This was definitely a different type of Asian inspired literature. A mash up of Asian folklore, science fiction, and fantasy, it made it difficult to reconcile the two worlds in the book but it was still an entertaining read. And while I had issues with Ruying falling for her captor, I do realize this is a fiction book and written for entertainment.

Reading about how Rome has destroyed their planet emphasizes what we are doing to our planet currently, and where we’re headed if we don’t stop the abuse asap. This is a major theme of this book. The consequences are that this Roman civilization invades another world through a portal and looks for ways to save their world by destroying the world they’ve just invaded. What follows is a tale of a captive magic user who falls for her captor and does his bidding, not realizing she is destroying her world even further.

A sad tale, but still full of action and entertaining, I will definitely read the following book(s) to find out what happens next in Ruying’s story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for an ARC in exchange for an honest review! I appreciate the opportunity to read this unfortunately this wasn’t for me.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is set in an Asian-inspired fantasy world. You follow the main character Ruying, a girl blessed by death, as she is forced to become an assassin for the enemy Roman prince in order to protect her family.

I would like to start with some strong points, I think there is a lot of great potential here in this story. The world the author built is intriguing, and the strongest part of this book is when that is developed and explored. I found the beginning very interesting; where we begin to learn about Ruying, her family, the general history of Xianlings, the introduction/subsequent impacts of the opian drug, and how magic is used. At first, some of the explanations of Xianlings and Pangu were a bit lost on me, it felt clunky but I eventually picked up the pieces as the story progressed. I'm still confused about the portals?

There is a lot of great and powerful commentary on colonialism and its detrimental impact on colonized people. There are also fantastic moments highlighting the patriarchy that is embedded in Asian culture/tradition. Specifically, how women struggle to navigate the roles and expectations placed before us. Chang doesn’t shy away from the horrors of life living under oppression…..which is why I was incredibly disappointed (and quite frankly baffled) when I realized Ruying's love interest was indeed going to be her colonizer.

While this is set in a fantasy world, the issues the characters face mirror real life. The genre of fantasy/sci-fi has been used as a vehicle for social commentary for decades. So it is nearly impossible to read this book and not think of the current state of affairs happening in real time in our world.

It is incredibly difficult to get behind the main love interest Prince Antony as he is quite literally Ruyings colonizer. I just couldn’t do it, it was distasteful and concerning. He is not “morally grey”, he is a colonizer and an oppressor through and through full stop. Chang tries to give him a more sympathetic backstory but it was still giving white savior vibes. It is not enough for me to root for him or even remotely want him and Ruying together.

The power dynamic between the two is completely off for a successful enemies-to-lovers trope to even happen here. It’s more colonizer to lovers which is just disturbing. The very jarring and unequal power dynamic (oppressor & oppressed) between the two characters was being romanticized and tainted the real commentary Chang makes about colonialism as a whole. I don’t think this aspect of the story is going to sit well with readers, it’s unfortunately not something you can ignore.

That said, I think Baihu was a far more compelling love interest for Ruying and I am rooting for him. I would love to see more of him, his scene with Ruying towards the end was *chef's kiss*, he said what desperately needed to be said and shook some damn sense into Ruying.

The ending of this book shows promise and I see what the author is trying to achieve with Ruying’s overall character arc but I believe the execution fell very flat. She doesn't really read as morally grey. At first, her motivations to protect her family are clear but then the poor girl is straight-up manipulated to the point of delusion.

I was so happy when she finally came to her senses. I thought it was never going to happen. I want better for Ruying! Having to read her go-to bat for Antony made me feel so sad for her. Is this the kind of story/message we really want to send out in 2024? Seems like a very odd and bizarre choice, especially from a POC author. If the story continues to go down this colonizer romance path I will sit the next one out, which is a shame because there is a lot of potential here.

I wish there were a way for me to give this more than 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for early access to the digital ARC. I devoured this book in 6 hours.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods follows a young woman torn between survival and freedom. To protect the ones she loves, Ruying makes a deal with the devil, a Roman Prince named Antony Augustus. Using the magic given to her by Death, Ruying must grapple with the complexities of morality while living during times of war and subjugation. It deals with very heavy topics, such as colonization from the perspectives of both sides.

Ruying is an amazingly flushed-out and real person. Antony is a brutal morally gray foil for her. The other characters add depth to this world without taking focus away from the main plot.

It has political intrigue, great sci-fi and fantasy elements, as well as a tortuous romance arch that left me in tears. It is definently a dark romance. I would not necessarily call this enemies-to-lovers. There is a huge power imbalance between them that they are both very aware of.

However, I highly recommend this book and I can not wait for the sequel.

I was looking forward to reading this book, especially after reading the note by the author where she describes about how the story was influenced by the cruelty inflicted on the people of China in Unit 731. But I unfortunately ended up not liking it.

I'll start with the things that I liked about the book:

- I really liked the way the magic was used and described. The way Ruying goes into Death's world when she uses her powers was really cool, and I also enjoyed the passages describing death and Ruying's connection to it.

- There was some metaphors in the writing that I liked, and the book was very readable and easy to understand.


And for what I didn't like:

- The tone came across as super melodramatic. The writing is very repetitive, and it was very difficult to get immersed into the story, especially at the beginning, because it felt like the story was just being told to us rather than shown. For example, the entire first chapter is pretty much just an exposition dump about the world and the conflict between Pangu and Rome, and how the Romans oppress and treat the Panguans poorly. I feel like this world-building could have been interwoven into the story while we see Ruying go about her day to day life, rather than just dumped to the reader all at once. And when Ruying becomes an assassin, all of the details are pretty much skimped over. It didn't feel like I was experiencing a story and instead more like one was just being summarized to me. I do think this issue got a little better towards the end of the novel, however.

- I found the world-building to be somewhat confusing.. I didn't really understand why Pangu was so technologically behind compared to Rome, or why they seem to be completely unfamiliar with the idea of science. Like... are there no inventors in Pangu or what?

- When Ruying uses her Death magic to assassinate people, it appears to be taking a very negative toll on her, but this is dropped like halfway into the book. I know that this is supposed to be a trilogy, but the issue just felt like it was handwaved and forgotten about..

- None of the characters are particularly interesting or engaging. The dialogue is all very dry and mostly involves the characters just dumping their life story and trauma to other characters or explaining stuff about the plot.

- And for my biggest issue: the romance. Antony is one of the princes of the Roman empire who are subjugating Ruying's people. After she's kidnapped by the Roman's and imprisoned, Antony wants to use her powers to assassinate people who are getting in his way. Ruying, who doesn't like using her powers to kill people, initially refuses but eventually ends up agreeing after Antony claims that he's doing this to keep the peace between Rome and Pangu and prevent Pangu from being completely destroyed in war. And Ruying takes this entirely at face-value. Like.. this guy offers absolutely no evidence to support his claims, nor does he ever explain to her why the people she's killing are standing in the way of peace. She just believes him for no reason, even at one point claiming that she didn't care that she didn't know the truth about him, or something among those lines.
Antony is just straight up an awful person, and I didn't understand why Ruying fell for him. He doesn't treat her with respect, she knows that he's hiding a bunch of crap from her, he plays a major role in the subjugation of her people, and she barely even knows Antony. And the book seems to paint this relationship in a positive light despite everything that Antony's done, which I was not a fan of.

Overall, I ended up being really disappointed with this book, and it felt like it needed a lot more editing.

Excellent read! Great worldbuilding with very grounded magic that feels realistic. The science vs magic struggle is something I haven't seen before and enjoyed. It is easy to understand Ruying and be on her side even when her decisions are uncertain or even a little selfish. The construction of Antony's character was fantastic. I can't say much there without spoiling but the way their relationship is built leans into the complexities. I'm really excited for the sequel!

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/Ballantine/Del Rey for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. This is the first ARC I've received and I was so excited for this opportunity!

My initial attraction to requesting this enemies-to lovers romantasy was its beautiful cover and my desire to support a debut author. The author's note drew me in from the start, and I was touched by her personal connection and reverence for the history upon which the story is based.

I really enjoyed the themes of gray morality, survival, conflicting loyalties and filiality. I thought the author deftly wove traditional cultural elements with innovative and fascinating world-building. The descriptions of Pangu were beautiful and the juxtaposition of tradition & magic and with modernity were fascinating. It's always a heavy lift to introduce an entirely new world to readers, but I felt the author was successful in creating something intriguing and unique. It's also a thoughtful allegory for the world we live in now, in terms of climate change, among other themes.

I will say this was a challenging and emotional read for me, given the state of the world right now. I found myself frequently drawing parallels to current events, the seeming complexity yet stunning simplicity of the horrors inflicted upon innocent people by the powerful and corrupt. Some of the phrasing/language used and scenes were a tad violent and visceral for my personal taste, but this is not a criticism of the story itself. Trigger warnings at the start of the book would be very helpful!

The character arc for a first book felt earned by the end and I think readers will enjoy seeing Ruying reconcile her competing priorities, obligation and desires in future installments. I'm also curious how the love triangle will play out, and that's all I'll say without spoiling it.

I do feel the work can benefit from some additional editing and polishing for minor typos, tightening up of some redundancy and smoothing of some of the phrasing. As such it's not a "wow" for me, in addition to perhaps not being 100% in the mood for a story set against the backdrop of war. That being said, some of the lines in this book were positively gorgeous, and there were moments where was incredibly invested and even teared up. I imagine the author's talent will continue to bloom with experience.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this much-anticipated book and share my thoughts!

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for the eARC!

With a pretty cover and an interesting enough synopsis, I had high hopes for To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods. Sadly, I was very mistaken. By chapter 5, I wanted to stop reading, but it became one of those things where I knew it was going to end in a burning disaster but I couldn’t turn my eyes away.

For one, I disliked how the author handled themes of colonialism. I felt like she was distrustful of her readers when it came to talking about the atrocities colonialism can bring and the destruction it causes. I was constantly being told why it was bad instead of being implicitly shown it through the actions of her characters. In general, there was so many descriptions telling readers about the world instead of showing it.

Maybe others may find the appeal in a girl who's trapped between what she thinks is right vs. what's actually right, but I felt way too confused by Ruying's actions. Make up your mind! Do you love the man that's actively working against your country and people (the very things you claim to be protecting by doing his bidding) or do you see him for who he truly is? That was likely the whole point of the book, but everything left me saying "why is ruying doing this?" BAIHU gives her a chance to see the horrors of the romans at every turn, and yet she refuses him for some man who threatens to crush her family if she doesn't murder the people on his hit list. how do you love a man that refuses to tell you his plans (that are "good" btw) for THE COUNTRY THAT RAISED YOU? How do you love a man that has shown ZERO proof that he's a good man besides saving your life? That's not love, that's blatant exploitation and manipulation! Daddy issues don't excuse AWFUL actions!

Much of her assassinations were off-screen. done in a time-skip. Brushed over. That made MUCH less of an impact on the story than it should have.

And GOD, the sentences. the short sentences that go to the next line after to try to emphasize something. It's overdone. Nothing's being emphasized anymore.

This isn't a morally grey protag. This is "female lead needs therapy" and "male lead needs something much stronger than therapy."

I would much rather have read a book about Baihu than Ruying. Despite my bias towards Baihu, this book would've been over if he just told ruying everything from the start and tried to recruit her to the phantom's forces (which felt non-existent btw) from the start. But instead we got Stockholm syndrome marketed as enemies to lovers, aka colonizer romance. Save your money!

1/5, for "I finished the book but was unhappy for most of it."

Aaahh this book was enjoyable start to finish. Enemies to lovers is noticeable as Prince Antony grows increasingly close to Ruying as the stakes of the fates of their two worlds grows. Layers of betrayal and assassination, it's a good dip into a tale involving politics of conflicts and secrets. Ends on a cliffhanger, I can't wait for this to be formally released and reread it again.

I received this book for free in return for an honest review. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have finished it I would’ve quit at like the 20% mark. Prepare for a semi rant review.

I thought this was going to be Poppy War, but lite version. They both have the same idea, focusing on a series of invasions in Chinese history, and then going “but what if there was magic”. And the book had a wonderful and thoughtful prelude about the horrors of war and generational suffering. I was ready for this book to break my heart. However, the book did not deliver these themes. I think only 10 to 15% of this book was actually about the experiments and the other 85% was this character dropping random pieces of lore for like 10 pages, telling us about how much she loves her family, or the colonizer romance. I feel like there was so much more that could’ve been done but so much of this book is just information repeated over and over again. Someone could read the first 20% of this book and then read the last 20% and still get the same story as someone who had read 100%.

This was not good.

I like many others saw the drama unfold with Cait C. and wanted to help be a voice for good with the books that received the hate. I was so excited when I received the ARC.
What a shock I was in for.

This story follows Ruying as she struggles to survive in the Empire of Er-Lang occupied by the Romans. Dealing with a frail grandmother and a sister whose addiction to opian has left them penniless, she steals a bag of gold from a stranger on the street.

That stranger turns out to be none other than a prince of Rome, Anthony Augustus.
What follows is a kidnapping, hazing, and enslavement of Ru under the guise that her family will be protected by Anthony as long as she uses her power as a Xianling channeling Death to subdue targets for Rome.


Things I did not like about the book.
- No explanation of the fact that this isn't actually Earth or how "Romans" showed up and conquered the place so easily.
- 6 month gap where she mysteriously gains mastery of her powers (no explanation)
- Anthony can't swim but manages to pull both himself and Ruying to safety.
- Water and canals and physics
- hates Anthony (like really hates him)> 6mo gap > loves him 🤮
- common grammatical errors

What I did like about the book
- The inclusion of Chinese characters and phrases / idioms. Gives nice depth
- Ruying is a flawed and naive FMC (would have loved a little more internal character work though)
- Baihu

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the E-Arc of this book

"Freedom and pride are worth fighting for, but only peace is worth dying for"

This book is the antithesis of anti-colonialism.

First of all what the hell with de romance colonizer and the stockholm syndrome???

I understand that our fmc is a morally gray character and all that but I have read about a lot of morally gray characters in my life and none of them were as DUMB as Ruying. I hate to talk (write in this case) about a female character in this way, but I'm impressed by how stupid this character is. She's not morally grey, she's just very easy to manipulate.

Let's go with my first problem in this book: Toxic romance glorifying the colonizer. This book is not a "enemies to lovers" IT IS NOT. NO. NO NO. This is a toxic and abusive relationship with a huge power imbalance. In the introduction the author tells us about unit 731 (I recommend looking for information about it) which is a crime against humanity in the middle of the Sino-Japanese war and at one point in the book Antony tells Runyi that he IS DOING EXPERIMENTS ON HER PEOPLE and she doesn't even think about what that means. When Bahiu tells her "do you know what happens to the people who aren't selected?" she reacts like "i dont care". How could you write that introduction and then gave us this approach to human experimentation?

Look, I do think that this book has a lot of potential but the execution is very poorly done and honestly it needs a couple of rounds of edits more. The worldbuilding is vague, the writing style is beautiful but it is very repetitive. I get it, heroes die, cowards live. You don't have to repeat that every single time. You don't have to give me a lot of scenes where the fmc tries to justify herswlf and thinks of her sister as the martyr and her as the coward. I GET IT. Instead of wasting so much time in these kind of scenes where Ruying spirals for pages about her situation, why don't you give me scenes where Ruying is being trained to be an assassin? She starts working for Antony, murdering her own people without any prior training but suddenly she's very skilled in what she does.

This book is a constant repetitive monologue where we are constantly being told instead of shown. I dont normally have a problem with the "tell and dont show" if its done properly like Olivie Blake does. But this book could have been amazing if we actually saw training scenes for Ruying, the murder scenes, i dont know, ANYTHING instead of pages upon pages of Ruying doing a monologue about survival, cowards, her long-suffering life or Ruying talking with Antony and getting lost in his pretty green eyes.

Also, for me it was obvious from the beginning that Antony was a psychopath. Apart from the constant personality changes, it was clear that he was a manipulator and a liar. Idk how Ruying couldn't see it.

I feel very bad talking like this about a book by a debut author but this book promises things that it DOES NOT fulfill. The only reason I gave this book 2 stars its because i really liked the first 50% and with that ending I really think that the author could take this trilogy to an incredible place and a lot of what I hated in this book could change. I do think that this book could be more enjoyable if many things were presented in a different way and if the publisher stopped selling it as an enemies to lovers, because it is not. If I had known that instead of an epic fantasy rooted in history (as the publisher presents it) I was going to find a romance with a very abusive and toxic relationship with a "love interest" that is the villain I would have opened this book expecting another thing.

I really enjoyed this book! It was a perfect blend of a modern alternate reality in a fantasy setting. I also appreciate that this book takes inspiration from China's Century of Humiliation. There is a lot of space in the story to explore the tensions between making bad choices for good reasons and the complexity of identity-based obligations. Watching the evolution of the main character's (Ruying's) stances was also interesting as she weighed her choices and made her decisions.

The story is mainly narrated by Ruying, with the exception of one chapter. I honestly did not like this perspective switch because it felt random, and like an unnecessary attempt to build suspense. A major aspect of this story is Ruying's struggle to determine who she can trust and who will deliver on their promises, and having a chapter narrated from another character's perspective breaks the effect of readers having only the same information as Ruying.

The pacing was mostly okay. I wish that some backstories had been more developed, particularly Ruying's childhood relationship with her sister, Meiya. During some of their interactions, it felt like I was missing some context or aspect of their history that would help explain why their interactions are the way they are. It also seemed that most of the book was Ruying thinking about her current state instead of things happening. Although there are some action scenes, I definitely wanted more of them because they were descriptively written and added lots of excitement.

Overall, this was a satisfying read full of morally gray characters who are doing the best they can with terrible options. I am looking forward to the sequel and seeing how Ruying continues to navigate the treacherous waters she is in. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historically-inspired fantasy, problematic relationships that are nevertheless alluring, and the journey for characters who discover their own strength when they decide to stop being a pawn for others.

"To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods" is Molly X. Chang's debut novel. I was really torn with this review for a few reasons. First, the book was not what I expected at all. The book is really heavy and deals with very deep issues, which I did not expect going into it. Additionally, I did not like the MMC or the romance at all. The relationship honestly felt very problematic and more of a controlling power dynamic. The ending did make me feel somewhat better, though. I enjoyed the author's writing style as it was very descriptive, but Ruying's thought process did feel repetitive at times. The world-building in the book is intriguing and unique. However, it can sometimes be challenging and could have been explained better/more. I am unsure if parts were left out due to the FMC not knowing it, and we are supposed to be learning as she does, or if it was just a mistake on the author's part. I will probably pick up the next book to see which direction the author plans to go with the series. In the next book, I hope we see more detail on the world-building and magic system.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for sending me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Really, really heavy book. I think the cover gave me the false impression there was going to be more drama and action, and there was. Between the heavier content with no comedic relief along with the info dumping made it for a slower read. Granted, this novel is rich in detail, culture, and history. Loved the world building and how things tied together in the ending. I just wish that instead of info dumping, it could have been told through Ru discovering x, y, and z instead of it being Antony telling her everything. I also tried so hard to like Antony as a character, and sympathize with his background, but the way he was described with all the sneering and haughty attitude just made him hard to like. I liked this book and thought it was mostly well rounded, I just hope that a few edges can be ironed out before its release.

This is a pretty standard YA fantasy, that has a lot of common themes j have been seeing lately. But I still loved it and cruised through it.

What a great young adult work of fiction this is! And so very captivating. I read in one sitting desperate to know who is telling the truth! Chang has set us up for a series to be remembered I believe. Some books have all the world building in the beginning where this one is built as we read. I really enjoyed that approach. Because while we are learning about Rome, Phantom, and Pangu we are watching Ruying navigate how best to survive. Super great story!

I had high expectations for this novel, but it fell flat. The characters, particularly Antony and Ruying, needed more development, and the supporting cast barely appeared. I couldn't buy into Ruying's decision to abandon everything for a man with troubling beliefs and actions.

While we're told Ruying's powers have consequences, we never see them, and the magic system feels poorly explained. The romance aspect felt forced and unbelievable. Despite struggling through the repetitive writing, I couldn't find much to enjoy. And the alleged enemies-to-lovers trope felt more like a problematic power dynamic than genuine romance.

Overall, the book left me disappointed and craving a more engaging read.

4/5⭐️

I loved so many things about this book. The politics, the setting, and most of all the magic system. I loved the moral battle that ruying faces throughout the book especially love that there is a sequel!

Thank you to random house publishing for the chance to read the book early!

****THIS IS A NETGALLEY ARC REVIEW****

Honestly, I’m just kind of surprised. I thought I’d enjoy this book a lot more than I did, and I just couldn’t find a single thing I really liked about it.

I highly disliked the colonizer/colonized romance, and hated how Stockholm-syndromy it was. Like y’all are going to sit here, look me in the eyes, and tell me that this man with this abusive ass personality is someone I’m supposed to root for as the love interest? Be so for real.

Character-wise, I honestly couldn’t get behind anyone, aside from maybe the sister, but even then she was barely there. I felt like I could root for Ruying in the beginning, but she fell off so fast for me.

The writing just felt rushed. Like, super rushed. I felt like information was being thrown at me at random, and the pacing was super off and it felt like we rushed certain things and took too much time in others. The worldbuilding didn’t make a lot of sense and didn’t feel complete. The organization, in my opinion, didn’t make sense and there were a lot of chapters that I didn’t feel were necessary. Honestly, I just feel confused, so if this review reads like that, that’s definitely why. I just didn’t enjoy this book. I didn’t feel like it was written well, and I just, I don’t know. Do with that what you will, lol.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is at its core supposed to be a story about anti-colonialism. And while the themes are brought up pretty quickly right away, I wish the topic was handled a little bit more intricately and with complexity. It seemed only to be surface-level analysis, focusing instead on the main character's internal struggle, rather than Ruying's character dynamic in the context of the issues brought forth.

My primary concern with this book had to do with Ruying and Antony's relationship dynamic. I had a lot of difficulty sympathizing with Antony even though it is clear to us he is supposed to be the morally grey
The oppressor vs oppressed romance will always be tricky simply because of the power imbalance—add in actual torment done to the oppressed by the hand of the oppressor, it becomes almost impossible to root for. And if we're then made to believe the character dynamics can be reversed and develop into something akin to trust and even love, it's really hard to understand why that would even happen, especially with some weak character exploration.