My Rating: 5/10

I've been looking forward to this book for a while, and I was lucky to receive an ARC, but it was a bit disappointing, and I think the big issue lies in the writing. Plotwise this is quite interesting (and very relevant to current events), but actually not that much happens. Most of the book is Ruying arguing with herself, going from accusing Roman sympathizers as traitors to teaming up with a Roman prince and maybe back again? Off the top of my head, there are maybe four major plot beats despite there being room for much more. The politics behind Rome's domination and the ongoing Panguling rebellion are quite interesting to me. Instead, time is devoted to very heavy-handed worldbuilding and Ruying's inner moral dilemma, which starts to feel like it's going in circles after a little while.

The writing of this book seems like it's attempting to be flowery, but instead it usually ends up stating the same thing over and over again in order to say it in another metaphorical way. The first 10% or so is filled with just a lot of info-dumping about the worldbuilding and Ruying's past, things that could have been woven into the narrative much better, especially since a lot of the things Ruying goes on about in her narration are addressed later in the book. Ruying herself is not a terrible character, and I sympathize with her desire to prioritize peace over what seems to be complete annihilation, but her blind faith and generally undeserved adoration for Antony make her feel one-dimensional and not very likable. There have been a few accusations of this being a colonizer romance, and I don't agree with that, but I will say the romance was annoying and took far too much time away from the very pressing plot issues.

I think there's a lot of potential in this book; the worldbuilding itself, despite its poor insertion, is really interesting, especially when Chang starts to bring in the science side of things from the Romans. The plot has a lot of room to say something sorely needed in the modern world. Unfortunately, most of that is sacrificed so Ruying can continue angsting over her dubious morality and doomed romance. Overall, I wasn't very impressed, and it's unlikely I'll continue the series, but I do think this author could potentially write some very strong novels in the future.

If you are a Amelia Zhao and Chloe Gong, you will enjoy this story.
Twenties years after Rome came thru a portal, Ruying's world has fallen under an oppression.
Magic could not fight back where steel and bullets rain supreme.

A night of desperation and thievery paints a target on Ruying back when she reveals her Death magic.
Taken in she has no choice but to pledge loyalty to her enemies to protect her family.
For heroes die and cowards live.

For Molly's first publish book I think it was well written. The pace adequate and the break in the stories by section lends itself a segway into a shift of action in Ruying's character. You get to see her at her lowest at the beginning. Poor, angry, and desperation to hold on to goodness and away from her magic. Then she is backed into a cage - to live or die. Ruying makes a hard decision to live but she isn't evil. She does what she thinks is right because life has no clear path. Her conscious is still there - weeping and regret for every qi she takes. And in the end she makes another shift in decision because of her last longest friend.

I am excited to read the next book in this thrilling trilogy.
A story of culture clashing with colonism and how to retain sense of self, purpose, and country.
The romance is there. It is not the main focus but it'll be interesting to see if a character is morally grey or just evil. more to come!

I actually did like this book! I think it explored some complex ideas and issues, and it really is not a romance at all.
I found the magic system intriguing and the world fascinated me. I am so interested in the portals, and I am wondering if that will play a part in the next book.

Everything seems stacked against the protagonist and I wonder how they will be able to overcome it.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is Molly X. Chang's debut that takes place in a world on the brink of war between magic and science. Ruying is blessed with the gift of Death who is struggling to survive in the aftermath of her land being conquered by the Romans and their advanced technology. When her gift is discovered and she's given the ultimatum of using her powers to serve the oppressors, leaving her grappling with the weight of her morals.

This book has been making its rounds on the internet and it's a bit daunting to try and my own two-cents into the conversation. As a debut, I went into this knowing that there would be many elements of the story that would be less polished and that would make it difficult to read because of the historical events that the author has claimed to take inspiration from. The author's note at the very beginning introduces readers to the absolutely horrific events of Unit 731 and emphasizes the realness of those horrors despite the story itself being fictional. With that lens in mind, it's easy to see where the marketing of To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods struggled to draw the line between a romance and a historically-inspired fantasy.

Yang Ruying is a character who honestly gets the worst of life thrown at her and who doesn't make the best decisions. Her thought-processes for her actions highlight her inexperience in the world which makes her easily manipulated into believing she's doing what she can and subjecting her people to the lesser of two evils. The romance that begins to blossom between Ruying and Prince Antony treads the fine line between questionable and romantic which is a path that's easily marketable to readers wanting a more morally gray relationship. While we don't get to see the morality really explored, it definitely becomes part of Ruying's learning curve as she navigates what it means to have the power of Death and how to wield it. Her character arc displays the difficult journey those under occupation experience and the struggles they must endure to learn how to fight against the oppressors.

The world of Pangu and Rome rely heavily on the anti-colonial themes that are sprinkled throughout the book. While the romance ultimately takes center stage, the author continues to highlight the hardships the Pangulings have endured at the hands of the Romans. I wish we got to spend more time exploring the history and culture of Pangu along with gaining more understanding about the magic-blessed Xianlings but that will hopefully be explored more in the sequel as Ruying continues to mature and gain more autonomy with her own powers. There's frequent references to the concept of mankind playing their hands at being gods which I do love because who doesn't love a power corruption arc?

For a debut, I think the author took a very bold chance to tell a story that at its core tries to shine light on a historically horrific event. For the book to be marketed primarily as romance does take away from that stance but with the ending, I hope it'll lead to further exploration of Ruying's powers, the development of her character, and for the freedom from the oppressors for the people of Pangu.

Thank you to Del Ray for the Netgalley ARC in exchange for an honest review! To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods was a book I highly anticipated, but it didn't live up to that hype unfortunately. Chang does a wonderful job with flowery prose (which I did enjoy quite a bit), but aside from the first 25%ish of the story, I felt as though she glossed over Ruying's transformation in her death powers, simply telling us how many people Ruying has killed and who she's killing next. It leaves a lot of the political and emotional intrigue out of it, and it dulls compared to the sharp start to the story. There is lots of telling the reader what's happened and not us experiencing it alongside Ruying. Like many, I am also deeply uncomfortable with Ruying's relationship with the colonizer Prince Antony; however, I do get the vibe that this will not be the endgame romance. Still, in this book we do have to sit through it, and I think the book could have benefited from a different approach to that. Besides Ruying and Antony (whose backstory is basically told to us...), I did not get much of a feel for the supporting cast in this book, and it felt like a disservice not to have a fuller picture of Ruying's family and friends who also suffer under colonization. I also did not get a bigger sense of the world beyond Pangu and also the science behind how the Romans invaded through the Veil in the sky. As a science fantasy, I do feel it's important to specify certain rules in world-building. I did enjoy the touch of Chinese culture to this book and the cover is gorgeous. Overall, this is not a strong YA fantasy, and I'm unsure if I'll continue the series. We'll see.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc! This review is about to be a jumbled mess but here we go.

I really wanted to love this. I was so excited getting an arc for this that I moved it to the top of my TBR. I was super interested in the Chinese characters and history and culture. I love the idea of the magic, and the main character having the power of death. It was advertised as morally grey characters - sign me upppp. (Just to be like uh is the grey in the room with us now…?) Enemies to lovers? Yep I’m there. Until I learned that the enemy is a colonizer and he is a sh*tty person in every possible way with zero redeeming qualities. And then to see that there’s been a change in the tune of advertising when it comes to the love interest now possibly being childhood friends to lovers. Kinda sus 😒 The romanticizing of not only the colonizer who’s killing her planet and her people, but also the romanticizing of a textbook abusive relationship is crazyyyyyyy. And not to blame the victim but our main girl Ruying has zero backbone and actively turns her back on her people the second a handsome man pays her any type of attention. Not only does he kidnap her, but he threatens her family and friends and blackmails her into being his own personal attack dog at the risk of not only her loved ones lives but her own, and she doesn’t even bat an eye. She pushes back being like oh but I’m a good girl, just to immediately be like “but Antony told me to and he’s obviously a good guy bc he was nice to me.” Like he forced her to kill someone in cold blood and then hugged her afterwards and she completely forgot all sanity and morals I guess???? Listen, I understand her being backed into a corner. But she didn’t do a dang thing about it. Idk turn into a spy maybe? Help your people fight back? Rather, she constantly denies any allegations towards Antony, and even falls for him, until she literally sees her best friend die (which by the way she completely forgot about her friend for 6+ months so good on you girl) and then is like hmmmmmmmmm maybe Antony is questionable????

And plz don’t even get me started on her internal monologue. 90% of the book is her thoughts which are the same 5 thoughts repeated in different ways. Ruying’s entire being is hypocritical. One second she’s going on about how the Romans (also whyyyy are they called Rome? It’s fantasy give them a cool name) are evil and oppressive and how they need to fight back. Then less than a paragraph later she’s going on about how her people shouldn’t fight a losing battle and basically a life oppressed is better than no life at all …? “Freedom is only worth fighting for when we have a fighting chance.” Like I get you don’t want your people massacred Any more but also ?????

She tore her childhood bff to shreds for “being a traitor” (although turns out he was a spy all along) and then immediately QUITE LITERALLY becomes a traitor to her people and starts killing them on command. She really has a victim mentality, and that’s outside of her being in this absolutely manipulative relationship with Antony.

At any given moment this was giving Shatter Me, Threads that Bind (the way she sees a different plane of existence when calling death), hunger games (proving your strength to a group of judges behind an elevated glass wall), Star Wars (qi cells …) even some infinity stones/Marvel type tie in with a random story about 5 colored rocks. Not that it’s a bad thing to draw inspiration but part 1&2 was shatter me in a different font.

I’m apprehensive about leaving a bad review because I know this author suffered from some review bombing. But this is 100% a real review and I did read the entire book. I have 91 kindle notes to prove it. I have seen plenty of reviews saying similar things to mine and I really hope the author takes some of these things into consideration moving forward. There’s such a great underlying and powerful story in there. I think it needed a bit more editing and focus on what the story really would be. Cutting back on some of Ruying’s internal thoughts, and maybe making her a character I want to support. Bc right now I do not care at all about her. I don’t even like her. How am I supposed to vouch for a character who turned her back on her people SO EASILY. that isn’t morally grey in my opinion. And just toss the entire romance idea out the window and start fresh. Plz don’t push the abusive colonizer romance on us moving forward. I think there’s still a lot of potential in this series. Again, the underlying premise is so great. And I love seeing diverse fantasy and Asian rep.

Overall, this book isnt a horrible book. It has a lot of potential and I could see where everyone got the Zutara vibes from. The pros; the worldbuilding and magic system are really good. The cons; I felt that the Zutara theme was miswritten and it came across as a Colonizer love colonized love story. Zutara is more enemies to friends. In this case, it seems that the opressed MC falls for the oppressor and that was somewhat unsettling for me.

Wow , just wow. Great novel, story wise amazing, development and growth on characters was great. This was such a good read, been one of my most anticipated releases and it didn’t disappoint. Can wait to get more from this author.

I was very intrigued by the premise of this story, however it did not live up to my expectations. I ultimately decided to DNF this book at the 50% mark once I felt like it was becoming a chore to read. I am very disappointed because I can see the promise, but the delivery was just not done well, in my opinion.

This story is about colonization, oppression, and all of the horrors than come from invasions and impending war. Unfortunately, the narrative was plagued by dense sidebars that delved into the impacts of these themes in excruciating detail. While I appreciate the importance of understanding the weight of such subjects, the author's approach felt as if she didn't trust us to grasp the gravity of the situation without constant explanations.

These interruptions greatly hindered plot progression. Just as something new was being introduced, we would grind to a halt for yet another info dump. At least half of the portion that I did read was inundated with the same points reiterated over and over and over again. At one point, I realized this book was becoming laborious to read and I decided it would be best to stop.



*Additional note based on other reviews - I had a sneaking suspicion for who our male love interest would be... There was the obvious choice but I thought "Well, no. There's no way we would romanticize him in any form. There's no way the author would practically lecture us on the atrocities of this situation and then make HIM the love interest. RIGHT?" I thought it would be her friend and I was quite excited about that. But based on the reviews I read, the wrong choice was made and that makes me feel very conflicted about the overall message this book is sending. I wrote my entire review prior to reading other reviews, so none of my above points are influenced by this discovery. I hesitate to say much not having read the second half of the book. But I feel compelled to share my shock at this development.

“She has power over death. He has power over her. When two enemies strike a dangerous bargain, will they end a war . . . or ignite one?”

Antony Augustus is the 2nd Grandson Prince of the conquoring Romans. They came with Science that was no match for the Magic held by the Xianling of Pangu. The "one day war" devasted Pangu. They supressed the land and then introduced Opian in order to control the locals.

Ruying, a Xianling with the power of Death, was captured in a midnight raid and now needs to make the choice of dying or working for the enemy in order to keep her sister and grandmother safe.

Because Heroes die, cowards live.
🐉
I enjoyed the story. The writing is beautiful (although my eARC had multiple typos; I'm not sure if those typos made it through the final edits or if my copy was an earlier version).

There was a lot of internal dialog that became a little repetitive. Although it's not a long story, it could have been shorten a little if she cut out some of the repetition.

The story is filled with an internal battle of: not wanting to die, wanting to protect her family, or allowing herself and her power to be used by the invading country. In the end, Ruying thought she was doing the right thing because Antony was a much better option than his older brother, right? But when it comes to war, there never is a right choice and you never know who to trust. Throughout the entire story, it was hard to tell if he was a good guy and the right answer, or if he was just another bad option.

*Spoiler*
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There was some controversy early on due to the rumor of a "colonizer romance".

Although she admits she is attracted to him, it doesn’t get much farther than that.

And anyone who claims otherwise never finished reading the book.

To Gaze upon Wicked Gods by Molly X Chang, was given to me by Random House. It is about a young girl with magical power over death who becomes an assassin for the colonizing rulers. But I found it much more complicated than that. Molly Chang blends critique on colonization while presenting fantastical scenarios where the strongest way to promote rebellion is to learn the ways of the oppressors from the inside.
The story presents a reality where magic and science exist in parallel and only cross when the veil is forcibly ripped open. Many years before the start of the story, Rome used their scientific prowess to do exactly that and tore open their world and Pangu. They fail to see the local people as equals or even humans, and several unequal treaties have given the Romans exorbitant power. Ruying our female protagonist knows the Romans are responsible for the death of her father and her family’s decline, but as a young woman, she feels her only hope is to allow her grandmother to find her a husband outside of the capital. She despises her countrymen who work with the Romans but soon discovers that working with a prince, Antony Augustus, could be the only way to protect those she loves.
This was at first a challenging read. Ruying is an incredibly complex character given she fears her abilities and considers herself a coward. This isn’t exactly someone we expect to enjoy reading about. But as the story progresses, we realize that Ruying is a realistically flawed human being. Without Er-Langian expectations that daughters are meek, mild, and modest, she wouldn’t have been so susceptible to Antony’s open admiration for her deadly magic. Ruying needs to be broken exactly as she is to be the right tool for her prince’s plans.
Antony Augustus, the second prince of Rome and Ruying’s master is the supposed villain in this story. He is a very dark, unreliable narrator. We are not sure of his intentions. Antony believes his actions are justified, but he also willfully blinds himself to the harm he causes. The lies and half-truths he tells Ruying show that he is manipulative, causing her to feel extreme anger and betrayal. But he is also this young man who just wants someone to accept him and recognize his potential to be a ruler of the kingdom. Unfortunately, he just no longer knows how to interact honestly with anyone. It doesn’t excuse his actions, but it does help explain why he hides the truth from Ruying for so long.
Being a Western-educated, I had never heard about what happened in China during WWII. The description was heartbreaking and fascinating, and I wanted to learn more about what her grandfather had endured.
As engaged as I was from the start, it might have been more interesting to have a more reality-based story of Manchuria in this world as this was the inspiration for the story. Overall I gave this 4 stars and would recommend reading.

I really enjoyed this one! The ending was so well done. I will say that towards the middle of the book there was a bit of a lull. I was anticipating a bit more action but it came at the end! I’m excited to see where the second book takes us and what Yang ends up choosing to do.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing - Ballantine for the opportunity to read this book! All opinions are my own.

I loved this book! I didn’t want to put it down!

I thought the world building was beautiful and the story was incredibly interesting. The relationships between the characters were so complex and real as well.

Ruying’s character was so interesting and relatable to me. Her struggles and the lessons she learned felt so real and grounded, even though it was set in such a fantastical world. I also thought her power was such a unique choice. To have a power that is seen as evil and to work to not let yourself be evil for using it gave Ruying so many complex layers. Just wonderful!

I love fantasy and have read SO many books in this genre, and this one truly felt new and different. It was so refreshing and I cannot wait to read the next book in the series!

I would 100% recommend this book to any of my fellow fantasy lovers! You won’t be disappointed!

I received a a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and statements are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

The idea of the book and the first 25% were so promising, but overall, this was such a miss for me. Other reviewers have done a much better job talking about the various dimensions of the romance storyline that were less than great, particularly how calling this "enemies to lovers" is ... yikes. I also want to acknowledge that Chang was one of the BIPOC authors targeted by Cait Corrine's weirdo behavior, and again, other people in the book discourse world have done a better job talking about this than I ever could.
I understand what Chang was trying to do here, but it just did not work at all. Books that handle these themes better would include The Hurricane Wars, So Let Them Burn, and even The Poppy Wars (and I didn't love the Poppy Wars that much).
I guess my main problem beyond the colonizer romance aspect was how wishy washy and self-aggrandizing Ruying was and the flatness of the world and characters. Ruying isn't a dislikable MC because she is an anti-hero doing whatever it takes to save her family, she is annoying because she is ANNOYING and incredibly navel-gazing, and despite how much philosophizing she is constantly doing, she has zero brain cells for actual critical thoughts. Another issue I had was how many themes Chang brought into this that were done a disservice and not brought to fruition beyond Ruying telling us something at the very end, such as the idea of gender roles and the sister relationship. Ruying's power also made no sense to me.
Alas.

Oh how I wanted to love this book :(

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods was high on my anticipated 2024 releases, and with promises of a rageful, morally-gray heroine and commentary on Chinese colonial suffering, it had everything I should have loved. But for all its marketability and high concept, it fell remarkably flat on every element I could think of.

The story was not the world’s most original concept, but I’m always more than happy to overlook that if the book’s other elements are strong. Unfortunately, I couldn’t even get past the prose. Chang seems to go for a lyrical and flowery narrative style, but all the poetics amount to nothing more than empty calories that boost the word count and repeat the same idea (the Romans are the oppressive colonizers, the Er-Lang’ers are the wretched and oppressed) in a dozen different ways. To be sure, there are some well-written lines and sentiments that earned an annotation from me, but the overwhelming majority of the story is overtly-verbose. Even in the first scene between Ruying and Baihu, single pieces of dialogue are broken up by paragraphs upon paragraphs of Ryuing’s internal monologue, causing me to skim the pages just to find actual dialogue and character actions. Despite the action picking up in later chapters, I simply could not get past the prose.

Another thing this book suffers from is telling (not showing). I’m constantly told how wretched and oppressed the Er-Lang’ers are, but I’m rarely shown anything other than the standard slum setting, whorehouse scene, and impoverished beggars. Even a simple recounting of a horrific abuse committed against the Er-Lang’ers would have done wonders in *showing* me the oppression instead of just *saying* they’re oppressed.

Even the worldbuilding reads as thin and borderline lazy, with “Roman” being an oversimplified term for ambiguous white colonizer, undifferentiated cultures and ethnicities, and a confusing attempt at making an alternate China vs. ancient Rome world where China/Er-Lang is historically placed in the 15th century (referencing the Yongle Emperor) yet Rome somehow has aeroplanes. Much of the colonizer-colonized dynamic between the two ethnic groups seems to rely on unsubtle references to real life/historical white European-ethnic Chinese interactions. This reduced what could have been a powerful thematic commentary to an overly-simplistic retelling of actual world history, and much of the worldbuilding read as “history: fantasy edition.” Worst, despite being promised some interesting ethnic Manchurian rep, the Chinese-coded characters were all rolled into a vaguely Han Chinese culture that had little explanation for its discrepancies when compared to the alleged Yongle historicity. It was confusing to say the least.

Overall, as much as I wanted to like this book, I couldn’t bring myself to continue. Although there is probably a more generalized and less skeptical target audience, I am unfortunately not one of them. To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is an intriguing concept, but it is also frustratingly verbose and, at times, borderline preachy.

DNF’d at 22%

I really enjoyed this book! It had such a charm and I loved the main character's constant struggle to try to figure out what the best option to save her people. The magic system was so interesting and unique. I want to see where our main character goes in her journey to save her people.

Magic system was interesting. But felt the pacing was off with everything happening at the end. Did not like the romance. Could not resonate with the writing style as it felt more like it was telling and not showing

-Enemies to Lovers
-Strong FMC
-Slow Burn
-Morally-Grey Characters

This book definitely pulled me in, it's a great debut novel but there were some heavy undertones throughout the story. Beautifully written with a gorgeous cover. I would recommend this book on my socials with a more in depth review.

This was so good! I loved the combination of worlds with and without technology. The inner turmoil of power usage. The power dynamics. This was so well written and I can’t wait to have a physical copy!

4/5 Stars

I think this was a solid debut novel. The book ask us to imagine what would've happened if the Roman Empire continued to conquer and colonize the world, utilizing the magic that exists in China to continue this colonization.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods follows the journey of Ruying, who weilds death magic, and her desperation to keep it a secret. She strives to protect her freinds and family, evenutally agreeing to become an assassin. She eventually runs into our other main character, Antony, who is the Second Prince of Rome, when she steals from him. After her capture, they strike a deal which allows her to keep her family safe as long as she uses her magic at Antony's beck and call.

I really enjoyed the magic system in this book, and the slow-burn, enemies to lovers is a trope I will never get tired of. I can't wait to continue Ruying's story in the next book!

Read if you enjoy:

Enemies to Lovers
Strong FMC
Slow Burn
Morally-Grey Characters


Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.