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.
But this year a scandalous tell-all book has exposed the tournament and thrust the seven new champions into the worldwide spotlight. The book also granted them valuable information previous champions never had―insight into the other families’ strategies, secrets, and weaknesses. And most important, it gave them a choice: accept their fate or rewrite their legacy.
Either way, this is a story that must be penned in blood.
I cannot find the words to say how much I love this book. I put off writing a review for so long simply because I didn't want to write a review like "best book ever!" and not do it justice.
Because this book is so much better than the best book ever. It's out of this world. It's captivating, murderous, unique, and the perfect YA Fantasy. (It's also probably what's made me so disappointed in other ultra-cliché YA Fantasies because my standards are now so much higher).
When I finished the first book, I could not function the next day. I couldn't do anything but talk about the book. I'm not even kidding when I say this.
I brought the second book to school, and Crow spent the entire day reading the book over my shoulder in class. I then hurried home and finished the second book—AKA the last book—completing the whole series in under 2.5 days.
And don't you worry, it only gets better. My favorite character in this series (and any series) is Alistair Lowe. He's cunning, not-quite-evil, AND has funny dark humor. So I thought, "Hmm, Alistair wears a black sweater. I own a black sweater. I should wear one until the end of time!" And so I did. I don't wear one anymore though, because it's summer.
You're now probably angry at me for telling a personal anecdote instead of giving you a real review, but there's one in "Our In-Depth Review," though it does have spoilers. Guess you'll just have to read the book...it's almost like this is what I've been trying to get you do all along!
-Pigeon
We recommend this series for ages 11-12+, as it includes violence and (somewhat intense) kissing.
I first picked up this book in Victoria, British Columbia. I was spending a weekend there, and the weather was dreary and miserable—until I walked into the bookstore and found this masterpiece. I'm not joking. I bought this book, and the sun started shining (or at least, it did in my mind). But All of Us Villains is far from a sunshiney book. It has kids fighting in a death tournament for a prize for their families, which isn't something I'd call particularly cheery.
All of Us Villains follows the perspectives of our four main characters: Alistair Lowe, who's been raised for nothing but this tournament, Gavin Grieve, who has been told his whole life that he's just a sacrifice, Isobel Macaslan, who didn't really want anything to do with this, and Briony Thorburn, who has a desire to be in the tournament for some unfathomable reason.
Alistair is undoubtedly the best character. Yes, this is my opinion, and no, you can't change my mind. I literally spent six months wearing a black sweater over all my clothes because I wanted to be like him. This is perfectly normal, I swear. He's dark, cunning, and also extremely insecure. His story starts with a dark, life-changing event that will change how he thinks about the tournament and everything else in life.
Everyone in Gavin's life believes that Gavin will die in the tournament. Gavin wants to prove them wrong, by killing everyone else. And, by extension, not dying, which is a pretty important thing. He's tired of everyone not believing in him, and he's determined to do whatever it takes—and you know that I mean literally WHATEVER it takes—to win.
Isobel sucks is pretty and used to be popular, until her best friend ruined her life (oh no, she's not popular anymore) by telling the media that Isobel would make such a good tournament champion. Now, Isobel has been dubbed the "murderous sweetheart" of the tournament, but she doesn't want to seduce people compete. (She was supposed to go to fashion school, OMG!) However, she feels an obligation to be in the tournament so that she doesn't have to doom one of her cousins to almost certain death. Besides, she knows she's the least most powerful champion her family's had in generations. She has the capability to fall in love with her kidnappers (twice) win the tournament...but so do all the other champions.
Briony is honestly very obnoxious. It's almost funny that I love this book SO MUCH when I hate Briony equally as much. She tells herself everything she does is for the greater good and is presented as the hero...but I think that however intentional or unintentional, she's just an attention-seeker. Every single time she's faced with a somewhat difficult choice, she makes the wrong decision. She also is constantly doing that annoying character trope of "whenever something bad happens, I will offer myself up as a sacrifice." Not only is this depressing, it's also really stupid. In summary—Briony sucks. (I repeat: "Yes, this is my opinion, and no, you can't change my mind.")
But now we get to the good part: The plot.
Some people call this book hunger-gamesy. Yes, it's about a death tournament, of course that was a comparison. It's also a completely different book than The Hunger Games. I don't care whether or not you've read the hunger games—you should read All of Us Villains either way. It's DEFINITELY not the same book.
The first 1/3 of the book is about the stress and ceremonies leading up to the tournament. Here are the five most important things, but I'm going to give you a spoiler alert first. If you clicked on this being like "I don't care about spoilers," okay then. But four of the things I'm going to say are pretty big spoilers so...uh...you do you.
Number One: The tournament, previously hidden from the public, was completely revealed earlier this year by a book called A Tradition of Tragedy. Now the whole world is listening in on what's going on.
Number Two: Isobel tried to make a curse that was WAY too hard for her (of course it was)—a level 10 curse, the strongest one to be made from common magick. She ended up vomiting blood and, more importantly, losing her perception of magick because she tried to do something stupid. This means she cannot use or see spells or curses. And that's a BIG problem, because it makes it almost impossible for her to compete. Thank god she's still pretty! But, being Isobel, she wasn't going to tell anyone.
Number Three: Alistair figured out why so many in his family die young. It's because his family murders the siblings of the tournament champions, in order to use their life magick for a level 10 curse to help the champion win the tournament. And so, Alistair's greatest friend, the only person he can trust, his BROTHER, has been murdered. By his very own family. And you can bet that Alistair isn't very happy about that. Now, not only does he have to deal with a death tournament, he has to deal with it while miserable, grieving, and knowing that even if he wins, he won't have anything of worth to come back to.
Number Four: In his heart, Gavin knows that he is far weaker than the other champions. And he needs to solve that. So he visits the town's most revered cursemaking family, which now only consists of Reid Mactaverish. Reid agrees to help, telling Gavin that he can give him an injection that allows him to draw upon his own life magick (like a life force) to cast spells, which allows the spells to be more powerful. Gavin agrees. Too bad he didn't know the side effects...
Number Five: Briony always knew she'd be in the tournament, and that's the first (out of 100) thing she's wrong about. Instead, her little sister, Innes, is selected. Briony is overcome with jealousy at the chance to have a 6/7 chance of dying (why) and very envious because the government partnered with her family and selected Innes instead of HER, in all her GLORIOUSNESS. While sulking after the banquet where champions are selected, Briony realizes something that she can do. She knocks out her sister. Why does this make sense? Well, it didn't, until Briony cut off Innes's finger as well. You see, each champion gets a champion's ring, a small pink-stoned ring to be worn on their pinky fingers. Briony realizes that by mutilating her little sister (as siblings do), she could be a champion.
And here starts our problems.
Briony had just broken the rules of the tournament. And though the punishment wasn't something Briony immediately noticed, it certainly would come back to bite her...because we know this series doesn't end happily.
Here starts the doom.
Here starts the blood.
Here starts the pain, the death, the tears, the loneliness.
Here starts the tournament.
Let it begin.