Review: All of Our Demise by Amanda Foody & Christine Lynn Herman

I received this book via the publisher Tor Teen. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of this review.

All of Our Demise by Amanda Foody, Christine Lynn Herman
Series: All of Us Villains #2
Published by Tor Teen on 2022-08-30
Length: 474 pages
Reviewing ARC from the publisher Tor Teen
Rating:
Reading Challenges: 2022 New Release Challenge

All of Our Demise is the epic conclusion to Amanda Foody and C. L. Herman’s New York Times bestselling All of Us Villains duology.

“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.

If you haven’t read book one, there may be spoilers to it in this review. Read at your own risk.

All of Our Demise by Amanda Foody, Christine Lynn Herman is the conclusion to the All of Us Villains duology, a dark fantasy about 7 magical families, a cursed tournament, and the teens forced to fight in it. I really enjoyed book one, so I was excited and a little hesitant to read book two. The first book laid the groundwork for the tournament, the characters, and the magical world the authors created. This one gets into the meat of the plot. The climax of book one saw two new players enter the tournament: one raised from the dead and the other a cursemaker who wants to end the tournament for good. With the entry of these new champions, the surviving players divide into two camps: one who wants to end the tournament no matter the cost and the other who wants to win.

Told from the same four POV, the tournament unfolds. I could not predict what would happen next. Everything, and everyone involved, hinged on certain things happening. If they didn’t, their plans wouldn’t work, and they’d have to change tactics. Briony, Isobel, and Finley team up with Reid, the cursemaker, to break the curse that created the tournament, while Gavin teams up with Alistair to keep his recently deceased and now alive brother, well, alive.

Having proven it could be done and her theory was correct in book one, Briony is now on a mission. Her hero-complex is still there, but the shininess of it has worn off. She knows she’s up against people who do not want the tournament to end, and she is willing to fight them. Isobel is at a loss, she’s struggling with who to trust and what to do. Her moral compass has shifted, and the line between good and evil has blurred. Is she the monster now? Reid is an interesting character. We met him in book one, but his addition to the tournament is a wildcard. Can he be trusted or should they keep him locked up?

Gavin is the underdog, no one expects him to win. He is the least powerful, or so everyone thought, but the power Reid cursed him with is out of control and may cost him his life. Alistair, who was grieving most of the first book, is now balancing between hope and despair. His brother is back from the dead, but the magic of the tournament is what is keeping him alive. If the others succeed at breaking the curse, will Hendry die again? Hendry is amazing. I love him. He is everything good and light in Alistair, like a conscience.

I really struggled with the pacing of this book. It is nearly double the size of book one in length, and there are so many details to remember without a lot of movement in the plot itself. I appreciated the chance to see our characters grow and learn, however it pulled away from the tension and overall plight they face.

Overall, All of Our Demise was okay for me. I was intrigued by the tournament and invested enough in the characters that I wanted to see what would happen to them and who would succeed. If you are a fan of dark fantasy and magical worlds, I recommend it.

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