The combination of magic and science was fantastic. It was such an interesting premise. I liked the characters as well. They are just doing their best with what they have and no one really has all the information. I’m very interested to see where this goes.

Thank you Random House Publishing for sending me an eARC of "To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods" to read and provide an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

First of all, I want to say that I requested this book back in 2023 because I thought the cover was stunning. All I have to say is, this book is darker than the cover implies, so DEFINITELY do not judge the book by its cover.

Two, I'll be honest and say I had some apprehension before starting this book at the beginning of this month. When I went to click on "currently reading" on Goodreads, I also saw a slew of poor/bad reviews. My curiosity got the better of me and so I read a few. Most were criticizing the fact that this novel had a "colonizer romance" where the oppressed FMC fell in love with her captor, the MMC. While I didn't take this to heart (like, I understood how problematic this is, but I think that the purpose of it hasn't quite been revealed yet), I likened it more to Stockholm Syndrome than anything (as it's similar to the relationship between Feyre and you-know-who in ACOTAR #1). However, this fact has nothing to do with my 2-star review. I just wanted to address the situation.

The worldbuilding was extremely complex, which I appreciated as an aspiring fantasy writer (I KNOW how long it takes to build a well-rounded world; the amount of thought, research, and planning it requires). It was a combination of fantasy/magic, sci-fi/technology, and a little historical fiction. The magic system, history, and world overall were all well-explained. However, the WAY the explaining was done . . . it didn't leave me feeling all that appreciative. It was very much info-dumped onto the reader, which made me consider DNF-ing from as early as 25% in.

Further, the characters were one-dimensional, and while I also appreciated Ruying's love of her family, I considered her an unreliable narrator. Her inner dialogue was very repetitive, which was a little annoying. I thought her romance with Antony was unneeded and felt forced.

The pacing was good, at least. Chang kept me on the edge of my seat as I read, waiting to see what poor decision Ruying made next (lol) and what would happen to her family and kingdom. The fight/action scenes were well written, and I'm curious to learn more about how Rome's portal system (and other technology) works.

Overall, all I really wanted from this book was to have a more reliable narrator (I think Meiya would have been a better/ more interesting choice, seeing as she is on the "right" side of history despite her addiction to opian), no romance, and more focus on the political/technology side of the impending war between Rome and Er-Lang.

Will I pick up the sequel? I'm not sure yet because, while I have a lot of questions, I don't know if the next book will have the same problems as this one (which will make me not want to read it). I guess it will depend on when the sequel releases (because I REALLY don't want to reread this).

Thanks to Del Rey for gifted access via Netgalley. All opinions below are my own.

This story turns colonization on its head a bit. The Roman empire is alive and well and has reached another planet after destroying their own. They very quickly conquer the people living there and we join them in a place of oppression. Our main character has the ability to kill people by stealing their chi. She is forced to work for a Roman prince to keep her family safe. Initially being quite handcuffed by him to kill who she pleases but like every good romantasy these days, she falls for him and he for her and their decisions become a little muddled.

Normally the romance aspect, especially with the super naive girl character would not work for me. But I liked the world building of this one, a little taken from the real world and a little bit of magic. I also thought it was a very accurate view of colonization and all of the efforts to overturn rule often coming down to one person or one choice defining its success. I also enjoyed the twists.

I have very mixed feelings about To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods. It has some fresh takes on old stories, but also falls into some of the pitfalls new authors often do. There's great action and character development in the first 30%. We get to know Ruying and her world intimately and the struggles she faces in her occupied homeland. We get to know her sister, her childhood friends and then bam- we meet the mysterious Roman Prince that takes her captive because of her powers. Sounds great right? It was until the middle 40% of the book. I feel like two different people wrote this book because suddenly we're getting a lot of internal dialogue, telling not showing, and whole time jumps that make no sense- we skip past all the character development that happens as Ruying acts as Athony's assassin. The relationship between the leads feels very forced and underdeveloped. There's a lot of nonsequitor moments between them that gave me emotional whiplash when I know the author's goal was likely angst. It didn't hit home at all. That said, the last 30% of the book picks up speed, and adds the plot points that should've been sprinkled throughout the book. I'll definitely give the second book a try, but I do hope the author turns down the volume on internal monologues and has a developmental editor address pacing and relationship development.

This unfortunately didn't work for me personally. The pacing was off in the beginning which didn't entice me to want to dive in. I had trouble connecting with the characters, pacing, and the writing style. Ultimately I was unable to continue on and finish it. It may work for other readers and the synopsis does sound really good, but sadly, it just didn't end up being my type of read.

I wanted to like this book, but I unfortunately did not enjoy any part of reading it. It took me almost 2 months to read, probably because it just felt so unpleasant. I may try the second book because I want to see the main character fight back now that she’s no longer going to be a coward. I could not see how Antony could have anything positive about him, so I wasn’t surprised when more darker elements were revealed. Additionally, there were more gory descriptions of deaths than I expected and that just felt unnecessary.

The only reason that I’m not giving it 1 star is that Ruying finally realized that she was maybe siding with the wrong side, so maybe the second book will be better.

A quick read with smooth and accessible writing! Thank you to the publisher and the author for providing the ARC!

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods has good bones - the author clearly has a rich image of the world in her mind, and the story had the potential to be a beautiful, heart-wrenching conflict between heroism and survival, loyalty to your family versus loyalty to your people. Unfortunately, the execution made what should have been a thrilling dystopian-fantasy into a repetitive slog through the muck of repeated phrases.
The plot laid out for us - a girl with the power to kill, forced to wield it against her own people for the survival of her family - was wonderful. Once the story got moving, I desperately wanted to see how it was going to resolve.
Our characters were interesting, but done a disservice by the prose and style of the narrative. Yang Ruying’s need to save her family was compelling, but the sheer number of words spent in her head spiraling, repeating the same few things in the same few turns of phrase, was grating and exhausting. Baihu, her childhood friend turned rival, was interesting, and I genuinely wish we had gotten to see more of him.
I am in no place to speak on whether this is or is not a colonizer romance. What I will speak on is what the text showed versus the way it was marketed.
According to Chang herself, To Gaze is a romance between Yang Ruying and Antony Augustus, inspired by Zuko and Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Dear reader, it was not any of those things.
On the romance count: at no point did I feel like what Ruying and Antony had was a true romance. Throughout the book, it was blatantly obvious that Antony was a lying, manipulative bastard, and it was wonderful in the same way a haunted house is wonderful - thrilling in the anticipation of when the scare-actor is going to get you.
Antony is a liar, a killer, and a conman, and we are shown this from the beginning. The fact that Ruying falls so easily for him and his lies, I thought, was meant as a sense of creeping dread, knowing that he was going to turn around and betray her in the end.
From the beginning, I was expecting Baihu to be the true love interest, and that is still my expectation for book two.
On the Zutara count: what makes Zutara work is a few things - 1) Zuko never holds any real significant power over Katara. She is never his captive. He never tortures her. 2) Katara could kick Zuko’s ass any day and is more than willing to prove it. She could wipe the floor with him. 3) Zuko is, inherently, a good and kind person who has been misled and spends a fuck of a long time trying to atone for his mistakes and make it up to the people he’s hurt, including Katara.
None of this is true of Antony and Ruying. He practically enslaves her, tortures her emotionally and physically, holds the upper hand in combat for the majority of the book, and is a horrible person pretending to care just to have his way with her power.
I loved him as a character, in the sense that I loved watching him dig his own grave and I cannot wait for Ruying to absolutely fucking obliterate him in the sequel. But it was not a romance, it was nothing like Zutara, and it never should have been marketed as such.
The setting was probably my third biggest hangup when it came to this book, which is impressive, because it threw me for a loop. To Gaze is a sci-fi-dystopian-fantasy wherein a fantasy analogue for China is conquered by a culture that came from a futuristic world that has no magic. A world that is our very own Earth, after humans stripped it of resources and made it nigh-unlivable.
For some unknown reason, this futuristic empire is called Rome. They are Romans. With guns. And helicopters. And three piece suits.
This might not bother everyone, but I adore the aesthetics of ancient Rome and am always on the hunt for more Roman-inspired fantasy, so this really harshed my vibe.
Outside of that, the world of Pangu was lovely and rich, I just wish, like everything, we had spent more time exploring it instead of rotting inside Ruying’s head.
Prose and theme take the top two places in the contest for “Things I Didn’t Like About This Book,” but my issue with the theme is really an extension of my issue with the prose.
In a well-written novel, the theme should be an undercurrent that connects all other aspects of the book, something subtle yet vital that brings the whole thing together. In To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods, the theme is more like a wet fish with a handful of phrases assigned to it that the author bludgeons us over the head with every few pages just to make sure we don’t forget what the book is about.
If I had a nickel for every time the phrases ‘wicked gods,’ ‘heroes die, cowards live,’ ‘one eye open, one eye closed,’ or ‘the girl blessed by death’ were said, I would have enough money to buy the drink I so desperately needed after finishing this book.
I want to make it clear that I don’t have a problem with theme-driven books; I really love when a book knows what its trying to say and says it with its whole chest. The issue with To Gaze was not about the importance of the theme, but about the hamfisted nature of the prose.
Every single thing I liked about this book was overshadowed by how achingly boring the MC’s narration was - the vast majority of the book was spent in her head, listening to her repeat the same few ideas over and over as we floated from place to place, untethered from whatever action was happening in the world outside of her thoughts.
The best example of this was the very first chapter in which nothing - I repeat, nothing - actually happened. Ruying walked down the street as it rained, and told us in ten different ways how awful the Romans were, how terrible the state of her world was, and how powerless anyone was to stop it.
No action demonstrated the cruelty or the squalor, we were just told of the horrors that had been inflicted without seeing it for ourselves. It made the narration feel stale and shallow, and distanced us from the world she inhabited.
Instead of walking beside Ruying through the streets of Er-Lang, we were trapped inside her mind, straining to catch glimpses out the windows of her eyes.
All that being said, I did truly enjoy the story, I just wish I didn’t have to fight so hard to find that enjoyment. I’m glad I didn’t DNF, and I will most likely read the sequel, especially if I get another ARC.
If you don’t mind being stuck in a character’s head, if you are a fan of science-fantasy or dystopian fantasy, or if you enjoy watching a truly terrible person set up their own downfall by manipulating someone who could kill them with a look, I think you will love this book.
Thank you to Del Rey and NetGalley for the chance to read an ARC.

This book is mix of fantasy, science fiction, and Asian mythology. To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods was an emotional journey with morally grey implications that had me invested. At first I wasn't as sure where the story was headed but once the pieces started coming together it made me anxious to see how it would all work out. I kind of like the reading experience of being kept in the dark and figuring it out alongside the main character. It was a little confusing to gather my thoughts about the world building but the more I sat back the more it started coming together.

I also really enjoyed the romance aspect of the story. I love having no idea who she will end up with and I also really enjoyed that this aspect was kept to more of a subplot. I don't love when it is immediately obvious and I like the characters to work through it before falling hard for each other.

This was an interesting debut that felt pretty unique. While the writing style wasn't always my favorite I do feel like the author has potential to keep getting better going forward.

I've tried to get into this book a couple times but - unfortunately romantasy just really isn't for me. I LOVE fantasy but really struggle to get into plots centered around a relationship and all the angst that is typical in romance novels.

I was really looking forward to reading this book early on, but unfortunately due to prevalent discourse comparing this story to the horrifying human experimentation and bio/chemical warfare by Unit 731 in Japan, I ultimately decided not to complete it. I am very grateful to Del Rey and associated imprints of PRH for sharing an early copy with me. As is evident by my reviewing history, I always aim to read the ARCs that are sent to me and share thoughtful reviews. Unfortunately, I am unable to do so for this book.

I thought this book was so good! The writing style was great and the story line kept me intrigued the whole book. I will be looking forward to reading more from this author.

This novel follows Ruying, a teenage citizen of Pangu living under the subjugation of the militarily superior Romans. Ruying is one of the ever increasingly rare group of people born with magic, and her magic is control over death: she can pull the strands of qi from people. Determined to not use her magic no matter the cost, Ruying is caught up in a plot much bigger than herself, where she is unwittingly partnered with Antony, Roman prince and second in line, and forced to use her magic to keep herself and her country alive.

I fell in love with the cover of this book and thought the jacket blurb was intriguing, but ultimately this ended up being a DNF for me at 54%. A lot of Ruying's narration is full of unnecessarily flowery and repetitive language, to the point that I think you could skip every other line and not lose any meaning. The world also felt very empty. Ruying has a few connections, but they aren't really part of the story: it's just Ruying and Antony. Ultimately, the biggest turn off for me was that this, intentionally or not, is a colonizer romance. I don't think the author was going for that, but any evolution of Ruying and Antony's relationship happens off page, so from my point of view, he never changes, never denounces the bad things he's done and is complicit in, etc. Ruying's motivations for helping him also felt so paper thin. This novel had potential, but it really missed the mark for me.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for so graciously providing me qirh this e-ARC! I am very thankful and once read will update this review placeholder with my thoughts and also review on my Social medias.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc! I’m currently soft dnfing this book. I got to about chapter 8 and while I’m interested in the main character my problem currently is the fact this book is already super redundant. I feel as though we are constantly being reminded of information we have been informed of and at times it was a lot of info dumping. I had high expectations of this book but I already hate the “love interest”. I don’t feel like this is a romantasy as it was pitched. Overall I wish there was better marketing of this book and more editing to make the writing feel smoother. I think Molly has a lot of talent and I would be willing to read more by her, I just wish it would have been revised more and like I said before better marketing.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me an arc in exchange for my honest review.

This book was so good it did not feel at all like a debut. I was honestly really invested in the world-building and the politics. The elements that captivated me the most was the idea of a place with something like a modern Rome that at times felt as well like an ancient one and the issues from both ancient and modern times.
I really like the fmc and felt so much for her I feel like I was deceived the same way she was. I kept hoping that the mmc would redeem himself but the most I read the more I realized maybe he is just not good. I was drawn by his sad side but unless everything that happened is not what it seems I cannot see how he could still be a love interest. I just hope this is not taking the same route as the Darkling and Alina and Anthony can be reedemable because I need him to!

I know this book came out this year but... Where is book 2? lol

4.5 stars

This book was not for me because I found the worldbuilding dull and the romance was not it. It was a struggle getting through this book and the romance was extremely toxic and kind of the focus of the whole book. I was expecting more, only to be severely disappointed and wondering about the state that YA fantasy has come to.

Redundant, redundant, did I say redundant?

I will be honest up front… I do intend on reading the next two books. I am NOT DNFing the series. With that said, it took me until 75% of the way through before I felt slightly invested. So much so that I did not finish the arc before it was released. Whoops.

The My first impression is that the author hates the Roman Empire (who she discloses in the foreword as Russia and Japan). She neglects to point out that the empire her story represents has had similar effects on its neighboring peoples throughout history.

That is not however why I am rating this book the way I am. It is the writing itself that I had a hard time getting through.
1. The premise of the book is great. The magic system verses science is intriguing. I even want to know how it all turns out. However, the problem is that it is neither character nor plot driven. I would assume she was going for character driven, but there was little to no character development with the FMC until the last 50 pages.
2. The author uses same images to describe MC’s relationship with multiple characters. Like word for word.
3. Chang writes with ANALOGIES over and over again: It’s hard to see the beauty in the language and how she writes because it’s over used- nothing sticks. The analogies literally become her writing style for the first half of the book. Analogies can be a powerful tool to convey a message that will stick with the reader and change their perception of reality. Unfortunately, when you use hundreds of them, line after line, the analogies themselves become distracting and loose all meaning.
4. Can we say Stockholm Syndrome. I am not sure what the reader is supposed to feel…
5. It is not clear whether this series is young adult or adult, I guess we will find out.
6. Publisher— — Please. Please. Please edit the next two books better.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods thrusts readers into a world where Ruying, wielding the power of death, faces a daunting choice: become the prince's assassin or defy a futuristic Roman empire. Molly Chang weaves a tale rich in moral complexity, as Ruying navigates her loyalty to family amid Rome's oppressive rule. The enigmatic Antony, a master of manipulation with ambiguous motives, adds depth to their relationship, evolving from enemies to lovers in a slow burn that explores power dynamics and emotional turmoil. While dense at times, the narrative expands gracefully, delving into themes of colonization and personal agency, offering a fresh perspective on familiar tropes. To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods captivates with its intricate character dynamics and thought-provoking exploration of morality, promising an engaging read that leaves a lasting impression.

Thanks NetGalley and Random House for an advanced copy of this book.

This was merely OK. I liked aspects of it such as the magic and Ruying's internal struggle between helping and protecting her family and becoming a tool of the Roman invaders, but I also found it somewhat repetitive in writing style and thus a little long, though still lacking a few crucial development points. We get plenty of setup and Ruying's moral dilemma. but then there is a six month time jump where she is working as a covert Roman assassin, and we don't get much info about what she's been doing, how she's been dealing with it mentally, and most importantly, how working with the enemy prince Antony has made her feel some sympathy and attraction towards him. Her almost Stockholm syndrome really isn't fleshed out well, so she and Antony don't have a lot of chemistry. He tells her his sad backstory, and suddenly she thinks he isn't such a bad dude? He fools her into believing he has noble intentions, but we don't get to see any of his supposed inner turmoil -- we don't need to follow his POV but he just tells Ruying what he is trying to accomplish and she is all, oh yes, of course he is right and I guess he must like us (apparently he likes her, but not enough to see he really is wicked). I would have liked more introspection on Ruying's part, and her seeking answers, about whether or not she can trust Antony, what the Romans really want, what sort of secrets are being kept from her, etc. She is really incredibly in the the dark and just doesn't seem to recognize it or acknowledge it.

Also, why Rome? Why not some made up place? Weird.