, war aber etwas unbefriedigend. Mir fällt des Öfteren auf, dass bei vielen Geschichten - nicht nur bei Büchern, sondern auch bei Serien - die Auflösung etwas enttäuschend ist nachdem der Spannungsbogen davor wirklich gut aufgebaut wurde. Bei vielen Büchern wirkt es etwas gezwungen, wenn ein LBTQABCDEFG Charakter vorkommt. Pseudo-beiläufig wird es in die Geschichte einbaut, weil man dem Leser verkaufen möchte, dass es doch das natürlichste der Welt sei und weil man sich nicht dem Vorwurf aussetzen möchte, dass man LBTQABCDEFG Charaktere nur aus Marketinggründen einbaut. Aber hier war das gut in die Geschichte integriert.

All of Our Demise by Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman brings a close to a nail biting duology. Welcome back to Illvernath. The Death Tournament to see who gets Illvernaths high magic is well underway. Briony, Isobel, and Finely are trying to match the Relics with their corresponding Landmarks to finally break the Death Tournament so that no one family ever has to send their child to die again. But, The tournament is breaking quicker than the Relics can fall. And, With every mistake they make, a new crack shows up on the wrong side of The Champion Pillar, and if the pillar cracks seven times on the wrong side, they will break the curse but they will all die as well, leaving no winner and leaving the high magic to fall in to the hands of the greedy government. Meanwhile, Alistair, Gavin, and Hendry work against them seeing no hope in their pointless efforts. They want the tournament to continue unchanged until only one victor is left standing to wield the high magic. Now, everyone must do what they can to survive the crumbling tournament, or all fear meeting their untimely demises. Throughout the book, Competitors are either at each other’s throats, or working non-stop to find a happy ending to this miserable curse. Every time you think the characters are safe, new dangers arise. The story pushes every character past their limits. And Character choices, doubts, and concerns feel very realistic. With the realization that they’re all villains, nothing is off limits. This book makes you feel all the suspense of the Netflix show Money Heist with a similar plot of Harry Potter and The Hunger Games. Every chapter builds to the sweet and bitter ending. I would’ve loved this as one big book and that’s the only reason I knocked off a star and made this a 4/5 book. But I do believe the writing significantly improved in this book from the first.

“In a different story, would we still have been enemies?” I absolutely loved All of us Villains. It is one of the most inventive YA novels I’ve read since The Hunger Games. I was so excited to read All of Our Demise. When I was given an advance copy of the audiobook on Net Galley, I was beyond stoked. When I started reading, I was immediately immersed back into the crazy, homicidal world of our champions. The book picks up right where Villains left off. And Foody doesn’t hold back on giving her readers what we want. Allister’s reaction to Isobel’s betrayal. Am I the only one who’s favorite character is Allister? He is the most well-crafted, dynamic, rawly sympathetic characters I’ve ever read in YA. He is also the only person I cared about in this novel. My second interest was the curse itself. The machinations of the rest of the cast were tertiary at best, with Gavin Grieve leading that list. I admit, I didn’t particularly care about all of the characters in Villains, but I was interested in their jealousy, treachery and ruthlessness towards each other. Most of the action of Demise is mental. The champions are still attempting to survive the cursed competition, but they are all attempting to survive by breaking curses and finding relics. The stakes are low. The feeling of dread is near non-existent. The primary element of suspense that made Villains so great drains Demise. I found myself wishing a couple of characters would die, the biggest phonies, just to streamline my narrative concerns. At nineteen hours long on audio and 480 pages long in the physical copy, there is a lot of information superfluous to my interests. And with the action pickings so slim, I felt bogged down in the minutiae of negotiations and hearsay. There are two faction. One group wants to end the tournament. The other group wants to finish it. But at 60%, the group who is supposedly still in the game isn’t trying to kill anyone. It’s supposed to be death match! They may as well be on the same side if no one is a real danger. I it doesn’t make any sense. If the saviors were trying to find and destroy the relics while the other champions were attempting to thwart and murder, then it would be a party. 🤣 A delightful addition to the novel is the new romance. I was frenetic with joy when these characters who will not be named started to crush on each other. I love a good enemies to lovers trope, and this one is delicious. I wish I had more of an inkling of the possibility in book one, but the brevity takes nothing away from its altogether perfection. It very well may be my favorite thing about the book. Admittedly, the story picks ups around three quarters of the way through. Lives are at stake, and it once again becomes a bit of a death match. The villains are new and elusive, but, at the very least, there is true action in a sequel sor...