3 stars. Ambitious and ultimately setting up what is sure to be a very compelling trilogy, To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is a debut novel that leaves the reader off an exciting note that is hampered by prose and worldbuilding in need of refinement.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing me with this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods fell flat for me in a number of disappointing ways.
To start, I didn’t understand why the author chose Rome as the colonizing force, but without any of the classic Roman qualities we might attribute to it. Instead, the book used Rome and Romans, but placed them in a modern-day society with machine guns and fighter jets, while still making references to the classic Roman gods. If the Er-Lang Empire was fictionalized, then why use a real empire as the antagonist? This really broke the immersion for me.

Following this, I didn’t appreciate or enjoy the forced romance between Antony and Ruying. I wasn’t sure if the purpose of this romance was to showcase a sort of Stockholm syndrome, and we as readers were supposed to recognize that it was only because no one had shown Ruying that kind of care and intention before… But even if the intent was to make this statement, it didn’t quite hit this mark. So, in reality, it fell in the lurch of not being believable and feeling icky as a reader. The random one chapter of Antony POV was also a strange decision, and I’m not sure if it was supposed to convince us that his feelings were genuine. But even so, if you need a POV chapter to convince us of this, then it means the books hasn’t done its part leading up to that point—it felt heavy-handed.

While I enjoyed the prose and historical parallels, I found the world building really clunky and it had a lot of info dumping through repetitive introspection. It was often telling us, as readers, how to feel, instead of letting us naturally experience the story and draw our own conclusion. Even the dialogue felt like heavy handed monologues.

I was fortunate to receive an eARC, and I hope they will proofread it again to catch grammatical errors and typos before it’s published. There’s also a part at the end where it says a character’s name before it’s supposed to be revealed in a plot twist/shocking revelation!

Overall, this book had such high potential and I was eager for another asia-inspired epic fantasy. Unfortunately it missed the mark for me in critical ways and I won’t be continuing with the series.

I wanted to give this book a real fighting chance before I bowed out, but To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is, decisively, not for me.

I could not survive Ruying's melodramatic and incredibly repetitive tellings. I was even more unconfortable with some questionable choices made in the narrative as a whole, and by Ruying in her relationship with Antony. If, by some inconceivable reasons, she was meant to come off as sympathetic but deeply flawed, or morally grey, in the author's words, I did not see them. I was too busy being drowned in the words soup.

As a person of Asian descent, it puzzled me that this book is being marketed as a romance at all.

This was a great debut and a great start to a new series that I am so excited to eventually continue. I know there is chatter that Illumicrate will be featuring this novel this year and I am so looking forward to having an edition of this novel in my hands. I loved the characters and the way the world works is just so fun an interesting.

I really, really wanted to love this. The cover was stunning and I was looking forward to the book.

The pacing was off, it dragged in some spots and was so quick and hard to follow in others. The romance was not believable, and the magic system was unnecessarily complicated.

Overall, I think there is a lot of promise here and I would love to read more by Molly Chang- I just didn't enjoy this particular book.

This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024 and I'm so excited to say that it lived up to my expectations. I loved the world building and the death versus life aspects. The characters felt well thought out with room to go as the series continues. I will say at times the YA is strong but I don't fault the writing as it *is* a YA book - I'm just not the target demographic. It didn't hinder my enjoyment at all, but it might not be for everyone. This was such a strong debut and I can't wait to see with what the author does next.

I was really excited to read this story, especially for the folklore and after reading the little intro about her granddad. However, the writing did not meet my expectations. I felt that there was too much description of Rome bad, look at how terrible things are. I felt like the first half of the book could have been condensed because there was just too much description and not enough actual story.

I really wanted to know more about Ruying's sister and her activities. I wanted to know more on various side characters activities. I felt like Ruying was so frustrating and I understand it is probably due to culture and how ingrained things are, but I wanted her story growth to be so much more. Also, I hate the "love story" here or whatever is going on. I feel like if she's with one guy she wants him, but around her childhood friend she also may want him? The world is falling apart girl, and both guys are bad, and not even in a fun way.

What I do love: The whole story idea with the powers is intriguing. The folklore parts are good. The idea that there is a hole in the sky like a portal, the Romans come through. I love that visual. The halfway point to the end is where the story really takes off and gets me excited. Will I read the next one? Yes, the ideas are so good the execution could just be better. There have been times where I was like :the first book is meh, but I was hooked after the second one." So, I am hoping this is one of those times, too.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is about Ruying, a girl from the Chinese-fantasy-inspired Er-lang Empire which has recently been colonized by the evil, science-wielding "Roman Empire" from another world. As a magic-user or "xianling," Ruying has the unique ability to drain people's life force with a touch, making her the perfect assassin and catching the attention of the Roman prince Antony. I found To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods severely lacking in many departments. I'm usually against the prescriptive writing advice "show don't tell," but good lord, this book Tells nonstop, to its great detriment. It makes for highly tedious exposition as Ruying tells the audience over and over that Rome is bad and has done bad things and is evil. I found the initial conflict—Ruying's struggle to supply/wean her opium-addict sister Meiya and keep her revolutionary activities a secret—far more interesting than the rest of the plot. I think there are really interesting elements and perhaps through editing these will become more apparent.

So disappointed. I don’t understand the hype around these colonizer x colonized romances. They just strike me the wrong way, so I can’t support the relationship due to the stark imbalance between them. The book itself has such good worldbuilding and a commendable portrayal of gray morals, But all of the good aspects are overshadowed by the principle of the relationship.

I cannot tell you how much I wanted to love this book. The description painted such a beautiful picture of Chinese folklore and intriguing fantastical magic that I couldn't wait to dive into this conflict filled world. And when I first started to read, Molly Chang's personal author's note about her inspiration's origin for TGUWG made me that much more anticipatory to read this book that promised to combine my loves for Asian mythology/folklore with the fight against the modern day struggles of discrimination and animosity that we see in today's world.

I was immediately fascinated and drawn in by the opening of the novel. Ruying, though she has the gods given power of harnessing Death to take the lives of others, can only try to keep herself, her sister, and her grandmother alive in her home that has been colonized and taken over by outsiders. I appreciated that I was quickly able to understand the magic system in the book yet it didn't feel lacking or too simple.

But after this introductory period, I thought that the conflict between the Er-Lang Empire and the Roman colonizers was odd. Not because of the premise of the invasion and colonization itself but because the Romans are described as having modern day technology and weapons with modern day concerns. I totally understand the comparison that was trying to be made between historical conquerors and colonizers with current issues, however this aspect of the book fell a bit flat for me. I feel that the same point could have been made without leaning so much on the aspect of Rome, or instead by not placing Rome and the Roman people in today's time period. Additionally, I was a bit confused by the portal that connects the worlds. It seemed very glossed over which made the Roman society feel even less like the super hi-tech type of people they're supposed to be.

Throughout the book, one aspect that I did really like was the underlying problem of the Roman people getting the Er-Lang people addicted to opian. That secondary storyline felt very true to history without being an in-your-face allusion.

However, getting to the aspects of the novel that I liked the least: the main character and the romance. Starting with Ruying, I was so excited for a strong and powerful female main character to be the lead in this novel. In my opinion, she wasn't. And if she wasn't supposed to be, because not all main characters need to save the world to be cheered on, I think that Ruying still would've been unenjoyable to read. It wasn't even that I wouldn't have liked Ruying if she was morally-grey, I love a good morally-grey character! It's that it felt like Ruying had no morals other than the ones that other people told her to have. Which were, leading into the second aspect of the book that I didn't like, often the morals(?) of Prince Antony, Roman prince and Ruying's slowburn love interest. I just could not get behind their relationship. I didn't really get any hint that Antony actually meant well for the Er-Lang people but Ruying just went along with it, killing dozens of people in the sheer hope that, if and when Antony were to become king, he might be a bit nicer to them. It also bothered me that the entire story was from Ruying's POV except for one chapter from Antony's POV (in the middle of their romance). This look into Antony's perspective did give me a bit of a better idea as to why he was falling for her, but I could find no other reasons for her to be falling for him other than a hypocritical love for the first man that showed any interest in her. Though there was an occasional romance trope to move their relationship along, nothing about their relationship was doing it for me.

To wrap up, I thought this book had a lot of potential to be one of my favorites ever but it missed the mark in some ways that were too important for me to ignore. In addition to what I've already said, I would've loved to see some other character's perspectives like Ruying's sister Meiya (honestly, I think I would've loved if this whole story was Meiya's story), maybe Baihu, etc. After reading this book I would probably read a second book in this series to see if the characters grow at all, however I would definitely be reading with some skepticism.

So,, the ending really made up for the story in my opinion. How did a story starting with the character hating her oppressors turn into,, basically falling in love with a main one.. It felt hypocritical? You spend the beginning making the main character shame her friend, the one she believes to have betrayed them,, and then does the same thing. She says she’s aware of her actions being bad,, but does them? Wack is all I’ll say about that!

The cover and the title of To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods immediately caught my attention and I absolutely needed to read it. Shout out to NetGalley and Del Rey for this ARC! I was in the mood for fantasy and this was exactly what I was looking for. I really enjoyed my time with this book and I just know it will be one of the best covers of 2024.

I was so excited to read this book! I love Asian-inspired fantasy, and particularly fantasy that addresses colonialism and features rebellion. However, this book fell really short for me for several reasons.
The world-building in this book made little sense. This book seeks to address the colonial history of China, yet the invading force is called Rome. If the choice had been made for it to be called something that does not have a specific historical context, it would have made so much more sense for the story. Additionally, there is a setup of China having strong magical history and Rome having a strong technological history where Rome has access to helicopters and weapons of mass destruction. I typically LOVE reading about the clash of science vs religion or magic, but this seemed stretched too far. I believe that the point the author was trying to make was that the technology colonizers brought appeared to be so incredibly far advanced as to not really be understandable, but I think the point could have been made by describing and writing more about a pervasive sense of fear and worry or even perhaps awe instead of conflating multiple time periods and histories.

I did enjoy the ways that both of the main characters are morally gray, but did wish that they both had more depth. Their motivations were well-defined, but the way that they were written was repetitive rather than more fully fleshing out their thoughts and deep-seated motivations.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC!

I really wanted to like this book. The premise was initially promising, but I couldn’t get behind the romance. I was never invested in it and rather found myself rooting against it from the moment it was introduced. The continual mentions of the main love interest’s “softness” or “tender eyes” or speculation on potential hidden altruistic motives from the perspective of the MC felt unrealistic and incredibly inauthentic coming from the perspective of someone he has abducted, tortured, gaslit, and threatened into his service. As many other reviewers pointed out, it’s a colonizer romance. Even if in the romance established in this book isn’t the endgame romance/even if there isn’t a redemption arc in subsequent books (which I so badly hope there isn’t), it doesn’t change the pages upon pages of colonizer sympathizing and moral backflips done by Ruying to justify this love in this book.

I also had a hard time with the magic vs science struggle of the two sides. It felt jarring every time the plot point of the antagonists being from our world (orca version of it) was brought up, and the offhand references to modern things like Romeo & Juliet, Greek/Roman gods, and melting polar ice caps. (And not to mention the short chapter that felt like it was comprised of slightly reworded Taylor Swift lyrics?)

I really liked the different setting of the book, where it was more Asian inspired. I felt like this book missed the mark with some things and did other things well. I enjoyed all the different lore but there was a lot of Ruying’s inner dialogue which kind of got repetitive. I felt that the story didn’t really pick up pace until the last 25%. And I wish we could have seen more of her growing her power. The romance between the two characters had me confused since I felt like it was a little bit forced. The whole relationship is messed up, like this definitely has to be Stockholm syndrome. I will keep an eye out for the next book in the series cause the ending makes me want to know what will happen next.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I received an e-arc in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to Del Rey!

I really wanted to like To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods, but something was just missing for me. I couldn’t completely buy into the romance, so the twist at the end, which is heavily foreshadowed if not explicitly stated, wasn’t shocking and I didn’t have the big emotional reaction I was expecting.
Overall, it was an enjoyable read, and I will be picking up book 2.

Thank you NetGalley and author Molly X. Chang for allowing me to read an advanced copy for an honest review.

I feel that though this book had lots of potential it was difficult for me to get through it. The romance aspect was not really to my taste, and the pacing was a bit difficult for me because of all the information that was being unloaded and not ingrained as naturally in the story. For me romance is a big thing especially, so it made the book a bit more sour. I also did not enjoy Ruying, even though she was very passionate in the beginning of the story as the book progressed. Instead of seeing her as a troubled character that was faced with hard decisions, I found her very irritating, naive and unlikable.

I hope to read more books by Molly X. Chang for I truly do feel like her prose are very nice and her ideas are interesting, but I do not think for this series in particular if I would want to continue.

There are two worlds. One of science and one of magic. The world of science is ruled by the Romans. They have found a way to create a portal into the world of magic and have named themselves gods to rule over this world. They have brought nothing put chaos, hate, and persecution to the people of magic.
We follow Ruying, who has been born with the gift of death. Her goal is to survive and to keep her family safe. She ends up having to make a deal with the devil, a prince from Rome, to keep them safe.
I really enjoyed the first half of this book. I devoured it. But there was a shift half way where we skip ahead in time and I just couldn’t get into the second half. Ruying couldn’t decide who she trusted or what she believed. The love plot in this wasn’t believable. There were a few instances in the second half where people would make a decision and it didn’t make sense based on how the characters were written. There was also a random POV from another character put in for only one chapter.
I had high hopes for the book based on the first half of the story but it lost me in the end. I’m giving it 3 stars because the first half was very enjoyable.
I will not be continuing the series.

3.5. There were some solid aspects to this book. I think the writing needs a bit of work but I do think Chang has promise.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is about Ruying, a girl from the Chinese-fantasy-inspired Er-lang Empire which has recently been colonized by the evil, science-wielding "Roman Empire" from another world. As a magic-user or "xianling," Ruying has the unique ability to drain people's life force with a touch, making her the perfect assassin and catching the attention of the Roman prince Antony. Caught between her hatred of the brutal colonizers who are destroying her country and a desire to keep her sister and grandmother safe, Ruying is forced to make terrible choices.

As an extreme aficionado of the xianxia and historical fantasy genres, I had high hopes for this book! The premise is fascinating and I found the central conflict compelling and nuanced. The tense will-they-won't-they between Ruying and Antony might be just the thing for audiences who enjoyed the Reylo or Darklina ships.

Unfortunately, I am not one of those people, and I found To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods severely lacking in many departments. First, the clumsy prose—I know mistakes are part of the territory with ARCs, but this one seemed even more riddled with simple grammatical errors than usual, especially in the first 20% or so. Even in the latter part of the book, random changes of tense were a frequent occurrence. I hope these are fixed in the published edition!

The prose itself vacillates between purple and clumsy. Some of the purple parts are good, but the clumsiness is rough. I'm usually against the prescriptive writing advice "show don't tell," but good lord, this book Tells nonstop, to its great detriment. It makes for highly tedious exposition as Ruying tells the audience over and over that Rome is bad and has done bad things and is evil—like, we GET it, but we would get it on a more intrinsic, empathetic level if you would only SHOW us something! The constant repetition felt insulting to my intelligence as a reader, as if the author didn't trust me to pick up on even the most basic subtext unless it was spelled out in glaring neon letters. Every scene was a California scene and filter words abounded.

I wanted to invest in the story and root for the characters, but I found it hard when so many of the characters behaved inconsistently in service to the plot. The hand of the author was constantly visible in a way that took me out of the story. The best examples of this were Ruying's powers, which conspicuously and inconsistently worked or didn’t work as the plot demanded. Even more frustrating was how she would frequently cut Baihu off and refuse to let him finish a sentence that was obviously about to reveal game-changing information (silly Baihu! We have to save the game-changing information for Act 3.)

I found the initial conflict—Ruying's struggle to supply/wean her opium-addict sister Meiya and keep her revolutionary activities a secret—far more interesting than the rest of the plot, and missed that thread when it was dropped in order to focus on Ruying's collaborator-guilt and burgeoning feelings for the too-obviously-evil Antony. The latter conflict felt frustratingly predictable, to the point where I suspect I can tell exactly where the sequel is going.

Despite the critical tone of this review, I feel as though there's a tight and interesting story buried somewhere in this one, trying to emerge. But in the end, the best-written and most interesting part of TGUWG was its author's note (which got me interested in the horrifying history of Unit 731. If nothing else, I'm glad this story is being told so that it will spread awareness of that very real suffering of Manchuria!)

The book itself just wasn't it for me. In addition to its myriad other problems, it felt like a mere first act (to what I understand is a longer series) rather than a complete story. It's a shame, because on paper, the story is fascinating and has great potential! Here's hoping the next installments are better executed.