“To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods” is an enticing fantasy with a moral dilemma in a time of political unrest. I typically love stories with political intrigue and magical heroines, yet I did not connect with this one. I’ll admit that I may not be the best audience for this book. I prefer the more whimsical type of fantasies, rather than the fighting and killing. All things considered - while this one did not stand out to me, it could be amazing for you!

For those who enjoy:
🐯 Political Intrigue
🐯 Morally Gray
🐯 Death Magic
🐯 Sister Bond
🐯 Light Romance
🐯 Historic Themes
🐯 Surprise Twists

Many thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for this ARC.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods was an interesting first book in a series that draws from Chinese history and has morally gray characters you still root for.

Ruying lives in a world that has been invaded by people from another realm who have far advanced science. While Ruying's world lacks technology, they do have people blessed with magic. Ruying herself has been blessed by death with the power to kill by pulling qi from others. She's lived most of her life in fear of using her powers, but in order to save her family is forced into a deal with an enemy prince.

I thought this was a solid first book in a series. While this did feel like a lot of set-up--of the characters, the world and the power dynamics at play, I have high hopes for the next book and am excited to see where the author takes this series.

The author's note is so beautiful to read as a daughter of a Chinese immigrant that I did not expect the strength at which disappointment hit.

I was expecting misery, pain, and suffering. Instead, all I got was fade to black. This entire book is fade to black. The world-building, the character development, the romance, the politics.

Everything.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods takes place in a magic-rich Chinese-inspired country invaded by white people with weapons of science. We follow our cautious and level-headed main character, Ruying, as she struggles to take care of her family. A mistake leads to her being found out by a colonizer prince, Antony, who sees an opportunity to use her. A spiral ensues.

However, we never really get to watch her character grow. Everything we learn about Ruying, we are told. Everything of value that could be developed in her character, Antony's character, their relationship, her friendships, her training, the magic system. Everything is told to us has happened after a time skip. It is all very underdeveloped. I did not understand where the plot was trying to lead me. Everything amounts to the big reveal of something we already knew.

Now, the discussion of colonization is very clearly done throughout the novel, and the only thing I thought was done fairly well. But the world was just a mess. It was similar enough to our world for me to make assumptions, however not similar enough for me to properly connect anything. It was frustrating. Why name the invaders Rome? Why do the Romans have guns? Are the Romans from our world? At what point in time did Romans have guns? Why call the invader Roman, but not just call the drugs opium? It felt like a thinly veiled retelling of several stories chaotically shoved together.

I really don't know what this is tagged romance. Whatever the hell the interactions are between Antony and Ruying felt gross, like she was being groomed. Antony felt greasy to read, randomly compassionate then suddenly raging. He gaslights the hell out of her and then we get passages and passages of Ruying blushing about it. I would like to add "dubious science" and "Romans with guns", so everyone can be prepared.

Now. Let's talk about Antony. Why the are we using jade to describe his eyes? Let us have one thing. Why the does he speak their language perfectly? While I was happy to see actual characters embedded into the writing, this white man has a Chinese idiom for every situation, which annoyed me. Also, why did the author's note speak about Unit 731, make clear allusions to it, and then paint Antony in such a sympathetic light? I can only hope that the second book deals with this more seriously because it made me feel like Antony's character was some weird romanticization of a tragic topic.

Also. He gets one RANDOM pov chapter, which I hate. The same thing happened in the Jasad Heir. The entire book is in Ruying's pov and then suddenly, we get a random tender moment in Antony's. Why? This was the final nail in the coffin for me. If the author is incapable of making the reader understand a character outside of their pov, they need to work on developing that character. Clearly, Chang felt that something was missing that could only be fulfilled by Antony's personal thoughts. We should not need that in single-pov. We have brains, we can make assumptions and form opinions about characters without reading their point of view. Don't insult us.

All in all, I think this needed to be at least 300 pages longer. Thematically, I'm not exactly sure what I was supposed to absorb from this, but I think it is safe it say: it was not achieved.

The idea of this story sounded very interesting. A country struggling against its oppressors, where many of the citizens have magical powers. A female who makes a deal with the devil to use her powers in order to save her country and family. I was intrigued. The female main character, Ruying, is strong but torn. What she agrees to do to save her family and her country tears her apart, but she hates her actions, and sometimes herself, every step of the way. With that being said, the synopsis makes it sound like Ruying is a total badass assassin, but that wasn't the case at all. She wasn't a morally gray character. To me, she felt weak, malleable, naive, and contradicting. Her words really didn't match her actions, specifically the way she spoke and what she said to the main male character, Antony, about.

Additionally, Ruying had a lot of inner monologue that felt excessive and out of place. Getting to know a character this way at the beginning of the book is great, but it lasted through almost the book's entirety. I kept waiting for her to stop ruminating or reminiscing and actually do something. There was too much dialogue and inner monologue, and not enough... well, anything else. The prose was excellent but the story, not so much. I truly wasn't interested in the story until chapter 37, nearly 80% through the book.

Ruying was the only character I really got to know. We learned about Antony a bit, but most of what we knew was barely below his surface. I felt like I got to know Ruying's childhood friend Baihu much better than Antony. Everyone else was built just on the surface, even side characters who meant something to Ruying. The character building was better than the world building, though.

The novel kept referencing that the Romans had science, but really it was technology they flourished in, like guns and helicopters. That confused me. Granted, science came in at the very end of the book, but a better way to explain what their strengths were is needed. Also - why call them Romans and not make up a name as Pangu and Er-Lang were? That added additional confusion. Like others, I had no idea the Romans literally came from another world until the end of the book. That could've been much clearer. It definitely needs some work before publishing.

Personally, this book was tough for me to read. Normally with fantasy novels, I can't put them down. This one I couldn't pick up. I'm sad to say that I didn't enjoy this and won't be reading the next additions to the series.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of the novel in exchange a review. All thoughts are my own.

I was super excited to get an ARC copy of this book. I’m giving this a solid 4 ⭐️. The concept and the world is very interesting. I feel that after a few rounds with editing will help. I do feel there is opportunity for more development with the FMC (she did seem to mope around a lot). I do feel this is more towards the YA romance side of things than an epic fantasy. Regardless, im a sucker for these types of stories!! I look forward to seeing the finished version!!

3.5 ⭐️

✨ Magic vs Science
✨ World at War
✨ Morally Gray MMC
✨ Cultural Influence
✨ Gods

This book was beautifully written and I especially love how personal it was for the author. The way the author was able to intertwine elements of current day, fantasy and also history was beautiful.

The way she wrote about a world on the brink of chaos due to it’s peoples over indulgences to live a life of excess and luxury is very relatable to how we live today. The world based in Chinese culture was also beautiful and vibrant. I’m some aspects the way the enemy invaders treat the people of this world reminds me a lot of WW2.

However, this book fell alittle flat for me in a few areas. The pacing was too slow for my liking and nothing overly crazy happens. There is also a lot of phrase repetition and retelling of the same scenarios/situations multiple times throughout the book which makes it feel stagnant.

In this magical epic fantasy, a young woman cursed with the power of death must decide if saving her family is worth betraying her country—the first installation of a gripping new series.

Well-written with great characters and lovely world-building.

This book was excellent. The writing kept me guessing and the characters were very well written. I felt the emotions of the characters so distinctly despite the book being less than 400 pages.

This story blends fantasy and history seamlessly.

2 / 5 ⭐️

This book has the right idea, a story about morals and that grey area that is much more realistic than the traditional black and white. However, the execution was not what I expected.

The main character, Ruying, is blessed by Death, using her ability only when necessary and prioritizing the well-being of her family above all else, regardless of the dark path that takes her down.

What really bothered me about the story was the lack of compassion Ruying's family seemed to have for her. The only time the reader sees them being kind to her is in flashbacks from her childhood while, in reality, her sister views her as a coward despite all the sacrifices she has made for her and her grandmother views her as something to be suppressed.

The relationship between Antony and Ruying was very repetitive, with Ruying going through the same thought process repeatedly, never able to decide on her feelings and her perception of Antony (until, supposedly, the end). In general, her relationship with the other potential love interest, Baihu, was similar.

One of the biggest flaws of this book happened to be its repetitiveness. Phrases, thoughts, and even dialogue were repeated within the span of a few pages, making it feel as though the plot and characters were barely progressing. The only saving grace of this book was the last 80 or so pages, where the story picks up and Ruying finally makes up her mind about things.

Overall, I am intrigued by the world and would pick up the sequel, but the book was very underwhelming for me.

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

First and foremost I absolute adore the cover of the book. Probably one of my favorite book cover of the year. The artist did an amazing job with this cover.
From the first couple chapters of this book you can tell it’s an inspired by real Chinese history(which the author alerts us).
A dark and not so pretty part of history and it breaks my heart.
The main character Ruying is for sure one of those characters that does whatever she can for the people she loves. She is backed into a corner in a world on the brink of war and she’s willing to do what she has to, no matter how morally questionable, survive for her,and her family.
This story of generational trauma, magic Vs science , drug addiction and a war between two opposing people creates such a maelstrom of plot points that you can’t help but be sucked into this story. I found my fingers flying to see what was coming next.
This book was a rollercoaster! I found myself angry, sympathetic awed and heartbroken.
You could tell that this book was a personal topic for the author I’m every word you read. Interweaving real world history into this book made it all more riveting.
Ruying is probably one of my favorite characters. She’s a loyal, protective, strong and a flawed character. The good and the bad are what make her a character you want to hug and smack her on the back of the head at the same time.
This breathtaking journey will leave you heart hurting and your hands aching for the next book in this series
Overall this book was a journey that made me feel deeply at the injustice and battle wounded world that echoes are own in so many ways.
Would for sure recommend!

Thank you to the folks at NetGalley for the opportunity of reading a ARC of this book. My review is a honest reflection of my feelings towards this book.

This brought me out of a month-long reading slump and now I’m most likely going to be stuck in another reading slump because it was so good!!! It far exceeded my expectations going in and that says a lot considering my attention span is the size of a walnut these days.

There’s science and magic and gods and magic-to-science and humans playing God and enemies-to-lovers and—just READ THIS BOOK when it releases next spring!! I absolutely devoured this even though I took it slow most of the week. I wanted to savor it and boy am I glad that I waited till this weekend to binge the last half.

The ending felt a tad bit rushed but for a debut novel this was one of the best I’ve read in a really long time. I can’t wait for the sequel!!

3.2/5

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*Received an eARC from Netgalley for an honest review. Thank you!

Okay I let my thoughts marinate a bit.

It's odd because this book does hit the themes and general atmosphere that the author advertised, but it also was not what I expected and was, at times, a bit messy. Execution wise, this book was underbaked and overbaked at the same time, so I guess a three stars (somewhere in between) is a suitable rating. Am I going to read the sequels? Yes, because the author gave me enough to want to know the rest of the story. Was it still lacking? Also yes.

Debut novels go, this was, overall, a good book and I think what captured me the most was the premise and moral dilemma. It does need some sprucing up and editing though. The prose itself was more poetic and engrossing in the first few chapters, but it unfortunately lost its charm as the drama unfolded. There were parts that got repetitive..not so much the sentence or choice of words, though the writing style got more and more simple, but the main character, Ruying, mulls over her tragic life, her immoral decisions, her sacrifices, her world....a lot. The delivery of the worldbuilding lacks finesse and style, since we're given whole info dumps at a time, yet other aspects are lacking so much detail that it gets confusing. I would have much preferred these info dumps to be done through character dialogues because at least it would have been more organic and logical. On this note, the character dialogue was plain and I wish it had more to give.

As far as the characters go, I do enjoy how morally grey they are. Anatony, the prince of Rome and Ruying's enemy and love interest, is the embodiment of "a lesser of two evils" who is willing to do anything to preserve his people at the sacrifice of some of her people. And Ruying is caught in the middle of this conflict of deciding on whether this "lesser of two evils" is worth their current suffering, or heading into a war that may result in the extinction of her people. She makes immoral decisions, she makes mistakes, faces the consequences of her mistakes, and progressively takes her own stance, albeit it does take a long time...

Romance....I might get axed for this opinion but opinions are just that..opinions. I honestly wasn't mad at the "falling in love with your colonizer", trope. At least this gave me some semblance of enemies-to-lovers, which a lot of romantasy books advertise but fail to deliver. Plus, (spoiler alert) if you reach the end, they certainly backtrack to enemies. Ruying finally seems to understand the consequences of her budding romance with this man. Like, who would have guessed he was a giant walking red flag? Not Ruying...until witnessing the death of her friend by his hands. The way I see this, Ruying is still too young and naive to understand proper, healthy romantic feelings, and Antony, while he may have feelings for her, will always prioritize his world over her. I believe the author does make that point clear throughout the book. Their relationship is so tumultuous since both their moral compasses are broken and their priorities conflict with one another's. I'm fully expecting, and slightly hoping for this to end tragically for them. If I do have a major criticism though, I think the author should have toned down the "romance" and developed more of the fantasy and world.

Overall, it's a decent first installment and I do look forward to seeing how the plot unfolds. I think the author has a lot of potential to improve in the next books.

Very early DNF. Though I was looking forward to this one, I lost all interest after finding out this is a colonizer romance where he is frequently described as having "jade green eyes."

I was really excited to read a book about a main girl with cool death powers, and the contrast of the magical world and the technological one. But unfortunately, although this book was really good, it just wasn’t for me. The character of Ruying is in that morally gray space where she’s not evil enough to root for because of how interesting she is, but not good enough to root for because you want her to win. In all honesty, most of my internal dialogue throughout the book consi
sted of “this prince guy is lying to you and you should probably know that by now”, or “Meiya is right about everything, you’re just a bit of a coward”.
I do think this book definitely has a target audience that I am no longer a part of, and I think most of what I disliked is more personal.

1.5 stars rounded up.

As part of the AAPI community, I'm always down to support Asian authors but...

This turned out to be a HUGE disappointment.

Although I did like the last 15-20%. If the entire book had those urgent, life or death vibes scattered throughout, then it'd elevate my rating to at least 3 stars.

Instead, this arc is mostly just the FMC moping and talking about how she's so attracted to an extremely toxic guy.

Since this arc was released way early before the official publication date (April 9, 2024), I'm hoping it goes through another round of edits because oh boy, strap in for a wild review.

First of all, on the PRH website, this novel is listed as "Epic Fantasy." This is definitely a YA romantasy. There's nothing seriously epic fantasy about this, so if you're looking for something along the lines of The Poppy War series or hell, even something like the An Ember in the Ashes series, this ain't it.

The writing style isn't my favorite. It reads very melodramatic, and this also extends to the dialogue scenes. There'd be characters talking in really long paragraphs, essentially info dumping through dialogue.

I understand that Ruying's situation (and the situation on the continent of Pangu as a whole) is entirely bleak, but since it's written in first person, we're lost in Ruying's head space 99% of the time. I'm honestly not entirely sure if this is just the author's writing style (since this is her debut), or if this is the author's way of trying to convey that Ruying is deeply depressed so she's spiraling in her thoughts/feelings most of the time.

And since we're lost in Ruying's head, the world building suffers A LOT. I feel like the author went into this novel assuming that readers already know what's going on in this world.

It took me way too long to understand that the world of Pangu and Rome are basically two multiverses connected via a magical portal in the sky, or that the Romans come from a world like ours, with technology, fighter jets, missiles, (melting polar ice caps???), etc. And Pangu is basically a medieval-type China-inspired world. The contrasts between the two worlds weren't clearly established, and we only get bits and pieces fed to us throughout the novel.

It'd be great if readers understood the vast discrepancy between the two worlds in the beginning, so we could actually understand what's at stake. Instead, we get vague descriptions of magic vs. science. And by science, it's the kind of hand wavy description that someone not versed in science would describe it.

I guess since people in Ruying's world don't know much about ~science, Ruying can't quite describe what science actually is. But it's been about 20-ish years since the Romans arrived in Pangu, so wouldn't they know some basics, at least?

The summary/blurb tells us that Ruying becomes Prince Antony's secret assassin. Imagine my surprise when there were barely any assassinations on screen. Hell, there were barely any assassinations off-screen.

And the one assassination that was actually described was difficult for me to believe. There weren't any scenes showing us (or even telling us) that Ruying underwent any extensive training on being an assassin. So, I'm not sure how she knows how to climb buildings and sneak through windows? Even one throwaway training scene would be slightly helpful.

If you've read until this part, congrats, because I'm about to rant about my biggest issue with this arc:

The colonizer romance between Ruying and Antony.

I expected fantasy, but instead, the fact that the romance took up most of the novel made this feel like a romantasy, and a very toxic one at that too.

Most of the time, Ruying is simping over her captor, Antony. It's extremely cringe to read. Even though she knows that he's the ~Big Bad~, she's still going on and on about how he's nice to her. I think the author was going for Stockholm Syndrome, but damn, it was such a cringe fest.

I'm not sure what's going on with traditional publishing this year, but this is the third colonizer romance I've read in a BIPOC authored fantasy and I'm absolutely sick and tired of it. This trope(?), or whatever the hell it is, used to be something found on, say, AO3, but I guess we're straight up traditionally publishing it now.


***SLIGHT SPOILER AHEAD***


This feels like a huge step backwards for us WOC, even if the FMC realizes that hottie colonizer dude is actually the bad guy at the end.

Sure, I might have my issues with The Jasad Heir, but at least the ending (re: the colonizer romance aspect) wasn't all wishy-washy like in this one.


***END SPOILER***


My buddy reader, Mai, was seriously annoyed with Ruying mentioning Antony's green eyes every other paragraph, but I was more irritated with how Antony can speak Ruying's language with "perfect pronunciation." Fuck, maybe I'm just jealous that I can't speak my mother tongue while some fictional white dude is out here speaking fictional Chinese perfectly.

Thank you to Del Rey and NetGalley for this arc.

I really enjoyed this book! Ruy reminds me of a toned down Fang Runin, from The Poppy War Trilogy. There were just to many similarities between the two characters. I think that is what kept me invested in this book. However, I did not like the writing and thought that the MC did not seem morally grey or dangerous aside from her gift to kill people.

Thank you Netgally and Random House Publishing for this ARC.

DNF

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods was one of my most anticipated releases of 2024, and I was really expecting to love this book. Necromancy, a full morally grey cast, slow burn romance, starcrossed lovers, and based on Chinese folklore, how could you possibly mess that up? The repetitiveness of the writing was absolutely unbearable and I was bored reading monologue after monologue. I’m disheartened to DNF this, but it’s clear this book just isn’t for me. Maybe I’ll give it another try closer to the release date but right now I’m not interested in reading more.

I wanted to like this book so bad, the cover itself is beautiful and enticing (props to the cover artist!) but unfortunately the book itself was a DNF. I pushed through it more than I would have due to the ARC copy I had received but unfortunately I couldn't bring myself to finish - the book felt more like work than a pleasant read.

The first several scenes of this book, for example, is just characters saying two sentences to each other, followed by the MC infodumping to the reader about these two sentences and why they're bad and tragic. We could not have the MC walk into a room to find a man. She had to walk into a room (which was a bad room) and smell the opiates (which were bad and reminded her of her father. thats bad) to go speak to someone (he is bad and tied to her past which is bad). I lost empathy for the MC so quickly - we got her trauma dumping for chapters on chapters before I even had a semblance of who her character was! The dialogue itself was just filled with her and her childhood friend infodumping paragraphs at each other, which feels unnatural - two people who knew each other this long don't talk to each other like that.

All that being said, the idea behind this book is an interesting one! The world building felt a little threadbare, but in the author's defense I could not finish the book so I will not comment on it as it could have been resolved later.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for this eARC for my honest review! “To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods” releases on April 9th, 2024 (and I cannot wait for it’s sequel)


For a debut young adult fantasy to have such a firm grasp over all its elements, from pacing to writing to character development to worldbuilding, shows a rare mastercraft that truly shines in “To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods.” This book follows the story of Ruying, a girl who is blessed with the magic of Death at her fingertips, yet lives a suffocated life under the weight of her country’s colonizers, the Romans. With her twin sister grappling with addiction and the money stores slowly depleting, it’s easy for her to make a choice with the enemy for her family’s continued survival. But as secrets and hidden agendas are revealed, Ruying begins to question the weight of her choices and how they threaten to spell ruin for her country.

Although Ruying’s largely questionable choices had me setting the book down on multiple occasions, the biggest thing that kept bringing me back was the writing. By the end of the book, it was abundantly clear that the level of writing was the foundation that held all the components of this story together. The poetic and ethereal quality of Ruying’s internal dialogue was very compelling, but stacked with extensively detailed world-building and compounded with a slow pace that gradually exposes readers to different facets of Ruying and her country? I couldn’t help but devour this book in three days.

Yet, the part of this book that I will continue to think about long after its conclusion is the character development of Ruying. She starts the story with next to nothing and is offered the chance to aid her enemy in exchange for the safety of her family. She vows to detach herself from her sins because she’s been told her actions are for the greater good. And when people she trusts criticize her actions and her character, she refuses to yield. On the surface, this is a massively foolish decision, and as we venture deeper into the story her actions become more and more morally questionable. Despite all of this, at her core, every single one of Ruying’s choices are all too human. With the clarity of the dangers of colonialism and imperialism, it’s all too easy to critique the path Ruying has chosen, forgetting that the path to lucidity is paved with mistakes and pitfalls. Don’t get me wrong, I too fell into the mistake of hating Ruying from the start, but by the end, she was by far my favorite character.

I’m so excited for what the second book in this series brings, because if the first book is this good, I have no doubts that the follow-up of “To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods” will also be a masterpiece.

Buddy read with Zana

YA fantasy is more miss than hit with me nowadays, and while I'm not shocked I hated Fourth Wing, I like to give the genre a little more leeway when it's Asian inspired and written by an Asian author. Zhara disappointed, and I'm not sure this is better or worse.

I don't know why this seems to be a thing nowadays, but Zana started a list called Books with Colonizer Romances. Feel free to add to the list if you've got one that particular offends you. In addition to this, if you want to go on a deep dive into the incels of Reddit, search WMAF relationships.

Anyway. Many of you have problems with Throne of Glass, but Aelin is a damn good assassin. And it's very much on screen. Ruying is an assassin only after the fact, and most of her kills happen off page. Because the worldbuilding is sparse, I didn't realize until far too late that the Romans come from our world, and that they have colonized the world of Pangu.

Falling for your colonizer aside, some edits need to be made pre-publication. More worldbuilding. Less infodumping. Seriously, it comes out of left field.

Take a shot every time Ruying mentions her colonizer's jade green eyes. You'll be dead by the end of this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.