I enjoyed this! I was really excited by this premise and the worldbuilding, but I felt that the romance lacked a bit for me, especially in characterization.

The combination of magic and technology makes for an interesting read, particularly when they oppose each other. The concept of To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods feels simultaneously familiar and unique. A girl with power forced to do the unthinkable to save those she loves is not new. Chang’s take was, however, an interesting one that sets this book apart from others.

Pros:
I’m intrigued by the world she has created. It gives Neon Yang’s Tensorate series crossed with a Hunger Games-esque “kill or be killed” mentality. The family dynamics are interesting and different than expected. The magic system is interesting and well thought out, and the plot and major conflicts held my interest throughout the book.

Cons:
This one started really slowly for me, though the second half moved much quicker. The first third feels unnecessarily long. I also didn’t really feel connected with any of the characters. I felt Yang’s flaws and immaturity were more frustrating than anything else, I am really excited to see her grow a real backbone as the series progresses!

Overall, this is definitely a series I’ll follow. For a debut, the strengths far outweigh the weaknesses, and this author clearly has a gift for crafting plot. Solid 4-star read for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eArc of this book to read. All opinions a over are my own.

I got this as an ARC on netgalley, so I'm aware there will be changes to it, and the end product will be different. I feel like the book had a great world, a great premise, and everything seemed really interesting. However, the inner monologues that Ruying has, all the times she contemplates her actions.. it feels as though they were redundant. There was more inner monologue instead of action and plot advancement. The world building also wasn't clear, with a lot of terminology, which was new and not explicitly stated. It took me ages to figure out what a Xianling was. I didn't know what Pangu was either. I have to read the next book, though, cause it ended on a cliffhanger, and I was rooting for Baihu all along. I feel like the idea behind it was wonderful, but the execution wasn't. I did like the integration of Chinese culture and Chinese proverbs into the book.

This has so much potential and I was really excited to read it but I just could not get into it and I had to push myself so hard to finish it. I felt like very little thing was just way over explained and over written especially in the beginning. The romance was also pretty weird and I couldn’t get attached at all to the dynamic. The characters felt really flat to me as well. I usually am pretty easy on books and most things keep my attention well but this was a struggle.

What a brilliant premise absolutely ruined by the Stockholm Syndrome romance and romanticization of colonization. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. She fell for her colonizer, that is not what I mean when I say I like enemies to lovers. I actually DNFed this book. Very disappointed. Other reviewers go into more details about the problems with this book, I recommend reading them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for this ARC.

In this debut novel, Molly X. Chang introduces us to the world of Pangu. Twenty years prior to the start of the book, a portal ripped open Pangu's sky; through it, a modern Roman Empire invaded the idyllic world, bringing advanced technology and Roman imperialism. For Yang Ruying, a girl gifted with the magic of Death, survival comes at a heavy price.

I will break down this review into world-building, characters, romance, and plot.

-- World-Building --

Using elements of Chinese history and Manchurian myth, Chang creates a world of dying magic and lost gods, threatened by colonialism. I found her work strongest here, and appreciated the parallels between the fictional Roman Empire and the real British Empire. Just like in 18th century China, these fictional Romans create dependency in Pangu with opian, an addictive drug capable of enhancing Panguling's magic - at the cost of their lives.

Everything about the world illustrates the real horrors of colonialism: the dehumanization, the helplessness, the impossible choice between honor and survival. Chang paints a painful picture of real-world oppression.

- Magic System -

Some Pangulings are "Gifted" with abilities ranging from controlling water, to (like Ruying) the power of Death. Their people believe magic was given by the lost gods, and, generation to generation, their Gifts dwindle; soon, Pangu may have no magic at all. Additionally, magic burns through the life of the wielder - making it a precious resource.

The dichotomy between science and magic, and the potential for learning more about Pangu, excited me. How does magic work? Are the gods real, and what happened to them? What created the portal to the Romans' world? In future books, I hope to see more exploration of the world and it's mechanics.

-- Characters --

Unfortunately, I found characters to be the weakest element in To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods.

Yang Ruying, our POV character, is driven by one thing: protecting her sister and grandmother. Otherwise, she lacks any defining traits. Her appearance is described as "pretty," but otherwise not at all. She has no personal preferences or desires. While this may be intentional, to show how oppression breaks us down to our basest selves, it does not make for good storytelling. Within the narrative, the author mentions how people find reason to celebrate, even in the worst of circumstances - yet this humanity does not extend to Ruying.

I would have enjoyed her character more, had she any personal desires. Does she like a particular food? What did she want when she was young? What does she daydream about now? People in oppression do dream, perhaps even more so, because dreams are an escape from reality.

Instead, Ruying only thinks about her family.

Despite being the driving force of Ruying's choices, her sister (Meiya) and her grandma have negligible narrative importance. Ruying interacts with her grandmother in only one scene, and Meiya only twice. Grandma is defined by her love, sacrifice, and supportiveness; Meiya is resentful, selfish, and lacking in empathy toward Ruying, making her wholly unlikable.

Other characters include Tuahoa and Baihu, childhood friends of Ruying. Similarly, they only appear to move the plot.

Lastly, the love interest: Antony Augustus, son of the Roman Emperor.

-- Romance --

After seeing her Death magic, Antony coerces Ruying into acting as his assassin. In exchange for her family's protection, Ruying assists the Roman prince in his ascent to power.

Antony's character confused me. Described as "cold and unreadable" at one moment, but "warm and kind" another, his character felt inconsistent and insincere. Almost immediately, he opens up to Ruying in a bid for her trust - and it works! Internally, she claims not to trust him - but also feels connected to and comforted by him. There is no clear progression from enemies to allies, and little of the friction I would expect between them.

This relates to an overall contention I have with the writing: Chang explains a lot of major plot, without showing it. This includes the romance, where the story states Ruying and Antony's feelings toward each other, without showing the key moments leading to those feelings.

For me, this romance needed clearer progression and more meaningful scenes between the characters.

-- Plot --

Like I said above, Chang explains much of the plot, rather than showing us through Ruying's eyes. Several crucial months, where Ruying changes significantly, are summed up in a few paragraphs. Because of this, the story lacks immersion, and I struggled to connect with it.

However, the plot is tense and twisting, and, all together, the story raises strong moral questions: Do the ends justify the means? Is it better to fight for what is right, or live to fight another day? What makes us good or bad people? To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods offers no easy answers.

-- Conclusion --

With this debut, Chang brings together creative ideas and important themes. Even though some elements fell short for me, this series has a lot of potential, and I think many readers will enjoy the world of Pangu.

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Review will be posted to Goodreads and my website ( idleinkbooks.com ) two weeks prior to publication, as per publisher guidelines.

Firstly I would like to thank you for the opportunity to read this arc. I loved the characters and the intriguing world of the book. Overall I truly enjoyed the book, however, there were a couple of parts that were repeating. Nevertheless, I really did find this book very entertaining. This book did a wonderful job of combining real-world problems with those of the fictional world. It is a great fantasy read that immerses you in the world. There is most definitely room for growth for the characters in the next books to come. Overall To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods was a great debut novel and left me anticipating book two. I can't wait to see what more Molly Chang has to offer.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey for providing an advanced ecopy to review via NetGalley!

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods, is the debut novel from author Molly X. Chang. It is set on a world, Pangu, which bears a cultural similarity to China, before the advent of colonial forces from Europe. Pangu is a world steeped in magic, whose idyllic existence is disturbed by the advent of the technologically advanced Romans (a thinly-veiled reference to actual European colonizers.) In a fashion that closely mirrors the bloody march of colonial rule in our histories, the relationship between Pangu and Romans begins as a benevolent trade, but quickly morphs into something more deadly once the Romans recognize the utility of the resource-rich Pangu-society.

We step into this world through the eyes of Ru-Ying, a young girl from the Er-Lang Empire, who possess the dark magic of Death - she can sever souls from their host bodies with merely a thought. Raised to keep her magic from the distrustful world around her, Ru-Ying strives to lead a normal life and help keep her family (a grandma, and a younger sister, Meiya) safe. Meiya happens to have fallen a victim to opian, a hallucinogenic drug introduced by the Romans as a way of keeping the local population, and their magical abilities, subdued. The story begins with Ru-Ying seeking opian from a shady character Baihu, once her childhood friend.

A series of chaotic events leads Ru-Ying to cross paths with Prince Antony, the younger heir of the Roman Empire. Antony realizes the value of Ru-Ying's gift, and blackmails her into turning into an assassin for him. The rest of the story explores the dynamic between the Prince and Ru-Ying, and her struggle to be useful to her people while being exploited by Antony.

The story is written in an easy style, and is quite entertaining as well as thought-provoking. Chang explores the conflict between loyalty and pragmatism through the two leading characters. The writing is able to convey the inner conflict in Ru-Ying's mind and heart quite effectively. Prince Antony however, feels like a half-baked character - the reader is invested enough in his fate to keep reading, but not so much as to ask for a 'back story' to his personality. Speaking of which, Antony comes across as an extremely manipulative captor, and it is quite difficult for the reader to sympathize with his predicament. Perhaps this is intentional on the part of the author, and more will be revealed in the sequels - the book definitely ends as a first part of a series.

The cover art is stunning, and I am hoping that the eventual published edition has similar artwork. I also liked the references to Chinese culture that permeate throughout the text. Too often are non-Western cultures (Earthly or alien, alike) represented by caricatures or stereotypes, and it feels refreshing to have a native voice tell the story of colonial exploitation on the backdrop of a SF operatic arc.

In the list of things I wish could have been better, first and foremost, a map of Er-Lang, and another of Pangu and its kingdoms, would have helped me immerse better into the story. Secondly, the scenes between Ru-Ying and Antony could have carried more depth in addition to their intensity. Ru-Ying in particular, seems like a whiny character when interacting with her Er-Langian friends, which I feel is a great disservice to her character. Chang hits some poetic highs in the prose, but these passages stand out as a stark contrast to the rest of Ru-Ying's thoughts and dialogues, lending them a bit of narrative inconsistency.

These minor quibbles aside, I think this is a good debut novel that presents the reader with a point-of-view that is sorely missing in the western literature.

(The novel is tentatively scheduled to be on sale in April 2024)

I wanted to like this SO bad ugh. The premise is fire and had so much potential but it really fell flat for me.

1) Everything feels so over explained. From the beginning, the Chang goes into such heavy flashbacks that are continuously repeated throughout the books. There are many pages that I skipped because it was just the same thoughts over and over again.

2) I cant tell if it was the plot or the characters, but one, if not both, felt underdeveloped to me. While yes these characters have faced immense hardship and struggle, there’s not much to them within the current conflict. I think I would’ve enjoyed the narration had we had insights into how Ruying’s Gift progressed since she struggled with controlling it at the beginning.

I think my biggest issue with this book was how repetitive it was. Which is a real bummer because the description of this book is so fascinating, and the cover is absolutely amazing. I also felt like instead of getting to experience and watch it unfold through the characters and plot, the narrative was very "they did this, then this happened, then they did this, then this other thing happened", but we never really get to experience it. It's a lot of telling and not showing. Because of this, the characters and world lacked some much needed depth, and the romance was really...off-putting. I'm interested in the sequel if only to see if the author's work improves. With such a great cover and plot idea, it's disappointed that the execution was so lackluster. I hope in the second book we get more depth in the characters, a lot more showing of the story through the characters and world, and more of the cool magic system, and less of the weird romance.

Let's just get this out of the way: This book might have the prettiest cover I have ever seen. Like, wow.

That said, I enjoyed this book a lot. It took me a moment to acclimate to the setting. I don't want to spoil anything, so let's just say that there was an element of this book that incorporates the real world in a way that I was not prepared for, but I actually ended up really liking the way it was done. Our main character is compelling to follow. There's a romance, and for readers coming to this for that aspect, they may be disappointed, because the romance (while engaging to read about) isn't the point of the book. I'm very curious to see where the author takes that aspect of the story in particular (again, for spoilery reasons I don't want to mention here). This book is dark, though, so definitely look up content warnings before diving in. I would recommend this book to readers who loved The Jasad Heir or fans of complex morally gray characters!

Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for granting me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

well.. TO GAZE UPON WICKED GODS, with its breathtaking cover and intriguing synopsis, became the first book i'm disappointed in this year, unfortunately.

not only did it got unbearably repetitive, with repeated phrases/descriptions, but it also suffered the case of "too much telling, not showing". it has such an interesting idea too, a pity it was not executed well. at the end of the day, i could not care less for these characters (that lack of depth) moreover the story.

and look, i'm not sure what the author intended while writing this, but the colonizer romance was not it. i'm out of words.. like i'm not sure how u want me to root for these two? i'm sorry but it's uncomfortable. this book read like an antithetical to anticolonialism.

perhaps the sequel will be better? one can hope.

a big thank you to Molly X. Chang and the team for providing an arc!

A new story of the future of a world like ours, steeped in colonization and environmental domination mingled with a world with magic and a girl’s journey to find her place in the fight against Rome. By the end of the book I was looking forward to the next part of the story but it was a bit of slow start in this novel.

What a cool power to have, as an assassin it’s perfect! The sci-fi of the rip in the realm/world/space was super cool especially with the difference of tech. Very much reminded me of Avatar.
I wish we had two different made up worlds instead of Rome being what I’m guessing is ours?
I can’t wait to further read into this world with the different powers and kingdom




Trying to tie in enemy to lovers here I didn’t enjoy any angst between them because he literally took her into slavery & then wanted to ‘protect’ her mehhh not for me.

I'm going to preface this with the fact that I am still looking forward to book two.

That being said, this fell flat for me. I was immediately hooked by the cover and RAN to netgalley to request a copy (thank you!). I think this world and story has major potential for book two and three.

My biggest gripe was the amount of similies used right out the gate. I refuse to read Shatter Me for this same reason. It's just not my cup of tea. The other issue is the names of the two worlds, we made one up - why not the other!? Like pick literally fake name for Rome other than Rome. On the world's issue, I struggled hard to realize that Rome was in fact OUR world and Pangu was its own.

I'm intrigued by the magic system, our FMC's power is death. I can't wait to learn more about that and maybe get some more about how she became an assassin. The book skips over that and the lack of assassin training makes it unbelievable.

Thank you NetGalley and Del Rey for allowing me to read an ARC of To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods.
Summary: Ruying is a girl blessed with the gifts of Death in an occupied territory. She hides her gift, longing to protect her family, but when a chance encounter puts her in the direct path of an enemy prince, she has to take charge of her own destiny. Will she give up her soul and life to protect her family and betray her nation, or will she take a stand against those who seek to destroy her?

Review: I gave this book 4 stars because it did draw me in and I felt connected to these characters, although I also had some problems with the book. First and foremost, the good things: the writing style, depictions of desperation, and the overall concept of the book. Molly X. Chang drew me in with her writing style and depictions of the worlds involved in the story. I wanted her to tell me more, and for me, that is a good sign. If I find a writer’s world building to be weak, I end up not finishing the book or I immediately forget what I’ve read. This is not the case here. The drawback is that I did want more, which is what I am hoping will be appeased in the next book. I found that Ruying’s desperation to help her family and save herself from Romans was also characterized very well. Each character has their own motives and it gets a little confusing, but Ruying stays constant in her need for their safety. Her desperation to steal, betray, and even kill for their safety, is what makes her an interesting character. I also enjoyed the overall concept of the book itself. A girl blessed by Death was what drew me in, and I stuck around because of the lore and the worldbuilding.
That being said, I did not find Ruying to be strong. I suppose that is what Chang was going for, to make the ending and potential set up of multiple books to show her character growth, but I still found her to be kind of annoying. She falls for another character, but it's not shown why she does, she just does. It's not fully developed. Her rage and her heartbreak over all the bad things that have happened to her, goes nowhere. There are also too many events happening in this book and it should have been edited down to have some things happen in the potential follow-up. Like I said earlier, I wanted more of her writing, but I wanted less of it in one go because it was a little hard to follow.
Overall, I felt that this was a good first book to set-up a series, but if this remained a stand-alone, I would like it less. I see its potential and the anticipation is what makes the less likeable things more forgivable.

WHERE IS THE NEXT BOOK?! Molly X. Chang. I need it now. Immediately. Hot off the press. I'm not trying to pressure you, but I am trying to pressure you. It was horrendous that you would just leave this book on that monstrous cliffhanger. I'll admit, it's got me hooked.

I absolutely loved Ruying's insane powers. And it was just so incredible to watch her development throughout the book into a (potential) hero. I love that her power is Death because holy shit. If that isn't the coolest power there is, I don't know.

However. I'm not thrilled about the weird colonizer romance situation that's going on here... Ruying... You're telling me that Antony is part of the royal family that is FEEDING YOUR PEOPLE DRUGS in order to weaken your country so they can conquer your world and you just said "HE'S CUTE"??? If this series is going to be anything higher than a 3.5 for me, I need this redemption arc for Ruying to go crazy. I'm definitely going to hold out hope that Chang redeems Ruying because I really want this series to be a top star.

Thank you for the pleasure of getting to read this arc! I really enjoyed this book however there were a few spots that left me wanting more and I don’t feel delivered the way I wish it had…however I feel like it set up nicely for the next books to follow and improve upon and I’m excited to read those and see where it goes.

This debut is brilliant. The writing sparkles with a new voice that I can’t wait to read more from. The world-building is immersive, and perfect for a reader who enjoys escapism via fantasy.

A girl is blessed by Death, given the power to save the world, or end it.

Each character stands apart, and even after finishing the book, I’m still considering which is my favorite. Ruying, who says she would condemn the world to save those she loves? Baihu, who if you know, you know? Or this enemy prince that has sweet words that may be deceitful?

I know for sure I’ll be ordering a physical copy and immediately pre-ordering the sequel when it comes available. This is a debut to watch.

The line ‘heroes die, cowards live,’ has been on a repeat in my head for hours.

Thank you for the opportunity to read!

As stated by the publisher preferences, I will be posting my reviews of this book at the beginning of April (roughly two weeks before the pub date) and will be posting on tiktok (@bookwad__), instagram (@bookwad__) and Goodreads (bookwad).

Huge thanks to Netgalley and Del Rey for approving my request to read this! I loved it so much and I’m so excited for the sequel. Definitely some heavy events/themes in this book, but they’re important and so relevant with real-life.