Q&A with Sarah Rees Brennan

Spice, villains, and fantasy galore!  We sit down with NYT bestselling author, Sarah Rees Brennan, to chat about her new book Long Live Evil.

Hi Sarah! Thanks for answering some questions for us. How does it feel to have Long Live Evil almost out into the world?

It’s so exciting to have Long Live Evil creeping out all over the world! July 18 for my Dutch edition, August 1 for the UK, Ireland and Australia, August 15 for Germany, August 27 for the US edition, and many more still to come…

I still can’t believe it’s real. Long Live Evil has been my private dream for years, the book I worked on after a long career break. I made it to be a wild, funny, darkly fantastic time, a genre-savvy love letter to fantasy novels, and to the passion readers have for them. Now I can only hope readers will walk into my imaginary land and be welcome.

This is your debut adult fantasy, though readers have loved your Young Adult fantasy books for many years. What can readers expect from this book?

Long Live Evil is the story of a young woman who steps into her favourite fantasy series, the same way Claire in Outlander steps into the past.  The epic fantasy series in question contains a little bit of every one of the fantasy books I’ve ever loved, and this story is for anyone who ever read or watched something and thought ‘I wish that had gone differently ...’

She wakes in a palace on the edge of a fathomless abyss, surrounded by enchantment, monsters and scheming courtiers. And she discovers she’s one of the villains of the tale, due to be executed tomorrow. On the order of the ruthless future Emperor, her favourite character of all time. Insult to injury! Time to assemble all the villains of the story in an unstoppable team.

Any advice for aspiring writers?

Read a lot. I just went on a (lucky me!) V.E. Schwab’s No Write Way podcast to talk Long Live Evil and how we write, and it was so interesting seeing how many of the same books we love – THE PRINCESS BRIDE, HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE, INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE – and yet how we still have entirely different processes. Nobody can write like you – but put the material in, let stories change you, and then work out how to tell your own.

What are some essentials in your writing routine?

Either breakfast tea or brown sugar bubble milk tea is always very welcome, but I’m very chaotic, I don’t really have a routine. I write in my room, in cafes, and when traveling. I do always have a good time!

What tropes can we hope to see in this book?

Let me see. Slow burn, killing as a love language, he falls first, teamwork makes the scream work, my book boyfriend, chaos bisexuals …

I think a trope is a beautiful thing – they’re in fairytales and legends, noble knights, love triangles, enemies to lovers. I love to think about the most perfect, shining form of a trope. And then I love to turn the tropes upside down. I love to shake them like snow globes. 

What inspired you to write the protagonist from a villain’s perspective, and what was your favourite part of writing Rae’s story?

I think that’s why Long Live Evil had to be my first book for adults, because it’s an adult feeling, when we start fearing the magic, true love, success and happy ending isn’t coming for us, that we’re not the heroes of the story. We’ve all been not our best selves when times got tough, and we’ve all felt like, and felt seen as, the worst people ever.

But there’s also the fact villains have flair and they have fun. They speak for outsiders. They make great points. They dress well. And the villain song in every musical is the banger. That’s why Wicked works so well. And what better time than when the Wicked movie comes out to celebrate our villain era?

On a scale of 1 to 3 hot chillis, how much spice can we expect from this book?

1, maybe 1 and a half. I will not lie to the populace! (I would lie, being a villain, but I believe it’s always the best policy to be truthful about your book so the right audience will find it.) Tasha Suri called it a ‘glorious, swoonworthy villain romance’ and I hope it is. There are definitely moments of high romance and burning devotion: the epic kind, as my protagonist knows, that you only find in books… as she calls it, ‘Love that feels more real than real love.’

I’m a fan of the slow burn, and I hope others are too. I love that readers are celebrating romance and relationships in fantasy so much these days and I hope people will come to Evil, find it great fun, and find the burn worth the wait!

We heard from a little birdy that Orbit has pre-empted three fantasy novels from you. What’s up next?

The little birdy knows I’m lucky. I just turned in the sequel to Long Live Evil … there’s more to come! And a dragon. You KNOW shit gets real in a fantasy novel when a dragon shows up.