I immediately moved this to the top of my to read list after seeing what had been happening in Book-World, and I'm glad I did. I greatly enjoyed To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods. Chang did a wonderful job of showing how Ruying was being exploited, without actually coming out and saying it. Ruying has a lot of growth, going from naïve and hopeful, to stepping into her own and realizing how she has been used and manipulated. Chang cleverly implies these as the story goes, but it isn't until the end when it really hits.

I actually don't think this needs a sequel. The ending is powerful enough on it's own that I feel a sequel would actually do a disservice to the story, but I will still read it. I don't want to spoil the book, but I will say, a lot of what other reviewers took issue with, I don't think was read into deep enough and that was the point.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC. The above is my own thoughts.

<i>To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods</i> definitely had some good things going for it. The world itself was intriguing and had a lot of influences from Western Colonization and the Opium Epidemic in China.

The writing was beautiful with long descriptions, and when I say long descriptions, I mean LOOOOONG descriptions. There are just so many metaphors and different figurative language uses, even Chinese idioms, throughout the ENTIRE book. The main character, Ruying, has these mile-long monologues in her head that really tell you EVERYTHING. Multiple Times, in different ways. To be honest, this kind of just made the book feel a lot longer than it was, in fact I was surprised when I looked up on goodreads that this book is only like 350+ pages. It almost felt like the author was trying to reach a word count minimum and a lot of the story just didn't seem to be moving because we were sitting in these monologues for so long.

I do agree with other people's reviews saying that the love interest being a colonizer is very disturbing. There do seems to be reasons for this decision of a love interest, however I felt that it could have been executed better (I won't go into spoilers about that but if you've read to the end, I can see what the author was trying to show). I failed to see how Antony, the Prince of Rome, really had anything that convincingly made Ruying attracted to him, besides being handsome(?) Although I don't really remember much talk about his good looks except for his eyes in this story. It felt very forced, and I couldn't really tell if I was also supposed to start liking Antony at some point, as it wasn't really happening.

The story itself, however, did really catch my attention. I am curious as to where these characters might go and I'm mainly more interested in seeing more of Baihu. For a debut, this isn't bad, and I think that this author does have potential.

This was a gripping read - and a particularly powerful one given the current political landscape. Themes of settler colonialism and extractive colonialism were some of the core drivers of the narrative and I appreciated the nuances of illustrating both types of colonialism through the various members of the Agustus family, as well as the final note that at the end of the day, no matter how pretty the words used to describe it are, colonialism does nothing but take, slaughter, and destroy. The conflict in this book is both currently relevant and deeply rooted in history, giving the political, moral, and ethical stakes a strong grounding in reality which lends the narrative extra weight. However, given that, I did find the Earth-esque world being called Rome to be a bit on the nose for my taste.

Ruying can be a frustrating yet relatable protagonist throughout most of the book but her flaws are necessary for the satisfaction of her overall character arc. I think some readers will find her harder to understand than others, or at least be less sympathetic to her choices, but I think that Ruying is powerfully human in her motivations and weaknesses. I did find the romance to be a negative addition, though; while I could understand how complicated feelings could grow in this situation, it didn't play out in a believable enough way to work for me.

Overall, I was enthralled by this book, from the world-building to the narrative, and am very excited to read the sequel and see where Ruying's story goes from here. Thank you to Del Ray and NetGalley for this ARC!

Pangu is a world rich with magic. Rome is a world full of science. The Romans invaded Pangu and ruled it with guns for over twenty years.

Yang Ruying is blessed / cursed with death magic but she is exchanging time of her life with each use of the magic. Basically her life is getting shorter with each use. She is struggling to keep her family safe, her sister is addicted to opian, a drug the Romans are selling that is supposed to make the magic stronger. She lost her father to this drug and is determined not to lose her sister.
Her childhood friend / almost first love is now serving the Romans against his own people. Selling his dignity and identity for power and riches.
Her best friend is serving the country but also fighting the revolution.
A prince find out about her power. He tracked her down and forced her to submit and work for him.

We follow the story where a nation is suppressed and treated like a lower breed. We can feel the humiliation, injustice and rage as the story unfolds.

We witness the characters being cornered and having no option but to choose between two evils. I can relate to each character and understand the choices they made. Now I understand fully the meaning of ‘Everyone is the hero of their own story. Everyone is a villain in someone else's story’.

The plot twist at the end of the book is mind blowing! I have so much to say about the book but I want my review to be spoiler free.

The devastating truth is that the cruelty of humans where a race is suppressing another for merely existing isn’t just in books and stories.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for this ARC.

Ruying, born under the shadow of defeat and blessed with the chilling touch of Death, walks a tightrope between vengeance and survival in this captivating fantasy. Torn between loyalty to her conquered people and the seductive promises of a foreign prince, her Gift becomes a double-edged sword, promising safety for her family at the cost of her own life force. Can she navigate the political minefield, wielding her deadly power against corrupt foes, or will love and ambition blind her to the true price of salvation? This compelling tale of sacrifice, power, and impossible choices promises to keep you on the edge of your seat, questioning who deserves to live and who deserves to die. Get ready to dive into a world where death is a bargaining chip, and loyalty itself hangs in the balance.

This book was hard. It is very bleak.

I wanted to love this book. I wanted to like it. But, I almost hate it. Almost, but not quite.

The beginning chunk was hard to get through. (It took me twice.) Ruying ruminates on the bleakness of her world, the hatred, the suffering. All of this, and learning that Ruying has a twin sister, who her friends are, and how she meets Antony could have been handled in a chapter or two. Instead, we get Ruying repeating herself constantly for the first 20-30% of the book.

And just as it finally starts to get good, it ends. With no closure. No hope. (But it is a pivotal moment for Ruying and Antony.)

Many folks don't like the hint of enemies to lovers. For me it worked. It's subtle, the changes the characters are going through. Antony is doing some terrible things. But, there are signs that his feelings for Ruying is changing him. At first, she's the means to an end. An assassin. A grudging respect grows to affection. Could he still be using her? Maybe, but I want to believe his character has more depth to him than that. Otherwise, what is the point of him even caring for Ruying? For saving her? For the change in his character? Will he have a redemption arc? I hope so.

Just as the story finally gets moving, it abruptly ends. If the sequel was available now, I'd pick it up just to have closure. To see what happens between Ruying, Antony, and Baihu. Who is the Phantom? Can there be a happy ending where both worlds are saved? Can Antony make good on his promise, can the sacrifice by the one emperor bear the fruit he hopes for?

And because I want to know what happen next, I'm giving 4 stars instead of 3.

Thank you so much to Del Rey and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review of one of my most anticipated reads of 2024. It pains me to rate and review To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods this way, but it must be done. I was SO excited for the release of this book, and when it became evident that the writing would not be living up to my expectations, I tried my hardest to adjust my expectations. Even then, I could not get behind the writing or the characters. There was a lot of talk. The characters were not memorable or even enjoyable to read. It dragged most of the time; the characters and the plot felt like they had no sense of direction and were just there because that's what the author liked. This book was in severe need of editing... everywhere, and I had to force myself to finish it at a certain point. So much has gone into this book from the marketing to the gorgeous cover and the first edition glam that the publisher is putting towards this book and it just... didn't live up to it. Gorgeous book, though. I just wish everything in it was better.

2.5 stars.

Thank you to netgalley for the ARC!
Starting off with what I liked: I felt the characters were well developed and defined and the author did a good job giving each character a different personality. The prose was also enjoyable and it definitely feels polished.
That being said I have a lot of mixed feelings about the book and reading other reviews seem to agree.
I am not going to knock the romance because the sequel will likely address issues I have so I am not going to focus on it too much, but I do understand why people are not a fan of the romance in the book.
One of my frustrations was the worldbuilding, The main character's country's technology seemed to be in the 1800s, but Rome had electricity and machine guns so I assumed they were more in the 1900s with their tech, but they also have a portal which made their technological development confusing. Each time Rome had a piece of technology that fell outside of the time period it made the world harder to imagine. Its easy to fill out the world when you have sense of the era, but the sci-fi aspects threw a wrench in that.
The book also felt like it skipped important parts of the story. We get a 6 month time skip where we just lose so much relationship development that happens between the MC and love interest that the jump from reluctant allies to being comfortable with each other was too drastic, we had just met the love interest and not seeing some of the most important parts of characters changing how they view each other made their relationship development feel unearned.
Overall I will still read the sequel because I hope it addresses some of the concerns people have and the book was still enjoyable.

i'm sad this didn't completely work for me, especially because it was hard to visualize the characters and settings and picture them in my head. i feel like this had the potential but didn't deliver for me. the romance made me super uncomfortable for some reason it was just so weird. all in all, underwhelming.

NGL. I felt done with this book as soon as it began and fantasy China was being called Pangu (the name of a Chinese god), and fantasy Europe (who are apparently committing Japan’s war crimes??) was being called Rome.

I felt even more done when I realised that this book, despite the author claiming the book was inspired by the invasion of Manchuria and Manchurian folklore, clearly wasn’t. Instead choosing to homogenize an incredibly culturally diverse and distinct region into a Han Chinese inspired culture. As the child of Korean and Teochew people, I can’t help but feel a little offended at the authors choice to use what is ostensibly Southern Han Chinese folk religion as her mythological basis.

Perhaps worse to this are the characters. Because everyone in this book except for one-schtick side characters, have such disjointed characterisation that means you never understand why they’re doing what they’re doing. Worse yet the main character, Yang Ruying, spends so much time complaining about her faults. There are 5 separate nigh-identical monologues in the first 20% of a book about how she’s hates herself for being a coward for the sake of her survival. And yes, she does specifically say coward and survival every time.

This is to speak nothing of the central romance of the story, which appears out of nowhere half way through the book after a timeskip. We’re given no reason to feel for this relationship. Especially because a few chapters earlier, he spouts off the most inane eugenics BS, saying:
<blockquote> “You almost can’t blame my people for what we’re doing,” Antony continued. “Fighting machine guns with bows and arrows? Isn’t it hilarious, how unbalanced our positions are? Nature has a preferred order, you know. Evolution. If you don’t evolve and keep your place in the food chain, then yu get eliminated.”</blockquote>
And now we’re to believe she loves him? Make it make sense! This is only made worse by Ruying’s childhood friends, either of whom would’ve made far more compelling LI’s.

While the book had it’s enjoyable parts, and I hope Molly X Chang finds much success in the future. I can’t help but be incredibly disappointed by a book that I was expecting to be more than it is. And this wasn’t that.

★ ★ ★ ★ • 4

“No girl was ever born meek and afraid, as men claimed. Father told me to scream in the face of danger and seek the kindness of a good man for protection. I didn’t want to scream. I wanted to look danger in the eyes and make it tremble. Courage in boys was bravery. Courage in girls was foolishness. From this day forward, I wished to be foolish.”

This book deserves more hype, combining lush world building with very real bits of Chinese history and culture. At times, I did have trouble visualizing the setting/cityscape with the clash of past, present, and imagined future technology… Which is ultimately why I gave this book a four star rating as opposed to a five. It was somewhat difficult to reconcile bow and arrows with helicopters.

Regardless, I very much liked Ruying as a character and the dynamic between her and Antony towards the end. The romance sort of snuck up on me, but lines like “要死一起死” had me swooning. I’m really interested to see how their relationship progresses in the sequel with the cliffhanger, and whether their values or their relationship will win-out.

There are Chinese idioms used in the book several times, but even if you don’t have any familiarity with the language they really enhanced the story overall.

The magic system in the book is best categorized as something resembling Wuxia with a qi based martial arts system which may be something new to some readers, definitely recommend giving “Wuxia” and “Xianxia” a quick google search before reading for better comprehension.

Thanks so much to the publisher and author for providing an ARC for review! Really thankful I had the opportunity to read this.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods had so much potential, which is unfortunately undermined by an uncomfortable romance and a heroine who thinks she's way more badass than her actions prove.
Ruying has the power of draining others' qi, or life force, a power that takes its toll on her and she keeps hidden. Her world, Pangu, is ruled by the Romans, who have colonized and brutalized the land and its people. Ruying's power is exposed to one of the Roman princes, and he trades her abilities to kill his enemies for the safety of her family.
Now, why the Romans are called as such, I don't understand, because Pangu is a made up name so why couldn't the colonizers have a made up name for their world. Also, this isn't the Roman empire, they have bombs and weaponry from centuries later.
The book is told from Ruying's pov, and it is endless. Every minutiae must be thoroughly pondered upon, examined, and detailed. More worrisome is the colonizer/Stockholm syndrome relationship between her and prince Antony, whose eye color you are constantly reminded of.
The story would have benefited from more time spent outside Ruying's head. She's an unreliable narrator because the way she sees herself as ruthless and hardcore, is not the way she acts.
The potential is there for a truly epic fantasy but I didn't find it in this installment.

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. The cover is gorgeous and Chang's writing is lush. The often-forgotten history that inspired this story is also something I'm so glad to see brought to light. But the romance ... not my thing. I'm tired of captive/captor love. I doubt it will be endgame, but I'm just not keen on seeing it at all.

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy. I really enjoyed this and will be getting copies for my shop.

I really hate to give this feedback, because I was very much looking forward to this book.

I had to DNF by 30%, and I swear half of that was just infodumping. This needed a lot more polish, and a lot more effort on the part of the editor. Disappointing.

"To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods" by Molly X Chang offers an intriguing premise and moments of vivid imagery that captivate the reader. The author's creativity is evident in the world-building, but the pacing occasionally falters, leaving some parts feeling rushed while others drag on. The characters are diverse, yet some lack the depth needed to fully connect with the audience. Despite these drawbacks, the novel manages to deliver an entertaining experience with a unique narrative flair.

[DNF AT 72%]

Thank you NetGalley and RandomHouse Publishing for the advanced copy in exchange for a review.

This turned out to be a huge disappointment as I couldn't complete the book. The sparse worldbuilding made it challenging to grasp the world, leading to confusion. Prior to publication, revisions are essential, with a greater focus needed on worldbuilding and less on infodumping. However, the primary reason I chose not to finish the book was the problematic theme of the protagonist developing feelings for her colonizer,

Really interesting and unique. I enjoyed the political aspect of the book a lot. It wasn't perfect but certainly enjoyably and I would recommend to anyone who enjoys pollical fantasy.

Book: To Gaze Upon the Wicked Gods
Author: Molly X. Chang
Rating: 3 Out of 5 Stars

I would like to thank the publisher, Del Rey, for providing me with an ARC. This is a case where this is not a bad book. I know that I gave it a three-star rating, but I do actually want to read the next book. The way it ended is the perfect set up for what is to come next.

In this one, we follow Ruying who lives in a world that has been taken over by the Romans. Her people may have magic, but they were not match for the technological advancements of the Romans. Now, she and her people are opposed and their world is not their own. Not only that, but there is a drug that is addicting people at a rather alarming rate and costing them their lives. Ruying doesn’t know where to turn. Then, she comes across Antony, who is a prince of Rome. He isn’t like the others though. He seems to actually want to help Ruying and her world. The only thins is that he needs her gift. For you see, Ruying can cause Death to anyone. Antony wants this gift to end his enemies. However, the deeper she gets in with him, the more conflicted she seems. He can offer the world to her, but it is going to cost her. Those closest to her warn her of the dangers, but she can’t see it.

I love the take on this book. We have a world that was one free, but has been taken over by a powerful enemy. Its people have been forced to live with this foe and the affects that come along it. They feel like they can’t do anything to get themselves out of their situation. Even though these people have magic, they are still no match for the technologies of the Romans. This might take over them without them having a big chance. I don’t know why, but I love this in book. I think it is an interesting take on colonialization. I mean, we can study it in history, but I think doing it in books brings the affect of to life.

I thought the plot was very interesting. I will say that I felt the author had too much plot for the length of the book. There were things that were well done, but, yet, it felt like it was rushed in other parts. I would have liked to see other things explored a little bit more. I think had those certain things been explored, it would have added so much more of a punch. I think this would have worked better if it had been divided up into two books. I think it would have allowed things to develop a little bit more.

I found Ruying and Antony’s relationship to very interesting to read about. I love how it seemed like one that was a relationship that they were both going to benefit from. However, the deeper we got into the book, the more we get to see how complex it actually is. It’s a game of trying to figure out juts what this relationship is going to be. Again, I would have liked to have more detail to it than what we got. It was missing something to really drive it home.

I did enjoy this one and I do want to read the next book. I just think it needed a little bit something more to drive it home.

This book comes out on April 16, 2024.

A beautifully written novel that takes readers on a ride through the world of life and death. Ruying has the power of death, but she doesn’t like her gift and despises having to use it. But, when her gift is discovered by the enemies, Ruying finds herself using her power for more than she bargained for.