The execution of To Gaze Upon Wicked Goods simply did not match its intent/description for me.

I did not like Ruying at all. Of course, this isn’t necessary to find a character compelling, but this was not the case. Ruying harps on the tension between taking advantage of her death-magic and preserving her morality, but she rarely seems conflicted by the choice; she always does what it take to survive, despite the repeated pleas of her sister Meiya and her revolutionary ideals. When Ruying’s friends prove their loyalty to their country and beg her to aid them, not their Roman oppressors, time and time again, Ruying frustratingly insists on siding with Rome.

I did not enjoy the romantic relationship between Ruying and her captor/Roman prince Antony, but I do think Chang provided ample interactions to explain their trauma bond. From Ruying’s perspective, we certainly access Antony’s comforting, protective side, though as a reader past the age of YA, I was not convinced. I enjoyed the moments in which their connection broached the dynamics of war, power, and duty.

These mediations, however, were lost in the murky worldbuilding. The two worlds?/countries? are polar opposites—Pangu represents life and magic, Rome science and superficiality—and Chang does little to deepen these depictions. I couldn’t decipher the nature of the veil between Pangu and Rome, as characters only alluded to it briefly, and then mainly to emphasize that only Rome possesses the technology to traverse it. I wanted much more background concerning Rome’s destruction of their home world, the mechanics of the portal, and the individual histories of both Rome and Pangu.

I was so disappointed by this book that the best part of it was how funny that ending was. Who calls courage to be something foolish? And who, in their right mind would be like "ah, yes I want to be foolish?" WHY NOT JUST SAY YOU WANT TO HAVE MORE COURAGE? It's like the author wanted to create a badass character and instead fell into all the worst stereotypes and fell for the oppressor, basically turning into a colonizer romance and the fact that we have to care about the love interest? (he should have died honestly) This book angers me by how disappointing and how the writing bored me to the point that I was skipping and skimming through it AND I still understood all the horrors that went on in the book which shows how predictable it is to. Were it up to me, I wouldn't even have given it a star.

e-ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

I’m going to be honest, I have very conflicted feelings about this book. On one hand, it’s a debut novel, so I’m inclined to give it some grace. The plot was interesting, with intriguing political schemes and mysteries twisted around the main conflict. I only wish we could’ve seen the main character and her magic in action more. (She murders so many people? But all of it’s off-page? What?) There were also some super interesting concepts that were only hinted at, like bits of mythology and the details of their magic, that were left as loose ends, hopefully for the sequel.

The writing also had a lot of potential. I wasn’t a huge fan of the style–there was a lot of info-dumping, repetition, and internal-monologuing, all in a bit of an overdramatic voice–but given it’s a debut, I’m not too upset about it! I particularly liked Chang’s use of metaphors and descriptions in weaving her world and its magic. (Which I also have mixed feelings about.)

The world of Pangu was super cool and had a really interesting magic system! I’m a sucker for magic based around some kind of element/theme like wind, fire, healing, or, in Ruying’s case, death, and the Asian-inspired mythology and world was awesome. But the invading world? Rome? That’s where she lost me. These places are different “worlds” (planets?) and I’m not sure if Rome is supposed to be Earth? Or some made up place? It feels like Earth? But…an alternate version of Earth? And they lean into the Roman theme (mostly with mythology and names) while having *incredibly* advanced technology, which was just disorienting? I don’t know, the explanations there just felt lacking, and I’d love to see it expanded upon in book 2!

Finally, like many other readers, the romance just didn’t sit right with me. (Mild spoilers ahead?) The author has said her intention was to make Ruying an unreliable narrator, and if this WAS the intention, it was done pretty well. The main character comes off frustratingly naive because of it. Stockholm syndrome to the extreme. The real problem is that this book was STILL marketed as a romance. By the author. Like if you’re genuinely recognizing that it’s an abusive and unhealthy relationship (which it is), it feels very weird to call it “enemies to lovers” as part of your marketing scheme? Idk.

Overall, this book had a lot of potential! It suffers from some common debut novel and YA book flaws, but it’s pretty decent otherwise. I’m not sure if I’m interested enough to continue the series, especially if the author continues with the “love-triangle”, but we’ll see!

A book with a very fascinating magic system that was really the thing that I loved most about this--and the thing that made me want to keep reading. Nothing else really drew me in.

I think I was suckered into reading this because I love the cover. I am always exited a story with political intrigue, and I loved the idea of the Girl touched by Death. I was gearing up for a cool assassin enemy to lover's type story. But that wasn't where it was going. It was more a power play of manipulation and weirdness. I limped through the first half of this book. I felt no connection to the characters, and I out right hated the prince character. If the romance was between the two of these characters, it wasn't something I wanted to read. Who wants to read about a guy that is fine if you get shot, leaves you in a cell for ever to suffer, tries to make you kill your family and innocent people for your 'training". The last straw was when he says he is like her cause he had to kill his family for power and money, and she should be Thankful he didn't really make her do it. Nope. Gross. Not for me. Who would want someone like that.
The writing was rough. It reminded me of Fifty Shades of Grey when every other line was "my inner goddess" only this was.
" the girl blessed by Death". The line was so overused. Her inner conflict of wanting to use the power but not using the power was muddled. I couldn't figure out the magic system. I was underwhelmed by the action scenes. The romance was just wrong on so many levels. The ages of the characters were supposed to be in their twenties, but girl and boy were used as if they were children.
I felt like Ruying was supposed to be this strong amazing heroine but found her sniveling and kind of annoying. I found the back story of her family weird. We see her bargaining for drugs for her sister and she has money but then a few chapters later she is so desperate for money she is stealing money for some random guy on the street. She is supposed to be doing all this stuff for her twin sister, but she is horrid. Her grandmother is marrying her off and she seems fine with that.
I found the world building lacking. I was very confused by when the Roman's came. I was confused of the make-up of the lands. I was confused by the Emperor. I found the technology and guns not my favorite. When I read fantasy and magic, I like to be drawn into that world and the guns/technology/drug use aspect just kept bring me out of the story and didn't fit with what I was thinking of this world.

I rarely DNF books but between the bad writing and over used phrases and heavy reliance on very tripe and over the top expression, the bad world building, characters I couldn't connect with and just over all not the story for me and I gave up at 50%.

This isn’t a bad book by any means and I don’t think it deserves the hate that it’s been given over the last couple of months. Because the writing isn’t bad at all. My issue with the book are solely with the characters themselves. I couldn’t connect with any of them. None of them were likable or redeemable in any way. There was a flatness there that made the book difficult to read and continue reading.

The concept was definitely interesting. Ruyings people are born with godlike powers and she and her twin are born with both life and death magic’s. The Roman part threw me off entirely. If the author had named them something else, anything else, this would be a total different book and story. I just couldn’t get over the fact that they were Romans of all things.

If this had been a story of a girl with godlike powers and a prince of a conquering nation this would have been a completely different story. But the characters lost me throughout and I won’t be continuing the series.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey books for the eARC of this title and to PRG Audio as always for the early listening copy.**

I really wanted to love this book based off the cover alone, and the synopsis grabbed me right from the start as well. Unfortunately, even with trying out different formats (digital & audio) this one really dragged for me.

I loved a lot of things about this story - the magic system was really cool and a lot of the gifts that people possessed were very unique. I also loved the magic vs. science battle that was riddled throughout this story.

Unfortunately the pacing just really brought this one down for me and I had a hard time staying invested in it. The magic system devolved a bit as the story went on as well, and I couldn't connect with any of the characters.

There was some great conversation woven into this book on politics, racism, and history - but I didn't find the FMC to be the best delivery system for this. I think this book definitely has it's audience, and fans of fantasy and political conflict should check this one out!

***Disclaimer*** A part of me thinks that I should not have to put in a disclaimer that this review is in no way biased against or for this book or author in light of recent events.

I cannot deny that I originally was interested in this story/book because I love to support AAPI/BIPOC authors, and the premise of the book was just as enticing. Simply, this book played into everything I love about books: fantasy, romance, Asian literature, including a FMC. However, I was left wanting. It has the potential to be a great story, but there were so many gaps and areas that needs to be addressed.

1. The FMC is so naïve and has poor character development.
2. The "romance" is such a poor description between the FMC and the "colonizer" who basically enslaves her to do his bidding (though I think the author addressed this in a statement).
3. The world and magic building is not well developed as well. Little to zero explanation of gods link to power. No explanation of where the "invaders" come from. It seems like the world of the FMC is so antiquated versus the invaders who come in with a ton of advanced technology (a similarity of Poppy Wars, explained more below).

I read this digital ARC while reading the Poppy Wars Trilogy and there were some similarities. "To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods" seemed to be a derivative of Poppy Wars, and flopped: the FMC is with a rare gift from the gods, FMC is a product of war/conquered lands, the NAMES were so similar that it's a bit too odd to be a coincidence, and both mentioned a similar God and how they will use the human utilizing the power/gift until they are no longer human or dead.

I normally do not read reviews of ARCs before reading them because I simply want to give them a fair review. Unfortunately, the recent events that occurred between the author and reviewers pushed me to read this sooner then planned, but still avoided reviews. However, after completing this ARC, I would agree with the overwhelming consensus that this book is not for me, nor do I feel that I would recommend others to read. I will state that I will not persuade or influence others NOT to read it, as others should form their opinion and may enjoy the story. At this point, I do not think I will continue reading the series at this time.

Always thankful to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book.

*I received an advanced copy for review.*

Ruying has Death magic and she’s trying to help her sister wean herself off opian. Ruying has pawned off many family heirlooms to purchase the drugs and on one drug buying escapade, she rashly steals gold from a Roman man who turns out to be a Roman prince. (The Romans are from another world, and they’ve invaded and subjugated Pengu.) The prince extracts an awful bargain from Ruying: she’ll be his personal assassin, supposedly with the goal of helping both their nations, and her family won’t be killed.

I think this is like a 3.5 that I’m rounding up to 4. I think it might have been a little higher, but I think this was a little slow for me to get into. At first I struggled with Chang’s writing style (I wasn’t in a fantasy mood when I picked it up the first time—so it’s on me not her) but then it grew on me. I like the idea of the story, and I’m pretty excited to see where the series is going because if it ends up going the direction I expect, I will love it. I am looking forward to seeing where this goes!

Thanks to Del Rey and Netgalley for the arc!

DNF’ing ~50%
There’s a lot of discourse about the morality of this book, but I’m not going to weigh in much because I have enough to say about the book on a craft level. In short, my take is: there is a tendency for folks online to expect all media to be morally perfect and that’s goofy. It’s also a reasonable to not want to read a book with a romantic lead who performs atrocities based on real historical events. Again, I didn’t finish it, so I can’t really comment on the fallout of the relationship or where it goes from here, but even if the story resolves in a very thoughtful and interesting way, I just can’t get past the world building.
First issue: magic vs. science. The Romans have science, Pangu has magic (sort of)- but it seems like what counts as each is very squishy- sky portal? Science. The narrative just kind of makes science ‘bad’ which annoyed me, too, because a lot of interesting stuff that can be said about the nuanced role of science in colonialism (e.g., Babel does this in presenting silver-working- it’s a tool wielded by the colonizing force but reliant on the skill of the colonized and the tension within fuels parts of the conflict), but I felt like the hard line between magic and science here made the book miss out on all that. Also, on the topic of science, because Chang is open about Pangu pulling from Chinese history and mythology- robbing China of its rich scientific history just pissed me off. (Gunpowder???? The book gives inventing that to the Romans???) The use of opium is clearly parallel to aspects of the Opium Wars and British colonization attempts, but Pangu only has bow and arrows. Instead of creating a full fantasy world (e.g. The Spear Cuts Through Water) or putting fantasy elements into the real world (e.g. Babel), this book tries to do both at various times. This can be done well (e.g. The Shades of Magic trilogy) and this sort of inconsistency doesn’t bother me in fluffier or firmly character driven works, but To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is trying to be an epic fantasy and those need solid world building to keep the reader from feeling unmoored.
Finally, why are they the Romans? Why?? They’re not the Ancient Romans, but they sort of are, based on names and aesthetics, but also they came through a portal, so they’re extra dimensional? Aliens? I love some false gods in a fantasy story, I love some mystery, but why are they called the Romans? Again, this engages the history part of my brain and I want to know how this society is connected to the Rome we know about, but the story is more interested in the romance and repeating the same ideas about Ruying’s power over and over. I’ve been having more issues recently with books seeming like they needed another editing pass and I do wonder if the pace of the publishing cycle right now has been hurting authors (and readers) with the attention to editing.
TLDR; messy world building and repetitive writing focused on a romance that, even with morality put to the side, I found uninteresting.
Instead, I’m going to pop in a little recommendation for The Space Between Worlds as a book that delivered the sort of morally complex main character who makes bad decisions because she’s put in tough places that I was hoping for here (down to the messy romantic history with a terrible man!) It’s SF with fun world building and interesting commentary about the exploitative nature of the modern tech landscape but also some Mad-Max-esque road warriors and some classic self-destructive sapphic pining.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eArc of the book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I picked this title for my store's book club before I ever read it because it sounded and looked good, I only got the arc for it later.
And now that I have finished it? I am so very glad I picked this title. It was a gamble, but it worked out and I hope everyone in the book club ends up liking it as much as I did.
The book is very political, something I don't always enjoy. But the way the author presented it was unique and kept me engaged. To pit magic against science might not be a new idea, but the way presented here felt that way. The characters felt real. No one is always good or always bad. The way the author presented Anthony, Ruying, her sister, and Baihu made them feel realistic and approachable, I would say they are all morally gray characters. All doing what they believe to be the right thing. I am interested to know where the story goes from here and I hope the author doesn't simply turn on Anthony on the next book. He is not a good man, but Ruying has chosen to close an eye and kill many, she is not good either. They are all in a way, being selfish.

My only criticism would be the 6 or so month skip in Ruying's life. It left a big hole in the story. Somewhat and somehow during those 6 months she develops a bond with her captor? It's odd.

Thank you & credits to NetGalley & Random House Publishing for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review of the book. I would like to note that no outside influences have impacted my review of this book and is rooted within my thoughts of the book and those alone.
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Before I get started, I want to say that this book is not at all what I expected. Looking at the cover, I assumed it would be a whimsical romance about a powerful fmc who uses her powers to combat the evil overtaking her country-- it definitely was not that. This book was much heavier than I expected, which was revealed early on in the author's note (which was a nice heads-up). I also was expecting to initially be introduced to our promised friends-to-lovers trope, which we... were not.

The world-building and the introduction of the characters, though it felt rough in some areas, was overall a very smooth execution. It didn't feel like we were being fed too much world-building at once. The inclusion of various elements of Chinese folklore (though in some areas became a bit repetitive), felt enriching and refreshing to the experience.

Ruying, our main character, is a young girl forced to grow up far too soon in order to protect her family and care for her loved ones. She wields the power of death at her fingers, a taboo magic that comes with a hefty price, making it something Ruying only uses in extreme emergencies. She makes deals with shady people, who have also been forced to become something they never wished to be, in the face of the destruction and colonization of their country.

With this book, the author successfully creates for readers the experience of a morally grey, unreliable narrator who consistently makes bad decisions in the face of hard decisions and even more difficult situations. From the very first moment, we see Ruying is not righteous, is not a person who sees things in black and white. That's clear from the very first moment at the very beginning of the book, where she steals from the Romans. As readers are led deeper into Ruying's psyche and the story develops, her morals appear to become even more unclear.

This book has potential, that's for sure.

Some things I didn't like:
This book has so much potential that it kind of hurts to rate it so low. The premise was wonderful, a magical, powerful girl fighting against the colonization and devastation of her people, and making a deal with a bad man to save her family? Sign me up.

But then things went wrong. Despite the wonderful ideas, I just could not get behind the writing style, so much that finishing this book was a struggle. I think another reviewer has already mentioned this, but the over-use of sentence fragments made this book pass at a snail's pace. And the use of "Rome" as the name of a kingdom in a fantasy novel? Yeah...

Not to mention, it felt like there were constant contradictions everywhere, even from sentence to sentence. Ruying is initially described as earth-shatteringly powerful, but at a steep, steep cost. Someone who would do anything to fiercely defend her people. But in the next second, she's helpless (which I get, because she's one girl that cannot single-handedly stand up to the overpowering military forces and technology of an invading group), cannot act out, and must do the bidding of Anthony while he actively harms her people??? It's a rough situation, I get that, but it just seems over the top. That immediately stood out to me at the beginning of the book. And then with the other contradictions, and it just felt like it hadn't been edited properly (which, seeing as this is an ARC, will hopefully be rectified!!!).

This doesn't even go into the biggest issue with the book, how we're led to believe Ruying is going to fall in love/end up with a horrible person who literally tortured her, blackmailed her, and is actively terrorizing her people. This book was marketed as being "friends to lovers" so I'm going to go ahead and assume that he isn't the final love interest, but that still doesn't alleviate the things he's done? There are so many young impressionable people that are going to read this book and romanticize their relationship, even if it isn't going to end up as cannon. I definitely couldn't really get behind that. But ignoring the giant well of the horrible things this man has done, can we talk about how useless he is as a potential partner anyways? This man has not a single protective or caring instinct in his body. Everything was clearly because of his intent to use and manipulate her.

Oh, and also: Was anyone else getting like occasional vague flashbacks to The Poppy War?

First of all, I’d like to thank Del Rey and Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a faster paced and entertaining debut, a read that packs a decent amount of action into less than 400 pages. Our main character goes through challenging and grueling circumstances under the tyranny of an occupying regime. She must reconcile what she knew vs what she learns along her journey; and how helping out those you love while staying loyal to family and country under the yoke of an tyrannical occupier looks very different on both sides, and both perspectives. Lastly she quickly learns that not everything is as cut and dry and the MC originally thought; that every action has both consequences can you can try to plan for, and ones that take you completely by surprise.

Those are a few of the many themes the author tackles in this book among others that you’ll discover as you read, in my opinion they were handled well while adding to the story by providing additional insight or history without detracting from the plot or resorting to an info dump. Overall this was a fairly strong debut and earns a 4/5 from me.

They say never judge a book by its cover, but that was the first aspect that drew me in! You can feel all the idealism, strength, and pain detailed throughout the story. This complex read will have you questioning historical relationships and the quality of life. Ruying’s magic pushes her to be sometimes rash and quick to make ill-advised decisions. The world jumping was a bit hard to follow. Enemies to lovers is the way to go though I felt Ruying deserved better than falling the way she did. The ending!? I look forward to the second installment of Molly's work!

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is ultimately a mismatch of intent versus impact. I was looking forward to a China-inspired fantasy world with a strong-willed female main character. I was left disappointed with the overall reading experience in this book, but am hopeful for better additions to the series to come.

Ruying, a girl blessed with the power of death, must make impossible choices to protect herself and her family as she watches the world she loves descend into chaos. Years ago, Romans from another world came from a portal in the sky to colonize a fresh planet. The world of Pangu has not been the same. When Ruying is taken captive, she must decide between fighting and dying for her people or becoming a weapon for the enemy to protect those she loves most.

Even before reading this e-arc, there was a mismatch in the intention behind some of the marketing decisions and the impact they created on the reading experience. Originally, this was marketed as childhood-best-friends-to-lovers. Then it was marketed as enemies-to-lovers. I believe the former is representative of where the series is heading, but the latter is much more representative of the individual book's romance arc. Even still, there are issues with labeling this as an enemies-to-lovers romance at all. The relationship displayed has abuse, blackmail, and a colonizer/oppressed dynamic. I had hope that the story would become a commentary on these abhorrent aspects, but the attempt to do so near the end felt like too little too late to make an impact. I was already uncomfortable and put off by the overall dynamic.

There was a mismatch with the intention laid out plainly in the author's note and the impact of the theme written on the page. Taking inspiration from Unit 731 - a trauma experienced by the author's own family and ancestors - set this up to have strong anti-war, anti-colonialism, and anti-oppression themes. But by introducing the romantic arc with the oppressor, the author negated the intended impact. Instead of focusing on the atrocities committed by Rome and their modern day counterparts, I was left confused by the self- and community-deprecating monologues and actions of Ruying.

There are also glaring craft issues in this novel that did exacerbate the issues above. A few of these include: poor pacing, weak scene transitions, infodumping, excessive internal character monologues, overuse of incorrect sentence structure for stylistic impact (Think. Sentences. Like this. Over. And over.), and heavy repetition to state themes.

The majority of the book is incredibly slow. Painfully slow, even. The story does not pick up and become interesting until about 75% of the way through. The last quarter of the book is very promising and gives me hope for better additions to the series that carry the intended thematic impact the author has presented. However, this book on its own has too many issues for me to recommend it.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

**Many spoilers ahead:

I honestly had to push myself to finish this one. I think (hope) that the author just didn't do a great job of getting her point across and/or the theme will be developed more in the next book, but overall the theme of this book seemed to be pro-colonialism, which is a weird choice. The main character very easily decided to become a traitor and work as an assassin for the group of people that are oppressing her country? world? (I honestly don't know what to call it because there is zero world-building, but I'll get to that later). Then at every instance of her friends/family being like "yo, these are the bad guys. You aren't protecting us, we would rather die than on the side of the oppressors," Ruying is like "lol okay, but I'm going to keep making the absolute worst decisions because my captor is cute." I kept hoping that we were just waiting on Ru having her epiphany, but that never really happened. We started to get there towards the end and MAYBE it'll happen in book two, but who knows and I'm no longer hopeful.

Back to the world building, there is none. It took me until halfway through the book to figure out that Rome is a different planet than Pangu. They would off-handedly talk about "on the other side of the veil" but didn't give any descriptions as to what that means. The reader is kind of left to just figure it out. Rome is supposed to be a more scientifically advanced world that doesn't have magic and ruined their own planet through climate change and are now trying to exploit Pangu for its resources. Rome being "scientifically advanced" is incredibly vague. They never say what advancements they have except for basic technology (guns, ships, etc.). Whenever it is referenced, it's simply called "science". "How are we supposed to beat them when they have science?" "Rome will use the power of science to take over our world." What do you mean?? I desperately needed more background information.

As for the characters, Ruying was naive and so stupid that it was unbelievable and annoying. The prince literally kidnaps her, locks her in a cell, blackmails her, threatens to kill everyone she loves, suppresses her magic, electrocutes and tortures her, and she's still going mushy over him because he's cute?? She'll literally be talking about all these awful things he's doing and saying and then end it with something along the lines of "but his eyes softened when he looked at me." Okay, so?? This is not a morally grey man, this is literally your oppressor. Then their romance developed in the weirdest way possible. The book is pretty much completely Ru monologuing, but there isn't really development of the romance from Antony's side at all (not that I wanted there to be, trust me I hated that this was even an aspect to this book). He's literally her oppressor and doesn't do anything to seem like he's actually a nice guy, except for give her a hug after he MAKES HER MURDER PEOPLE and she swoons. Be so fucking for real. It's bizarre and gives off middle school girl thinking her history teacher is in love with her or some shit. The entire romance aspect was so cringey and gross. Ru is so smitten by this prince that she turns her back on her family and friends (who are the only reasons she's supposedly doing this anyway?) and sells out her own people. Her childhood best friend (Baihu) comes and tells her that he's a spy, tells her how horrible the prince is, and shows her actual evidence of his evil-doings and she literally tells him that she doesn't care. The book starts with her hating Baihu for being a traitor but now she's the actual traitor and is totally fine with it?

Another horribly problematic portion of this book is the connection to Unit 731. The author mentions Unit 731 in her letter at the beginning of the book and how it is connected to her family. Unit 731 is a real historical event of tortuous human experiments. When this gets revealed in the book, it's made obvious that Prince Antony is the one in charge of this and has been doing these experiments for years, including on Ru's very good friend (who Ru watches die from these experiments, by the way). This book, which is marketed as an enemies to lovers romance, has the romance they want us to root for between an oppressed person and the oppressor that is carrying out these experiments on her people. That is so deeply problematic and disgusting. Again, Antony is not morally grey, he's straight up a bad man. It would be one thing if this book was being marketed as an abusive relationship or made it obvious in any way that this is not a good dynamic, but no, it's romanticized and wants the reader to root for this very disturbing couple. Colonizer romances in 2024 is insane.

I could go on for much longer, but I think my main points are made. Obviously I don't recommend this book.

This was one of my highly anticipated reads for 2024. The cover is absolutely stunning! I’m usually drawn to book covers, and I couldn’t resist this one. Unfortunately, I feel a bit underwhelmed.

I found the world-building in this book to be quite confusing. New elements are primarily introduced through Ruying’s inner monologue which felt very prescriptive. As a reader, we are being told things vs. shown.

The pacing felt off with lots of pauses to explain external factors contributing to the current scene.

Even though Ruying narrates this story, I still feel like I don’t even know her? The writing is so flowery and repetitive that I consistently lost focus. As a result, I failed to connect with her at all.

While there were some redeeming qualities, I don’t see myself continuing the series.
My rating: 2.5⭐️

I extend my sincere thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey Books for providing me with a digital review copy.

Firstly, a HUGE thank you NetGalley for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was my very first ARC and I was SO excited to read it! As an Asian American, science nerd, and avid bookworm, I was insanely hyped when I was approved for this. The novel is an amazing concept– a war between scientific advancement and Asian culture and history. To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is a colonizer v. colonized, oppressor v. oppressed, novel. These heavy topics and intricately nuanced conversations must be approached with caution and reverence in writing.

Which, unfortunately, To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods did not do.

The romance between the two MCs felt rushed and underdeveloped (nonexistent). Which, when taking into consideration the undercurrent of colonialism, made me pretty uncomfortable to read.

As a whole, I felt that the novel was underwhelming and difficult for me to read. I really really REALLY wanted to love this one, but

1) romanticized colonialism?
2) the world building left a little to be desired (what is “Rome”? Is it the same as our Rome? What kind of “science” do they have?)
3) The Prose. Was. Very.
Dramatic.
At times.
4) I really hate when authors use modern slang or pop culture references in fantasy novels. :(

I think one of the most uncomfortable aspect of this book for me was the depiction of Unit 731– a REAL LIFE EVENT– being utilized as plot development and characterization. I personally feel like there are lines we should not cross (even as authors and readers), and using true horrific deaths to push the plot of your fantasy world is one of them.

While the novel and universe had a TON of potential, I was ultimately left uncomfortable with the dynamic, actions, and the prose was (at times) borderline purple. Finally, I think the ‘relationship’ between our MCs should be marketed as a DARK romance, not a typical fantasy/romantasy relationship.

A very sad and disappointed 1/5 stars. :( Really wanted to like this one.

Thank you netgalley for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

I really hoped that this would be the next fantasy romance. But it felt underwhelming. I was dying to read it. It didn't pain me to put down, which is when I know a fantasy romance is IT. The writing didn't wow me, the characters didn't wow me, and the romance definitely didn't wow me. I feel quite sad that it didn't live up to my excitement. Was it bad? No. But it wasn't incredible or great.

3/5 ⭐

What an engrossing read! The main character's moral struggles in the tumult of war and peace felt so real, even if I found myself struggling to root for her at times. Plus, the pacing was spot-on, keeping me hooked from start to finish. While the world-building was so very unique and fun, I found myself craving even more vivid descriptions. I enjoyed the magic system, and really appreciated the prose. I’m buzzing with excitement for what’s next from this author! Thank you for the opportunity to read it!