My impression of "To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods" is not the most straightforward. The story has the makings of a great novel with its complex characters and nuanced political landscape. It follows a young woman called Ruying who possesses supernatural abilities. Ruying, initially, is uninterested in getting involved with the ever-dire political oppression in her home country. She does everything she can to steer clear of the Romans, violent colonizers from the west, and keep her magic under wraps in order to protect her grandmother and twin sister. When the Romans ultimately identify her as gifted, she is captured and coerced into their service. Is submitting to the Roman prince's will an act of bravery or cowardness? Will her efforts win her people back their country, or is she nailing the final nail into the proverbial coffin?

This book includes:
- supernatural gifts granted by gods
- enemies to lover
- political intrigue
- friends to enemies
- lovers to enemies
- Opium addiction
- Unwilling allies
- morally gray protagonists
- cowardes
- genocide
- portals through time and space
- one-bed trope


While "To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods" has many elements that I enjoy, I think the pacing and character development were lacking for me. I struggled to connect to the protagonists and often felt frustrated by Ruying's decisions in a way that made me want to stop reading. I would recommend this book to fans of "A Fate Inked in Blood" as the two stories are developed similarly and have FMC's with similar issues.

I revived this book as an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.

This was one of the strangest and messiest books I've read in a while. I'm assuming that multiple professionals in the industry read this book before it became available to readers? How did they not realize how bizarre and problematic the depiction of colonization is?

A technologically-advanced Roman Empire that crossed over to steal the natural resources and exploit the people of a less-advanced stand-in for... some period of Chinese history (it's unclear which) sounds interesting in theory, before you realize that it's actually just an excuse for there to be a 'steamy' colonizer romance with a white man and a Chinese-coded female mc. To come up with this concept to begin with and not have any interest in exploring colonization or its effects or what a struggle between tech vs. magic would look like feels downright criminal. I really think that people who want to write speculative fiction about colonization without having lived under the oppressive effects of it need to be careful and do their due diligence when researching the subject, especially Americans.

Also, in a similar vein to a number of fantasy books for younger readers I've read lately, this book features stunningly obtuse depictions of poverty and addiction. To cap it off, the prose was very weak and the story was almost entirely set-up, with very little actual events occurring between the beginning and end of the story. I hope the finished version has undergone some serious editing, because the abundance of typos, grammatical errors, and even formatting errors were ridiculous as well.

I really enjoyed this book, the plot was fun and fast paced, the world building was good and not super confusing in my opinion. I have a lot of trust issues after this book though I don’t know who I trust, I know who I want to trust. Overall it was a good start to a series and I can’t wait for more. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods I was able to get an ARC thanks to Netgallery and Random House Publishing Group. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
This is the author's debut novel and she nailed it. First off I absolutely love this cover; it's so pretty. This book takes place in a magical China(Pangu) where Colonizers from Rome come to take over. I assume the Colonizers seem to come from a different world with them having to use portals to get to Pangu? To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is about a girl named Ruying who has death magic and she tries so hard to keep it a secret because if the wrong people find out about her she will be used as a weapon. Ruying does all she can to protect and take care of her friends and family even agreeing to become an assassin. Antony the other main character in this book is the second prince of Rome and he meets Ruying when she ends up stealing from him. Ruying is eventually captured and brought to be in front of the princes and is ultimately under Antony mercy. Antony strikes up a deal with Ruying where as long as she kills for him he will keep her family safe. This book was so good I could barely put it down and it's a slow burn, enemies to lovers. The book kind of starts off a little slow but quickly picks up. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a book with characters that are morally gray because both of the main characters are. I can not wait to read book 2 absolutely loved this book and can’t wait to see what happens next.

This book was a delight! The writing was beautiful and poetic and the main character while prickly made very realistic choices. This is not a girlboss kind of heroine. Ruyin made some terrible decisions during the course of the book, but readers will understand her every decision through the incredible storytelling.

thank you to net galley and penguin random house for the eARC, all opinions are my own

Chapter 38 made me cry and I hadn't cried reading a book for a while. The writing in this books was beautiful and I enjoyed reading it for the prose, even if sometimes the main character, Ruying, made me want to scream at my phone. When I first realized the romance was between her and the colonizer prince, I had my reservations, but the ending made up for it. I can't wait to read the next book!

4.5. To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods was one of my most anticipated books this year, and it did not disappoint.

Ruying is a common woman blessed with the power of death in a world where many are blessed with unique magic. She has lived a quiet life under the colonial rule of a futuristic Roman empire. When a Roman prince sees her performing hr gifts, she is given a choice. She must work as the prince's assassin or face the wrath of the empire.

This will be a book for a particular kind of person who really means it when they say they want the main character to fall in love with a villain. Many folks will morally struggle with it, and I am happy to say that To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods really begs the question "what if the boy the girl falls in love with is truly a horrible piece of shit". Interesting, engaging, dark, mysterious, and uniquely written yes, but absolute garbage.

Focusing first on characters, To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is a book that goes all in with its two leads. I will address the side characters in a moment.

Ruying is a messy and complex girl willing to do anything to protect her family, but she is also complacent. She has learned to live under the thumb of Rome and does not feel motivated to take to resistance like some of those around her. As she is drawn into the Roman royalty's world, she finds herself finding ways to justify assisting in their cruelty. If you liked Nezha from The Poppy War, expect a similar arc but with a female main character. Her corruption and devolution into a more complicated character is extremely unique in the world of Young Adult fantasy and handled with a tremendous amount of care.

Antony is the second prince of Rome, and our secondary lead. He is a dark brooding green eyed monster, both literally and figuratively. While he comes off as the "less bad" of his family, he has his eyes on the throne- it can be challenging to read his motivations. He is a masterclass in manipulative behavior and he is the "gaslight" in Gaslight, Girlboss, Gatekeep. Antony never really becomes your quintessential cool Rhysand YA boyfriend. Hes not a particularly pleasant person, but hes big sad boy energy has both Ruying and me in a chokehold.

The side characters are all quite well written, though at times I found myself a little disappointed with where their journeys ended up. This includes Ruying's childhood friend who has a crush on her and now works for the enemy, her sister who is ravaged by addiction, her wise grandmother, and the twisted eldest prince. Chang also does a wonderful job painting a tapestry of off screen characters- primarily from the Roman side. I assume we will meet some of these characters in the next book and I am very much looking forward to it. None of these characters exist to advance the romance in the book, they all have their own thing going on and you can watch their journeys unfold through Ruying's POV.

The romance in the book is top tier if you are an enemies to lovers junkie, though I am worried there is actually a chance Change may pivot the romance to another character (Miss Chang I am begging you not to do this) This is easily one of the slowest burn young adult romances I've ever read and will be satisfying to anyone who needs a cleanse from romantic speedruns.

Antony and Ruying have a hard-to-define bond based on trauma, duty, and broken power dynamics. Antony has near complete control over her to the point where you could argue her affection resembles Stockholm syndrome. He is why she is forced to kill countless of her countrymen, though he is always there to comfort her when she starts to feel overwhelmed by what she is made to do to protect her family and herself. It's extremely hard to make a clear case for Antony's motives right down to the last pages of the book. Molly Chang does a great job writing Antony from Ruying's perspective, making it hard for you as the reader to trust him while your heart stirs at his most genuine moments.

The pair also regularly discuss the nature of power and explore their desire and fear of it together. Ruying is seduced by Antony's vision for peace, however flawed. This creates some fascinating character moments that extend far beyond attraction, as these two characters truly end up influencing each other's visceral core. My love for this pairing started with "slow burn enemies to lovers good" and evolved into something more watching their romance become a philosophical and psychological reflection on war, power, and domination. I would not recommend this book to folks who are uncomfortable with relationships with destructive dynamics, particularly emotional abuse and manipulation. I however, fucking ATE.

The pacing starts off a little infodumpy but quickly starts to naturally expand on the world to the point where its extremely well fleshed out and easy to follow the conflict. Chang introduces us to a complex and messy world of clear-cut heroes and villains but does not shy away from asking you to reflect on the motivations of those villains. Rome is an interesting case in this regard, as they are a hyper-advanced society that holds many secrets while still sucking the soul out of Pangu.

My main criticism of the book is that while Chang builds an extremely interesting world, a lot of flavor on colonizers is borrowed from The Poppy War, The Unbroken, Children of Blood and Bone, etc, and looks a lot like new titles coming out as well (Jasad Heir, Hurricane Wars) Pangu is a magical society brimming with joy and life, while Rome is a soulless science obsessed war machine society where everything is superficial. These two character traits, especially magic vs science, are pretty played out in this type of fantasy. That said, this is my only gripe, and it is small.

My experience reading this book was just total engagement. I finished it in 2 days, and I was camping at the time. I was staying up late to read, desperately hi-lighting quotes like someone was paying me. Any flaws this book has are made up for tendfold by the richness of the characterwork and character relationships. I can not wait for the next installment.

I’m giving this book a neutral 3 stars. Given the premise of this book, I really thought it would easily be a high 4 or 5 stars, but it fell short for me. The writing style just wasn’t for me, it was super repetitive and I often found myself skimming instead of reading.

There was a lot of hypocrisy in this book. Ruying judges everyone around her so harshly, but when she starts working for the Romans (the same thing she was judging Baihu for) she can’t understand why her sister is upset. And her sister is hypocritical too, saying their mother would be disappointed in Ruying when their mother would have also been disappointed in her for her opian use.

I also did not enjoy the “romance”. No part of Antony was redeeming. He treats Ruying like a prisoner, but acts like he’s doing her a favor and like she has a choice in the matter. I don’t understand at all how Ruying can be falling for him. It feels like straight up Stockholm syndrome.

This book just was not for me, although I think the premise of the plot could have been amazing. I just did not connect with any of the characters and did not enjoy the writing style.

It's always very disheartening to be given the chance to read one of your most anticipated books early and then not enjoy it. I was so excited to read To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods, as it seemed right up my ally. I mean morally grey characters? A Chinese fantasy world? Magic vs. Science? I thought I would eat this right up. Unfortunately, while its premise is both enthralling and exciting...its execution is not.

Right off the bat from the very first chapter, I could already tell it wasn't for me. Not only was the first chapter incredibly repetitive, it was also an extremely long monologue about the main character info dumping on the worldbuilding, and how her people have been oppressed. I think practically every single paragraph had a mention about how the Romans had taken everything away from them, and yet it failed to really give us an actual insight on the world. Not only that, but we are unable to see really anything about the main character, other than the fact that she has powers and she has a horrible life. I could not find a single reason to root for her, because there were none given.

However, I tried to give this one a chance, especially seeing that this is a debut book and author. But as I read on, I just put it aside and DNFed it about 20% of the way through. Because of the long and excessive description, I entirely skimmed what I read up to, and I just stopped knowing what was going on in the book.

I think that this book definitely has potential! The idea is incredible, and the book seems very promising. However, I think it is also in need of some major editing, and the wordy description seriously needs to be cut down. Thank you so much to Penguin Random House in exchange for an eARC of this book. Although I didn't enjoy it, I'm grateful for the opportunity to read it!

I received a free copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine; all opinions expressed are exclusively my own.

"Heroes die, cowards live."
Ruying's constant refrain is only one of the many ways To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods stares unflinchingly at the brutality, humiliation, and despair faced by her and her people from the colonizing "Romans". There are no good choices for Ruying, only different routes to attempt to secure survival for her and her family, most of them humiliating at best and deadly at worst. The reader is swept along with Ruying, and even while her decisions are entirely sympathetic, the question of whether or not she truly has any choices is raised at multiple points, and, I would say, never truly resolved in this book. However, the ending leaves the reader aching for more, to know whether Ruying manages to completely be free. This is not a comfortable read, but I think it's a vital one, if for no other reason than to acknowledge as the author notes that a great deal of this story, while science fiction/fantasy, is based heavily on real events that happened to real people.

For sensitive readers, due to the nature of the story, there are a wide array of content warnings: violence, racism, death, addiction, and more. As far as sexual content goes, assault and coercion are referenced but do not happen "on screen" as it were, and nothing of a graphic nature occurs.

First, thanks to the author and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Oh boy, this book. There are parts I loved and parts I hated.

Let's start with loved. The world in this book is lovely! The book follows Ruying, who lives in a conquered world that appears similar to a feudal China with magic. The invaders? A heavily-industrialized Rome. The mix of the two peoples/cultures and the tastes we get of Ruying's homeland are very nice. I also enjoyed the magic in this world, though unfortunately we don't go too deep into it outside of Ruying's own gifts (hopefully more in a sequel?).

Now the bad parts. I really had a hard time with Ruying. She flopped back and forth so much, seeming to be unable to just make a decision and take a side and had to be led through things by both of the main male characters. Considering the book followed her, this could make some parts really frustrating to get through. On top of that, her priorities were really skewed in my opinion.

Would I read a sequel? Yes, if just simply because I want to know how things end up, not because I really like any of the characters

I appreciated this book more than I enjoyed it. I'm all for slow-burn stories and plots that take their time to develop, but in this case it should have been done in a more skillful way. However, the ideas presented by the author and some of the character work here were fantastic. I could recommend it to certain readers.

An ambitious debut that is undermined by the protagonist’s wool gathering; a tighter editing session and elaboration on world building could produce a better and more engrossing world.

You can read the full review with the link.

I was super excited for this one! The cover was absolutely stunning and the book was even more amazing! I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

I received an advance copy of this book for review!

The cover is gorgeous - 10/10, stunning, love it.

I really enjoyed the world building in this book and thought it was a unique take on quite a few different stories. I could have used more descriptions of the world itself to highlight the differences between the two sides of the city. I also liked the magic system and how it tied into the plot. The prose was quite good as well, but I could have done without the one chapter from the prince’s POV.

I truly do not think this should be categorized under romance at all. The romance in this book is not what I expect when I pick up a book categorized under romance. I also think that this particular romance won’t go over well with a certain set of folks - I think it’ll definitely divide people.

I don't want to do this... but I think I have to now.

I'm really struggling with this one. I'm so disappointed because this was a highly anticipated release. And I'm just sad that I didn't end up liking it.

I started reading the book in August (it's October now) and I just never felt the need to get back to it. And I might never, I'm afraid to admit.

DNF @ 39%

We all have a soft spot for morally ambiguous characters, especially when they're strong female figures in fantasy novels. It's a testament to the complexity of their journeys. Ruying fits right into this mold.

In my view, I stand firmly behind Ruying, no matter the circumstances. She's acutely aware that her magical abilities are essentially a double-edged sword, condemned to be seen as a weapon, regardless of her intentions. This realization sets her apart from others. Despite not conforming to conventional expectations, she is unwavering in her commitment to protect her remaining family during times of war.

Some may label her as selfish because she's forced to collaborate with her world's adversaries. But when survival is at stake and you lack power and connections, what choices do you truly have? Ruying did what was necessary to ensure her family's safety, even as she grappled with profound self-doubt.

Reading about Ruying's pain is undeniably difficult. She never wanted to align herself with the enemy, nor did she desire to harness her magical abilities. However, the harsh reality of war leaves her with little choice. The toll it takes on her is evident.

I must express my admiration for Ruying's unwavering commitment to safeguarding her family. She's doing everything within her means to protect them, even if her sister fails to comprehend the depth of her sacrifices. Personally, I hold little regard for her sister, finding her self-centered, driven solely by power and indulgence, oblivious to the immense emotional turmoil Ruying endures to protect them. Life during wartime is far from easy, and it's something her sister fails to grasp.

I wanted to love it more than I did. I was instantly intrigued by Ruying’s gift and I love the dynamic between her and Baihu! Unfortunately I didn’t love how long it took to get to the plot and the way it ended was good but I wanted more

TO GAZE UPON WICKED GODS is a phenomenal debut by Molly X. Chang, where loyalty, love and lore become hopelessly entangled for a young woman with the power of death itself.

A YA fantasy like this one is both rare and worthy of accolades. In TO GAZE UPON WICKED GODS, Chang deftly creates a magic world where the lasting toll of colonialism is a plot centerpiece, where Rome has occupied Jing-City and rules in tyranny over the Er-Lang Empire. In doing so, she leaves a broad audience of readers not just more informed about the destruction wrought by colonization when they finish, but empowered and engaged with an incredibly important real-world issue. Chang also beautifully pays homage to Asian mythology while spinning a brand new tale featuring morally grey characters, enemy princes and a slow-burn forbidden romance that helps move the plot along.

My biggest complaint is something I expect will be taken care of before this publishes, but there are regular appearances of long blocks of dialogue in this that would benefit from being broken up by more descriptive scene-setting that communicates characters emotions, body language and how they’re interacting with their environment as they’re speaking. Unyielding stretches of dialogue lacking this kind of nuance happens so frequently in the text that it does somewhat make it difficult to fully immerse yourself in the story. Numerous copy errors and an inconsistent POV change also contribute to that disconnect.

My only other complaint is really a camouflaged compliment encased in a plea: A 2025 release date for book two is so far away!?! I’d love to see the sequel dropped next year. Whenever it does hit bookshelves, I’ll definitely be back for more.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

While I appreciate the opportunity to read this, unfortunately I will not be finishing this one. I couldn't get into the story at all.