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

--------------------------------------
*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.

5 Stars. READ THIS BOOK! This is a debut novel!? Molly Chang, you delivered.
Reading the author's note is what really pulled me into the book, and made me want to learn about what her ancestors had to endure in China.

This is how you inform people about historical events, through a stunningly written story about a strong female MC and her determination to protect her family and culture. I loved the magic versus science aspect of the story, the worldbuilding, the traitorous characters, I loved it all.

Thank you NetGalley, Publisher, and Author for the ARC. I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO RUYING'S STORY!

"To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods" by Molly X. Chang blends tropes of romantic historical fantasy and science fiction elements to explore the parallels of colonialism and environmental resource depletion. While the book occasionally delivers stunning prose, the potential for a truly great novel is squandered on underdeveloped characters and a repetitive, simplistic narrative.

The good: The premise is dripping with potential. Our heroine, Ruying, possesses the unique power of controlling death. She's also a badass because her grandmother has trained her as a skilled fighter. In this alternate universe, a portal connects Ruying's planet to an invading force known as "Rome" (not our historical Rome). This alternate Rome serves as a representation of our very real future here on earth, a scientifically advanced civilization that has destroyed its own planet by depleting its own resources until it is uninhabitable. This is an apt name and a poignant metaphor to represent a civilization brought to ruin by self-indulgence and disregard consequences. And isn't it the same thing really? A sense of entitlement to another country and a people's resources vs continuing to destroy our own planet because we honestly just have such a grandiose sense of our own sense of self-importance? Imperialism and environmental destruction, both, what a deeply western value...

Ruying's planet, a clear stand-in for China, incorporates culture, language, and mythology, so evokes the Opium Wars era. Rome's contol over Ruying's people through an opium-like drug and threats of mass violence mirrors historical atrocities. Ruying finds herself coorced into becoming an assassin for a Roman prince in order to save her sister and grandmother, rationalizing it as the lesser evil

The bad: MY GOOD LORD, Ruying is such an absolutely intolerable character. I made a note to myself at 69% that I desperately wanted to be rooting for her, but given that she had not once made a reasonable or intelligent decision, it was becoming increasingly difficult. I wanted to sympathize over her desire for this slimy male love interest (trying to avoid spoilers here), but the whole time it is so clear how awful he is. This isn't morally gray, this is colonizer, oppressor, evil. Like, it feels like maybe we are supposed to forgive him a little because he wuuuuvs her and um, no thank you. And I am fairly certain if I went through and deleted the amount of time she spent repeating herself about whatever handwringing she was doing about any given thing, the book would be a quarter of the length.

That said, I get the sense that this might be an ACOTAR sort of situation where the first book is trash and full of bad decisions and the second book is where we find an empowered Ruying discovering her revolution. I'll read the sequel to see. Because, while the narrative and characters were stunningly lacking in depth, the concept and prose were pretty spectacular. Ruying will absolutely test your patience, but if you can overcome a shallow TSTL main character for the other elements, it is worth the read.

I think this book is 3.5 stars but I'm rounding up to 4 because the prose is really quite beautiful and it's a short and compelling read. But also, ugh, Ruying.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey for granting my wish and providing me with this ARC for my (obviously) deeply unbiased review.

Ruying and Antony would definitely be drama-major kids who are always in competition about who had it worse in life.

Ruying has one goal: to protect her sister and grandmother. When Er-Lang was invaded by Rome decades ago, the Emperor negotiated agreements so Rome would not destroy their land. As time went on, Rome pushed those boundaries and is now on the verge of war with Er-Lang. The Emperor is weak and doesn’t fight back against Rome for fear of retribution. Ruying does her best to keep her head down and stay out of trouble, even with her powers over death threatening to overwhelm her. When a robbery goes wrong and lands Ruying in front of Rome’s princes, Ruying is forced to make a deal with Antony, the youngest son, in exchange for her and her family’s lives. As long as Ruying kills Antony’s enemies in a discreet manner, Antony will protect her family and promise that Er-Lang will have peace when he is ruler. Ruying hesitantly believes his promise that he wants to bring peace and agrees to the deal. But magic comes with a cost, one much steeper than Ruying thought it would be.

It is outright cruel to promise me dark women and then not deliver. In the beginning, the author leaves a note asking readers not to judge Ruying too harshly for the things she does to survive. I ask you, WHAT THINGS? From the beginning, the author emphasizes Ruying’s willingness to do anything for her family to live. This is repeated to us, over and over, but nothing in Ruying’s actions or inner monologue proves this. The opening scene is her meeting up with her childhood friend, Baihu, because she needs help. Baihu has done some truly despicable things to survive in a world where you kill or be killed, and Ruying condemns him for that. He was what I expected from a morally gray character. Ruthless, but with his own moral code he adheres to. She hates him for what she thinks he has done to their people, but she also refuses to help her people. Her sister, Meiya, begs Ruying to fight against the invaders, but Ruying also condemns Meiya for wanting to take action and says it’s “hopeless.” I really couldn’t tell what Ruying wanted, except to be self-righteous and judge everyone’s actions.

Ruying has the power of death on her side yet doesn’t use it. Okay, that’s fine, especially since it is explained that magic has a cost. Yet she describes herself as a ruthless killing machine. In dire situations, she still lets her enemies live even though those actions will come back to bite her. Not very morally gray. We also hear the backstory of how she first killed someone, and it was disappointing, to say the least. She throws herself a pity party, constantly complaining about the strain her powers take on her, but at the same time, we never see how dark and twisted her abilities are. The moment she is put in a position where she has to use her magic, though, she immediately balks at the idea and runs away. I get it, killing someone is a big deal, but she was talking a big game about how she would do anything for her and her sister’s survival. The idea that they are threatening to kill her grandma and sister if she doesn’t do what they ask, and she is still like “I’m a good person! I don’t want to!” was irritating. I do not want this girl in my corner.

The romance. How sweet. It is entirely normal to fall in love with the man who is making you kill people under threat. Happens to all of us! But he has daddy issues, so it's okay. Since when have we decided Stockholm syndrome was cute, or something to portray as loving? Antony has threatened Ruying’s family and close friends if she doesn’t kill his enemies on command, almost like one would order an attack dog around. Despite this, she still fights his orders (putting her family in danger) and when she finally complies, she seeks comfort from him. Girl, STAND UP. He orders her to kill a man and then hugs her and says he’s sorry. Is this not textbook gaslighting? Then we skip six months of Ruying having to kill on his command, and his guard torturing her, only to find out they’ve bonded in these months. They trust each other, and oh my gosh, have feelings. Portray that, if you so choose, but don’t romanticize it. Any man who says he loves you but still threatens all you hold dear DOES NOT LOVE YOU. I have no problem with toxic relationships in books. Make your characters raw, messy, seeking answers in all the wrong places, but don’t pretend it's okay. A great example of a toxic relationship is Rin and Atlas from the Poppy War, or even Rin and Nezha. I genuinely think the author wanted me to fall in love with Ruying and Antony’s relationship, but fortunately, I’m not as gullible as Ruying.

The writing style does this thing where it repeats itself in short choppy sentences.

Like this.

Just repeating myself again.

Go read the first line, it means the same thing.

Honestly, the style isn’t that big of a deal, but it was used so much. When you employ this tactic again and again, it is a waste of paper and time. It was on every single page, and it was always related to survival or some big emotional point that Ruying was trying to get across. It was just too dramatic and over-the-top.

"The only thing I should spend my anxieties on was here and now,
My Family.
Our survival.”

“The end of Er-Lang.
The end of us.
Apocalypse, as Antony had called it.”

“A life on our knees was better than Death.
Better than an Empire in ruins. Better than corpses littering these streets with no one left alive to bury them.”

These are just a few of the many passages I highlighted that followed this pattern. It was so repetitive and left little room for me to form my own opinions or have any kind of emotional impact from truly dire statements.

The actual world didn’t make sense. This takes place in a magical version of China for the majority of our book. Yet, the invaders come from portals in the sky. This place they come from is called Rome, but I couldn’t tell what time period it was in. Er-land is less developed, leaving the impression of ancient China, yet Rome has helicopters, missiles, guns, and such. I don’t understand why the two lands are separated, or why China is in a different world. It’s not really explained, which is very frustrating.

I barely finished this book. It reminded me of an off-brand version of the Poppy War. A super disappointing read, especially with that gorgeous cover.

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

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is the first installment in a series that follows Ruying, a teenager with the ability to pull the qi (life force) from a person and kill them. She is one of many who have magical abilities of various kinds. Her country, Pengu, has been invaded by Romans and their scientific marvels, through a sky portal. So far, Pengu has submitted to colonialization to keep the peace. But politics, rebels, and a potentially sympathetic Roman prince may change the status quo. Can Ruying protect what is left of her family while being forced to commit terrible acts to keep the peace?

In an Author’s note, it’s pointed out that this story is inspired by Manchurian folklore and history, particularly during WWII, and I really enjoyed that aspect of the story. Unfortunately, the execution was lackluster. It’s understandable that the author would need to spend sometime world building at the beginning but there were continuous, repetitious descriptions of how Ruying’s family is poor, her people are oppressed and all addicted to Opian, and how magic can’t stand up to science. This really slows down the pacing in the first 2/3s of the book. It seems like all of the action and plotting happens in the last third of the novel which made that part much more interesting. Despite the time given to explaining in the beginning, there are still a lot of questions remaining about why and how magic works, why, given its fantastic nature, it can’t stand up better to science.

Despite the flaws, I did like the main character and her struggle to understand her own boundaries and morals as well as the political intrigue. And the cover is absolutely stunning.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

a magical debut full of beautiful prose and complex characters. the world-building was interesting, if at times a little disorienting. going between a more traditional fantasy setting and a more modern and scientific one took some getting used to. (the first time i saw the word "plane" on the page, i was like :o) the plot was compelling and even packed a few gut punches. (taohua's story... iykyk) sometimes felt like the gray morality was being a little too cautious, but i can definitely see the potential there. i can't wait to see where ruying's story goes!