The cover of this novel caught my eye the second I saw it. I wish I could say that the story caught my attention as well.

While the writing has its high points with descriptive prose and thoughtful similes, there was a lot of repetition. A chunk of the writing felt like just saying things to seem flowery. The reason for this, in my opinion, is due to the slow nature of this book. This snail pace led to a lot of over explaining and information dumping.

From the first chapter until the end, things moved slowly. There was a lot of information overload and monologuing without much to keep the reader engaged. Due to this, a lot of the same thoughts and language cropped up often. There were a few times I’d look up a word on kindle because I knew I had read the same thought or a very similar concept a few pages ago.

The storyline was dull for a while, it wasn’t until the very end when things began to pick up. To be frank, I just didn’t connect with the story and found myself losing speed quickly.

As for characters, I could not seem to connect with anyone. “The girl kissed by death”, “the strong girl who, don’t worry, is still thin and not buff”, “the evil prince”, etc. Every character seemed one note, and this carried over to the romance.

I just did not see the chemistry between Antony and Ruying at all. He quite literally kidnapped her and tortured her. I would have rather not have had any romance. For the life of me, I could not see why they had begun to grow attached or even further, in love. We didn’t get to see them connect and flourish and instead were simply told about their love.

The story has a lot of promise. The world building was interesting and I am intrigued to see how the next installment turns out per the ending of this. However, I believe the key issue with this novel is that it was more telling than showing. Emotions, body language, etc — the meaning of everything was told to us.

Readers are intelligent, we don’t need things to be spelled out in order to grasp concepts and emotions. I also hope the next novel does away with the narrative that science is the enemy and instead places the blame on humans, greed, and weaponry.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an eARC of this book!

I didn't finish this book because it is so exposition-heavy in the first thirty percent. The main character is contradictory and bland. Entire chapters are her thoughts and by the time something happens, I couldn't care less. Some people prefer that, but this book ended up not being my cup of tea.

To get this started, let's talk about this cover! It's absolutely stunning!
This book is absolutely amazing and honestly I got lost in its world. Our main character is Ruying whos world has been invaded by the Romans and she’s forced to fear them not only because of being conquered but because of her magical power. She has been ‘ blessed ’ by Death. Shes able to kill people by just pulling the life out of them. Unfortunately she gets caught and ends up working with Antony one of the mortal princes in exchange for keeping her alive and her family safe.,
The world building in this book was good! The portal was an interesting factor because I wasn’t expecting that was the way they invaded. The descriptions of the towns and stuff was also good. And for character development well, I think Ruying developed quite while especially in the last 15%. And Antony well, he’s just kinda morally gray so hes perfect in every way.
The romance though, is definitely a slow burn so don’t get into this thinking the characters are going to instantly be onto each other. And a slow burn definitely fits this storyline super well.
I’m excited to see where this story takes us in book two and I’m ready for more of Ruyings story! Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing group for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey - for granting me access to the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be released on April 16, 2024.

2 STARS

The scientific, technologically advanced Romans have conquered the Pangulings of the Er-Lang Empire. These two peoples now live alongside each other in the Jing-City, subdivided by the Fence. The Roman conquerors exploit the Pangu by (1) keeping pacified puppet rulers in power, (2) introducing the addictive “opian” drug, and (3) capturing the Xianling magic-users.

Protagonist Yang Ruying is one such Xianling, whose Death power allows her to grasp qi and kill people. Ruying starts out the book hating the Roman oppressors but also dealing with her problematic home life. She must support her elderly grandma, drug addicted sister, and the memory of her abusive drug-addict father. When she comes to the attention of Roman prince Antony, he offers her the chance to create a legacy and unleash her power.

The book starts with a very heavy-handed Chapter One and then stumbles with the next couple chapters full of repetition and rambling character intros. I was a little worried because the world building initially seemed like a remix of many historically inspired elements from The Poppy War series. Then the plot takes off. The author tries to focus on the colonization/occupation instead of war and military ethics. Unfortunately, I do have the following issues with the book.

FLIMSY WORLDBUILDING. There’s a lot of empty descriptors that give me no sense of the atmosphere and do not provide clear imagery beyond generic Asian. At least Pangu/Er-Lang culture is expanded a little with later details about the spiritual beliefs and lore. As for the Romans… Other than general luxuriousness and appreciation of science and technology, I had very little sense of Roman culture or even aesthetics. Also, why did the author choose to call them Romans? The real Roman Empire existed in a different time well before the use of guns, missiles, and jets, and was not the perpetrator of the evils (as per the Author’s Note) that inspired the story. The story could have easily explained the New Roman Empire getting inspiration from its ancient predecessor. Also, I wish the author would have featured the on-page appearance of magic and Xianlings more. Also, we only briefly get to see magic used by others outside of Ruying.

WRITING ISSUES. The amount of interior monologuing is disproportionate to plot developments. Ruying's emotional waffling may cause the reader fatigue. Also, Ruying’s internal thoughts include numerous info dumps. The author leaves nothing to inference and must tell instead of show everything. This also leads to plenty of unnatural, dry dialogue. Finally, there is too much repetition! We get certain world-building facts repeated, but also, the titular metaphor about the Roman overlords being wicked gods gets brought up about every 10 pages!

THE ROMANCE. Uggghhhhh. Toxic, bad, and wrong. Baihu represents everything Ruying has purported to hate since the beginning of the book, and now she's falling into insta-love?! Because he supposedly understands her?! Baihu not only represents something antithetical to who Ruying is, he is also part of the people (i.e. the Roman Empire) who are oppressing, brutalizing, and exploiting Ruying and the Pangulings. Baihu himself is actively committing crimes against humanity and commissioning murder. (Not that Ruying is heroic either. But this romance is yucky.) I feel that the heavy emphasis and page-time givent to this romance totally undercut the moral questions and/or themes the author was trying to set up and explore.

Overall, To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods tackles important, heavy topics and delivers its story with blunt style. I can see some merit, but upon considering it for a week, I don't think I can comfortably recommend it.

Got to read an early copy and I need the 2nd book like now! It has definitely got me back into fantasy and made me not want to put it down

This book is gorgeous and I wanted to love it so much, but I struggled to get into it.
The book is very slow moving to start and I just struggled to want to read the story and to remember the details of it. I DNF'd 50% through... I might try again another time, but for now it's a 2 star.

TO GAZE UPON WICKED GODS
I am going to rate this book a strong 3.8/5.
I found myself extremely interested in the beginning of the book (0%-35%) and the middle fell very flat and I don't remember much of it until I got about 70% in and then I was able to absolutely fly through the rest of the book and made me SO invested for book 2.
Ruying is such a strong, strong female main character. She understands what it's like to sacrifice, to struggle, and to do what is required of her for the love of her family. The struggles of war between science and magic make her throw her own personal issues on the back burner to face what is ahead of her. I absolutely loved the story between Antony and Ruying, I love that she stands her ground and has a sense of unsureness of Antony even when it feels so right.
This book was also a lot darker then I had imagined and Antony has quite an evil side to him. I'm ready to see if he grows as a character the more love blooms between Ruying and Antony. I'm really happy that this wasn't a typical "evil" MMC. He has a backstory of passion and desire, whether we believe him or not. It wasn't that he's beautiful and tall but he had actual depth in his choices, decisions, and reasons. He's a lovable kind of evil that makes me believe what he's saying to Ruying. I'm rooting for this kind of evil and darkness.
I wish we had a bit more of descriptions of worlds, clothing, characters etc. I wasn't really able to imagine this world.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is a complex and thought-provoking fantasy novel that explores the themes of love, loyalty, and sacrifice in the face of oppression.

The main character, Ruying, is a young woman with the power to kill with her touch. She is forced to make a difficult choice: either become the assassin of an enemy prince or risk her family's safety. Ruying chooses to accept the prince's offer, but she is deeply conflicted about her role in the war and the atrocities that she is forced to commit.

As Ruying gets to know the prince, she finds herself drawn to him despite his dark deeds. She begins to question her own beliefs and to wonder what it means to be a hero.

Molly X. Chang's writing is beautiful and atmospheric. She creates a rich and believable world that is both familiar and strange. The characters are complex and well-developed. Ruying is a particularly compelling protagonist. She is flawed and relatable, and her journey is both heartbreaking and inspiring.

One of the things I loved most about To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is that it doesn't offer easy answers. The novel explores difficult questions about the nature of good and evil, the ethics of war, and the cost of freedom. It forces the reader to confront their own beliefs and to question what they would be willing to do in Ruying's situation.

Overall, To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is a superb novel. It is a must-read for fans of dark fantasy and complex characters.

I enjoyed reading this and look forward to a continuation of this story. I liked that the focus was on the main character and her internal struggles of the complications of morality while navigating the fine line between war and peace. I wish there would’ve been more descriptive details of the setting. Some parts were more descriptive than others but I found myself wondering what some places looked like or what characters were wearing in greater detail. There’s still much left to this story and I’m ready for it.

I'm torn on this review. There were elements that I really enjoyed in this story and then there were other things I really did not enjoy. The world building was so interesting but I needed more of it. I wish this had been in 3rd person and we got other perspectives (phantoms, romans, etc). The main character is incredibly naive and she was a bit infuriating at times to only see from her eyes.

I did not love that science is the evil, opposing force to magic. Science is not the problem, weapons and humans are the problem. But the main character villainizes all science. It would have been more interesting to see Ruying take advantage or Rome’s technology and make it their own.

I also thought the romance was not satisfying. The FMC and MMC's initial time together and bonding happens during a 6 month time jump so we just hear about it after and not during. The MMC is never respectful or kind to the FMC so it made her struggle at the end not as impactful or believable.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey for providing an eARC of this book.

OH.MY.GOODNESS. I loved this writing!

The writing is such a unique balance of lyrical and (dare I say) expository! Really Molly read the advice not to "info dump" and she said "ha! watch me!" and it turned out AMAZING. I was immediately hooked and I really devoured this book so fast!

My only complaint is that sometimes the main character felt a bit too immature. Like great for a YA audience more so than adult, although the world building definitely felt adult.

This villainous romance...oh my....it was so SO good. So intense and dark and had me screaming both in anger and excitement.

I loved this book so much!

A huge thank you to Molly X. Chang and Del Rey for letting me read this amazing e-Arc !

I received an eARC from Random House and Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

DNF. Sorry, lads. I truly tried with this one, but the flaws became too much for me in the end. I try not to torture myself with books I’m not enjoying, so I had to put it down. To put it simply, this book is a mess.

1: The Plot

The story centers Yang Ruying, a girl living in Er-Lang, an empire once fueled by magic, which has been colonized by Rome using their superior science.

Ruying possesses the magic of Death, making her a perfect candidate to carry out assassinations, and when her magic is discovered, she’s forced to do just that.

2: The Good

First, the cover of the book is gorgeous. I couldn’t find a definitive answer as to who the artist was (there were several names in the “art credit” section), but props to them for designing it.

Second, the passion the author felt was there. The book begins with an author’s note where Chang talks about her inspirations for the book. She clearly cares a lot about the origins of her story, and the issues of colonialism, racism, xenophobia, and misogyny. The personal stories she included really set the stage for a good book.

And finally, third, the book title is excellent.

3: Show Don’t Tell

There are a couple of ways to do good basic exposition. First, by making your character new to the world they’re in (i.e. Percy in Percy Jackson). Whenever another character explains something to them, it makes sense because the character wouldn’t already know that information. Or second, if your character isn’t new to their environment, then exposition needs to happen slowly and in passing (i.e. Katniss’s observations of Panem in The Hunger Games). You’ll need to imply information through dialogue and action instead of outright explaining it.

This book requires the second type of exposition, but utilizes the first. It’s constantly infodumping onto you without weaving anything into the story naturally. It makes the writing clunky and the dialogue unnatural.

This happens right from the first major conversation, which is between the MC, Ruying, and Baihu, her childhood friend turned opium dealer. There’s a lot of Ruying thinking about her world while she and Baihu go, “hey remember when [insert grim childhood memory here]”

I think replacing some of the information we’re told with flashbacks showing us snippets of what happened through Ruying’s eyes would really help. Meiya’s (Ruying’s twin sister) opium addiction should have been shown to us before we were ever told about it.

4: Worldbuilding

I think this is a multiverse situation, but that wasn’t all that clear as barely any worldbuilding happens. It makes the most sense given the context, though.

The world is loosely based on the messy history of Manchuria, which has been subject to several genocides and occupations throughout its history. Most notably by Russia during their conquest of Siberia and Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

In To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods, the colonizers aren’t Japanese or Russian, but Roman (I don’t mind this in theory, since Romans were like, some of the OG colonizers and this isn’t supposed to be 1:1). But the 'Romans' don’t appear to be based on the Roman Empire from our history, as they seem to exist post-industrial revolution. So, they’re alternate history Romans, I guess. But then, I don’t see why they were called Romans? Because using The Roman Empire in your lore evokes certain imagery (Ancient Rome was pretty iconic), yet I saw no resemblance to that imagery in this book. So, it only ended up distracting me. I think the colonizing Empire should’ve had a made up name, like Pangu does.

The people with magic are called Xianling, which I believe is based on 显灵 (But we weren’t given the hanzi, so this isn’t definitive), which is basically the mutual exchange of energy between gods and humans. Humans show their faith to gods through worship and good deeds, and gods reward them with aid. Which brings me to my first issue with the magic: you’re born with it. It isn’t something you acquire through faith or practice. My second issue is that everyone only has one power and those powers seem to be random. When everyone only has one power, those powers should be symbolic, and represent something about the characters (think Bungo Stray Dogs). But the powers don’t mean anything deeper in this book.

There’s my Taohua Problem. Taohua’s ability is super-strength, but she isn’t allowed to be buff! Why do they never let women be buff? No, she has to be fragile, basically a bird, so that people underestimate her. Never mind that her being a woman would already be reason enough for people to be underestimating her (and then you could give her biceps for days).

Then, the whole “magic vs. science” debate, my beloathed. Sigh. Not everything can be Dr. Stone, which treats science as a great equalizer, and something that can and should be used to save people. Science doesn’t only exist to create tools of war. It isn’t soulless. Treating science as cold and calculating is extremely regressive. I think it would have been more interesting to see Ruying’s people take Rome’s technology, and combine it with their magic, making it their own.

5: The Prose

This book has, to quote Drew Gooden, “the depth of an above-ground pool that hasn’t been filled in yet.”

The prose is easily the worst that I’ve ever read in a work of published (or soon-to-be-published) fiction in my life. I’ve read fanfiction that was more eloquent. It’s repetitive and choppy, and Chang never uses five words where ten will do. The whole book could have been a hundred pages shorter.

6: Ruying

I was going to call this section “characters,” but then I realized I have little to say about anyone who isn’t Ruying.

Ruying is a frustrating character, something I could forgive if she were younger, but she’s already nineteen.

Ruying’s used to being ruled by colonizers and sees no reason to resist if resistance means the deaths of herself and her family. She condemns Baihu, an actually morally ambiguous character, for not being as righteous as she is, then proceeds to do exactly what he does. She ends up helping Rome and justifying it to herself.

7: The Poppy War Problem

So, I really love R.F. Kuang’s Poppy War Trilogy. I think it’s well done, even if it’s imperfect. But just like Susanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, TPW is good enough and successful enough that other authors want to capture the same thing Kuang did in their own works, even if they aren’t equipped to handle such subject matter. To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is an example of this.

The first problem lies in the difference in genre between this book and TPW. TPW is adult fiction, and therefore, doesn’t have to cut corners with the dark themes and events. But this book is YA, meaning it must be sterilized to some degree.

The other major difference is the treatment of the protagonists. Rin from The Poppy War is a truly morally ambiguous character. She does many bad things throughout the books, but she’s written in a way that allows the audience to continue to sympathize with her. But the text never pushes you to feel one way or the other. Ruying isn’t that.

8: Conclusion

Overall, the book read like a first draft. It still needs a lot of work. I hope the book is re-edited before release. But honestly, because I decided not to finish it, my review isn’t as complete as I’d like it to be.

★☆☆☆☆ (1/5)

Aside from the fact that the love interest is the colonizer, I didn’t like the writing at all. The dialogue was really hard to read and overall the whole thing needed massive edits. I’m not even entirely sure what the plot was, I just didn’t like the MC and her decisions continued to get worse and worse.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My perception of this book: To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X. Chang introduced a fascinating world that combined science fiction and fantasy, magic and invention, and Chinese mythology and history. The author did a great job with pacing and writing style. Even though the world she created was a melting pot that had the potential to be overwhelming with all its unique details, I instead found it easy to read and dive into.

My perspective of this book: The world was one I wanted to spend more time in and learn about. The characters I didn’t find as interesting. I really struggled with the main character and though I tried to empathize with her, I just grew more annoyed over time. Overall, I think the characters and their relationships were the weakest part of the story.

I rated this book three-stars because I think parts of it were without a doubt very good. The parts that fell short for me could be summed up as personal preferences and nothing more. So, my recommendation? Read it 

I always try to give every book I start a fair chance, especially one rooted in Chinese mythology and history, being Chinese myself. However, one thing I will absolutely not budge on is an alleged enemies-to-lovers trope where it’s colonizer x colonized. Even worse when it’s White Male Asian Female.

Reading this book that acts to frame the relationship between the colonized and the colonizer as a story of love while there are real, physical, and extremely violent manifestations of colonization occurring daily, puts this book in extremely horrible taste. As an author, you are responsible for caring for the themes you present instead of just using them as storytelling devices. I’m sure Chang had this intention (her author’s note mentioned her driving inspiration was her grandfather’s stories of Manchuria), but writing your lead female character to be morally gray, and that grayness being her cooperation in aiding and falling in love with a colonizer, did not sit right with me at all.

Nevertheless, Chang’s prose and literary structure were strong. I enjoyed the use of Chinese proverbs as part of the dialogue and plot. Yet I could not empathize with Ruying as a character when her head is so far up Antony’s white ass, she doesn’t get a clue until literally the last 20 pages of the book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC.

3/5 Stars
This had a really great premise, but it felt half-baked. It also definitely needs another round of edits, but also this book comes out in April so I'm was prepared for off edits.
What I liked:
- Strong FMC
- A world building that includes more than two cultures

What I didn't like:
- The magic system felt half explained. We know that every power is different, but Chang never really goes into how it works or how it is different for everyone, just only touches of it.
- The enemy in this enemies to lovers is her colonizer :( I really didn't like that, especially because he still seems like a bad guy despite Chang trying to say otherwise.

This is the first book in a series, so I am expecting things to expand upon in the next two books. I really hope so because the prose was good and I was hooked the entire time.

Thank you NetGalley and RandomHouse Publishing for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Summary: enemies to lovers, morally grey mc/love interest, slow burn romance, historical influence

Ruying is a common woman in a world overtaken by futuristic Roman colonization. She and her family are struggling against the oppressive rule, unable to continue the peace and prosperity they once knew. When a Roman price sees Ruying using her gift, she must choose to either work as the Princes' assassin, or face the consequences of disobeying the Roman empire.

With a deeply, morally grey villain, an interesting magic system, and in-depth world building, this book was a great start to what I can assume will be a great series. The complicated love story really makes you question what you, as the reader, would allow to win your heart.

Antony is the green-eyed monster that you hate to love, but somehow Molly X. Chang has pulled it off and Ruying and I are both in his clutches.

4 stars, simply for the somewhat slow pacing. Otherwise a great fantasy debut! I look forward to the release of the physical version so I can put it on my shelves!

Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to read TO Gaze upon Wicked Gods.
I am giving it a 4 star but really it is more 3.5 stars
Total slow slow burn. HOWEVER the manipulation is all over this book.
This book seems to be the first in a series, The whole book was about testing your morals and your loyalty to your land and people.
Poor Ruying named to mean To be Brave, did everything to protect her grandmother and sister in a land that was trying to be conquered by outsiders and where men thought women/girls shouldn't be anything but homebound.
She is gifted with Death touch. She is taken by a man who wishes to use her for the "peace and safety" of her country and his. he says nice things she wishes to hear to her. her heart is missing a piece.

I hope there is more.

Good concept, odd execution. Took a long time to get into and read. I'm not sure if I'm not the right audience or if the book needs work. Generally this seems right up my alley, but I struggled.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sending me this eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

DNF at 50%
I was excited to read To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods but unfortunately this ended up falling flat for me. This book takes place in a Chinese inspired fantasy world being conquered by a technologically advanced Roman inspired world. The mix of two vastly different cultures in completely different time periods was such an interesting idea and was definitely my favorite part of this book. My main issue with To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods was the pacing. This was so slow and repetitive. The world-building was info dumpy and continued to go over the same points over and over again. There was very little dialogue and too much inner monologue about the world. At 50% so little had happened and I was struggling to pick it up, so I decided to DNF. I think this series has potential and has such a unique idea though.