To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X. Chang is a captivating fantasy that draws you into a world filled with rich lore, complex characters, and moral dilemmas. The story follows a young protagonist, who grapples with her desires and the consequences of her choices in a beautifully crafted realm where gods are both awe-inspiring and terrifying.
Chang's writing is lyrical, and she has a knack for vivid descriptions that bring each scene to life. The pacing is just right, with enough twists and turns to keep you engaged without feeling overwhelming. The character development is particularly strong; you genuinely feel for the characters as they navigate their challenges, making their victories and failures resonate deeply.
The themes of power, ambition, and the struggle between light and dark are handled thoughtfully, prompting readers to reflect on their own beliefs about right and wrong. It’s a thought-provoking journey that balances action with introspection, keeping you hooked from beginning to end.
Overall, To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods is a fantastic read for anyone who enjoys immersive fantasy with strong character arcs and philosophical depth. Chang has crafted a compelling story that leaves you eager for more. If you're looking for a book that combines adventure with rich, thought-provoking themes, this one is definitely worth picking up!

**Review of *To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods* by Molly X. Chang**

⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3/5 stars)

*To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods* by Molly X. Chang presents a rich fantasy world filled with gods, magic, and complex relationships. The premise is intriguing, and the exploration of power dynamics between humans and gods adds an interesting layer to the narrative. Chang’s writing is atmospheric, with vivid descriptions that immerse you in the world.

However, while the world-building is strong, the pacing felt uneven at times. The plot, while full of potential, occasionally drags, especially in the middle of the book, and I found myself wishing for more action or tension to keep things moving. The characters are compelling but not fully developed, leaving me wanting a deeper emotional connection with their struggles and motivations.

Overall, *To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods* is an enjoyable read for fans of fantasy, with strong world-building and intriguing concepts. It has a lot of promise but falls short in terms of pacing and character development, leaving it feeling like it could have been more engaging.

"In this magical epic fantasy, the gripping first novel of the Gods Beyond the Skies series, a young woman gifted with the power of Death must decide if saving her family is worth betraying her country." That sentence and the cover caught my attention. The book couldn't keep my attention that well however. I did enjoy the book overall and am looking forward to the next one, but I hope the next book will be better. I got a little bored at the beginning. Some of the characters were not interesting, but I did like the main character. The world building and character building needs some work in the next book. I love the premise, but it didn't keep my interest.

I DNF'ed this at just past the 60% mark, i found i just didnt care about the characters and was reading out of habit almost

This was okay. I really didn’t care for the plot or characters or writing style which was a bummer. Not for me, but others might enjoy and appreciate it!

A girl with the power of death must fight alongside her world's colonizers in order to save her family.

This title had such a cool concept, with compelling world-building, powers, and characters. I am eagerly awaiting book two, which will round out a story which left me with so many questions. I especially loved learning more about this story's inspiration, the horrific human experimentation carried out by the Imperial Japanese Army from 1936-45. This was a topic I didn't know anything about and was glad to be enlightened.

Unfortunately, this was a miss for me. It felt a little underdeveloped and I struggled to get through it. I love the cover and wish the story was as captivating as the art.

The way I wanted this book to be so good, was desperate for it to blow me away, and instead it pissed me the actual fuck off… And no, this has nothing to do with the drama that the author got herself embroiled in preceding the release of the novel. It just was not that good.

Personally, I do not understand how we are still writing colonizer x colonized romances in 2024. It infuriates me. Authors of color, particularly women, write books with sweeping descriptions about strong FMCs, who want to fight the machine they are being actively oppressed under… and then they fall in love with the first white man who breathes in her direction. AND FOR WHAT. The FMC of this book is whiny, useless, complains without fighting her conditions, and does nothing but pine for the white man and weeping that she is lusting after him. I assume based on the last 5% of the book that they are queuing up her betrayal of him in book 2, and potential love triangle romance with her childhood friend (of course), but it all just felt so predictable, so weakly argued, and took way too long to come to the conclusion that the colonizer is in fact a bad person. Plus, there was just… no actual plot? She just killed people and felt bad about it the whole time. I will NOT be reading the second book. 2⭐️, ugh.

*Thank you again to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

Redundant, redundant, did I say redundant?

I am planning to continue on with this series to give the young author another chance. 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. A slow start is something I can get over in a series. 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.

Too much romance, not enough exploration of the magic. The romance didn’t feel legit to me, but really would have loved more of the magic system

This was a good debut, it left some things to be desired, but overall was a decent read. I definitely think it would have been 5 Stars if I had read it at 16-19 years old.

This author never misses. Such amazing characters, worldbuilding, dramatic tension, and plot twists. You never know what is coming next.

You love it or hate it. It’s important for bipoc authors to say tough things. I do feel that it’s romanticized but the focus is the fmc. She makes bad decisions. She has to chose to survive. Are those decisions great no but it’s the authors choice to explore this way.

The World was interesting, but sometimes felt shallow.

Overall a 3.5 rating

The world-building in "To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods" was captivating, with an intriguing setting that sparked my curiosity. However, there were moments when I wished the story had delved deeper into certain aspects. One example is the question of how the invaders got there. For the beginning of the book, I didn't realize that the Romans used a portal from another world.

Despite this, the writing itself was beautiful, with lyrical passages that drew me in and made me care about the feelings of the main character and how she felt. Over time, I found myself more invested in the emotional connection between the characters (as in by the end I wanted Ruying to just quietly get rid of Anthony), which is a testament to the author's ability to evoke empathy through their words. I did find passages to be repetitive at times and the main character a bit insufferable with how she changed her mind every other page.

In summary, while the world was fascinating, I would have loved to explore it more deeply in certain areas. I look forward to the next book in the series as I do want to know what happens next!

3.5

This whole read was a bit of a mixed bag for me and I'm really unsure how I feel about it so I guess we can work through this together.

Let's start with the characters. I generally liked them! There's a lot of morally grey floating around and I enjoyed how the author allowed certain characters to keep their secrets versus giving the reader an additional POV or spelling things out in some other way. I did find some of the character choices bizarre and somewhat frustrating... like it felt like the author purposely chose to make them act irrationally just to further a plot point? It's a pet peeve of mine, so maybe I'm being too critical but anytime there's the equivalent of a "wow, you killed that guy in self-defense? I can't believe you would betray your morals and be a disgusting murderer like that" it immediately riles me up. Like whyyyyyyy do you not understand and just want your loved one to be safe???? why???

As for the storytelling itself, I really wish the author trusted the reader more. Certain points became very repetitive and while I understand the author was trying to make sure the reader remembers important stuff, at some point you have to trust they've got the picture and move on. We get it - addiction it bad. We get it - her dad was an abusive drunk. We get it - her and her sister are complete opposites in every way. We get it - Rome is bad. (Also unsure if I'm missing some symbolism or something but choosing to use Rome as the adversary instead of a fictionalized group or a group more directly based off the actual historical group who committed the same atrocities feels odd to me...? I have to be missing something, right??)

I do appreciate the author's willingness to dive into the nitty gritty. I didn't expect it to get Unit 731 levels of dark, but feel that helped lean the book more towards an adult audience while also raising awareness and giving voice to victims who history often glances over.

I know there has been a lot of commentary on the romance. It's not my place to comment on colonizer romance. But just generally speaking as a reader, this didn't feel like a romance to me at all. You've got a girl who is full of anger but starts having conflicting feelings while interacting with the first person who treats her like a human and appreciates her gift, the first person who even remotely seems to actually want to protect and help her people. Objectively, that feels like a reasonable time for a young, desperate person to have conflicting feelings about that person and their role alongside said person. The fact she even recognizes that these feelings don't make sense says a lot about how the author was structuring that relationship.

Overall, unique premise with a strong sense of time and place, intriguing characters, and a really cool magic system, but questionable execution to really make these factors shine as brightly as they could have. Maybe if I had a better understanding of some of the puzzling choices mentioned above I might feel differently, but for now I'm sitting somewhat mid on this one.

Added note that Natalie Naudus absolutely crushes the narration of this one, as she always does. 5/5 stars for her. She doesn't know how not to win.

So I’m late to the game, therefore I’ve seen reviews for the book already but I went in with an open mind because some people take issue with things I don’t notice.

Unfortunately while I don’t necessarily see what a lot of other people saw, this did not even resemble a romance. There was no tension. No witty banter. All I saw was a girl in a bad spot and a prince who manipulated and abused her throughout the story. Even in his “softer” moments I felt it was all a manufactured facade.

I can see the intention, I just don’t think it was executed well. I’m not well versed in the historical context of the story so I won’t make any commentary on that. I speak as someone who loves both fantasy romance and dark, taboo romance, and I think it just fell short of enemies to lovers and leaned more toxic.

On a positive note, the cover art is absolutely gorgeous, and definitely would’ve been a cover but had I not already received the arc. The cover artist chosen did a fantastic job.

I know I read this past the pub date, and I laid eyes on a bunch of other reviews before actually getting to the book. My take is, open the schools!! Reading comprehension is at an all time low!!!

The POINT OF THE BOOK is the allure of the colonizers, prince whatshisface is not!!! a!! good!! person!! and Ruying has no where else to turn! This is not a romance and you people can't read!

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X. Chang is an intense, dark fantasy that really makes you think. The story is set in a world where gods are real, but they're not the nice, all-knowing beings you might expect. They’re cruel and dangerous, and the main character, Erynn, is thrown into a world where she has to deal with their wrath while also uncovering the truth about her own powers.

What I loved about this book is how unique it is. The world-building is so rich and full of secrets, like, the gods aren’t just powerful, they’re terrifying, and you’re constantly on edge wondering what they’ll do next. Erynn is a great main character; she’s strong, but she’s also pretty complex and struggles with what’s right and wrong, which makes her relatable.

The writing is beautiful and atmospheric, really pulling you into this dark, god-filled world. There’s some slow-burn romance, but it doesn’t take over the plot, it’s more about Erynn figuring out who she is and how she fits into a world that’s out of control. The twists and turns kept me hooked, and the tension between the gods and mortals was super engaging.

The cover was pretty, and the storyline was okay. However, I'd have liked to hear more about these portals, Rome, and how this all came to be. Annoyed by the colonizer who speaks an Asian language.

Unfortunately I had to DNF the book around 20%. The characters and the dialogue just was not good for me. It felt forced and drawn out. Thank you net galley for approving me for this early copy.