This book put me through a whirlwind of emotions. Chang ripped my heart out, stomped on it, dusted it off, replaced it and then stabbed it, and twisted the knife. Then Chang leaves the knife there after I finish the book with a cliffhanger ending. I need the other book. I need to know how the story ends.
I was immediately drawn into this book when I realized the subject matter she was tackling (opium crisis). This is a historical event that has always bothered me, and I was interested to see how Chang would address it in a fantasy setting for this age group (YA). She does an amazing job of showing addiction and the hurt it not only causes the individual but the family members involved. I do think this is on the far end of YA leaning to Adult. Though the character development and the decisions our MFC makes, I feel that it keeps it in YA.
As readers, we have no idea who we can trust, thus making us feel just as unsure and backed into a corner as our MFC Ruhying. I have never actively disliked so many characters, and Anthony gives a whole new name to morally grey, but part of me is still unsure if it applies to him or if he is straight up just the villain?
In war and situations that Ruhying is presented with, it's easy to understand how tough it is to make decisions doing what is morally right and what must be done to ensure survival for oneself and those we love. We follow Ruhying as a young adult, having to make decisions she is not ready for nor wants to make for self-preservation and is constantly questioned for them. It forces her to choose what she feels is right even when others are apposed. She has to trust herself, and as a young adult, that is hard. When you have the put aside noise of parents, friends, teachers, siblings, significant others, and whoever else feels that their opinion matters.
The magic system gives you enough to understand, but I hope that with further installments, we are able to get more information. I liked how Ruhying's death magic is explained and how there is a more visceral reaction to taking a life. It really makes the reader see how tough that should be and a decision not made on a whim.
I found myself, though, getting annoyed with how much she repeated, needing to protect her family and do the right thing. I know it shows her struggling to stay afloat, making her own morally grey decisions, but it felt like we were hearing it on every page. It wasn't till the last 20% that she dropped talking about what was wrong and what was right and saving her family, and she started being more confident in her decisions. The last 20% of this book was absolute perfection. The pacing was perfect. We had a lot of plot and character development. So I hope the second book continues this pacing and plot building storyline and leaves the repetitive inside Ruhying's head, thought patterns behind. I like that she is constantly at war with herself, but we need to phrase it differently.

3.5 stars!

I love stories that have such diametrically opposed elements as Wicked Gods has... The science of Rome, the magic of the Xianlings. The traditional roles of men vs the traditional roles of women. The wealth and privilege of the conquerors set against the poverty of the conquered. It creates such a sense of conflict in me as I read. And it's uncomfortable! But in good ways, because it forces me to learn more about the atrocities humanity is capable of.

The magic system (and subsequent revelations about qi-cells) was fascinating - I would have loved to learn more about it, but hopefully we'll see more of that in the next book. And Ruying was such an interesting protagonist - I found myself alternately rooting for/sympathizing with her and then wanting to figuratively shake some sense into her. Honestly, I have very complicated feelings about nearly all of the characters at this point!

And all of this conflict/complication set against a visually striking backdrop... Definitely a book that paints a clear mental picture of it's environs.

What was I missing? I personally could have used more context in some areas and less in others. I *think* some of that will resolve in the coming sequels - and I get it, you don't just info dump all the details straight into book one. But I do think some of Ruying's inner conflict could have been trimmed and additional info provided to flesh out other areas of the story.

Can you read the story without reflecting on what the colonization of Manchuria meant to the native people? Can you read without reflecting on the ongoing disparity between traditionally recognized gender roles? Sure. But I think taking the time to reflect on and learn a bit about the history that informs the fiction adds a level of nuance that enriches the story. Plus, the state of the world today.....do we really want to continue these patterns of behavior?

All in all, an enjoyable book regardless of how deep you want to dig. Will I read the sequels? Yes - I'm a sucker for the end of the story.

It was a great book. I could really feel the anger, the sorrow of the protagonist Ruying. I loved the enemies-to-lovers approach where prince Anthony took over her world. Also, a love triangle with Baihu would be interesting. I have to say the content shows a view of a dark romance-type fantasy, considering the power inbalance so far. Maybe we'll see more positive power balances.

This book was great. The story took so many turns and the romance wasn’t too heavy, it was sprinkled right in there perfectly. The only complaint I would have is the writing style was a little too flowery and over descriptive for me personally. I still really enjoyed this book and would recommend this to everyone.

I would like to thank Random House Publishing, Del Rey, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy to review.

I really wanted to find something I liked about this book but it was a slog for me. Very slow - themes, thoughts and feelings are so over-repeated by the protagonist that I quickly lost interest. I couldn't find any characters likeable and Ruying herself is morose and whiney. If this was not a YA novel but an adult one it would be better - there's nothing as a teen I would have been interested in here either but diving deeper into the mature themes could help carry things along. The world could be interesting but the two cultures aren't dived into deep enough - it's dark but not dark enough and there's little hope for conflict resolution between the two sides. It's hard to tell what this novel wants to be and some ideas from other books are played at so it doesn't feel new or exciting for me.

This Asian inspired fantasy will have your heart racing. I am absolutely a sucker for books like this one and it's such a wonderful read. Highly recommend!

In a world invaded by Romans, we meet Ruying, a girl with a deadly gift from Death itself - the power to drain life. Captured due to her power, she's forced to ally with Antony, a mortal prince, in a bid to protect her family. The narrative unfolds slowly, heavy with information and repetitive thoughts.

The romance between Antony and Ruying feels forced. He's her captor and tormentor, making their supposed love hard to believe. Ruying's sudden affection for Baihu, a symbol of her oppression, is equally perplexing. Baihu is part of the Roman Empire, the very force brutalizing Ruying and her people.

"To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods" is a stark exploration of heavy themes. That takes a look at Magic vs Science. Overall I wanted to enjoy this book more than I actually did which is unfortunate because I was excited to read this.

This was SO good. The ending was *chefs kiss* I loved the dynamic between the main characters. I loved the world building and the culture. I loved the magic system. The only thing I need is more!!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc!
⭐️2.5

I was excited to read this book as soon as I heard from it, it looked like something I would love. And I really like the idea, I loved the idea of magic versus science, thought it was interesting the themes about enviroment, imperialism and the moral dylemma if peace is really always the best option. But overall I had problems with the execution.

- The writing: It was fine. Easy to read. I think my biggest issue was the info dump at the beginning — thought it didnt bother me that much I think this could be an issue for someone else, since fantasy is a genre that its a bit harder than usual to get into.
- The characters: I found Ruying to be too naive and her refusal to kill even in life or death situations its something I find tiring to read in higher stakes stories. I understand when using her powers but even when shes not using it not so much. I think she could have developed more (overall) in this book but theres room for that in the next one.
I Loved her sister for the little we saw of her — I wish I could have seen her more.
The others are fine, Not sure what to think of Anthony as a character yet,
- The romance: I think this was my biggest issue in this. I can love villain romances, enemies to lovers, or any kind of relationship similar. But I dont like any character that just fits in the two boxes, I nedd for them to make sense to be together as individual characters (in any relationship, of course, but specially these ones) and I dont think this was the case. Specially by how fast I thought Ruying started to trust Anthony. I probably would have enjoyed the book more if there was no romance at all and it focused more on the main characters' dilemma of war x peace. Her feelings having any influence in some of her decisions felt silly.
Also, I think its worth mentioning: I have seen some reviews mentioning slowburn. I dont know where people are getting this so Im not sure if its the books' fault, but if slowburn to you means "slow development of feelings" and not just "how long it takes for them to get together" you could be disappointed by this. Specially when there was a bit of time jump not long after they met and we miss some early development that I think it was important to see.

Overall I can see a potential, I think i could enjoy more depending of the direction the story takes, but Im not sure it it could go to a direction I want, so im not certain I will pick up the next book.

This book made Molly Chang one of my auto buy authors! I loved this book. Such a fast pace read. I haven’t read a book this good in a while.

My hopes were sky high stumbling upon this cover and description. Truly one of the most beautiful covers I’ve seen in awhile. I really try to seek out asian authors and settings, I’m filipino so I love any asian representation is something I gravitate towards.

While the cover invites you in, I found the writing style a bit brash. There was lots of telling and not enough showing. What really did not sit right with me is the colonizer love interest. The romance was toxic & I just could not get passed it. In ways I felt like this book’s premise was striving to be on the same plane as The Poppy War series. There simply wasn’t enough depth in the characters for such heavy subject matter, and the world building wasn’t executed strongly in my opinion. Unfortunately the lore and history was so far off that it was hard for me to fully immerse myself.

I was looking forward to this one so much but unfortunately it fell short for me :/

As always these opinions are my own, and thank you kindly to Netgalley and Del Rey for the advanced copy.

1 star, five words: fuck this colonizer apologist bullshit.

Let's start at the beginning. This book is ostensibly inspired by and meant to honor the author's grandparents' experiences during the occupation of Manchuria. But quite honestly, I find that hard to believe. Firstly, I'm not sure how any of this book speaks to the historical occupation of Manchuria. The fantasy China in To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods (called the Er-Lang Empire; the wider world is called Pangu) seems more based on ancient China, as evidenced by the author's claim that "we fought their science with bows and arrows," which worries me - does the author genuinely think that the armies of China, the culture that invented gunpowder, were fighting with bows and arrows in the 1930s? The naming of the colonizers as "Romans" adds to this confusion; certainly Rome was not invading Manchuria in the author's grandparents' memory, and in a fantasy world where all the names of every other real-world analog was changed to "Er-Lang" or "Pangu" or "opian" (seriously), the choice to transplant "Romans" from the real world is a bit jarring. Very little of the world or plot in this book speaks meaningfully to the real history of the occupation of Manchuria at all.

Secondly, if the author wanted to honor her grandparents' memory and intergenerational trauma from the occupation of Manchuria, she never would have written 368 pages of the most colonizer-sympathizing, Stockholm-syndrome bullshit I have ever read in my entire life. The main plotline of To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods follows a romance between Ruying, a "Xianling" (her world's name for those born with magical powers) blessed with the powers of Death, and Antony, the younger prince of the Roman Empire. From the outset, this set off alarm bells in my head for what I think should be very obvious reasons. And as I read, those alarm bells only started ringing louder and louder. Antony literally kidnaps Ruying and forces her to become his personal assassin, or else he'll kill her and her entire family. I'm really not quite sure how this is romantic, but apparently it's supposed to be, because all it takes is Antony telling Ruying she's special and she conveniently forgets that he's one of the colonizers oppressing her people and actively enslaving her. She spends the next 20 chapters or so parroting Antony's colonizer rhetoric ("it's for the greater good!"), "looking at him from under her lashes" (*gags*), and killing her own people to serve his ends (which she never seems to question until literally the last few pages of the book). There's a lot of words I could use to describe Ruying, some of them more polite than others, but some of the first few that come to mind are: naive, willfully ignorant, and self-serving. And those are just the nicer ones. I could not bring myself to care about Ruying, Antony (don't even get me started), or their relationship whatsoever.

Now to be clear, I don't think it's inherently wrong to write about a toxic or abusive relationship, but to romanticize it - and I'm certain that the author meant for the readers to find it romantic - is. Nor do I think it's inherently bad to write a flawed character who, in the words of the author, "makes all the bad decisions," but when those "bad decisions" are aiding a colonizer in the oppression of your own people, I think that as an author, you have the responsibility to engage those issues meaningfully and thoughtfully (lest you become a victim of Poe's law). And I don't think the author put any thought into Ruying's actions other than "this will make her seem morally gray!"

Speaking of moral grayness, the author could not seem to help reminding the reader every other page that everyone in this book is sooo morally gray. The author could definitely benefit from a few more classes in "show, don't tell," because tell, tell, tell is all she does. I can't count how many times the actual words "[this character] wasn't black or white, but a shade of gray in between" were used to describe characters in the book. In general, the prose read like a first draft written by a writer who just took their first creative writing class - pages of infodumping, repeated sentence fragments, purple prose, and way too many grammatical errors even for an ARC (seriously, did this book get edited at all?). At one point the author literally uses paraphrased Taylor Swift lyrics (yeah, I noticed) in - what else - a single random chapter from Antony's POV:

"Now, in this bed with Ruying beside him, Antony finally understood what his grandfather meant when he said love was a weakness.

Why they fought the wars.

Why poets dedicated their lives putting this feeling into words."


File this book under "comedies" because reading those lines and realizing they were literally lifted from You Are In Love was honestly one of the funniest moments I've ever experienced while reading a book.

Narratively, the worldbuilding was weak and the motivations of the characters questionable at best. "Rome" and "Pangu" apparently exist in two different worlds that are connected by a magical portal - something that is never explained and doesn't really add much to the narrative. Ruying's main motivation for her questionable actions is supposed to be her love for her family and dedication to keeping them safe, but we hardly see her relationship with her family before Ruying is kidnapped and all she can think about is Antony, Antony, Antony, which it makes it difficult to sympathize with the idea of her betraying her people for them. The romance, colonizer/colonized issues aside, is barely developed; it's marketed as a "slow burn" but this is just categorically false, unless by "slow burn" you mean a six-month timeskip during which we are told Ruying and Antony apparently magically developed feelings and started calling each other "my love." The mysterious rebel group led by someone called "the Phantom" is first characterized as a bunch of ragtag nobodies who are completely ineffective against Rome's "superior technologies" and then suddenly appear 75% of the way through the book as a highly-trained, powerful force that have been secretly thwarting Rome at every turn. Ruying's people are supposed to have no knowledge of the Romans' science and advanced technology, yet she switches between being mystified by "tablets with ever-changing surfaces" and then casually recognizing "computers" pages later. Never mind the ever-present characterization of "science" as some sort of monolithic evil unknown, a rhetoric that I have always had issue with.

This book wants to be The Poppy War so badly, but the difference is Rin would beat Ruying's ass for the bullshit she pulls in To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods. This book could never be The Poppy War for a lot of reasons, but to bring it all back to what I said at the start of this review, the critical one is that The Poppy War is firmly anti-colonialist and To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is a poorly-written, barely-edited, thoughtlessly researched (if at all, given *gestures to the review above*), colonizer-sympathizing "I can fix him" fantasy to an embarrassing extreme. All I can really say, at the end of this review, is this: Girl, please stand up.

The country of Pangu has been invaded by Romans, using their advanced technology to subdue their magic. Ruying is a xianling (magic user) with the power of death, and is captured by a prince of Rome and given a choice, die or serve him to help him in his plans to bring peace between their worlds.

I have some issues with this. There was a lot of repetition needlessly with Ruying just repeating the same things over and over. A colonizer being a love interest is so bad. We also get very little explanation about the relationships with Baihu and Meiya. Furthermore, the fact that this Rome is from our world was really weird to me. If the author wanted to use Rome as the conqueror from our present day world we should have more descriptions of what the rest of that current world is like except for just “the world is dying. “ In the foreword it’s mentioned that this is supposed to be at least somewhat inspired by the century of humiliation in china - when exactly in china? We get no real description of the city except that there are food stalls. I feel like I barely know what anyone or anything looks like in the story. All that said, the concept and the plot were really interesting. I think with more work this could be a really excellent series.

Unfortunately this one was a DNF for me- while I loved the premise and it seemed to have all the elements that would make me fall in love (slow burn villain love interest? tell me more!) the choppy dialogue-focused writing style and pacing that got in the way of deep characterization kept me from being immersed. I might come back to it if I am in the mood for something in this style as I really enjoyed the creative worldbuilding, and I think this will appeal to fans of fast-paced, tropey YA in an Asian setting, but it wasn't for me.

Is it okay to sacrifice the few, to save the many? 🤔

This is a story that had me in my own head. It’s a story of self discovery, and introspection. This story contains a cast of morally grey characters fighting for what they believe in. The FMC struggles to decide who she is, where her loyalties lie, and ultimately where does she draw the line between what is right, and what is wrong? Whose side is she on? Should there be sides at all? The poverty, colonialism, the war, the addiction, mirrored our world so completely it had me deep in thought throughout the book. I changed my mind many times. What was okay? What wasn’t? The FMC didn’t know who she was, and I felt like I was trying to figure out who I was, right along with her. I was glued to this book from the beginning.

The world building was interesting, and easy to follow. I found the translations throughout the story really helped me feel connected to the heritage, and culture of the FMC. I really enjoyed that touch. The romance I found to be a little lacking, but the overall story made up for it. This is a true enemies to lovers romance. I enjoyed the evolution of their relationship, although I wished for a bit more interaction between the FMC and the MMC. The majority of the book is the FMC thinking about things that happened, versus actually experiencing them, which I’m not sure how I feel about. There is no spice🌶️ in this book. I found the FMC’s relationship with her sister to be extremely frustrating as well. Her sister was horrible to her, and the FMC’s unconditional love drove me insane. I understand it’s her sister, but I don’t agree with her enabling her sister, nor putting up with her sisters blatant disregard for the FMC’s feelings.

Overall, I’m glad I read it. The story is entertaining, and unique. I think it’s a great start to a series, and I’m interested in finding out what happens next.

Thank you to Netgalley, and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

unfortunately, i did not really enjoy this novel. i was promised a morally grey female protagonist, but she was anything but. from the beginning we are repeatedly told that ruying is willing to do anything for her family, yet we never actually see this. also the romance was a bit iffy to me. it very much read as a colonizer romance, because that's what antony was to ruying, and that made me feel odd all throughout, to the point that i got to about 70% through and i decided i could not keep going.

thank you to netgalley and random house publishing for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review. the review will be posted on my goodreads page closer to the publishing date.

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.