All of Us Villains (All of Us Villains #1)

**As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases. 

All of Us Villians (All of Us Villains #1)

Amanda Foody

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.

This year, thanks to a salacious tell-all book, the seven champions are thrust into worldwide spotlight, granting each of them new information, new means to win, and most importantly: a choice – accept their fate or rewrite their story.

But this is a story that must be penned in blood.

-Excerpt taken from Goodreads.

Check Goodreads to see the book’s ratings.

My Opinion

(4.5 / 5) “We’re raised to call them champions, but I would argue there’s a better word: sacrifices.”

I am not excited that this ended in the middle of the climax of the story! There are cliffhangers, yes, but this story is far from being done. Do I love that? Somewhat. Do I hate it? Yes! 

This story is a darker version of Hunger Games that involves magic. Every 20 years, a curse requires 7 families to offer a competitor to play in a tournament. The one remaining contestant will win “high magick” for their family for the next 20 years. It is highly coveted, therefore, the contestants (teens) kill each other for this glory. 

Anybody who knows me well knows that I love Hunger Games. I get it, it’s not for everyone (teens killing teens rarely is!) but I eat it up. I love the intrigue, the psychology, the strategy and the drama. 

“Our families kept this secret for centuries. Seems to me that means, on some level, we all know that what we’ve been doing is wrong.”

There are so many things wrong with this tournament that it makes great adventure. The competitors are somewhat friends, or have been, and it throws in that extra element of intrigue.

Content Summary: 9 F words with scattered language throughout, very little intimacy, blood is frequent as it is used for some spells but there isn’t a lot of detail. Some teens are killed or injured and there are some details with those scenes.

Thank you to Tor Teen, Macmillan Tor-Forge and NetGalley for the gifted copy in exchange for an honest review. 

The book releases November 9, 2021.

Detailed Content Review

Language 

F***- 9

H***- 5

S***- 20

A**-

B****- 1

D***- 5

Bas****- 2

Religious Cursing

J****-

Chr***-

G**-

L***-

Derogatory terms etc-

Dick 

Alcohol, Drugs, Smoking

A young woman is tipsy from ale. Two young men are drinking also. 

A man smokes a cigarette. 

There is an open bar at a party. One woman is already drunk. Many drink. A young man is drunk. Another young man drinks 3 shots of whiskey and a beer. 

Two young men drink from the liquor cabinet. 

Intimacy, Sex, Immodesty

*No LGBTQ+ aspects included* 

A young man buys a growth spell. He says it’s for his hair but it is (vaguely) for his groin. 

A young woman and young man sleep in the same bed regularly. No intimacy. 

A young woman and young man kiss.

Violence, Weapons, Crime, Blood

A young man uses a spell multiple times to peel back layers of skin until he gets himself to bleed. 

A spell makes a man’s skin turn red, his limbs to swell, to spew liquid from all orifices and starts shrinking. 

A young woman cuts her arm to use blood for a spell. She then vomits blood multiple times. 

A family “sacrifices” a family member to use their blood in a winning spell. This is referred to many times.

A young man uses a spell to snap a man’s finger in two. 

A young woman cuts off her sister’s pinky finger. Blood pools and bone is seen. 

A young woman sets off an explosion, sending a young woman across the ground. A young man sends tiny explosions (like gun fire?) at others. 

Teens gang up on one. They throw death curses at a young man but he blows fire at them. 

A young man fights a young man with a sword. His opponent uses a shield. One tackles the other, and gets a cut on his head. They fight back and forth with magick, others join.

A young woman uses her own blood for a spell. 

Two teens cast spells on each other. One bites, the other shatters bone. A young woman then casts a spell that makes a young man bend over in agony, his abdomen bleeding freely. A young woman uses his blood for a spell. 

A young man casts a spell for vines to choke a young man. A young woman sends back a spell of many arrows back to a young man. Each arrow pierces him. Two arrows pierced his eyes, one in his throat, where blood is oozing. His body goes limp and he dies. 

A young woman casts a spell on a young woman, making her fall through the rotting floor. It stops when it reaches her head then her eyes roll back and she’s unconscious. 

A young man holds a sword to a young woman’s neck. 

A young woman’s spell hits a young man and cuts his face. He falls, bleeding and falls unconscious. 

A young man casts a spell that cuts a young woman’s arm, then her neck. 

A young woman casts a spell that causes rubble to fall and break a young man’s wrist. 

A young man casts a spell that makes a young woman’s “torso broke apart in a spray of splintered bone and mangled flesh. Blood splattered everywhere as her body caved inward on itself and she collapsed onto the stone….ruined rib cage. Her intestines had been shredded.”

Young men and young women throw curses back and forth trying to kill each other. A young woman is hit and collapses on the ground. Another young woman sends curses out at many. It breaks items and cuts flesh. 

A young man uses a spell to make a man unconscious. He then lightly stabs his collarbone, causing him to bleed. He then steals his “life magick.” The man remains unconscious. 

A young woman casts a spell to make a young man die a slow death. 

A young man kills a family (vague). 

Potentially Intense Themes

Previously, a young woman killed herself after winning the tournament.

A woman “trains” her son from a young age for the tournament. She ties him to a bedpost, telling him of creatures he needs to survive. She chains him in an open grave beside his father’s coffin, telling him that creatures will come for him.  She created monsters in a lake she made him swim. 

A young man tells a story of a monster unzipping his body until his insides are showing, then the monster slips in and takes over. 

Leviathan- large eel-like serpent. One opens its mouth, which is larger than a young man is tall, and swallows him whole. 

A lake turns into blood. 

A person who has died, is seen and interacts with others. It doesn’t seem in spirit form, but instead real. 

**Any quotes from the book may be taken from the advance copy and therefore may not be fully accurate or correctly compare to the final copy of the book.

**As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.