Book Review: All of Our Demise (All of Us Villains #2) (ARC)

Authors: Amanda Foody & Christine Lynn Herman

The epic conclusion to Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman’s New York Times bestselling All of Us Villains duology that’s The Hunger Games with magic.

“I feel like I should warn you: this is going to be absolutely brutal.”

For the first time in this ancient, bloodstained story, the tournament is breaking. The boundaries between the city of Ilvernath and the arena have fallen. Reporters swarm the historic battlegrounds. A dead boy now lives again. And a new champion has entered the fray, one who seeks to break the curse for good… no matter how many lives are sacrificed in the process.

As the curse teeters closer and closer to collapse, the surviving champions each face a choice: dismantle the tournament piece by piece, or fight to the death as this story was always intended.

Long-held alliances will be severed. Hearts will break. Lives will end. Because a tale as wicked as this one was never destined for happily ever after.

All of Our Demise is the epic sequel to All of Us Villains, which introduced a captivating competition-centered duology where a champion from seven magical families competed.  The story continues to be narrated mainly from four of the characters: Allistair Lowe, Gavin Grieve, Briony Thornburn, and Isobel Macaslan. Each character is complex and unique, which I loved as each reader can therefore find at least one, if not all, to root for in the story. There are other characters, as well, such as, Reid and Allistair’s brother, Hendry, along with other amazing ones that make up this duology.

In this story, Alistair and Hendry’s brotherly bond is explored in further detail and it was easy to connect with it. Alistair opens up more to Gavin in this story and it was nice to see the added depth to each character. Isobel is continuing to fight and survive to the end. Briony struggles with her family and relationships. Reid’s secrets and Finley’s struggle with his family and Briony. With obstacles being thrown into the tournament, curses to break, and alliances constantly changing, this story continues to try and find an end to the competition.

While many novels that I previously read have included twists and turns, there are not many where I fully could not predict most of the ending. The journey that this duology took was a nice mix of the expected and unexpected where there were a few surprises. They all made sense for the story, so I enjoyed that they were written in this manner. There are betrayals, alliances, friendships, family relationships, and romantic relationships all explored in this story.

Overall, this story begins a little slow as the aftermath from the cliffhanger ending has time to put the pieces together. The general pacing remains slower compared to the first novel as there is a large emphasis on the character development. The “bad” and “good” characters are never what they seem for some and are what you would expect for others. This portion was well-done, but there were a few pieces that I wish were explored in further detail, such as the government. As this is the final novel in the duology, it is sad to leave these characters behind.

**I give a special thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tor Teen, for the opportunity to read this entertaining novel. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.**