The cover of this book is what caught my attention, it’s beautiful and so interesting I had to read it! I was so happy when I received this arc, and I was beyond excited to read it!

Unfortunately, I have a love hate relationship with this book, some of the world building is good and it has lots of potential but, having her fall in love with the colonizer was such a disappointment. I hoped it would be revealed that he actually was part of her world or something but alas that did not happen, at least she finally comes to her senses at the end.
And I was honestly incredibly surprised to find out that they’re quite literally from different worlds, it’s briefly mentioned quite a ways into the book but that’s so far into it, it would’ve helped if it were explained much Much earlier in the story.
Honestly, I was itching to pick up and continue reading the book but, only because I needed to make sure she finally realizes she was wrong.

The one Antony chapter threw me off as well, in a good way at first as I thought it’d reveal something huge about his past, but it just touched up on something you could read from context clues. I felt that if there were to be Antony point-of-view chapters, there should be more than one, perhaps one at the beginning and end as well.

There are a lot of mistakes in the writing that broke my focus and took away from the book, but this is an arc so that may just be that.

All in all I rated it 2 stars for the cover and some of world-building but the plot was just, not it.

But if I'm being honest, I would tune in for the second book so,, 3 stars ….

Thank you so much to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book early!

A riveting fantasy that throws you into a world experiencing an ongoing physical and cultural genocide by invaders from a dying world.

Ruying is a girl who has been blessed—or cursed—by death and can kill anyone with a thought. When she is coerced into becoming a colonizer prince’s assassin or lose her family, she doesn’t hesitate. She is no stranger to the hard decisions one must take to survive, but she knows that her people will never forgive her.

This engrossing book delves into the brutal realities of colonization, resistance, and what it takes to survive—and whether your own personal survival is worth your culture, your people, and your world.

This for the people who really mean it when they say she should've ended up with the villain. This book features some representation- bipoc and queer and a plethora of tropes to pick from
Enemies to lovers, love triangle, slow burn. It's based in Chinese myth and culture. This is definitely YA and I'm falling out of that genre lately so it wasn't as for me as it could've been but it's still a fun start to a series and I'm open to seeing where it goes!

3.4 stars

'Stay within the lines this world has drawn for you, stay quiet and careful'

'Progress is difficult to make when humans are too busy drowning in fears of their own potentials'




This one really got me hooked from start to end. Enemies to Lovers is one of my besetting sins. To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods really made me want to keep reading it non-stop until I know how Ruying's and Anthony's relationship would develop. It could have been really good if it were not for some bumps along the way.

I did have issues on the plot though, it felt like it progressed too slow at the same time too fast. To slow in terms of the political plans & promises of the prince to the point that I think it only revolves around killing a lot of unmentioned characters and I can't see any differences it made for the situation of both Pangu and Rome. The state of affairs of both empires were still the same despite the plans and killings of Ruying and Anthony.

The plot was too fast when it came to the romance story of the protagonists. I kept looking for those small/big moments they have had that lead them to having intense feelings towards each other . It was progressed in stages like 'they were enemies'-'they bargained a deal'-'they started killing unmentioned characters'-'then they're willing to kill or go to war for one another'. I mean, THEY ARE the main leads, the protagonists, not some side/supporting characters in the book for their story to progressed that way.

I hope they could emphasized or include some romantic scenes in the story to indicate how Anthony and Ruying developed their feelings to that level. Either that or add more plots in the political side.

Another issue for me in the writing was how redundant the thoughts and emotions of Ruying were. It's like Chang wanted to convey the emotions and feelings of Ruying, but ended up describing just one point repeatedly in every sentence in a one whole paragraph using deep synonyms. And that one point would be described again in two or three paragraphs in just one scene. If not for my excitement on how their love story would progressed, this redundancy would probably have annoyed me to death.

Thank you to the publisher and net galley for the ARC of this book. all opinions are my own.
I absolutely loved this! It was fantastic and I can not wait to see what's next! The character development, plot, and story were so well developed. I loved it.

"To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods" by Molly X. Chang delves into the realms of science fiction, fantasy, and the harsh landscapes of colonialism, weaving a narrative that hints at power struggles, sacrifices, and political intrigue. Despite presenting a compelling premise, it unfortunately falls flat, leaving readers yearning for a more robust exploration of its themes and a more impactful execution of its narrative elements.

I was so excited when I was approved for this e-arc, but unfortunately, it just did not deliver.

I think it had some interesting ideas and concepts, like the idea of interdimensional(?) traveling, climate change, colonization/cultural appropriation, but the problems just overshadowed what these could have been, and the discussions that could have been had.

Plot-wise, it's not exactly unique: girl with powers ends up working with the enemy to protect her family, believing he will bring peace. She becomes an assassin for him. She falls in love with him. She has angst about her feelings. Repeat.
Ruying doesn't really... kill people on page? We don't get to see her become this heartless (but not really) assassin. We get like two short chapters of that development. One of which is from the perspective of Death. It's hard to sympathize when we are unable to see her inner struggle. Ruying is also touted as being morally gray, but what she should be labeled as is a hypocrite. She has morals and will do extreme gymnastics to justify why her actions actually defend these morals, but she only comes around when Antony's lies directly impact her and a promise he broke that was made to her. A lot of my notes on Ruying are "Girl, stand UP! OPEN YOUR EYES!!" Because Ruying, bless her heart, cannot see the forest for the trees. Even when people she cares/cared about tell her to her face and try to lead her to the right conclusion, she refuses to believe them. It would be one thing if she saw these things and rejected them for her own good-that's morally gray!!!!-but another for her to be obstinate that the colonizer can't POSSIBLY be evil, he made a promise!!!!

Now let's talk about Antony. I hate this man. I hate their relationship. I hate everything he stands for. I did not realize I was getting into a colonizer romance, but here we are. The issue isn't necessarily that he's done terrible things (including threatening her family), but that throughout the relationship he holds all of the power, not to mention he's purposefully continuing to colonize and wreak havoc on the Pangulings in the name of "peace". He's a smarmy, backstabbing, self-righteous jerkface. While he claims his feelings for Ruying have changed, he continues to force her to murder her own countrymen, holds her family's safety over her head, takes no steps for peace, and disrespects her culture and beliefs--belittling it in front of her. He's the reddest of red flags.

Now, Pangu definitely has its roots in Confucianism (or a Confucian-like structure, as this takes place in a different world), and Ruying has some conflicting thoughts on it. I actually liked this (even as a documented Confucius hater) because it's real and brings up questions about which parts of culture are heritage and which should be overturned in the pursuit of equality. A+ on this.

Speaking of Pangu, the worldbuilding is quite confusing and unwieldy. It's not made clear until much later (with some subjective extrapolation) that the Romans are from our world, and have invaded Pangu in another dimension/realm via a portal. Why they are called Romans? I'm not sure. I thought maybe it had to do with the Roman Empire, but they have technology the Ancient Romans never had? I saw some reviewers say that it's like the Roman Empire never fell but everything else in the world is the same, but I should not have to look at other reviews to get basic information about what's going on in the book.

The cover is beautiful. I think this book has potential, but not without some substantial edits. And maybe, just maybe, murdering Antony the first time he opens his mouth. That would make me happy personally. NO MORE COLONIZER ROMANCES.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review!:)

I love a good Asian inspired fantasy book and this one was pretty good and I overall did enjoy this read a lot. It may not have been a five star blown out of my mind type of a but I did really liked the purpose of the story, and I was immersed into the world.

DNF. I really liked the premise but the writing did not work for me at all. It wouldn't be fair to the book if I finished reading and gave it a low rating.

Please note: I prioritized reading this after the reveal that this was a book that was review bombed by Cait Corrain. My rating is immediately after finishing this. I gave this a fair shot, bc this is a novel that got review bombed by a fellow author who perceived it as a rival, and that is going to be hard enough for Ms. Chang to overcome. The problem is… this isn’t that good of a novel, unfortunately. Ms. Chang tries to do a morally grey romance but unfortunately her characters are overwrought theater kids and everything is so over the top black and white morality that the effect is completely lost. The naming conventions are lazy at best and laughable at worst (opian! Roman Empire!). The writing also zags between sparse and ridiculously overwritten. There’s a solid idea here; it just feels like it needed another few passes through editorial before it was actually published. Also this is supposed to be a trilogy, apparently. Additional spoiler comment in the thread for the ending of the book.

I was very excited for this book, but it did not live up to the hype in my head. First, the writing felt simplistic and info-dumping in a way I was not expecting. Then, the content was... rough. I don't like being told that someone is a tremendous badass, but never actually seeing them doing anything remotely in line with their supposed prowess. The romance gave me the ick, and the worldbuilding was confusing.

I want to preface this last bit by saying that having multiple books cover the same topic is a good thing that I fully support. However, it does invite comparison. If you market a book as a morally grey heroine in an alternate history China, it is going to remind people of The Poppy War. And with that mindset, I was left feeling disappointed. The book in my hands read like wishy-washy YA romantasy, rather than the epic fantasy with grit that I thought I was being sold.

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC copy.

This historical fantasy is set in a land invaded by the Romans. On one hand is Er-Lang where magic is bestowed by Gods and on the other hand are the Romans, with their technology and arms. It is an interesting premise with inspirations and similarities drawn from real world experiences and the author does a great job of weaving them all together.

That being said, we don't quite get to understand the details around how this invasion has been possible or what's to come next. The world building, while refreshing, leaves a lot to be desired. Besides this one aspect, this book is a good read and will leave you wanting to know more about how the story progresses in the next book.

As a lover of Asian inspired fantasy books, I had high hopes for this one. But man did it sadly disappoint. Dnf at 20%. The writing was clunky and very info dumpy at the beginning. And yet, I still feel like I had no idea what the back story was. Then later on a portal is mentioned randomly and thats how the "Romans" got there. Unless I missed the mention of it before. Had no idea it was going to be sci-fi as well.

Another thing that bothered me was the way Ruhing dealt with her sister who was addicted to opian. As someone who has experience with a sister addicted to an unhealthy substance, there is no helping someone who doesn't want to be helped.

In the end, I read some other reviews that helped me in my decision to dnf that I too would find problematic later on. Thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I'm usually a sucker for this kind of story, but it failed to captivate me. I didn't really get the point of the romance. Why couldn't they just be captor and prisoner?

Thank you to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book before its release. To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is set in a lush, well-built world based on Chinese mythology.

It is a much-needed departure from Western-centric fantasy. The FMC is likable and complex and is torn between using her 'gift' to save her family and what that choice may do to her as a person (both how she sees herself and her literal life).

I look forward to seeing what Molly X. Chang writes next!

Yang Ruying is cursed with death's magic. She lives in a great Empire fallen to Roman's command and when her gift is discovered by the Roman prince, she must decide who she is loyal to.

Inspired by Chinese mythology and trauma of Manchuria occupation, this is a story about fighting oppression. Chang draws a parallel between real world and fantasy- Manchuria colonized by foreign invaders and Pangu dominated by Rome. Pangu is a medieval-type world, which Er-Lang Dynasty is populated by Xianlings, bearer of magic. Rome is a world that relies on science and it suffers from the consequences of its own sins. Despite the info-dumping in the beginning that comes from a straightforward plot, I found the worldbuilding compelling. The contrast between magic x science is emphasized and several unclear parts will be further explored in the next books.

Ruying is not a conventional, idealized heroine - with ferocious nature, she's willing to do what it takes to survive and protect those she loves. When drowned by guilt, she often plays the pity game, which can be annoying at times. On the other hand, she can be ruthless at doing bad things for the greater good. Born in a cruel world, Chang crafts a morally gray character which messiness might not please every reader. The side characters are equally interesting and I was particular sad about the outcome of one character. (spoiler ahead) The colonizer romance, especially, can raise a red flag for some, even though the direction it takes was satisfying for me. (end of spoiler)

Woven demon and history, the story's strength is the examination of colonialism, addiction, power and sacrifices. With dramatic writing, Chang offers different sides of the war - a state not fully defined by 'black or white'. Between honor and survival, is freedom worth fighting for?

For those looking for THE POPPY WAR (R.F. Kuang) vibes, this debut fantasy is less complex and feels more like a romantasy. I am curious to see the overall development in the next installments.

3.5 stars rounded up.

A fast paced YA fantasy that makes some bold choices, showing the violence of war and colonialism and discussing the benefits of revolution versus surrender, while getting bogged down in a repetitive first person narration.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods was a quick and easy read, but it's a short book that takes half its length to get to the premise mentioned in the blurb. It lives up to that premise though - Ruying does actually assassinate people (though we don't see that much of it on page) and I really loved that the book doesn't shy away from making Antony (the love interest) do some genuinely bad stuff. The story goes further than a lot of YA fantasy books with a similar premise would.

The reason I gave such a comparatively low rating is the writing itself. It really needed a few more rounds of editing - I have never read so many errors (missing words, tenses changing mid sentence, incorrect word choices like "hollowed oaths") in a traditionally published book. The errors might be fixed in the final version, but as it was in my copy it was very distracting to read.

But even aside from technical errors, the writing just wasn't very good. There were many awkward metaphors: "...in the blink of an eye, six months perished between taut fingers", "statues of marble and jade that cast fair shadows". There was so much repetition in Ruying's narration, she practically restates her doubts and the stakes of her situation at least once per chapter (and there are a lot of chapters). I think this is meant to emphasise her uncertainty and how much she is questioning her choices, but it needed to be dialled back.

Despite these issues I enjoyed the story and the ending left me intrigued for the sequel. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC.

DNFing this at 52%, but I still want to review to give a little feedback. I read this as an arc, so of course I will give the many grammatical errors a pass. This to me is a whole lot of infodumping, and not a lot of plot moving- I felt like I was fighting myself to keep going with it. A lot of the conversations going on, especially within the first 1/4, feel very forced and unnatural. It had a feeling while reading that certain conversations were only happening for the purpose of world building for the reader. In my opinion, this takes a lot away from the immersion, which is the best part of reading a fantasy book. It felt like chapters upon chapters of telling but not showing, and in addition to that, it was not a lot of new information. I was reading multiple long internal monologues about how devastating the impact of Rome has been, but was not shown that impact in real time. One small thing that really bugged me throughout as well, was how often our characters "whispered", even at times that felt awkward and unnecessary. I do think that she has great bones here, and while I can't give a complete review due to not finishing, I still think it's important feedback, because you want readers to finish your book! In my opinion, almost 200 pages into the book, I want to be fully engaged and excited to keep reading.

This review will post on Fanbase Press closer to the publication date.

Yang Ruying resents the Roman invaders for destroying her beloved Er-Lang through opian, harsh laws, and disregard for local customs. Even though she possesses the rare Xianling ability to harness Death, her lack of training and fear for her grandmother’s and younger twin sister’s safety prevent her from drawing attention from the ruling classes. When you’re blessed by Death, it’s hard to fly below the radar, and one fateful encounter presents Ruying with a monumental decision. Will she use her ability for the benefit of a Roman prince, or will she hold onto her morals and lose everything?
Molly X Chang’s debut novel, To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods, presents a reality where magic and science exist in parallel spaces that only cross when the veil is forcibly ripped open. Many years before the start of the story Rome used their scientific prowess to do exactly that and wrenched a hole between their world and Pangu (Er-Lang is one of the nations that make up Pangu). Like typical colonizers they fail to see the local people as equals or even human, and several unequal treaties have given the Romans exorbitant power. Ruying blames the Romans for the death of her father and her family’s decline, but as a girl, she feels her only hope is allowing her grandmother to find her a husband outside of the capital. She despises her countrymen that work with the Romans but soon discovers that working with the second prince, Antony Augustus, could be the only way to protect those she loves.
I had to read To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods twice before trying to put my thoughts onto paper because the plot, foreshadowing, and world are so layered. First, Ruying is an incredibly complex protagonist given she fears her own abilities and considers herself a coward. This isn’t exactly someone I expected to find compelling, but as the book progressed I realized that Ruying is a realistically flawed human being. Without Er-Langian expectations that daughters are meek, mild, and modest, she wouldn’t have been so susceptible to Antony’s open admiration for her deadly magic. Ruying needs to be broken exactly as she is to be the right tool for her prince’s plans. By the final pages I stanned Ruying hard, even when I desperately wanted to shake her to help clear her head.
My feelings about Antony Augustus, the second prince of Rome and Ruying’s master, feel less clear. Even with the revelations in the last quarter of the book I can’t pinhole him neatly into the “villain” category, but his hat is definitely a very dark grey. I think that Antony believes his actions are justified, but he also willfully blinds himself to the harm he causes. The lies and half-truths he tells Ruying show that he knows she’ll feel anger and betrayal with his actions. However, part of me senses that while Antony is manipulative, he is also a hurting little boy who wants someone to accept him; he just no longer knows how to interact honestly with anyone. It doesn’t excuse his actions, but to me, it helps explain why he tries to hide the truth from Ruying for so long.
The elevator pitch for To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods might easily be girl with magical power over death becomes assassin for colonizing rulers, but it’s so much more complicated than that. Molly Chang blends fantastical scenarios with critique on colonization/appropriation while presenting a scenario where the strongest way to foment rebellion is to learn the ways of the oppressors from the inside. I’m still processing everything I read, but I know that I want to see the continuation of Ruying’s story. She deserves to grow into her strength and power to protect everything she holds dear.
5 Cases of the Yin and Yang of Life and Death out of 5

YA/New Adult Fantasy has been meh for me lately, which is a bummer because that’s my favorite genre. However, To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods was a pleasant surprise!

I liked the imagery of the writing, but I did not like the info dumping. I love world-building, but I want it organically and there was chunks in this book that just felt stuck there.

I also loved the Asian mythology in the story! I think this book would go over really well with the teen patrons of my library, so I’m excited to recommend it to them.

Overall, it gets a 3.5/5 (rounded to 4) from me. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods. All thoughts and opinions are my own.