I hate that I have to give this book such a low rating, but I really just… did not like it at all. :( The dialogue was painful to read, grammar was not it, and the characters were frankly really annoying. 😭

The argument could be made that this is a colonizer romance in poor taste, however I'm not sure this is actually a romance. It has the trappings of a romance, and it's being marketed as one, to an extent, but the main storyline is clearly not about the developing romance between the main characters. Instead, it's much more about living under an oppressive regime and balancing the need to conform in order exist despite feeling both a desire and an obligation to rebel, which is a pretty fine line to walk in a YA novel. I'm not sure Chang quite manages it, to be honest, because as I was reading I found myself doing a lot of eyerolling at the pseudo-Romans from another world, and also at Ruying's decision making process (I am more willing to overlook the latter, since Ruying is young and never has the advantage of working with all the information I have as a reader or Chang had while writing the book, the former was just tiresome).

Anyway, I was lured in by the cover, and I think in the end the cover might be the best part of this book, but your mileage may vary.

*To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods* is a captivating read with a mix of mythology, suspense, and some seriously intense characters. The story draws you into a world where gods and mortals clash, and each chapter adds another layer of mystery. The main character’s journey is gripping and full of emotional twists as they try to figure out who they really are and face some pretty dark forces. The writing is smooth, and there are enough surprises to keep you hooked.

The only reason I didn’t give it a full 5 stars is that some parts felt a bit slow. But overall, *To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods* is a great pick for anyone into dark fantasy or mythology-inspired stories. It’s a unique adventure that’ll leave you wanting more.

The political intrigue and magic system was well written, and designed. The story itself I wish I enjoyed more, while the story was amazing it lack a little for me, but still a solid 4 stars.

I have tried for months to read this book. But unfortunately, I found the writing almost.... Pretentious. As in the dialogue felt stilted and unnatural. Regular conversation isn't held that way.
The world building was extremely hard to follow. Largely because of the invading force being called Romans. I think the intent was to make it an alternate reality type situation, but throwing them into a completely different world just felt... Muddled.

And that's not even mentioning the colonizer aspect of the book.

I wanted to love this, but unfortunately it feels extremely flat

I feel that my opinion of this book was already heavily influenced by the "colonizer romance" discourse that was circulating and I could not unsee all the instances that made me feel that way as well..

I barely made it through 6 chapters before I had to give up and admit that this wasn't worth the slog trying to get through it. Putting aside the massive issue of the colonizer love plot (which I did not get to, as I couldn't even bear the experience of reading that far)--this could have used a LOT more editing. Most of the dialogue was overblown and melodramatic--Actual people do not speak in long, bloated speeches every other time they open their mouths. Add that to the repetitiveness of both the dialogue and the narration, plus the bludgeoning to death of the central conflict (Rome bad, I got it the first 15 times), and this one is just too much work to read.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of this book to review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to be able to read and review this book!

This cover is absolutely stunning. This story is so enchanting. I fell in love with it! 5/5

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Team for this Advanced Digital Readers Copy, I thoroughly enjoyed this book!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

I’m not going to talk about the representation of colonialism and the way it is or is not sensitively handled. There are plenty of reviews that do that, and I think POC deserve the opportunity to process generations of trauma through books imperfectly without white ladies weighing in on how well they do that.

That caveat out of the way, this book is not good. World building was sloppy - it felt like Chang thinks the readers will just roll with it because she damn sure didn’t put thought into things. It often led to me being upset at small details that just didn’t make sense. Added to this, the decision to call the bad guys “Romans” muddied the waters - it wasn’t clear to me how much of “Rome” was “humans of earth” or how much shared history exists. Their motivations were confusing and poorly conceived and anything else I have to say on that matter will veer into criticism of the sort I promised previously to avoid, so I guess I will end the review there.

For a debut this book was really great! The writing was captivating and had me eager to continue reading! The cover for this book is also gorgeous and definitely grabbed my attention and made me want to pick up this book! The themes throughout the book was engaging and so well done.

Another incredibly beautiful cover that had me captivated at first glance! The first part of this book felt pretty dense, just a lot of info dump and I felt like I was so slowly trudging through. But it definitely picked up and I really enjoyed how the story began to unfold! I am looking forward to see where it goes.

“You shouldn’t ask the girl blessed by Death whom she’ll die for. You should ask her whom she’ll kill for.”

Ruying is living in a conquered world with death magic running through her veins. The invaders descended from the sky long before she was born and overtook the magic of her world with the science of theirs. She will do literally anything to keep her family safe, even if that means becoming the private assassin for the invading prince. In exchange for her gifts the prince offers to make sure her family is protected and vows that every death he orders will be for the betterment of the world.

This was okay, and I can understand what Ruying was doing and how she thought it was the right move, but I also think she was infuriating and didn't think things through. She spent her time just accepting her situation and never thought to do her own research and figure out anything for herself. She just assumed whatever she was told was true and that is a frustrating character flaw to spend 370 pages dealing with. I also did not see any appeal in Antony at all. With that said, the plot and world was interesting enough to make me entertain the idea of reading the next one to see where it all leads.

Unfortunately this ended up being a messy story with pacing issues. I wish it hadn’t been marketed as a romance because it didn’t seem like one while reading it, which was fine with me, but it is not sure what it wants to be.

I tried with this one but was unable to really get into it enough to give it a fair chance. I don't really have any feedback on it.

Unfortunately this was not the book for me. I felt that the writing style for me dragged a bit and did not hold my attention. I wish there would have been more balance between the stage-settings, character establishment, and plot developments to keep me hooked. It by no means it a BAD book, i just don't think it was written in the style for me.

This one took me a minute to finish. I just wasn’t vibing with it. I took a break from it and came back. I did get more into the book towards the end but so much of it wasnt sitting well for me. I don’t know if that was the intent of the author for this book to be so thought provoking specifically with how the state of the world is today.

The “romance” I think was what really got my gears going and my blood boiling. The main MC was nerve wrecking for me in many aspects. I gave this a 3 star but I don’t think I’ll be continuing this series.

I was haunted by this book. I didn’t know how to feel about it (mostly because I was lured in by the promise of a Zutara-like ship) and it was so HEAVY of a book. I will be tuning in for the next installment because I need to know how it ends.

This book started with an info dump, and then I read reviews that alerted me to the fact that this is a colonizer romance. No, thank you.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine.