To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X. Chang is a fantasy that drew me in with fantastic cover art and kept me reading with an intriguing plot.

What I loved
-Eastern inspired fantasy setting
-High stakes
-Great pacing
-Death related magic is one of my fav fantasy magics
What didn't work as well for me
-Dialogue and character interactions sometimes read much younger than seemed intended
-The romance was somewhat uncomfortable
Who I would recommend this title for
Readers looking for Eastern inspired fantasy and myths tackling themes of self discovery and colonization have come to the right place.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this DRC.
A technologically advanced ancient Rome invades Pengu, a magic wielding land, through a rip in space time? Ruying is the young woman of the conquered world, who had the gift of Death in her veins. Antony is the Emperor’s grandson who convinces her to use her gift to murder those who stands in the way of peace. In order to keep her grandmother and twin sister safe, she agrees, and her emotions become complicated. Is she keeping her country safe, is she falling for him, can she trust him?

While well written and interesting, I kept feeling bogged down. I think there was too much politics and discussion of the ecological destruction of Rome to keep my interest.

#ToGazeUponWickedGods #NetGalley

Thank you so much Random House Publishing- Ballantine, Molly X Chang, and NetGalley for the eARC! All thoughts and reviews are my own!
Posted to: NetGalley, Goodreads, and The StoryGraph
Posted on: 8 December 2023

3.6 (rounded up to 4) out of 5 stars.

I’m trying to beat the colonizer romance allegations away with a stick, but I’m not educated enough to even begin defending why I think it’s not one, so bear with me, readers, because this is gonna be A Ride as I get my thoughts together.

Okay so, I like the premise of this. I throughly enjoyed the idea that Chang has here. I just feel like it was lacking in the sense that… okay yeah, it’s a YA book but I almost wish it wasn’t so more topics would be hit further in depth than the rating would (I assume) allow. I’ll probably end up flagging this as a spoiler-review because there’s no way I can avoid mentioning a few key details throughout it.
But TL;DR: Ruying isn’t a full apologist. There’s a lot of potential to be had with the story and the characters, but it also feels like it’s lacking in some places. (I go more in depth below!).

[SOME SPOILERS BELOW, SPOILER ENDING MARKED]
When people say that death happens off-page more than on- yeah. It does. Well, there’s some of Ruying’s abilities being displayed at first (to show how her magic works), but once we as the readers have an established sense of the ‘how’, it does a bit of a time-skip. We get Death’s brief point of view (which I kind of almost want to see more of but I digress) and then it continues on with the story where we see a few more deaths done by Ruying. I think that readers are meant to feel the weight of these deaths by the constant mention of Ruying doing it for the Roman side rather than fighting for and with her own people. We are shown her guilt for her work, the constant back and forth between ‘is this right?’ and ‘is this wrong?’
It’s kind of hard to feel for Ruying (and many characters in that matter), in my opinion, because I couldn’t connect to her. I feel that we could have learned more about her personality and her motives besides being family-driven. Chang writes in instances that make Ruying care for her sister and her grandmother, but I think I wanted to feel more? This isn’t to say that Ruying is a bad character, but rather, I just would’ve liked to see more of her. There was almost a bit more tell not show. I understand that YA novels do have length limits and that this is also a series (so more may be uncovered later), but if it was longer, I think it could have been fleshed out more to include some more scenes of her past that explain who she is now with the knowledge she has now. We’re told that she can sneak around easily and knows how to fight some because her grandmother was the actual brains behind her grandfather’s title so she showed her grandchildren these skills to help them. I would’ve loved to be shown some of this though, or add some flourish or something to it? Just- it felt like something was missing throughout. The characters (not just Ruying!!) felt a little flat to me. I hated the villains for the sake of what we are told they did, but I wish there was more to their character like- show me how vile Valentin is. Show me why the Ghosts and the Phantom are on thin ice. Show me why Baihu is doing what he is. Show me more of this revolution and the tension. That’s one of the issues with first person because it limits the readers to what this character sees and feels, and I think that (for me at least) I would’ve loved to see more of the surroundings and the people interacting with Ruying, and how they come into play more than just the surface level understanding we get. Her family (the whole reason she’s roped herself into this mess) also eventually fades off into the background some and I would’ve loved to see more of them (or some split POV with Meiya because I feel like she’s going to be a larger piece on the board soon).

And now, on to the romance side of things. The reason I say this isn’t inherently a colonizer romance is because Ruying doesn’t excuse what Antony does. She knows that he is bad and is doing so much bad, but she can’t help how she feels when he treats her nicely. She’s captivated by this different, poor boy side of him that relates so much to her. She feels that he’s different than his family. She never fully excuses his actions and even tries to nip these feelings in the bud because she understands that he still had a hand in killing her people and making a wreck of her home and her world. I feel like that’s what separates this from an actual colonizer romance because Ruying doesn’t make excuses nor apologizes (she does claim that Antony is helping both sides though, but this is also a thought that she half-believes when put up against the people she’s told to kill for him). I think it really depends on how one defines a ‘colonizer romance’. I don’t really vibe with the romance plot in here either though, because she is still falling for the enemy and not in the sense that the enemy is just a morally grey villain- he’s literally the adopted son of the Roman leaders who are wanting to take Jing-City for their own survival (all explained in more detail literally the last few chapters of the book). I didn’t really like the way their romance tried to play out, but I can also see why it was playing out because Ruying is singled out, alone in this cold side of the world where she doesn’t fit in and suddenly somebody is unafraid of her magic and her past and finds her beautiful. I just didn’t vibe with the idea of who this somebody was, ya know?
[SPOILERS END]

I really thought this book would be almost like Song of Silver, Flame Like Night (and spoilers here for that book real quick) but if after Lan was captured by the Elantians, she didn’t escape and was forced to help them find the demons instead. It had similar premises with the colonizers raiding lands not their own, all for more and more power. I even liked the magic system Chang has established in To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods. It’s explained more how it works also at the end of the book, but it’s a solid system that really makes me want to see more.
Do I think I’ll stick around for the rest of the series? I think so. The way this one ended did make me want to see more of it, but it definitely hasn’t been my favorite read. It’s right up my alley in themes that I like, all the way down to this young, hungry, and desperate girl willing to do anything for her family to survive. There’s just some places that it lacks in and places that it could be better played out in.

If you stuck around to the end of this review, I commend you! I literally did not know how to get my thoughts together to lead this nor how to end this beyond saying that it’s a pretty good read! It does read like a YA though (which I don’t know why I was expecting a more adult book when I knew it was YA????). I feel like I’ve also rated it higher than it’s initial 3 star I was planning because it has a lot of potential! It has redemption in the next book, and it just has the type of character I want to see all the way through to the end. Ruying is desperate for the chance to keep her family safe. She’s entirely naive to the way the world is and relying on just what she knows and what she wants to believe to be true. She has a lot of room for some growth and change, and I think I really do want to see that happen enough to continue with the series.
There’s a chance I’ll come back and edit this review after sitting on my thoughts more, but as of now, I’ll leave it at it's initially earned 3.6 (4) stars.

4.5 stars! with brilliant action, a descriptive world, and an easy to root for main character + a classic YA love interest, this crossover book is definitely worth a read!

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey and NetGalley for an eARC of To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods!

I wanted to love this story. I love the premise, the science fiction meets fantasy, science versus magic with a morally grey female lead. However, it was really hard reading the romance aspect and, ultimately, I could not get past the uncomfortable feeling it gave me.

This book honestly did not live up to my expectations. The cover is beautiful which drew me in. I believe that this was marketed as an adult fantasy novel but this definitely feels like a YA book. I am not too sure if I will continue to read the next book in the series or not. It was such a struggle to get through... 

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the eARC!

One young woman with the ability to wield Death has been reluctant to use it but will be called upon to do so as she becomes entangled in battle for the well-being of her country in To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X. Chang.
Pangu is a world that used to have much more magic but has since been conquered by Romans with their science and technology. Gifted by Death with an ability to pull life from bodies, Ruying has seen this ability as a curse and lives with fear of both what she’s capable of and the foreign invaders as she tries to keep her family safe. When she’s captured by an enemy prince, Antony, Ruying is presented with an offer that would keep her family safe so long as she acts as his assassin, which he claims would help prevent larger scale brutalization and outright war. Believing that she’s serving the interests of the greater good and believing that Antony’s plans and attentions are genuine, Ruying’s decision sets her on a path filled with strategic deaths, but when confronted with the reality of what’s been going on behind closed doors Ruying rethinks everything she thinks she knows as she embraces her next steps to save her nation and people.
The premise of two different worlds colliding, one of tradition and magic and another with science and technological experimentation and advancements, was a promising and interesting one and there were mentions of that clash throughout the novel that reflects on colonial subjugation but not many depictions of the science-magic clash were detailed, leaving unanswered questions about the portal linking their worlds and a more fleshed out background for how and why the Romans made their way to Pangu beyond what Antony relayed. While the characters have aspects of their past obscured to heighten tension and drive the interaction dynamics with one another, the characters have a lack of depth to them beyond cliches and it was an odd choice to include just one brief chapter from Antony’s perspective while the rest is from Ruying’s as it unbalances an already odd pacing. With ample deception from nearly every character presented intrigue is developed that drives the story forward and generates interest to learn how the story will progress in future installments, especially as it sets the scene for the sequel by ending on a note of suspense to foster an eagerness for the story to continue.
Overall, I’d give it a 3 out of 5 stars.
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

For a book being marketed as adult, this one felt so juvenile. The concept of this one sounded so wonderful, but the execution left me wishing I'd DNF'd it. The repeated idea of "magic vs. science" had me rolling my eyes every time it was said. There have to be more advanced and nuanced ways of explaining the conflict than a childlike phrase like this. It is a perfect example of the author telling the reader everything instead of showing them anything. I was unable to feel anything for any of the characters because no relationships and interactions were shown. The reader was just told that certain characters were the MC's best friend/they were super close and were expected to believe this and have emotional impact from what happens to these characters. This book was so insanely repetitive that 100 pages could have been shaved off the length by just getting rid of things we'd already been told earlier in the book. The same analogies and descriptions were used over and over. There were lines in this that felt like she wrote them hoping they'd get famous on TikTok and make more people buy the book even though the rest of the book isn't like those few random quotes. This is marketed as slow-burn, but it is completely insta-love. Not to mention Ruying falling in love with the colonizer of her world. I can usually find something to like in a romance, but not at all in this one. The most exciting part of the book (her becoming this assassin for the prince) was skipped over by a 6 month time jump. Ruying as a character was so infuriating. I had high hopes for her ( and this whole book) from reading the author's note at the beginning, but she doesn't ever do anything. She's not morally gray. She doesn't ever use her power until closer to the end. I can see potential in this author's writing of descriptions, but this one was just a huge miss for me.

This was an interesting mix of sci-fi fantasy and Chinese history and mythology. Pangu is a otherworldly (and I think completely different planet version of?) China that’s been colonized by a highly advanced Rome. I thought the world building was good, but it was rather hard figuring out if Pangu was an alternative China or just a completely different planet. Rome’s advancements cool to read, but same thing with Pangu, I had to actively remind myself that it wasn’t the Ancient Rome I’m used to reading about. ⚔️

Ruying’s characterization, I felt, was a bit misleading. She’s described as a morally grey character, but continues to be merciful throughout the book. I would say she’s more of a good person who’s forced to make morally grey/questionable choices. But I did think she was a good MC that’s rather unreliable at times when it comes to seeing the bigger picture. ☠️

Antony, to me, was a good example of a “slippery” love interest. He’s good looking obviously, but he’s hard to pin down when it comes to identifying his morals and actions, and his continuous evasion of certain answers makes me think of a snake that could bite the handler’s hands at any moment. The revelation of his character at the end of the book felt both predictable and surprising because it was both what I was expecting and not expecting.🐍

The side characters did feel a bit black or white when it came seeing the world. Sometimes they were either textbook evil, or too righteous in my opinion, but I guess that provided for a good foil to Ruying and Antony’s actions. 🤷🏻‍♀️

In the end, I thought the magic system was interesting, the characters intriguing enough to keep my attention, and the plot was engaging. Definitely would recommend for those who enjoyed the alternative history of China in The Poppy Wars and the sly love interest in The Hurricane Wars! ✨

Big thank you @delreybooks and @netgalley for granting my wish for this book in exchange for an honest review, and to @mollyxchang for writing such an interesting book! Can’t wait for book 2! ❤️

Overall: 4/5 ⭐️

May contain some spoilers: 

I understood the author's intention to explore the theme of one culture oppressing and exploring another. Also, I was excited to get a lot of Asian culture, mythology, and elements (because of the cover), but the direction was another. Still, what kept me going was that this story is based on Unit 731, which is a subject that always interests me. Humans are being taken by other humans to be experimented on.

What made me slow down and almost quit were the interactions between the female main character and the opposite sex. Although it is first person, filled with emotion in the present tense, and poetic prose, I didn't like the main character. The author couldn't convince me that a girl who has the power of Death wouldn't fight back just because she didn't want to or it was not what her grandmother wanted. Also, she seems to have a lot of feminist ideas in her thoughts but gets in a situation that forces her to choose to serve one male or another. We, readers, want to follow a hero into high stakes/life or death situations who will stand for herself and sacrifice herself for what is right, when I reached the end I understood that the choice that should be made in chapter two is now going to be only made in book two. The concept is there, but the choices are not my expectations. A second aspect that slowed down my reading was the dialogue. It has a lot of repetition (not just in the dialogue, but in prose as well) repetition of the same ideas, themes, thoughts, and justifications... Saying the same thing over and over doesn't advance the plot at all, just stops it. 

I didn't like the end and will not continue the series.

But... Although I was not the target for this book after all, I enjoyed the action, the chapters of her being separated from her family and taken. The realization that they were sorting the powers they deemed useful was the best part of the book. As soon as the prince entered... it lost me. I don't mind to read romance when done right.

I will still recommend it to my readers and I hope they read it to formulate their own opinions. It is the start of a series that will make the main character choose which path to take, and which male to follow.

Themes like: feminism, oppression (between male and female but also between two different cultures, one has magic and they are enslaved and explored by those with technology) violence (different levels), greed, drug abuse, torture, and death. 

The cover is very pretty, congrats to the artist.

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for this E-arc.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read a digital ARC.

I was prepared to love this based on the gorgeous cover, but I was left wanting a bit more. I will still pick up the sequel to see what happens.

Strong start to a YA fantasy world, loosely based on Chinese mythology/ folklore. There was some repetition in parts, as noted by other reviewers. But I enjoyed the story overall.

The conclusion definitely sets up for book #2 (I see there is already a book #3 listed)! Recommend for ages 12+. I didn’t see anything alarming for younger readers, but teens are more likely to appreciate the political war strategies. Thanks to NetGalley and publishers for the advanced reader’s copy!

I will first like to thank NetGalley and the Publisher for the free arc in exchange for an honest review.
I was super excited to read this book but was ultimately let down for a multitude of reasons. Even though this book is marketed as a slow burn romance, I didn't feel that. There was a slight time skip shortly after the fmc accepted the deal and she was already showing evidence of her attraction the the mmc. Many of the moments the two were together where off page, not actual scenes. The fmc even quickly admits she is attracted to him but says they cannot be together. It was almost like the audience was told they should like the prince but where not given reasons why they should like him and Ruying together. So even though it took until towards the end for the two characters to even kiss one another, with the lack of romance building in the novel it made the attraction seem fast pace instead of slow-burn. Also he is a colonizer. There is no defending that. He is not morally gray, he's just a bad guy. I didn't care for most of the characters in this book since they were very irritating. This book needed major editing done. I understand arcs go through more editing before being published, but this was the worst I seen. The ending felt like it could open up the possibility of a love triangle in the second book, which I wont mad if she ended up with a non-colonizer.

I had some pretty mixed feelings about this book. Starting with the good I loved the overall plot. The whole idea of tech vs magic was really interesting to watch play out. I also enjoyed the second half of the book WAY more than the first half. Moving more towards the bad the first half of the book was very internal monologue heavy making it rather hard to follow and a little boring in places. I think this was another reason for enjoying the second half more as the action was much better. The pacing also felt kind of off. I understood the need for the time jump but it felt rather disjointed in execution. Then finally I have a lot of problems with both of the main characters. As I already said I loved the plot and I think that overall carried this story. I felt that Ruy was a rather flat character over all and the love story that plays out did not have enough real meat to it to get the reader super engaged in it.

This book was a struggle to get through. I felt like nothing happened for the majority of the book. It was just Ruying going back and forth in her head about whether she was good or evil; if she was doing the right thing or not. It was exhausting.

While I hated that Ruying basically falls in love with Anthony, I suppose it would be possible. There is such a thing as Stockholm Syndrome. But I honestly never cared about the characters. I don’t know how to explain it but I just felt the writing style kept me disconnected from them. I also thought the one chapter from Anthony’s pov was a strange choice.

I found the magic system interesting even though we didn’t get to see much of it. The world building, I felt was a little lacking. I enjoyed the few references to their gods though. We really don’t learn anything about the world the Romans came from except that it is <spoiler>dying<\spoiler>. We don’t know if it’s our world or some other made up world, although it does seem similar to our future, except for the whole Romans no longer existing thing. We don’t find out how the Romans created a portal between worlds, except that it’s science.

What bothered me the most with this book was the lack of an ending. It just seemed to stop, like if you want to know how it really ends, you have to read the next book. And I don’t like when the power dynamics are so extreme. How is there any way that the Pangu will ever win against the Romans? I thought Ruying was actually being practical when she justified her actions in that she was stopping an apocalypse and the end of her people. I just see no solution where the Pangu would even come close to beating the Romans without some kind of outside help or magical intervention. It just seemed really unrealistic.

From the cover and the description, I really thought I was going to like this book, but it just wasn’t for me.

***Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this book. All opinions expressed within are my own***

I am in the worst book slump of my life and haven’t been in the mood to read it. But this book is right up my alley. And I follow the author on TikTok. I have been reading a lot of Chinese mythology lately which I’m pretty sure this book is. So I know I’ll love it. I read a few pages and was intrigued. I definitely say give it a shot if you like Chinese mythology and pretty covers. Can’t wait to purchase a physical copy of this book and have it in my collection

This was such a fun read I loved it so much I couldn't put it down and was completely hooked from the first page

This book gives a glimpse into colonization and oppression in a subtle way.

To be honest, reading this book is like tasting citrus. Beautiful but sometimes sour and bitter. Especially when reflecting on what is really happening in the world these days.

Colonization is the main issue brought up by the main character, Ruying. I was taken to dive into the miserable life of Ruying and her sister in the midst of massive oppression from other countries.

The use of illegal drugs, house demolishing, land taken, several liberation restrictions on indigenous people, and groups opposing colonization, are the main issues of this book.

I like the layered conflict, but I don't like how Ruying says it over and over again in every chapter. What I mean is, I understand her suffering and all, but since it was a fictional book, limited by wordcount and pages, I wanted to see the plot progress in a real way. Real action. Not just some rambling from a girl literally like every chapter.

And the romance. don't hate me, but I don't feel the romance in this book was necessary. Especially a love triangle. This book has enough problems already, and I don't see any room for the romance to develop.

Nonetheless, I still hope the next book can surprise me.

I received this arc from Netgalley in exchange for honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this ARC.

I really wanted to love this one, but I ended up having mixed feelings about it. I'll start with the things that I did like. I liked how this was a blend of sci-fi and fantasy. I appreciated how this gave us a look at the effects colonialism has on those who are colonized. I also appreciated how the characters were morally gray. I thought that Baihu was the best example of morally gray character in this book. I'm interested to see more of him the sequel.

On to the things that I wasn't a fan of or thought could use some improvement. I thought that the worldbuilding was underdeveloped. The lack of worldbuilding led me to be confused about a few things as I was reading, especially when it came to the Romans. I thought that this world was interesting, but I would have liked to seen it fleshed out a bit more. I wasn't a fan of the romance between Antony and Ruying at all. I didn't like how she was developing feelings for her colonizer. It just felt icky to me considering how much Ruying talks about how much she hates the Romans for what they've done to her world. I also found Ruying to be slightly annoying at points along with being self-righteous.

Overall, even though I had my issues with this book, I'm interested enough to see what happens in the sequel. I was just really wanting more from this book, especially with a cover as gorgeous as this one.

First of all, I want to thank Netgalley and Random House for providing me with a copy of the book.

I was really excited to read this book. I have been loving books with intricate politics and court dynamics, and I was looking forward to reading from the perspective of a court assassin.

However, this book was challenging to get through. The beginning felt bogged down because there was a lot of info-dumping, all of which was happening between lines of a conversation. From there, the plot took off and it was exciting to read about the dynamics of Ruying's family, and the lead-up to Ruying being hired as Antony's assassin was exciting. I was really engaged until about half-way through the story as the romance started to become more prevalent.

It also took quite a bit of time to wrap my head around the concept of Rome being the invader's homeworld. I was excited to read about fantasy-Manchuria, and I understand that in this book, Rome is a fantasy-version of a country our world. However, it felt like a strange choice to have a fantasy world based on a country and its history, but also include Rome from Earth. I appreciate the author breaking the mold, but it was also a choice that broke immersion and still feels strange after finishing the book.

I will also say the romance between Ruying and Antony was extremely off-putting. I think that if Ruying's attraction towards him was spun more as a survival mechanism, it would be more understandable, but it just felt very unbelievable and unpalatable that Ruying would feel anything other than disgust and revulsion towards Antony. This romance also starts to develop after he forces her against her will to commit horrors, which honestly felt gross and made me put the book down for a while.

By the time I hit about 50% of the way through the book, I realized that I wasn't invested in seeing how anything really resolved. I found a lot of the characters unlikeable and the setting was confusing. I will say that I liked the ending a lot, and I'm interested to see how the author ends up resolving everything. I'm just not sure that I'll want to invest the energy into the rest of the series.