It's Survivor with magic more than the second coming of The Hunger Games.

I’m a long way past the demographic for ALL US VILLAINS, a piece of YA fiction from authors Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman. But I do like a good story, and often find that teen fiction satisfies my desire for horror and suspense much better than the regular “horror” section at the brick and mortar bookstores in which ¾ of the shelf space is devoted to the published works of Stephen King (most of which I have read), with a chunk of the leftover space given to King’s son, Joe Hill. This leaves scant room for other authors. I don’t blame King and Son for this development as the fault goes to big publishing for not investing in and promoting up and coming new writers. I say this as an independent author who has gone the self-publishing route.

I picked up ALL US VILLAINS because it was well reviewed and had a premise I found intriguing: a tournament where teens fight to the death until there is one champion who can claim the prize of controlling a well spring of high magic. Some have likened it to THE HUNGER GAMES with a magic system. The main protagonists represent their families in this death match, and all live in a fictional city called Ilvernath in a world where magic is real. The wider world is never discussed much, and it is never made clear if this city exists on an alternate earth, or some kind of parallel timeline to our own as the technology would put it in the late 20th or early 21st Centuries. Maybe the two co-authors simply didn’t want to waste space on exposition and world-building, and just left it to the reader to fill in the blank spaces. There are four POV characters: Briony Thorburn, the popular girl; Alistair Lowe, the arrogant “bad boy;” Isobel Macaslin, the wallflower in the shadow of her former BFF; and Gavin Grieve, the outcast from a bad family. The title of the book would lead the reader to believe that this cast of characters and the other teens who take part in the tournament are out right bad guys or anti-heroes, but all are presented with some likable qualities, and if they act out of malice, it is because it is expected of them by their ruthless families. The authors work hard to get the reader invested in them, and at any one time in the book, one might wonder who they are supposed to root for to come out on top. There is a hint of romance between two combatants, a couple of shocking betrayals, and more than a few plot twists.

Overall, ALL US VILLAINS felt more like “SURVIVOR with magic” than the second coming of THE HUNGER GAMES, which was satisfying enough for me. I thought the authors could have explained their magic system better, and I don’t wonder if they might have had a better story if they had leaned into their premise a little more and made some of their characters true villains. There’s violence, and some brutal deaths, but the authors keep it very much within the bounds of YA fiction standards—nobody would mistake this book for anything by Clive Barker in his prime. ALL OF US VILLAINS is the first book in a two part series, and the first part ends not so much with a cliffhanger as it just stops. I found this to be unsatisfying, but hardly a deal breaker, and if I get my hands on a copy of the next book, ALL OF OUR DEMISE, I will definitely read it to find out how things turn out for these “villains” though I am still not sure who I am rooting for, and that might be a good thing.

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