First, thank you to the publisher and netgalley for providing me with the e-ARC.
And I need to say it again: I NEED BOOK 2 and need to slap Antony’s face.

I started reading it before all the propaganda from publisher and author herself and to be honest, I think the marketing is giving out FAKE PROPAGANDA. because I got so confused when I looked at the tropes, some of which I didnt noticed in the book.

I took my time in reading it because the first part is all about MC explaing how her world (and family) ended up in the current situation. But it is kind of obvious what is going to happen next; one of the foreign princes is going to use her as a weapon while both of them spend more time together.

not going to lie. I really laughed reading how the foreigns, the people from the other world that want to set their own people there are called ROMANS. Rome was one of the greatest empires of all time, and of course, europeans. But the explanation about how people from Pangu thought these foreigners were gods, I was like “I read this story before… in SCHOOL”, as someone who grew up in Mexico, I read a lot of times the colonization of Mexico, of how Europeans arrived in Mexico and all indigenous groups thought the Spanish were gods because of how different they looked, and treated them like gods until they found out their true intentions and at the end, the spanish betrayed them.

So, MC, Ruying is all time thinking that she shouldnt be doing what she is doing because she knows the Romans are the enemy of her people. And Antony is falling in love with Ruying, but… is he? or is he developing an obsession over her and her power? I really doubt Ruying is in love, as a lot of people in other reviews are saying. you all need to finish the book! even the title of BOOK2 says all, big spoiler!

Also, there are details that are not well described but I think is because this is her DEBUT book. and probably I got used to the excessive details from other authors. I hope Molly grows her ability to write good stories and give us a great conclusion for this and better stories for the future.

This book had so much potential. The world, the rebellion, and the characters were all interesting. It is weird that there is a made up country vs. A real empire , but in modern day. The romance ruined it. I agree with the other reviewers that it is a colonizer romance. There are no redeeming qualities in Antony. He has the power to save her friend after she asks and he chooses not to; he is delusional about how his want for power is different than his family’s; he allows her to be harmed and suffer; he only sees her country as something to possess; he uses her over and over again for his own benefit; the list goes on. The only way it would work is if she becomes a villain as well. But the whole book has been building her up to not be the villain, it would be a complete change in her character. Maybe the sequel can redeem it by having them just be rivals and adding in another love interest that is Roman, but not with all the power and control.. It is also unbelievable that they have been colonized for so long and learned nothing of science. The two stars is for the potential it had.

2.75 stars
——————

I’m not quite sure how I feel about this one. I really wanted to like it, but I just couldn’t do it.

The enjoyed the premise of the book, this idea of magic vs. science. But nothing about it felt unique when compared to other books that pit the same against each other. The plot was kind of slow to develop. There is a decent amount of world building that happens early on, which had its pros and cons. The world is well established, but it was a lot to get through with the already slow pacing of the book. There is a lot of telling and not showing when it comes to the action. When you hear magic, you expect a certain degree of action. But this one skims over the magic systems, making it hard to connect to the core of the story. Ruying is touched with the gift of “Death,” but her powers are glossed over and not explained well. It's frustrating, given how important her powers are to the overall plot. The writing was okay, but didn’t flow nicely.

The characters are hard to connect with. Antony was kind of mid at best, the quintessential villain in plain sight. I disliked how you knew what was coming from him, as it made the “twist” pretty predictable. Ruying was especially frustrating. She gives up all her morals and beliefs in a single chapter to work for the enemy under the guise of staying alive. But she is established as this strong, “death before all” type of character very early on. So her storyline felt out of place. I disliked her romantic feelings for Antony, especially, as they were extremely Stockholm Syndrome-y. She essentially fell for her captor/colonizer? Ick.

This was a high expectations book that just fell short. Probably won’t carry on with the series.

I’m not sure how I feel about the book. I feel like it has a lot of potential but im finding it hard to connect with the characters. I’m also not liking that there’s a romance developing between the oppressed and the colonizer. He may not be the main love interest but I’m not sure
I don’t think the book is for me but I’m sure many others will enjoy it

This dark fantasy captivated me with its morally gray characters and brutal world. Ruying's journey of revenge kept me hooked, even when the love interest seemed undeserving. I can't wait to see where the sequel takes this unique magic system and its consequences.

I'll admit, I didn't even need to read the full description of this book to be intrigued. Beautiful cover art? Check. Cool title? Check. Main character blessed by Death? I'm all in. Ruying's country has been in conflict with the invading Romans for her entire life. Her city is under occupation, and her people starve or suffer under opian addictions. After a chance encounter with Prince Antony Augustus, she finds herself captured as part of a city-wide roundup and forced to use her powers of Death for the Romans. The set up for the plot seemed to have a lot of dissonant parts (The Romans have planes and guns? Will there be actual gods at some point?), but rather than being off-putting, Chang's storytelling made me confident that all the parts would be woven together into something very new and very cool. There is so much tension in this book: Science vs. Magic, Peace vs. War, Roman culture vs. Chinese culture, and Doubt vs. Trust, and I really enjoyed how Chang used these conflicts to inform her characters' motivations and actions. Without getting into spoilers, I did feel like Ruying and Antony's relationship was a little forced (and not a little Stockholm-syndromish), but the nature of their relationship and how it changes over time is pivotal to the plot, By the end of the book, I still had quite a few questions (How did the Romans get there in the first place? Who is the Phantom?) and I'm hopeful that we'll get more backstory and more fast-paced action in the next book. I'm excited to see what comes next in the Saga of Ruying!

I received a copy through NetGalley for review.

Let me firstly say I could not finish this one. I think this might be the first time I had to actually stop, and it’s not for the reasons most others seem to disagree with it.

I made it through a bit more than 50%, but it was the plot, premise and pacing I have issue with.
Ruying is the MC, a young woman blessed with the powers of death, the ability to kill and absorb people’s energy into herself to heal in a fight.
Her parents are dead, sister addicted to Opian, a drug brought from another world, when the empire of Roam pierced their world through a portal.

It’s set in a version of the future where Rome was never defeated and died out, they are the main power in this the other plane, they are more powerful, ruthless and destructive with the reach of modern horrors as weapons. Which they already unleashed on this world for the most part.

The inhabitants of this world, some are blessed by magic from the gods, but those with strong powers are becoming less and less over the last generation. Rome brought Opian, an addictive drug that increases the power in those with them. But those who use their powers often shorten their lives to use the powers. She wanted to save her sister and protect her Grandmother.

Ruying gets rounded up in a raid and told to show her power to be useful or die.
She is claimed by the younger prince of Roam to be his personal Assassin.

One of the phrases that kept coming up was “guns are faster than powers” which doesn’t match up with any other series I’ve ever read that combines modern weapons vs. magic and it was driving me nuts.

And at 50% read and we’re just starting to get off the ground? There wasn’t much explanation of how Rome got there, nothing about their culture, or plane of existence. Why they were there. An occupied country for 20 years would know right?

There were just too many holes, maybe honing this or editing would have helped more to rein it in. I just couldn’t keep going, and I’d read almost everything.

It had potential, but fell really flat.

Thanks to netgalley and Molly X Chang for the advanced copy for my honest review.

I would give this a 3.5/5, but I'm going to round up to 4.

I liked some pieces of her writing style. However, the format was weird. The pacing was kind of all over the place, and the main character is complicated but dumb. I thought the romance was going to be good when I thought the romantic interest was someone else. The colonizer romance didn't really sit right with me, plus we even got 1 random chapter with his point of view.

Overall, it was an easy read, and I don't regret reading it. I will probably give the sequel a chance when it comes out to see if it gets better. I did love the concept and am intrigued to see where they go from here..

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The first half of the book was exquisite. The attention to detail, the world-building, the pace. Molly knocks it out of the park each and every time but once you hit a certain point, it's all just a swing and a miss.

As others have said a supposed love interest out of a colonizer and oppressor is a weird place to take this, when by her own admission, the historic context for this is deeply personal to the author. I don't know what the plans are for this obvious start to a series, but I shouldn't have to have access to the bigger picture to make the first book palatable.

The stakes are high, to be clear, but the fact that the main character is able to justify horror to herself for any length of time just makes her seem weaker than the rest of the cast. She was faced with a hard choice to be fair but the concessions she had to make in the meantime are odd. Go ahead and lump an Emperor into that too. There's being silent in the face of something bigger than you, and then there's whatever this is. The end is a big ole bummer that relies too heavily on you going into the next book to redeem anyone. And I don't know how many of us can realistically do that.

I think the message got confused in what could have otherwise been a home run.

I found "To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods" to be an interesting story and enjoyable read; however, I can understand why not all readers feel the same. Some readers commend its intricate world-building, exploring themes of war, addiction, and a nuanced magic system. However, others find the initial pacing slow and repetitive, struggling to connect with the morally ambiguous protagonist, Ruying. The narrative gains momentum with intense action sequences and moral dilemmas but falters with rushed plot transitions and a lack of character depth. Despite mixed reviews, the novel's compelling concept, captivating setting, and engaging magic system keep readers guessing, making it a worthwhile (even if imperfect) read.

What an interesting book! It felt very fresh for me and I seem to have fallen into an Asian myth/history inspired rabbit hole. The author is a stunning writer and I will absolutely be checking out what she does next. I really appreciate that she has taken something from her family’s history and has inspired her work. As someone who also comes from an immigrant family background, this really resonated with me, even though our families are not from similar cultures. Will be recommending a lot and this will make perfect gifts for upcoming friends’ birthdays!

This was an absolute delight to read! The feminine rage and desperation woven in with evil fake gods that dominate a culture that isn’t theirs is just fabulous. I absolutely loved this and can’t wait for more from this author!

What would you be willing to sacrifice for your family? Ruying must decide to use her destructive magic to save her family from poverty and ruin. But what does that decision do to her?

Thanks to #NetGalley for a review copy of #ToGazeUponWickedGods.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods gives us a true morally gray character in Ruying. She's an assassin, but she's doing it for the right reasons. Right? Or is she serving the ultimate evil? Seeing her struggle with this question and trying to figure out who she should really trust makes this book really interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes from this first book. I really love Ruying's character and her power is almost sentient, which gives the story greater depth. My only issue with this book was that it seemed to move too slowly and I went through times when I caught my skimming the page just to get to the next thing. A big part of that is my own reading preferences. I don't do well with lyrical or flowery language, which this book actually does really well.

If you enjoy YA fantasy with a twist on political intrigue, social hierarchies, and wartime betrayal - and a dash of romance - this book is probably one you'll want on your TBR.

If I can impart any single piece of information with this review, it’s this: do not read the author’s note until you’ve finished the book.

Usually, I wouldn't mention this since the author’s notes are at the end of the book but for some reason, this one is placed at the very beginning (at least in the ARC I read). (If I can speculate, I think the author’s note was placed at the start of the book to preemptively assuage concerns from the reader about the villain/protagonist romance.)

The author’s note mentions one specific historical event that will basically spoil the plot twist and ending of the book. It certainly did for me.

Now on to reviewing the actual book.

The worldbuilding in this book is pretty rough. There are huge info-dumps in the first few chapters and a lot of clunky expository dialogue where characters bring up things (eg: past history, in-universe historical events, etc) that they both already know and are aware that the other person knows too.

I found myself becoming increasingly irritated and annoyed by the main character, Ruying, as the book went on. Her thoughts are extremely repetitive and take up so much of the book. We almost never learn anything new about Ruying, about the world, about any of the characters from these internal monologues. That would already be bad enough but her actions also frequently and inexplicably go against her repetitive internal monologue that immediately preceded it. We will literally have pages of her thoughts (rehashing the same thing as the last chapter and every chapter before that) followed by her acting the complete opposite of how she was just thinking. This makes it feel as if her thoughts are completely irrelevant to the story and only there to fill space. For example, <spoiler> Ruying is given a “test” by Antony before becoming his assassin where she is required to kill someone without her powers. She has already agreed to be his private assassin in the previous chapter and we’ve spent pages upon pages being walked through her thought process in coming to this decision. We’re told again and again that she is willing to do ANYTHING to protect her sister and grandmother. And then when she is given the gun to kill this person, she just… refuses. The author knows that Antony is going to give her one more chance to prove herself to him because she’s writing the damn thing but Ruying has no reason to believe that. She believes that Antony is going to kill her on the spot for her refusal (and then kill her sister and grandmother) because that is what he has basically promised to do. So why does she refuse? WHO KNOWS because it goes against everything she has been thinking up to this moment. </spoiler> Ruying’s repetitive internal thoughts are only aggravated by the prose which frequently uses choppy sentences to emphasize things. Like this. And again. And again.

This book also has a pacing problem. Approximately 30% of the book occurs between when Antony first asks her to become his private assassin and her actually agreeing to it. It’s just pages and pages of her having the same circular arguments with herself, her self-hating internal monologue, and Antony repeating the same “just trust me, it’s for the greater good” line. And after all of this, once she actually becomes Antony’s private assassin, <spoiler> we don’t even get to see her first assassination and the aftermath of it. We don’t get to see the first 48 assassinations because they’re all glossed over in a single chapter. </spoiler>

Ruying is not a morally gray protagonist. She’s just a somewhat naive, vaguely stupid, and extremely self-loathing one. I was so disappointed by how the narrative bends itself backward to ensure that Ruying is never actually given a real choice and thus never makes the morally gray (or even outright horrific) choice. For example, we’re told early on that Ruying is scared of using her Gift because of a traumatic event from her childhood. <spoiler> Did she kill another child with her Gift because she was angry/upset and 7-year-olds don’t have impulse control and can’t comprehend the concept of death? No, that would be actually morally gray. Instead, let’s have another child literally try to murder her with their Gift and have Ruying act only in self-defense. But we’ll just make her hate herself for it and call it morally gray. </spoiler> Ruying’s Gift is literally the ability to kill anyone and she <spoiler> NEVER kills a single person before she is forced to. Before Ruying becomes Antony’s assassin and notwithstanding the childhood incident, she NEVER kills someone with or without her powers. She just temporarily incapacitates them. She never even wants to kill someone or thinks about killing someone. </spoiler>

Ruying is doing what I can only describe as a stupid version of Pascale’s wager. In this world, many people believe that magical powers (referred to as a Gift) are blessings from the gods and that emperors are descendants of the gods. Ruying basically alternates between not believing in these myths and following superstition “just in case.” It becomes clear that customs/superstitions are important to Ruying only when the plot needs her to not take the obvious course of action and are basically ignored when not needed as a plot device. It makes the world feel very fake and hollow.

The main tension in the story is this: Ruying agrees to assassinate members of the anti-colonial resistance to prevent a doomed revolution rather than have herself and her family killed. Has she made the correct decision?

The arguments made against Ruying’s decision (made by Ruying herself, her sister, Baihu, etc) are convoluted, contradictory, and laughably weak. Billions of people in the real world have lived under colonialism and imperialism at some point in time. There have been serious ethical and moral arguments made against collaborating with the colonial occupying power. The author chooses to have her side characters make none of them. Instead, they are portrayed as overly emotional, hysterical, borderline suicidal, and idealistic. In particular, the arguments between Ruying and her sister are ridiculous. I got the feeling that everything the characters say during an argument is written to lead to a pre-determined ending instead of attempting to portray real human interaction. I simply can’t believe that this wasn’t intentional on the part of the author to allow Ruying to wallow in self-pity while leading the reader to the conclusion that Ruying has no other choice. Ruying constantly berates herself for being a coward and a traitor but never ever tries to think of a way out of her situation. The plan that Ruying comes to at the very end of the book (after the plot twist) should have been one of the first things she (and anyone else for that matter) thought of. But the author goes to great lengths to avoid having any character bring up this option before that final scene.

I’m also not sure why this book was written as YA because I frequently felt that the genre was constraining the content/tone of the story. This is supposed to be an extremely violent and grim colonial/imperialist regime but so much if it is described vaguely or occurs off-page. Ruying is 19 years old, Antony is 20 years old, and Baihu is 20 years old. There is no reason why it couldn’t be an adult fantasy book.

I enjoyed the book, and I'd recommend it. It's not my favorite, but I think it's interesting and tells a good story.

The first 20% was mostly world-building about the war and occupation, the terrible effects of opian addiction, and a bit about the magic system. While the author’s note set my expectations for historical influence, I still felt like the beginning was a little slow, depressing, and repetitive.

When Ruying and the prince struck their bargain, the pace shifted between short intense action sequences, slow repetitive discussions about war and morality, and Ruying’s internal turmoil.

I struggled to get into a rhythm with this book. It was bleak, without hope. The morally gray MC was hard to root for because while I sympathize that she was trapped by an impossible situation, she didn’t try to discover the truth of the prince’s character or to learn more about the political manipulations at play. She was constantly ashamed yet arguing with others about her righteous actions. She eventually learned the truth only when others forced her to.

I also couldn’t get on board with the romantic tension between her and the prince, even after the abrupt POV shift to him for one chapter at the 85% mark.

Overall, the concept was interesting but I couldn’t connect enough with the characters.

Thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey for the ARC.

So I did enjoy parts of this story though it did drag a bit.

I’m thinking this may not be my cup of tea but maybe others will like it.

I liked Ruying in the beginning but then my dislike of her began to take precedence and it made it hard to reconnect to the story. I do understand her actions.. sort of. Maybe. Some of them.

Was not a fan of any of the potential love interests. After the ending, it may not be the love triangle that I thought.

I actually liked Ruying’s sister more than her 🙈

I wish we had more information about the gods and I’m hoping that’ll be touched on more in book 2 since this is showing it’s a series.

Good news: there really isn’t a cliff hanger.

Also, the POVs: it was mainly Ruying but there were randomly 2 others and the one I could sort of understand.. the other POV I felt was unnecessary bc it only happened once. If we would’ve had a couple more POVs in this person’s dialogue.. it would’ve made more sense.. but I digress.

Will I read the sequel? Hm, I’m not sure. It really just depends.
Do I recommend this? Maybe. I think others will def like this but personally, it’s not my cup of tea.

I really enjoyed this book, I did feel like it was too fast in some spots like when it jumped 6 months seemingly out of the blue. I’m definitely buying this when it comes out and have already recommended his book to others. I loved the setting and the magic system! It definitely kept me reading through the whole book and kept me guessing.

I received an eARC of this book through NetGalley.

Unfortunately, I have decided to leave this book unfinished at 56%. I have read through the end of chapter 26, but have found that I am struggling to have interest in the rest of the story. It is a story with lots of potential, but there is little action and too much telling and explaining. The main character has spent the majority of the book discussing her decisions, and continues to waver and doubt herself over and over again. It is uninspiring to me and I find it hard to connect with her. As a result, I am not interested in finding out what will be happening next.

I really wanted to like this book. It reads much like a historical fiction, and the magic system is unique. I can see some types of readers really enjoying the story and the world rich in culture and conflict. But that person isn't me.

Thank your for the opportunity to read this book, and I look forward to more opportunities to review new books.